Challenges with large public ICT systems
The dissertation shows that to succeed with the EA, the organization must be prepared for the EA and have interaction with the various professional groups.
Anne Kristin Sortehaug Ajer
PhD Candidate
The disputation will be held digitally, because of the Corona covid-19-situation. Spectators may follow the disputation digitally – link and thesis is available below.
Anne Kristin Sortehaug Ajer of the Faculty Social Sciences has submitted her thesis “Institutional perspective on introducing enterprise architecture. The case of the Norwegian hospital sector”,and will defend the thesis for the PhD-degree Wednesday 10 June 2020.
She has followed the PhD-programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences with Specialisation in Information Sciences.
Summary of the thesis by Anne Kristin Sortehaug Ajer:
Challenges with large public ICT systems
Failed data projects in public sector have repeatedly characterized the news scene. What are the challenges when developing large common ICT systems?
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a method for developing and managing the ICT landscape in large organizations.
EA in the hospital-sector
The dissertation looks at the challenges of using EA in the public sector, with a special focus on the hospital sector.
To achieve national goals for holistic healthcare services, the idea is that the work processes should be the same, thus the associated ICT systems can also be the same. An important part of the picture is that the data must flow both between the different systems and between the different hospitals.
The findings show that the challenges associated with a holistic approach are strongly intertwined but have more to do with organization and people than with technology.
The various occupational groups such as managers, healthcare workers and IT specialists have different driving forces behind their work. This creates tensions when creating new systems.
Challenges and contradictions
Major challenges are related to the independence of organizations, national funding models and the lack of understanding of EA. It is also important that the characteristics of the EA and the healthcare sector are in contradiction.
An example is the long-term EA perspective compared to hospitals' need for ad hoc initiatives.
Standardisation of working methods is another example. It poses challenges in gaining acceptance and confidence that clinical knowledge is safeguarded and that support for local variations is provided.
Furthermore, views on privacy and protection of sensitive data may clash with the healthcare system's need for quick access to critical data.
EA-preparation needed
The dissertation shows that to succeed with the EA, the organization must be prepared for the EA and have interaction with the various professional groups.
Only then will the organizations benefit from the EA in its efforts to digitize the ICT landscape.
Disputation facts:
The Candidate: Anne Kristin Sortehaug Ajer (1961, Rena) Cand. Mag. Telemark University College and M.Sc. University of Agder (2014)
The trial lecture and the public defence will take place at internett, via the Zoom conferencing app (link below) Wednesday 10 June 2020.
Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Anne Halvorsen, will chair the disputation.
Trial lecture at 10:15
Public defence at 12:15
Given topic for trial lecture: “The current state of Enterprise Architecture research in the Information Systems field, an assessment of its practical applicability and directions for future research”
Thesis Title: “Institutional perspective on introducing enterprise architecture. The case of the Norwegian hospital sector”
Search for the thesis in AURA - Agder University Research Archive, a digital archive of scientific papers, theses and dissertations from the academic staff and students at the University of Agder.
Opponents:
First opponent: Professor Samuli Pekkola, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland
Second opponent: Professor Bendik Bygstad, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Professor Margunn Aanestad, Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, is appointed as the administrator for the assessment commitee
Supervisors were Professor Eli Hustad, UiA (main supervisor) and Associate Professor Polyxeni Vassilakopoulou (co-supervisor)
What to do as an audience member:
We ask audience members to join the virtual trial lecture at 10:05 at the earliest and the public defense at 12:05 at the earliest. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time. Further, we ask audience members to turn off their microphone and camera and keep them turned off throughout the event. You do this at the bottom left of the image when in Zoom. We recommend you use ‘Speaker view’. You select that at the top right corner of the video window when in Zoom.
Opponent ex auditorio:
The chair invites members of the public to pose questions ex auditorio in the introduction to the public defense, with deadlines. Questions can be submitted to the chair Anne Halvorsen on e-mail anne.halvorsen@uia.no