WEETM 2014 - Workshop on Enterprise Engineering Theories and Methods (WEETM)

Modern enterprises face a strong pressure to increase agility and competitiveness, to operate on the global market, and to engage in manifold alliances. However, the vast majority of strategic initiatives in enterprises fail, meaning that enterprises are unable to gain success from their strategy. The key reason for these failures is the lack of coherence and consistency among the various components of an enterprise. At the same time, the need to operate as a unified and integrated whole is becoming increasingly important. Currently, these challenges are dominantly addressed from a functional or managerial perspective, as advocated by the management and organization sciences, and as implemented in MBA programs. Such knowledge is indeed necessary for managing an enterprise, but it is inadequate for bringing about changes in a fully systematic and integrated way. To do that, one needs to take a constructional or engineering perspective.
In addition, both organizations and software applications are complex systems, prone to entropy. This means that in the course of time, the costs of bringing about similar changes increase in a way that is known as combinatorial explosion. Entropy can be reduced and managed effectively through modular design based on atomic elements.
Lastly, the individual persons in an enterprise, in cooperation, are ultimately responsible for the effective and efficient operation of the enterprise. They are also collectively responsible for the evolution of the enterprise, in order to meet new challenges. These responsibilities can only be borne if members have an appropriate knowledge and an effective awareness of the construction of the enterprise given by a sound engineering approach.
Goals and Scope
The workshop’s primary goal is promoting active discussions centered on theories and methods for the discipline of Enterprise Engineering (EE). We seek to develop a foundation of sound theories over which methodologies can be built and used to effectively engineer and manage enterprises. Hence our main scope is on the presentation, discussion and evolution of EE theories and/or methods. These can be: (1) inspired or related to the postulates of the “Enterprise Engineering Manifesto” and/or the principles in the paper “A discipline of Enterprise Engineering” as proposed by members of the CIAO! research network (http://www.ciaonetwork.org/); or (2) other original EE theories and/or methods. The CIAO! network aims at disseminating and developing EE with sound theories as a base and, with this workshop, seeks constructive discussion within the network itself and with other groups and individuals interested to contribute to the body of knowledge of the EE discipline.