3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The influence of enterprise architecture maturity on business value: a perspective from the South African financial services environment(2018) Bachoo, AvsharnEnterprise Architecture (EA) is viewed as a source of business value and competitiveness due to beneficial outcomes such as reduced system complexity, business-information technology (IT) alignment, and improved system integration. However, challenges exist in understanding the relationship between EA and business value at different maturity levels. This research focused on the connection between the EA maturity of an organisation and the business value associated with it in the South African (SA) financial services environment. This study analysed dominant EA frameworks, maturity models, as well as various explanations of the term business value from literature. The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) was used as the underlying theoretical framework to structure this research, by examining EA as an intangible resource, and maturity as a source of heterogeneity. This study further contributed to the RBV operationalisation debate, by using the Architecture Capability Maturity Model (ACMM) as a supporting theory to operationalise EA from a qualitative perspective. The critical realism philosophy, which states that mechanisms generate events, shaped this research by creating focus on the underlying EA mechanisms that led to business value, as well as insights into the opportunities and challenges organisations experience as they progress to higher levels of maturity. This study built a middle range theory using a qualitative approach. Moreover, characteristics of descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory research were used within this investigation. A case study strategy, comprising of semi structured interviews and artefacts was employed to collect data for this study. The results were subsequently examined using thematic analysis techniques. This study established that within level 1 maturity, minimal EA practices driven by a few staff members were in place. Forms of value such as hardware cost savings, software cost savings, and visualisation were experienced. Most of the business units fell within level 2 maturity, indicating that EA practices were still under development. Forms of value such as increased revenue, improved development time and reduced complexity were attained. Business units within level 3 had simple EA practices in place with clear target states. Process improvements, improved risk management and improved customer service were experienced. Within level 4 maturity, EA was fully integrated into the culture, with EA metrics defined. In addition, forms of value such as improved decision-making, innovation and enhanced customer insights were also experienced. None of the business units were rated within level 5 maturity. This study found that EA was generally implemented at a coarse granularity of refinement across levels 1 and 2 maturities, at a medium granularity within level 3, and a fine granularity within level 4 maturity. Further, this study demonstrated that EA is a source of both tangible and intangible forms of value.Item A business analysis methodology(2008-03-06T07:06:46Z) Bachoo, AvsharnSynopsis Business analysis is defined as the process in which business needs are identified and solutions proposed. This process is regarded as one of the most important parts of systems development because no other part is more difficult to rectify later. However, current business analysis methodologies are inadequate because they are at a too high level and only address portions of the complete business analysis process. In particular, the lack of clear objectives, relevance and outcomes of the phases make business analysis methodologies inadequate. Moreover, activities, techniques and tools not mapped to those phases are also problematic. The aim of this research was to develop a business analysis methodology for business analysts in the South African financial services environment. The intentions were to identify the phases, as well as objectives, relevance and outcomes for each of these phases. Furthermore, this research intended to identify appropriate activities, techniques and tools to address the objectives of each phase of a methodology. This was done by presenting a literature review of previous research relating to business analysis methodologies. For information gathering, 45 participants (comprising of business analysts, project managers, IS managers and CIOs) contributed to this research, 22 of whom were interviewed individually while 23 participated in focus group interviews. The data from each of these methods was analysed independently and did not influence or feed into any of the other methods. Once the individual interviews and focus group interviews had been transcribed, content analysis and analysis within and between interviews (Merriam, 1998; Strauss, 1987) was used to analyse the information gathered independently. The phases of a business analysis methodology identified by the research are the: • feasibility phase; • business case phase; • analysis and design phase; and • post-implementation evaluation phase. Objectives, relevance and outcomes of these phases were also identified. In addition, activities, techniques and tools were mapped to each of these phases.