Enterprise architecture in public sector ecosystems: A systems perspective

Abstract

This thesis discusses enterprise architecture (EA) from a systemic perspective in the context of Finnish public sector ecosystems. EA concerns the elements and relationships that exist within a sociotechnical organization, describing and designing coherent wholes. Recently, there has been increased interest in studying the relationship between EA and systems approaches and developing EA to respond to the challenges related to the interconnectedness of organizations. Although EA and systems approaches inherently share common traits, prior research on the theoretical support of systems approaches in the field of EA is scarce. Further, the practical application of EA in ecosystemic environments is an emerging yet little researched topic. The research question of this thesis—How should EA be advanced to be better used in public ecosystems?—is answered by clarifying the concepts and the relationship between concepts involved in the problem and determining the role of various theoretical, conceptual, and empirical conflicts in the problem domain. The practical application of EA in ecosystems is addressed by creating design science artifacts—namely, a management model and principles for the government ecosystem architecture target state design. This thesis contributes to both theoretical and practical discussions. First, a comprehensive and overarching view of the current state of EA is offered, noting that the scope and purpose of EA seem to be shifting to include a new role in the holistic design and development of organizations in systemic environments. Second, systems approaches are explored as providing possible theoretical foundations for EA to design, model, and manage sociotechnical systems. Third, the created design science artifacts contribute to the practical application of EA in ecosystems. Contradicting the traditional view of EA as a structure of one organization, this thesis proposes EA as a concept for the organizational design of a public sector ecosystem. Keywords: enterprise architecture, ecosystem, systems approach, public sector