8th Workshop on Business and IT Alignment (BITA 2017)

Topics of interest | Submission guidelines | Important dates | Organizers and Chairs | Program Committee

A contemporary challenge for enterprises is to keep up with the pace of changing business demands imposed on them in different ways. There is today an obvious demand for continuous improvement and alignment in enterprises but unfortunately many organizations don’t have proper instruments (methods, tools, patterns, best practices etc.) to achieve this. Enterprise modeling, enterprise architecture, and business process management are three areas belonging to traditions where the mission is to improve business practice and business and IT alignment (BITA). BITA is many times manifested through the transition of taking an enterprise from one state (AS-IS) into another improved state (TO-BE), i.e. a transformation of the enterprise and it’s supporting IT into something that is regarded as better. Recent development within areas like Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), and digitalization in general has brought new dimensions to BITA where BITA becomes an important part of smart business ecosystems. A continuous challenge with BITA is to move beyond a narrow focus on one tradition or technology. There is a need to be aware of and able to deal with a number of dimensions of the enterprise architecture, their connectivity, and their relations in order to create alignment. Examples of such dimensions are: organizational structures, strategies, business models, work practices, processes, and IS/IT structures. Among the concepts that deserve special attention in this context is enterprise architecture management (EAM). An effective EAM aligns IT investments with overall business priorities, determines who makes the IT decisions and assigns accountability for the outcomes. IT governance is also a dimension that traditionally has had a strong impact on BITA. There are ordinarily three governance mechanisms that an enterprise needs to have in place, 1) decision-making structures, 2) alignment process, and 3) formal communications.

This workshop aims to bring together people who have an interest in BITA. We invite researchers and practitioners from both industry and academia to submit original results of their completed or ongoing projects. We encourage to a broad understanding of possible approaches and solutions for BITA, including EAM and IT governance subjects. Specific focus is on practices of business and IT alignment, i.e. we have encouraged submission of case study and experiences papers.

Topics of interest

  • Business and IT alignment and smart business ecosystems
  • Best practice business and IT alignment case studies
  • Business and IT alignment in small and medium sized enterprises
  • Business and IT alignment discovery, change and improvement – methodologies and best practices
  • Business and IT alignment in the era of internet of things (IoT) and cyber physical systems (CPS)
  • Business and IT alignment through BPM
  • Business value of business and IT alignment
  • Challenges in business and IT alignment
  • Critical success factors and associated KPIs´ for alignment initiatives
  • Design thinking in business and alignment
  • Enterprise architecture management (EAM) for business and IT alignment
  • Enterprise modelling as a tool for business and IT alignment
  • Experience reports and case studies
  • Human aspects of business and IT alignment; organizational staffing and structure, change management and leadership strategies
  • IT governance as a mean for alignment
  • Metrics associated with the alignment life cycle, re-design, implementation, management and improvement
  • Practices of business and IT alignment
  • Organisational implementations of various levels of business and IT alignment approaches
  • The relationship between BPM and enterprise architecture

Submission guidelines

  • Long papers: max. 12 pages

Papers must be submitted in PDF format according to Springer LNBIP template.

Submission system is available at EasyChair.

Proceedings of BITA 2017 workshop will be published by Springer as part of the BIS conference volume in Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) series. Papers shall not have more than twelve pages (including figures, tables and appendices). Longer papers will not be included in workshop proceedings. The proceedings will be printed after the conference. However, workshop papers will be made available in electronic form by the BIS organizers to all workshop participants (and only to them) directly after the conference.

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: Apr 30, 2017 May 12, 2017 (DEADLINE EXTENDED)
  • Notification of acceptance/rejection: May 20, 2017
  • Submission of final papers: To be announced…
  • Workshop: Jun 28-30, 2017

Organizers and Chairs

  • Ulf Seigerroth, Jönköping University (chair)
  • Kurt Sandkuhl, Rostock University (co-chair)
  • Julia Kaidalova, Jönköping University (co-chair)

Program Committee

  • Vladimir Tarasov, Jönköping University
  • Julia Kaidalova, Jönköping University
  • Christina Keller, Jönköping University
  • Andrea Resmini, Jönköping University
  • Birger Lantow, University of Rostock
  • Andreas Opdahl, University of Bergen
  • Janis Stirna, Stockholm University
  • Anne Persson, University of Skövde
  • Alexander Smirnov, SPIIRAS
  • Nikolay Shilov, SPIIRAS
  • Marite Kirikova, Riga Technical University
  • Jānis Grabis, Riga Technical University
  • Stjin Hoppenbrouwers, HAN University of Applied Sciences
  • John Krogstie, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • Oscar Pastor, Polytechnical University of Valencia
  • Erik Proper, Public Research Centre Henri Tudor

To be extended…