BITA 2018 - 9th Workshop on Business and IT Alignment (BITA 2018)

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.