Enterprise Architecture, Integration and Interoperability

Mark Fox, Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield, began his research career at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1986, as a Junior Research Fellow. After a post-doctoral position with AT&T Bell Laboratories in the US, he returned to Oxford as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He moved to Sheffield in 1998, becoming Professor there in 2006.

Enterprise Architecture, Integration, and Interoperability and the Networked enterprise have become the theme of many conferences in the past few years. These conferences were organised by IFIP TC5 with the support of its two working groups: WG 5. 12 (Architectures for Enterprise Integration) and WG 5. 8 (Enterprise Interoperability), both concerned with aspects of the topic: how is it possible to architect and implement businesses that are flexible and able to change, to interact, and use one another's s- vices in a dynamic manner for the purpose of (joint) value creation. The original qu- tion of enterprise integration in the 1980s was: how can we achieve and integrate - formation and material flow in the enterprise? Various methods and reference models were developed or proposed - ranging from tightly integrated monolithic system - chitectures, through cell-based manufacturing to on-demand interconnection of bu- nesses to form virtual enterprises in response to market opportunities. Two camps have emerged in the endeavour to achieve the same goal, namely, to achieve interoperability between businesses (whereupon interoperability is the ability to exchange information in order to use one another's services or to jointly implement a service). One school of researchers addresses the technical aspects of creating dynamic (and static) interconnections between disparate businesses (or parts thereof).

State-of-the-art research

Architecting the Firm - Coherency and Consistency in Managing the Enterprise.- Defining Leadership as Process Reference Model: Translating Organizational Goals into Practice Using a Structured Leadership Approach.- Valuation of Procurement Flexibility in the Machinery and Equipment Industry Using the Real Option Approach.- Business Capabilities Centric Enterprise Architecture.- An Enterprise Architecture Approach towards Environmental Management.- A Metamodel for Enterprise Architecture.- Communication as a Crucial Element for Enterprise Architecture Management in Virtual Organization.- Semantic Harmonization for Seamless Networked Supply Chain Planning in the Future of Internet.- Learning Interoperability in Emerging Supply Networks.- Research on Quality of Transaction Standards: The Maturity of a Research Topic.- Digital Business Ecosystem Tools as Interoperability Drivers.- XML in Enterprise Systems: Its Roles and Benefits.- Software Interoperability Tools: Standardized Capability-Profiling Methodology ISO16100.- Value Added by Interoperable Information Systems in Spread Production Networks.- Pragmatic Interoperability: A Systematic Review of Published Definitions.