Knowledge transfer, translation and transformation in the work of information technology architects

Abstract

ContextInformation Technology (IT) architects are the professionals responsible for designing the information systems for an organization. In order to do that, they take into account many aspects and stakeholders, including customers, software developers, the organization’s business, and its current IT infrastructure. Therefore, different aspects influence their work. ObjectiveThis paper presents results of research into how IT architects perform their work in practice and how different aspects are taken into account when an information system is developed. An understanding of IT architects’ activities allows us to better support their work. This paper extends our own previous work (Figueiredo et al., 2012) [30] by discussing aspects of knowledge management and tool support. MethodA qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews for data collection and grounded theory methods (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) [5] for data analysis. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with twenty-two interviewees from nine different companies through four cycles of data collection and analysis. ResultsCompanies divide IT architecture activities among different roles. Although these roles receive different names in different organizations, all organizations follow a similar pattern based on 3 roles: enterprise, solutions and software architects. These architects perform both the technical activities related to the IT architecture and the social activities regarding the communication and coordination with other stakeholders and among themselves. Furthermore, current tools used by IT architects lack adequate support for all these aspects. ConclusionThe activities of the different IT architects are highly interconnected and have a huge influence in the way the requirements are handled in every phase of the development of an information system. The activities of IT architects are also important for knowledge transfer, translation and transformation, since they receive from and spread information to different groups of stakeholders. We also conclude that they lack appropriate tool support, especially regarding support for their collaborative work.