Start Date

12-17-2013

Description

Although the management of complexity is a central task of CIOs and IT architects, in-depth examinations and the development of design theory in this area is, to the best of our knowledge, underrepresented in existing IS literature. Especially theory-based guidelines and information systems for the management of IT architecture complexity are missing. In a joint team of practitioners and researchers, we applied the action design research (ADR) method in order to tackle this class of problems, i.e., IT architecture complexity management. We derived a set of seven design principles (that guide the design of an information system that supports IT architects to manage IT architecture complexity), which we evaluated and enriched during multiple ‘building, intervention and evaluation’ cycles, according to ADR. In addition, we simultaneously implemented and evaluated a material artifact (i.e., a piece of software) for IT architecture complexity management.

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Dec 17th, 12:00 AM

Escape from Winchester Mansion – Toward a Set of Design Principles to Master Complexity in IT Architectures

Although the management of complexity is a central task of CIOs and IT architects, in-depth examinations and the development of design theory in this area is, to the best of our knowledge, underrepresented in existing IS literature. Especially theory-based guidelines and information systems for the management of IT architecture complexity are missing. In a joint team of practitioners and researchers, we applied the action design research (ADR) method in order to tackle this class of problems, i.e., IT architecture complexity management. We derived a set of seven design principles (that guide the design of an information system that supports IT architects to manage IT architecture complexity), which we evaluated and enriched during multiple ‘building, intervention and evaluation’ cycles, according to ADR. In addition, we simultaneously implemented and evaluated a material artifact (i.e., a piece of software) for IT architecture complexity management.