Dual Capability EAM for Agility in Business Capability Building : A Systems Theoretical View

Abstract

Through two cases of IT-enabled business capability building in large enterprises, this paper elucidates how the systems theory approach can explain the enterprise architecture management (EAM) challenge to support business agility. The observation in both of these cases is that a legacy EAM approach does not adapt to a business development scenario involving agility. This leads to a study of the nature of the challenges in EAM when enabling strategic business moves involving new technologies, at the business unit level. For the type of projects as in these cases, we do not find a fitting paradigm in the EAM literature. Suggested solutions are IT bimodality, or Two Speed IT. However, its combination with EAM is scarce in earlier research. To be able to provide guiding ideas for the further development of a dual capability EAM approach, with an evident need, we develop a systems theoretical starting point to examine the cases. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) characteristics appear to give the necessary explanations to build on. Supported by this theoretical development, the study results in principles of a dual capability EAM, for agile strategic business capability building involving enterprise re-structuring.