Java程序辅导

   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extending Enterprise Architecture 
With Mobility 
 
 
 
 
BY 
Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
 
 
Principle Supervisor: Dr. Bhuvan Unhelkar 
Co-Supervisor: Prof. Simeon Simoff  
 
 
School of Computing and Mathematics 
University of Western Sydney 
Sydney, Australia 
 
July 2009 
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Preface 
This thesis reflects my research study and its results in the area of extending 
Enterprise Architecture with Emerging Mobile Technologies presenting a 
comprehensive structure that aims to extend enterprise architecture with mobility 
which helps transcend various time, location and technological boundaries. 
 
While I was alone in Australia in 1999, I needed to choose which area I want to 
study by myself. At that time, from my working experience, I believed that computer 
work will replace all the paper-process work in the future, so I decided to study 
Diploma in IT in SWIC (Sydney Western International College). After that, I had the 
opportunity to get into UWS to study my degree, Bachelor of IT. However, IT 
contains vast knowledge, there were 18 majors waiting for me to choose one of them. 
After two years basic studies, I found that I was good at business information 
systems analysis and design. Therefore, I spent the other two years completing my 
degree, majoring in system analysis and design. I earned my professional UML 
skills and the contents of basic business information systems after I completed this 
bachelor degree. 
 
From 4 years bachelor degree studying, I had to go to work first to earn my expense 
for daily life and the tuition fee for my master degree. I have worked in the 
distribution center service industry as a manager assistant, and used excel to design 
and to process the working schedule for my team and also had the professional skills 
on supply chain management processes. I was also getting interested in how to 
integrate all miscellaneous business systems, to form an effective organization and 
to manage it while I was working there. Therefore, I went back to university to study 
my master degree of Information Technology, majoring in Information system 
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management. I learned my professional IT project management skill and how to 
integrate and manage various business information systems together when I 
completed this master degree. 
 
From my working and study experience, I started to think how to add such new 
emerging technologies as mobile technologies into the business information system, 
for example, supply chain management systems. The company couldn’t just buy 
mobile devices, giving them to their employees, and then just asking all personnel of 
the company to run the mobile business or mobile office. After importing the new 
mobile applications to the enterprise, all the business processes, information systems, 
and databases are needed to be changed to adapt to the new technology, and even if 
all the system users need to attend a training workshop for learning how to use this 
new technology. There are so many questions and issues in my mind; therefore, I 
discussed about this area with Dr. Vijay Khandelwal, one of my lecturer, who 
teaches in business process reengineering area. He suggested me going forward to 
do a doctoral research in this area, and also introduced me to Dr. Bhuvan Unhelkar, 
who is my principle supervisor during my doctoral research program and also leads 
the Mobile Internet Research and Applications Group (MIRAG) research groups 
within Advanced enterprise Information Management Systems (AeIMS) research lab 
at UWS.  
 
Firstly, I got his invitation to join his research group. We had more than 50 meetings 
per year during my research program period to discuss my research topic and also to 
exchange our idea of every PhD candidate topics as well. Due to my supervisor’s 
kindly help, I had more than 300 emails per year with him to deeply communicate 
my research objective and direction, my idea of M-EA models and structure, 
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methodology selection, interviewees’ selection, action research companies’ selection, 
and also finalize my thesis. Now, finally, after 3-years research, this thesis is my 
ending program report to introduce you, my dear readers, into my research area: 
extending enterprise architecture with emerging new mobile technology.  
 
Because the program time is limited, there are still several research directions not 
completed or involved in this research project. These research directions are listed in 
the Chapter 7 could be done in the future. Throughout this research project, I deeply 
love my research area and would like to become a successful enterprise architect in 
the future. After completing my PhD degree, I hope I can have more industry 
experience first, and then go back to university to distribute this interesting area to 
other students, or to conduct several projects with other academics.  
 
 
 
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Acknowledgements 
 
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the following 
individuals, without whose assistance this work could not be accomplished. 
 
Firstly, I thank my parents and my husband, for their support and encouragement and, 
at the same time their unending endurance and tolerance of all the idiosyncrasies that 
are all hallmarks of any doctoral research. Without their support and understanding 
during the past few years, I could never have reached where I am today. 
 
Secondly, I appreciate all the help and support provided to me by my supervisor, Dr 
Bhuvan Unhelkar. Bhuvan has always pointed out to me the best direction to take in 
my research and also helps me a lot to be an academic. His encouragement, 
affirmatives as well as pointing out my mistakes for correction are all important to 
my social life and studies. I take this opportunity to thank him and also, to set the 
record straight, sincerely apologize to him for bothering him day and night, 
weekdays and weekend, in order to help and guide me with my studies. THANK 
YOU. 
 
Thirdly, I thank my co-supervisor, Prof. Simeon Simoff, also our head of School of 
Computing and Mathematics, for always believing in me and supporting me with his 
kind words. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Vijay Khandelwal for 
his continual support, from my post-graduate to accept and direct me into doctoral 
research studies. I am also thankful to my previous co-supervisor, Dr Robyn Lawson, 
for her continuous support. Dr Lawson managed different meetings with all the PhD 
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students in our schools that advanced our research in a manner that would not have 
been possible otherwise. 
 
I also take this occasion to demonstrate my gratitude to Professor Athula Ginige and 
Dr Yogesh Deshpande. Professor Ginige and Dr Deshpande are always available to 
help the research team for any important high-level issues. A few words from them 
offer great insights, a much better perspectives and an accurate sense of research. I 
am also grateful to the research teams (AeIMS and MIRAG) for their support and 
work revisions. 
 
I also thank the University of Western Sydney, especially the School of Computing 
and Mathematics for providing this opportunity to advance my education. They 
provided the funds to support me to attend local and oversea conferences to get more 
understanding and new knowledge, which is a really valuable experience in my life. 
The Research Training Scheme (RTS) from government and the school has gone a 
long way in ensuring that this study is completed.  
 
Finally, my special regards to all the action research companies which participated 
and all the interviewees who responded to the questionnaires.  
 
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORTS. 
 
 
 
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STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION 
 
The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original 
except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this 
material, either full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. 
 
 
 
____________________________________________________________________ 
Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
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Table of Contents 
Preface……………………………………………………………………i 
Acknowledgements……………………………………………….…….iv 
Statement of Authentication……………………………….……………vi 
Table of Contents……………………………………………….……vii 
List of Tables……………………………………………..………….xii 
List of Figures……………………………………………….………...xiii 
List of Abbreviations………………………………………………...…xv 
Defining Important Terms (Keywords) of M-EA…………………...…xx 
List of Candidate Publications…………………………………….…xxiii 
Abstract……………………………………………….…………….xxv 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction to the research in Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
(M-EA) ……………………………………………….…………………1 
1.1 Overview of the research project in M-EA…………………………………….1 
1.2 Background to this research in M-EA………………………………………….4 
1.3 Research aim and objectives…………………………………….……………..9 
1.4 Framework of this research project in M-EA…………………………………11 
1.5 Scope of this research in M-EA……………………………………………….13 
1.6 Justification for this research in M-EA……………………………………….13 
1.7 Outline of the thesis…………………………………….……………………..14 
1.8 Summary of this chapter……………………………………..……………..…18 
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review on Enterprise Architecture (EA) and 
Mobile Technologies (MT) ……………………………………………19 
2.1 Overview of this chapter………………………………….…………………..19 
2.2 Understanding Enterprise Architecture (EA) ………………………………...19 
2.2.1 Overview the Enterprise Architecture (EA)……………………………..20 
2.2.2 Enterprise Architecture (EA) Elements…………………………………22 
2.2.3 Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a Constraint……………………………25 
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2.3 Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks…………………………………….29 
2.3.1 Relevance of EA frameworks……………………………………….30 
2.3.2 Zachman EA framework…………………………………………….31 
2.3.3 TOGAF framework………………………………………………….35 
2.3.4 Other industrial EA frameworks…………………………………….40 
2.3.5 Abstracting EA framework………………………………………….44 
2.4 Web Service (WS) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)………………..45 
2.4.1 Web Service (WS) Technology……………………………………...46 
2.4.2 Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) ………………………………49 
2.4.3 Value of WS and SOA to enterprise…………………………………51 
2.5 Mobile Technologies (MT) and services……………………………………...54 
2.5.1 Mobile technology basics………………………...…………………54 
2.5.2 Mobile networks and communications…………………………...…55 
2.5.3 Mobile services……………………………………………………...61 
2.5.4 Mobility, ubiquitous and pervasive commerce……………………...63 
2.6 Value of MT to EA……………………………………………………………69 
2.7 Challenges to EA due to MT………………………………………………….70 
2.8 Gaps in the literature on EA and MT………………………………………….70 
2.9 Summary of this chapter………………………………………………………72 
 
Chapter 3: Research methodology – arguments and selection…………74 
3.1 Overview of this chapter……………………………………………………...74 
3.2 Theoretical background……………………………………………………….74 
3.3 Research philosophies………………………………………………………...76 
3.4 Research approach and methodology…………………………………………80 
3.4.1 Inductive and deductive approaches………………………………...81 
3.4.2 Qualitative research methodology…………………………………..83 
3.5 Research methods and data collection methods………………………………85 
3.5.1 Step 1: Literature review in order to create an M-EA outline……….86 
3.5.2 Step 2: Case study by interview to update the M-EA model………..88 
3.5.3 Step 3: Action research to validate the M-EA model………………..91 
3.6 Research evaluation and feedback…………………………………………….95 
3.7 Summary of this chapter……………………………………………………...98 
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Chapter 4: Envisioning the Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) 
model through Knowledge Elicitation……………………………..…100 
4.1 Overview of this chapter…………………………………………………….100 
4.2 Initial outline of the M-EA model………………………………………….100 
4.2.1 M-EA definition……………………………………………………101 
4.2.2 Initial version of core M-EA model……………………………..…103 
4.3 Advantages and limitations of M-EA………………………………………..106 
4.3.1 Advantages of using M-EA………………………………………..107 
4.3.2 Limitations of M-EA……………………………………………….107 
4.4 Research questions in the case study………………………………………...108 
4.5 Design of the case study……………………………………………………..110 
4.6 Process of data collection and analysis……………………………………...112 
4.7 Results from case study by interview………………………………………..113 
4.8 Analysis and discussion of findings to verify the initial M-EA…………..…121 
4.8.1 Updated M-EA definition……………………………………….…121 
4.8.2 Refined advantages of using M-EA…………………………….….126 
4.8.3 Updated practical issues of M-EA…………………………………130 
4.8.4 M-EA expected outcome…………………………………………...139 
4.9 Summary of this chapter……………………………………………………..144 
 
Chapter 5: Extending and Updating Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
(M-EA) model ……………………………………………………..…145 
5.1 Overview of this chapter…………………………………………………….145 
5.2 Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) extensions…………………………145 
5.3 Mapping M-EA to technologies, process, system, data, and people………...147 
5.3.1 M-EA and technologies…………………………………………….148 
5.3.2 M-EA and process………………………………………………….149 
5.3.3 M-EA and system…………………………………………………..151 
5.3.4 M-EA and data……………………………………………………..152  
5.3.5 M-EA and people…………………………………………………..153  
5.4 Extending M-EA for business……………………………………………….154 
5.4.1 M-EA framework in business……………………………………...156 
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5.4.2 Extending M-EA model……………………………………………162 
5.4.3 M-EA migration road map for business……………………………187 
5.5 Summary of this chapter……………………………………………………..195 
 
Chapter 6: Validating the extension of Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
(M-EA) through action research……………………………………...196 
6.1 Overview of this chapter……………………………………………………196 
6.2 Objectives of the action research studies……………………………………196 
6.3 Designing action research project…………………………………………..197 
6.4 Validation criteria for against M-EA and its expected outcome…………….199 
6.5 Action research company A…………………………………………………202 
6.5.1 Background of the mobile communication company……………..202 
6.5.2 Modeling of processes in the company……………………………203 
6.5.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA………………………..204 
6.6 Action research company B…………………………………………………218 
6.6.1 Background of the IT consulting company………………………..218 
6.6.2 Modeling of processes in the company……………………………219 
6.6.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA………………………..220 
6.7 Action research company C…………………………………………………230 
6.7.1 Background of the security/ transaction processing company…….230 
6.7.2 Modeling of processes in the company……………………………233 
6.7.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA………………………..234 
6.8 Discussion on the overall results that validate M-EA model……………….241 
6.9 Summary of this chapter…………………………………………………….243 
 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and future direction…………………………..245 
7.1. Overview of this chapter……………………………………………………245 
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7.2. Achievement of the research aim and objectives…………………………245 
7.3. Summary of this M-EA research project……………………………………249 
7.4. Future direction in M-EA…………………………………………………253 
 
References...………………………………………………………….258 
Appendix A: Interview Sample Questions……………...……………276 
Appendix B: Ethics Committee Approval……………………………281 
Appendix C: Research Timeline and Milestones…………………….282 
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List of Tables 
Table 1.1: M-EA Migration Plan Table……………………………………………..10 
Table 2.1 Zachman Framework…………………………………………………….35 
Table 2.2: Comparative view of 5 EA Frameworks………………………………...45 
Table 2.3: Functions and Applications of Mobile Networks and Communications..61 
Table 3.1: Lists of several research philosophies…………………………………...78 
Table 3.2: Comparison of deductive and inductive approaches……………………81 
Table 3.3: Comparisons of qualitative and quantitative research…………………..84 
Table 3.4: Lists of feedback to this research project……………………………97 
Table 4.1: Results from the interviewees that outline the 5 aspects of the M-EA..125 
Table 4.2: Interviewees’ expected outcome of implemented M-EA model……….143 
Table 5.1: Mapping Zachman Table for MEA…………………………………….160 
Table 5.2: Different Generations of Cellular Networks…………………………...166 
Table 5.3: A comparison between the two major types of mobile middleware…...175 
Table 5.4: M-Commerce Applications…………………………………………….178 
Table 5.5: Mobile devices list and description…………………………………….181 
Table 5.6: M-EA Migration Plan Table…………………...………………………191 
Table 6.1: Details of the participating action research enterprises……………….198 
Table 6.2: Action research project validation criteria……………………………..200 
Table 6.3: CAMEA Validation M-EA Table…………………...………………….204 
Table 6.4: CBMERA Validation M-EA Table…………………………………..…220 
Table 6.5: Alacrity CLEW Technology Validation M-EA Table…………………..235 
 
 
 
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List of Figures 
Figure 1.1: Gap from EA to M-EA…………………………………………………..8 
Figure 1.2: M-EA Definition…………………………………………………………9 
Figure 1.3: M-EA Components……………………………………………………..10 
Figure 1.4: Research Framework…………………………………………….……..11 
Figure 1.5: Thesis Structure………………………………………………………...15 
Figure 2.1: Enterprise Architecture Elements (basic) ……………………………...21 
Figure 2.2: EA Integrates Several Generations of EIS……………………………..22 
Figure 2.3: Enterprise Architecture (EA) Elements (overall)………………………23 
Figure 2.4: Enterprise Architecture as a Constraint ………………………………..26 
Figure 2.5: Zachman EA Framework ………………………………………………33 
Figure 2.6: TOGAF- Architecture Development Method (ADM)………………….37 
Figure 2.7: TOGAF - Enterprise Continuum……………………………………….38 
Figure 2.8: DoDAF 3 Views and Linkages…………………………………………41 
Figure 2.9: FEAF Structure…………………………………………………………42 
Figure 2.10: Web Service Technology…………………………………………...47 
Figure 2.11: SOA Integrates the Applications……………………………………...50 
Figure 2.12: Detail Gap from EA to M-EA………………………………………...72 
Figure 3.1: Research onion with the specific criteria used in this research project...75 
Figure 3.2: Research Philosophy…………………………………………………...77 
Figure 3.3: Research Approach……………………………………………………..82 
Figure 3.4: Research Framework of This Research Project…………….………….96 
Figure 4.1: Initial M-EA Definition……………………………………………….102 
Figure 4.2: Initial Mobile Enterprise Technology Architecture Model…………105 
Figure 4.3: The structure of Case 8 handling security issues of M-EA…………...134 
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Figure 5.1: M-EA Components……………………………………………………155 
Figure 5.2: M-EA Framework……………………………………………………..158 
Figure 5.3: M-EA 5+1 Layer Model………………………………………………162 
Figure 5.4: Updated M-EA 5+1 Layers Model……………………………………186 
Figure 5.5: M-EA Implementation Team………………………………………….187 
Figure 5.6: M-EA Transition Road Map…………………………………………..193 
Figure 6.1: CAMEA 5+1 Layers Model…………………………………………..206 
Figure 6.2: CAMEA Model Layer 1- Storage Layer……………………………...207 
Figure 6.3: CAMEA Model Layer 2- Communication Layer……………………..208 
Figure 6.4: CAMEA Model Layer 3- Binding Layer……………………………..210 
Figure 6.5: CAMEA Model Layer 4- Process Layer……………………………...211 
Figure 6.6: CAMEA Model Layer 5- Presentation Layer…………………………213 
Figure 6.7: CAMEA Security Layer for all Layers………………………………..215 
Figure 6.8: M-EA Strategic Alignment……………………………………………228 
Figure 6.9: CLEW for Secure Access Control…………………………………….231 
Figure 7.1: Research Processes……………………………………………………246 
 
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List of Abbreviations 
Abbreviation Full Name 
1G First-generation 
2G Second-generation 
3G Third-generation 
4G Fourth-generation 
ADM Architecture Development Method 
ANZ Australia and New Zealand 
API Application programming interfaces 
AR Action Research 
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode 
ATMs Automated teller machines 
BPR Business Process Re-engineering 
CAMEA Company A’s Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
CASE Computer Aided Software Engineering 
CBMERA Company B’s Mobile Enterprise Reference Architecture 
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access 
CF Compact Flash 
CIO Chief information officer 
CIT Computing and Information Technology 
CLEW Closed Loop Environment for Wireless 
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture 
CRM Customer Relationship Management 
CS Case Study 
DCOM Distributed Component Object Model 
DOGAF Department of Defense Architecture Framework 
E-Commerce Electronic Commerce 
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Abbreviation Full Name 
EA Enterprise Architecture 
EAI Enterprise application integration 
EBA Enterprise Business Architecture 
EIA Enterprise Information Architecture 
EIS Enterprise Information Systems 
ERA Enterprise reference architecture 
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning 
ESA Enterprise Solution Architecture 
ETA Enterprise Technology Architecture 
FEAF Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework 
FIS Financial Information systems 
GPRS General packet radio service 
GPS Global Positioning System 
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications 
GUI Graphical user interface 
HTTP Hypertext Transport protocol 
ICT Information and Communication Technology 
IP Intellectual Property 
IR Infrared 
ISO International Organization for Standardization 
IT Information Technology 
ITU International Telecommunication Union 
JDBC Java Database Connectivity 
JIT Just-in-Time 
KBA Knowledge-Based Authentication 
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol 
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Abbreviation Full Name 
LR Literature Review 
M-Commerce Mobile Commerce 
M-CRM Mobile Customer Relationship Management 
M-EA Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
M-Education Mobile Education 
M-ERP Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning 
M-Government Mobile Government 
M-Library Mobile Library 
M-procurement Mobile procurement 
M-SCM Mobile Supply Chain Management 
M-Service Mobile Services 
M-Store Mobile Storage or inventories 
MAC Media Access Control 
MAN Metropolitan area networks 
MIT Mobile Information Technology 
MT Mobile Technologies 
MUI Mobile user interface 
MWS Mobile Web Services 
NGE Next Generation Enterprises 
OSI Open System Interconnection 
PAN Personal area network 
PC Personal computer 
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association 
PDA Personal Digital Assistant 
ORDBMS Object-relational database management system 
QoS Quality-of-service 
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Abbreviation Full Name 
RDBMS Relational database management system 
RFID Radio Frequency Identification 
ROI Return on investment 
SCM Supply Chain Management 
SIM Subscriber Identity Module 
SMS Short Message Service 
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol 
SOA Service-Oriented Architecture 
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol 
SOE Standard Operating Environment 
SRM) Supplier relationship management 
SQL Structured Query Language 
SSL Secured Socket Layer 
TCP/ IP Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol 
TD-SCDMA Time Division – Synchronized Code Division Multiple Access 
TEAF Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework 
TOGAF The Open Group Architectural Framework 
UDDI Universal Description, Discovery and Integration 
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System 
URL Uniform Resource Locator 
UTRAN UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network 
VoIP Voice over IP 
VPN Virtual Private Network 
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity 
Wi-Max Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access 
WAP Wireless Application Protocol 
 - xix -   
 
Abbreviation Full Name 
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access 
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy 
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network 
WML Wireless Markup Language 
WS Web Services 
WSDL Web Services Description Language 
XML eXtensible Markup Language 
 
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Defining Important Terms (Keywords) of M-EA 
Keywords: Enterprise information systems (EIS), Enterprise Architecture (EA), 
Mobile Technology (MT), Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA), M-EA 
Framework, M-EA 5+1 Layers Model, Mobile Transition Paths/“Road Maps” 
 
Term Definition 
Enterprise 
Architecture 
(EA) 
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a set of business and engineering 
artifacts, including text and graphical documentation, which 
represents the enterprise’s key business system, information/data, 
application, technology strategies and their impact on business 
processes also the users. (Goikoetxe, 2007) 
Mobile 
Technologies 
(MT) 
Used to describe modern wireless connections such as those in 
cellular networks and wireless broadband Internet, also 
encompass communication that is achieved without land-based or 
wired mechanisms (Unhelkar, 2009). 
Mobility - 
Enterprise 
Architecture 
(M-EA) 
A structure of integrating business processes with Information 
Technology that are supported and integrated with Mobile 
Technologies. M-EA integrates business Systems, Processes, 
People, and Data in an organization in a manner that enables easy 
incorporation of Mobile Technologies in its business processes. 
Service-Oriented 
Architecture 
(SOA) 
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as “A form of distributed 
systems architecture. This architecture consists of a set of 
components which can be invoked, and whose interface 
descriptions can be published and discovered”. (W3C, 2004) 
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Term Definition 
Web Service 
(WS) 
Web Service (WS) as “loosely coupled, self-describing services 
that are accessed programmatically across a distributed network, 
and exchange data using vendor, platform, and language-neutral 
protocols.” (Marks and Werrel, 2003) 
Wireless 
Technology 
Wireless Technology: technology without wires and phone lines 
to use a multiplicity of devices. (IBM website) 
Third Generation 
(3G) Mobile 
technology  
Third Generation (3G) Mobile technology: It is usually used in 
the context of cell phones. The services associated with 3G 
provide the ability to transfer both voice data (a telephone call) 
and non-voice data (such as downloading information, 
exchanging email, and instant message). (Barnes, 2002) 
Global 
Positioning 
System (GPS) 
Global Positioning System (GPS): it is the one fully function of 
satellite navigation system, the exact positioning of useful 
location-sensitive information used for direction-finding- and 
map-reading-based services. (Olla, 2005) 
Personal Digital 
Assistant (PDA) 
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA): a digital device which can 
include the functionality of a computer, a cell phone, a music 
player and a camera (Shiratuddin et al., 2009) 
Worldwide 
Interoperability 
for Microwave 
Access 
(Wi-Max) 
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-Max) as 
“a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile 
wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL” 
(Wi-Max Forum, 2006) 
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Term Definition 
Wireless Local 
Area Network 
(WLAN) 
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN): The wireless link with 
the users to give a network connection to all users in the specific 
local area. (Paavilainen, 2001) 
Rapid Frequency 
Identification 
(RFID) 
Rapid Frequency Identification (RFID): RFID is a standard 
technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify people 
or objects. (Roberts, 2006) 
Electronic 
Commerce 
(E-Commerce) 
Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce): is any type of business or 
commercial transaction that involves the transfer of information 
across the Internet. (Maamar, 2003) 
Mobile 
Commerce 
(M-Commerce) 
Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce): through any highly mobile 
device and wireless communication network, activities related to 
commerce transaction, data access, network service, and so on, 
processed without any boundaries of time and space. (Kuo and 
Yu, 2005) 
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List of Candidate Publications 
Conferences: 
Wu, M., and Unhelkar, B., (2008) Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility, 
Conference Proceeding of 2008 IEEE 67th Vehicular Technology Conference, 
Singapore, May 11-14, ISBN: 978-1-4244-1645-5 Wu, M., (2007) Doctoral 
Consortium Paper ”Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility to Create 
Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA)” Conference Proceeding of Australian 
Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) 2007, December 4th, Toowoomba, Q.L.D. 
ISBN: 9780909156970 
M. Wu (2007), “Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility”, p56 in book: 
UWS College of Health and Science Research Futures Postgraduate Forum 2007 
Innovation Conference abstract handbook, ISBN: 1-74108-083-5 
M. Wu (2008), “Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility”, p58 in book: 
UWS College of Health and Science Research Futures Postgraduate Forum 2008 
Innovation Conference abstract 
 
Chapter Publication: 
Curtis, D., Wu, M., (2009) Investigation into the Impact of Integration of Mobile 
Technology Applications into Enterprise Architecture. In the Unhelkar (Ed.), Chapter 
49 of book: Handbook of Research in Mobile Business: Technical, Methodological 
and Social Perspectives 2nd edition. IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA, 2009, ISBN 
978-1-60566-156-8 
Unhelkar, B., Wu, M., and Ghanbary, A., (2008), Integrating Mobile Technologies in 
Enterprise Architecture with a Focus on Global Supply Chain Management Systems, 
in Raisinghani M.S. (Ed.), Chapter 23 of book: Handbook of Research on Global 
Information Technology, IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA, pp.499-518, 
ISBN:978-1-59904-876-5. 
Wu, M., and Unhelkar, B., (2009) Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility. 
In Unhelkar (Ed.), Chapter 42 of book: Handbook of Research in Mobile Business: 
Technical, Methodological and Social Perspectives 2nd edition, IGI Global, Hershey, 
PA, USA, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60566-156-8 
Wu, M., and Unhelkar, B., (2009) Mobile Service Oriented Architecture (MSOA) in 
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Web 2.0 and beyond. In the Murugesan (Ed.), Chapter 38 of book: Handbook of 
Research on Web 2.0, 3.0, and X.0: Technologies, Business, and Social Applications. 
IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA, 2009  
 - xxv -   
Abstract 
 
Enterprise Architecture (EA) provides the basis for technology as well as business processes. 
Mobility enables real-time response to the ever-increasing demands from customers in a 
changing and competitive marketplace. Based on this background, this research investigates: 
how to make the best use of Mobile Technologies (MT) by integrating it into EA and 
thereby make it more effective and efficient? The core philosophies of extending EA with 
mobility constructs a fully Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA), which includes M-EA 
framework, core M-EA 5+1 layers model, and M-EA migration plan. 
 
This research follows three steps: Step 1: Literature Review (LR) to construct the based 
knowledge of EA and MT. LR provides understanding of a gap between EA and M-EA, and 
also provides an understanding of the possible approaches of incorporating mobile 
applications into information systems design. At this stage, the researcher defined M-EA as 
“A structure for integrating business processes with mobile technology and IT, includes 
relationships among the System, Process, People, and Data in an organization”.  
 
Second step is Case Study (CS) of construct initial model; CS by interviewing experienced 
enterprise architects, business analysts, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and IT executives. 
The results of these interviews on the benefits of MT on EA based on views and opinions 
from these experts provided three critical factors for mobility: 1. real-time response, 2. 
location-independence, and 3. personalization. The excepted M-EA outcomes from 
interviewees are the validation criteria for following AR projects as well.  
 
Last step is Action Research (AR) projects for validating initial M-EA model by 
 - xxvi -   
undertaking three AR project with participating enterprises. First mobile communication 
company helped to extend M-EA 5+1 layers model to work on details of each model, 
second consulting company helped to upgrade the implementation migration plan, and third 
security / transaction processing company helped to validate M-EA on security specific 
aspect. The initial M-EA model has been validated through three AR project in order to 
establish a comprehensive M-EA. M-EA is usable across any origination to reduce the 
implementation risks and enhance the benefits of mobility to the enterprises, and also 
creates new opportunities for a flexible and dynamic enterprise in an agile business world. 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 1 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
Chapter 1: Introduction to the research in Mobile 
Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) 
 
1.1 Overview of the research project 
 
The Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) provides a ‘ground up’ incorporation of 
mobility in the structure and dynamics of an enterprise. This incorporation of 
mobility in an enterprise creates new opportunities for it to be a flexible and dynamic 
business in an agile business world (Paavilainen, 2001). There are many nuances of 
mobile technologies which need to be considered by an enterprise in order to make 
full utilization of their capabilities. These nuances as well as those associated 
advantages and challenges of mobility revolve around two keywords:  
location-independence and personalization. Mobility enables the enterprise to 
interact with the customers independent of their location. Mobility also enables the 
business to dynamically customize (i.e. personalize) the specific services of the 
business required by the customers. These personalized services are then offered to 
the customers on their personal mobile devices. A well crafted architecture, based on 
experiences of an architectural framework, is the ideal way to derive benefits from 
location-independence and personalization of mobility. This is so because the 
resultant M-EA provides opportunities for the business to incorporate mobility as a 
strategic and integral element in its activities.  
 
The time and location independence of mobility opens up tremendous opportunities 
for organizations to offer integrated and dynamic services to their clients and 
business partners. M-EA brings about not only internal integration but through 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 2 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
extension, also much more efficiency to its external suppliers, customers and other 
trading partners over the Internet. Umar (2005) states that the Next Generation 
Enterprises (NGE) will rely on automation, mobility, real-time business activity 
monitoring, agility and self-service over widely distributed operations to conduct 
business. Many organizations would like to build their entire systems by using 
today’s emerging technologies of which Mobile Technologies (MT) is a crucial part. 
Inter-organizational Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) integrate all processes 
between extended enterprises, such as supply chains and customer relationship 
systems. Mobile Technologies (MT) helps to upgrade the traditional supply chains to 
Mobile Supply Chain Management (M-SCM), traditional Customer Relationship 
Management (CRM) to Mobile Customer Relationship Management (M-CRM) and 
trading procurement to Mobile procurement (M-procurement). Therefore, this 
research considers these extensions and integrations in greater details by exploiting 
the capabilities of Mobile Technologies. Moreover, these kinds of extensions and 
integrations are considered as an integral part of Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
(M-EA) – rather than an ‘add on’ to the existing architecture. Undoubtedly, Mobile 
Technologies can integrate in Enterprise Architecture (EA) to provide the enterprise 
with capabilities to provide Mobile Services (M-Service) and Mobile Storage or 
inventories (M-Store). Such M-EA enabled enterprise can provide globalization 
service, product and technical supports to the customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a 
week. 
 
The definitions and description of what comprises a Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
have been quite wide ranging. Understanding an M-EA seems to depend on the 
perspectives of the enterprise, the understanding and experience of the architect and 
also the value that M-EA adds to an architect’s work. An M-EA utilizes the concepts 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 3 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
and technologies of EA (Wu, 2007) which in turn, is built on an understanding of 
what is an enterprise. However, an M-EA is not just an extension of EA. Instead, an 
M-EA deals specifically with mobile business issues that arise out of 
location-independence and personalization. M-EA allows people in the business 
ecosystem to communicate with others as well as with the system using the internet 
technologies and also mobile technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS), 
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). An 
M-EA will transform the organizations into zero latency, real time organizations.  
Mobility facilitates dynamic collection of mobile data, correlates with data and 
information, and communicates the resultant knowledge within and outside the 
organization. 
 
The value of M-EA to the enterprise comes from the fact that it enhances the quality 
and reduces the risks in an enterprise’s attempts to use mobility across its business 
activities. The risk reduction due to M-EA occurs because the M-EA also prepares 
the enterprise for the inevitable demands of agility. The ‘agile’ demands on business 
arise due to the rapid changes faced by the business, both internally and externally. 
Technology is a crucial cause for these changes or ‘disruptions’. These changes, as 
correctly envisioned by Alvin Toffler (1970), the guru of futurology, are not only 
extremely rapid, but even the rate at which they are occurring are high. The rapid rate 
of changes has resulted in this age of communication. Mobile technologies are at the 
crux of this communications revolution. “Mobility” in this age of communication, as 
discussed by Unhelkar (2005), has increasingly eliminated the need for physical 
proximity in connecting people, processes and things. The resulting 
location-independence has had a significant impact on the organization of the 
business and its relationship with the customers.  
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 4 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
1.2 Background to this research in M-EA 
 
Information Technology (IT) growth is substantiated by the large number of 
infrastructures and products, and it has been showing up in the market with 
ever-increasing frequency (Ramakrishnan et al., 2006). However, in order to raise the 
ability of the enterprise to serve its customers and to deal with its business partners in 
today’s dynamic business environment, there is a need to integrate these products and 
services through a common EA (Linthicum, 2000). This integration of business 
processes, systems, databases, human resources, customer service, infrastructures 
and technologies in various aspects together form an enterprise, which is facilitated 
by what is known as Enterprise Architecture. EA has been defined as the description 
of current and future structure and behaviour of an organisation’s processes, 
information and communication technology, personnel and organisational sub-units, 
aligned with the organisational core goals and strategic directions (Unhelkar, 2008). 
Enterprise Architecture, more often, has been associated with the Information and 
Communication Technology (ICT). Currently, the enterprise expands to rely more on 
IT, and ensures both business processes and technology systems could be 
co-coordinated in a strategic manner. In fact, many of the enterprise’s strategic 
initiatives such as e-business, SCM systems, CRM systems, Enterprise Resource 
Planning (ERP) systems, and Financial Information systems (FIS) depend upon the 
enterprise integration into a fully constructed EA (Lam and Shankararaman, 2007).   
Importantly, EA is not integration only about technology infrastructure, but also 
includes a consideration of business processes, information systems, human 
resources, and data repository that cut across various IT applications, and so provides 
a clear structure over all the enterprise.  
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 5 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The IT and mobile communication provide improvement to the ultimate business 
goal which is always a moving target that an enterprise must strive to achieve (but 
perhaps never truly attains). First-generation (1G) mobile generation evolved in the 
1970s to meet 1G (batch-based) business processes. However, second-generation 
(2G) mobile generation business processes emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s. It 
is true that a company would find it non-competitive to try to address 2G business 
processes with 1G mobile technology solutions, to the point that the company could 
perhaps state that “those enterprise information systems of the 1970s were not 
important to the strategic needs of the 2G world”. However, the company didn’t state 
that informatics were not essential, and started to step up to develop 2G enterprise 
information systems.  
 
Since the mid-1990s a third-generation (3G) of business processes has emerged, 
based on online accessibility. Again, it is true that a company would find it 
non-competitive to try to address 3G business processes with 2G mobile technology 
solutions, to the point that the company could perhaps state that “those closed 
enterprise information systems of the 1980s were not important to the strategic needs 
of the 3G world”, but what a company needs to do, then, is to develop 3G mobile 
technology systems. Now, fourth-generation (4G) set of business processes is 
evolving to the world, it is based on a ubiquitous computing/ location-based service/ 
always-connected paradigm; 4G mobile technology systems will be needed. Many 
people guess, around 2015, 5G business processes will evolve to the world, and also 
5G mobile technology systems will be needed. Fortunately, MT does move on and 
great new domains are remained to be defined, appreciated, and conquered, to the 
financial benefit of the winners. At each stage, MT is the strategic tool to conquer the 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 6 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
new set of business opportunities; the world is not static and the “end game” is not in 
sight. 
 
Changes happen in business with the customers, with the environment, with the 
competition and with the regulations. IT and Mobile Communication help the 
organization in handling these changes. There were certain business expectations in 
the 1970s from customers, and enterprise information systems developed to support 
these basic requirements. For example, people could generally do banking only 
Monday to Friday, 9:00AM to 4:00PM face to face in a bricks-and-mortar building. 
The customers’ expectation was simply that if he or she could walk into the bank, 
and the bank could be able to reliably complete a transaction (e.g. a withdrawal) by 
having access to an up-to-date ledger. Therefore, if there was nothing else ever 
changed, the bank had just developed an optimized enterprise information system to 
support that paradigm; and in the early 1980s, the bank could declare that there was 
no strategic value in spending more money in “tweaking” the 1G mobile system.  
 
However, automated teller machines (ATMs) revolutionized the banking prospect in 
the 1980s. Banks that could quickly and reliably bring this service to customers (by 
updating their enterprise information systems) were the ones that thrived. Banks 
needed to make major investments in IT to serve the customers’ new expectations. 
Thus, the bank had developed an optimized enterprise information system to support 
that ATM paradigm. At that time, if the world were to stop and nothing else ever 
changed, the bank could declare that there was no strategic value in spending more 
money in “tweaking” the 2G mobile system in the early1990s.  
 
However, the online approach to do business (shopping, banking, paying, etc.) burst 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 7 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
into the view in the 1990s, the same observations just made about necessary (new) 
information technology and mobile communication investments apply. At this stage, 
or soon hereafter, there evolved an expectation for location-based services. For 
example, a customer enters a space or a shopping mall, his/ her PDA, iPod, mobile 
phone etc., starts telling this customer what services, sales, specials, etc., are 
available at that precise spot; if this customer walks 200 meters farther along, new 
information is delivered to him/her again. The customer may wish to make an 
on-the-spot purchase with a wireless financial transaction; he/ she may want to order 
again via a wireless interaction, so he/she may intend to check how much money 
he/she has in the account; at that moment this customer may hope to see if money 
can be transferred on the spot for 7 days to another bank that gives he /she a better 
interest rate – or transfer credit card balances to another credit card company with 
better rates. From the customers’ requirement, the enterprises are well advised to start 
making major investment in information technology and mobile communication now 
at all levels, to upgrade their 2.5G/3G mobile systems to the 4G mobile environment 
for near future. 
 
Mobility is a complete paradigm of work with an enterprise that is based on 
location-independence and personalization resulting from the use of mobile 
technologies (Wu and Unhelkar, 2009). These technologies include wireless 
communication networks (such as the cellular networks, Mobile satellite networks, 
Bluetooth, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Wi-Max and Radio Frequency 
Identification (RFID) and mobile devices (such as mobile phones, PDAs and 
wireless laptops). RFID is an automatic identification method to provide the 
organization, particularly SCM systems, to improve the efficiency of inventory 
tracking and management. The mobile work paradigm, however, is much more than 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 8 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
the ‘ad-hoc’ utilization of these MT in business. Mobility is a formal, strategic and 
integral use of MT in the economic, technical, process and social dimensions of a 
business – from both within and outside the organizational boundaries.  
 
The time and location independence of the mobile work paradigm opens up 
tremendous opportunities for organizations to offer integrated and personalized 
services to their clients and partners. Mobile network technologies have been 
providing better services and real-time communication within the organisational 
ecosystem, which includes suppliers, customers and the Enterprise Architecture.  A 
well-formulated mobile business strategy brings about not only internal integration, 
but through extension, also offers much more efficiency to its external suppliers, 
customers and other trading partners over the Internet. Moreover, the web services 
technology; build on top of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Web Services 
Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery and 
Integration (UDDI) language, provides an excellent basis for integrating the MT into 
the existing EA, even though the systems have been on different platforms.  
 
 
Figure 1.1: Gap from EA to M-EA 
 
An EA extended with above discussed MT can be referred to as Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) as show in Figure 1. Further details are discussed in Chapter 2. 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 9 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
1.3 Research aim and objectives 
 
Modern enterprises need to integrate several generations of information systems and 
infrastructures through a comprehensive Enterprise Architecture. Emerging mobile 
technologies are eagerly sought by enterprises as they overcome “time and location” 
boundaries, thereby enabling them to operate dynamically. This research investigates 
the issues, processes, benefits, and challenges of extending EA with mobility, and 
identifying and describing the process of integrating MT with EA. The primary 
purpose of the research is to identify how mobile technology could extend the people, 
process, data, and system of an EA that would result in a Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA). 
 
Therefore, this research study defines M-EA (which is shown in Figure 1.2) as: 
“A structure for integrating with mobile technology within the Enterprise 
Architecture of an organization based on the relationship amongst its System, 
Process, People, and Data” (based on Wu and Unhelkar, 2008). 
 
 
Figure 1.2: M-EA Definition 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 10 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
A complete M-EA contains 3 parts: M-EA framework, M-EA 5+1 layers model, and 
M-EA transition road map (as shown in Figure 1.3). 
 
M-EA
Road Maps
(Transitions)
 
( r iti )
Models
(Standards)
l
( t r )
Frameworks
(Abstraction)
r r
( t ti )
 
Figure 1.3: M-EA Components 
 
This framework is an abstraction of how the MT fits within the enterprise 
requirements to achieve business goals.  The M-EA 5+1 layers model reduces its 
complexity and provides sound basis for successful creation and management of 
mobile business processes, mobile organization, mobile contents, mobile security 
and mobile networks. The M-EA transition road map uses "Current" and "Target", 
"As-is" and "To-be" framework to identify clearly the transition plan (as shown in 
Table 1.1). The manner in which this IT and mobile technology incorporation takes 
place successfully is studied here through the framework outlined in the migration 
plan table (more details are discussed in Chapter 5). 
 
Table 1.1: M-EA Migration Plan  
 Current state “as-is” Desired Target state “To-be” 
Description Key factors Reserve assessment indicator 
Analysis Assessment indicator result Target M-EA opportunities 
Design Construct current EA Construct Target M-EA 
Implementation plan 
Target M-EA  
opportunities result 
Target M-EA  
implementation plan 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 11 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
1.4 Research framework 
 
This research is thus an investigation into how MT influences the framework, model, 
and implementation framework of EA. The result is creation of the Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) framework, model, and its corresponding transition roadmap. 
The selected methodology for this research is a qualitative research methodology. 
The qualitative methodology used in this research includes: constructive method, 
case studies by interviews, and action research.  
 
 
Figure 1.4: Research Framework 
 
As such, the research framework of this research project is shown on above Figure 
1.4. The researcher first investigates MT and current frameworks of building EA by 
using literature review method. This was followed by conducting case studies by 
interviews to establish the draft M-EA, which includes the definition, advantages, 
limitations, implementation framework, and the blueprint expectation of M-EA. 
After that, the researcher has visited three participating companies to do action 
research, the researcher has studied their EA, implemented M-EA, and understood 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 12 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
their points of view after applying M-EA, which could help validate the M-EA and 
also improve the security of M-EA. 
 
Thus, firstly, this research starts by constructing initial M-EA structure to investigate 
and analyse which MT applications could be integrated into EA. The literature 
review brings ideas of how to extend EA to M-EA, and using construct method to 
create the initial M-EA model. 
 
Secondly, interviewing several experienced enterprise architects by using a 
structured questionnaire has resulted in advice for the M-EA implementation 
framework. This initial M-EA model, which takes the form of case studies, provides 
the implementation details to enterprises that need to change their architecture before 
they use mobile technology application. Enterprises also get a perspective on what 
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Mobile-Transformation preparation 
needs to be done before they integrate M-EA. Case studies by interviews were used 
to verify the draft M-EA structure, which included the definition of M-EA, the 
advantages and challenges of M-EA, the implementation team work of M-EA, and 
what the expectation after the implementation of M-EA (which is the validation 
criteria). 
 
Next, this initial M-EA model was validated by undertaking action research studies 
in the three participating enterprises. The business processes re-engineering, practical 
issues, benefits, challenges and limitations of the M-EA model are also being 
identified, documented and discussed during and after implementation. The model 
was validated and also updated based on those results. Such comprehensive M-EA 
reduces the risks and enhances the benefits of using mobile technologies to the 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 13 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
organizations.  
 
Thus, the overall research approach in this thesis follows the “constructionism” 
philosophies. This research accompanies qualitative research methodologies by using 
literature review, action research studies and case study by interviews as research 
methods to achieve the research aim (for detailed information, please see Chapter 3). 
 
1.5 Research scope 
 
The scope of this research is to apply mobile technologies to people, data, process, 
and system of an organization by extending its enterprise architecture. The draft 
M-EA model is created by the researcher from literature review and qualitative 
analysis from the result of case study by interview. The proposed M-EA model after 
implementation and validation in three participating action research companies 
established the full M-EA structure. Finally, this research project creates a completed 
Mobile Enterprise Architecture, which includes M-EA framework, M-EA 5+1 layers 
model, and M-EA transition road map.  
 
1.6 Research justification 
 
This research enables the creation of a new M-EA framework, M-EA 5+1 Layers 
model, and M-EA Transition Roadmap. The justification for this research is the 
benefits it provides to the enterprise. These benefits are listed as following: 
• M-EA helps raise efficiency and effectiveness by streamlining 
location-independence and real-time responses which aid enterprise to 
provide enhanced customer personalization service.  
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 14 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
• Successful re-engineering of business processes to mobile business processes 
which could provide the enterprise and with new business strategies. 
• IT and Mobile communication infrastructures, which are selected for high 
quality, longer use, and are easy to modify, facilitates cooperation by leverage 
M-EA to set a successful technology direction in future. Therefore, the longer 
used infrastructure could reduce costs by reaching out to the extended M-EA 
which is supported and sustained over time.  
 
1.7 Thesis outline 
 
The thesis comprises seven chapters, and lists as following: 
1. Introduction;  
2. Literature review;  
3. Research methodologies;  
4. Elicit the draft M-EA model from case studies;  
5. M-EA structure;  
6. Validating the M-EA by action research; 
7. Conclusion and future direction.  
 
Figure 1.5 describes the structure and outline of this thesis: 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 15 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Figure 1.5: Thesis Structure 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
The opening chapter of this thesis, Chapter 1, provides an overview of the 
background of this research area and describes the used terminology and presents the 
aims, framework, project scopes, and justification of the research in Mobile 
Enterprise Architecture (M-EA). This chapter aims to introduce a short description 
and definition of M-EA. This chapter also describe why a company needs M-EA, 
what M-EA covers, and how this research project extends EA to M-EA.   
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
Chapter 2 incorporates a literature review in Enterprise Architecture (EA) and the 
emerging Mobile Technologies (MT). Enterprise needs to integrate information 
systems, databases, infrastructures, and applications to improve business process 
effectively and service-oriented, which is a common EA. Mobility overcomes “time 
and location” boundaries, and provides better real-time and personality service to the 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 16 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
customers. Therefore, the literature review in this chapter provides which and what 
values of emerging mobile technologies help EA upgraded to M-EA. This chapter 
concludes by identifying and describing a gap from EA to M-EA for this research 
project.  
 
Chapter 3: Research Methodologies 
Chapter 3 discusses the methodologies, philosophies and theories used for 
completing this research. The literature review is used to understand MT and the 
current frameworks for building EA. Constructing the initial M-EA model is the 
result of fully understanding the research area. The case studies resulting from the 
interviews are able to help in creating a complete M-EA structure and 
implementation framework. The action research studies are conducted by visiting 
companies to study their M-EA implementations and thereby validating the results. 
This chapter describes these several methodologies, philosophies, and theories, and 
additionally justifies the selections in a way that leads to reach the aims of this 
research project. 
 
Chapter 4: Envisioning the M-EA through knowledge elicitation by Interview 
Result 
As shown in Figure 1.5, Chapter 4 elicits the initial M-EA model from taking input 
information from the literature (Chapter 2) and following the research methodology 
(Chapter 3) to envision this initial model through case studies by interviews. The 
researcher builds the initial M-EA based on the Literature Review and constructs the 
updated model through interviews result. The researcher has interviewed several 
experienced enterprise architects to get advice on improving the comprehensive 
definition of M-EA and updating the M-EA implementation framework. This chapter 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 17 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
describes the verification of the draft M-EA, includes the definition of M-EA, the 
advantages and limitations of M-EA, how M-EA could be implemented, what the 
expectations are after implementing M-EA (which is the validation criteria for 
following action research steps).  
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Framework, 5+1 Layers Model, and Transition Roadmap 
Chapter 5 explains the mapping of M-EA to technologies, processes, systems, data, 
and people. Additionally, this chapter also describes the core philosophies of 
extending EA with mobility to produce a M-EA framework, core M-EA 5+1 layers 
model, and M-EA migration plan - transition roadmap. The M-EA framework offers 
a blueprint of how the people, systems, process, data, and internal and external 
factors contribute to extending the EA. This M-EA framework is an abstraction of 
how the emerging technologies or new methodologies fit with an organization’s IT 
requirements. M-EA model shows how the mobile technology works in each of these 
layers and connects seamlessly to each other. The M-EA migration transition road 
map provides the transition process from the current status to target status for the 
company, which aims to show the company how to plan from the different generation 
enterprise information system situation to specific M-EA.  
 
Chapter 6: Validation M-EA by Action Research Studies 
As shown in Figure 1.5, Chapter 6 takes input from the validation criteria resulting 
from the case studies (Chapter 4) and the extension of Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) (Chapter 5) and uses it to complete action research studies 
through three participating companies. This chapter presents those three action 
research studies processes, and the results involved in validating the M-EA 
(described in Chapter 5). The first mobile communication company helped extending 
Chapter 1: Introduction 
PhD Thesis Page 18 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
and validating the M-EA layer. The second consulting company helped upgrading the 
implementation migration project plan. The third security/ transaction processing 
company helped extending M-EA on security specific aspect. This chapter describes 
the validation of M-EA from the results of action research in three organizations, 
which is a comprehensive M-EA. 
 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
Chapter 7 concludes the research. This chapter evaluates and demonstrates that the 
aim of the research is completed. This chapter also discusses the future directions and 
recommendations for M-EA research area.  
 
1.8 Summary of this chapter 
 
This chapter has introduced the research study, together with its justification that 
forms the basis of the rest of the thesis. This chapter has also briefly outlined existing 
literature and studies in the subject area of mobility in order to provide the overall 
context of this study and set the stage for the specific research questions. Following 
on from the overall background of the subject area of mobile technologies, this 
chapter then narrows down the scope of mobility to its application in enterprise 
architecture. This chapter has also listed the research aim and research objectives, 
followed by explicit research questions, the justification for such a research study, 
and the contribution of this research. Technical terms which are used in this thesis 
have also been defined in the chapter. Finally, the chapter outlines the overall 
structure of this thesis.  
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 19 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review on Enterprise Architecture 
(EA) and Mobile Technologies (MT) 
 
2.1 Overview of this chapter 
 
This chapter introduces the literature that has already been published in this research 
area and studied by the researcher. This literature primarily includes Enterprise 
Architecture (EA) and Mobile Technologies (MT). Enterprise needs to integrate 
information systems, databases, infrastructures, and applications to improve business 
processes effectively. Mobility, by using MT, overcomes “time and location” 
boundaries, and provides better network and communication, real-time ubiquitous 
commerce, and personal service to the customer. Therefore, the literature review in 
this chapter provides basis for specific aspects of MT which add value to EA and 
help an organization upgrade itself with Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA). 
Additionally, this chapter also describes the benefits and challenges of MT to EA. 
This chapter concludes by describing a gap in transitioning from EA to M-EA – 
which forms basis of this research project.  
 
2.2 Understanding Enterprise Architecture (EA) 
 
This section develops an understanding of Enterprise architecture (EA) including its 
elements, the framework and the roadmaps. The benefits of EA bring to the 
enterprise is also discussed. 
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 20 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
2.2.1 Overview the Enterprise Architecture (EA) 
 
An enterprise could be understood as a small to medium business, an entire global 
corporation, a government agency, a single and substantially independent large 
department, or a chain of geographically distant organizations linked together by 
common ownership. Most enterprises all have their own business processes and use 
several generations of systems to operate their business. However, enterprises today 
need to improve their ability to operate effectively and dynamically in response to 
the ever-increasing rates of change in the competitive marketplace and regulatory 
environments. With these pressures of this competitive business environment, 
enterprises start to seek an EA, which is the basis for integrating old systems, 
business processes, data bases, applications, and technology infrastructures with 
getting new technology applications for assimilating high rates of change. 
 
Goikoetxe (2007) states that the Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a set of business and 
engineering artifacts, including text and graphical documentation, which represents 
the enterprise’s key business system, information/data, application, technology 
strategies and their impact on business processes also the users. Moreover, EA will 
connect existing and new systems to enable collaborative operation within the entire 
organization in real-time. Thus, EA can provide the access among systems on 
production, planning and control, inbound and outbound logistics, material flows, 
monitoring functions, and performance measurements (Rolstadas and Andersen, 
2000).  Specific contents of these artifacts can include a vision or mission statement, 
a set of system requirements, a Business Process Architectural View, a Business 
Systems Architectural view, a Data Architecture View, an Application Architecture 
View, and a Technology Architecture View (Goikoetxe, 2007).  META Group Inc. 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 21 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
(2004) and VITA (2010) both demonstrate that EA consists of four key components, 
which are: Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA), Enterprise Information 
Architecture (EIA), Enterprise Solution Architecture (ESA), and Enterprise 
Technology Architecture (ETA). As per the literature review undertaken, EBA 
focuses on the integration of business information systems and how the business 
processes run, EIA considers  data storage, ESA focuses on supporting people ,to 
easily understand and use and ETA collects the technology devices, applications, 
middleware, platforms, and standards to support all the others. “People” is an 
important aspect of establishing the completed enterprise architecture, because 
people handle, arrange, manage, interact, and make the decision of how to establish 
and operate the EA. This research understands EA as a structure based on integrating 
business processes with Information Communication Technology (ICT) supports by 
providing a visualization enterprise solution of the relationships among the System, 
Process, People, and Data in an organization(As shown in following Figure 2.1).  
 
 
Figure 2.1: Enterprise Architecture Elements (basic) 
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 22 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
User of 
Internal Enterprise 
r f 
I t r l t r ri  
Enterprise Architecture 
(EA)
User of External 
Enterprise (Clients, Partners)
r f t r l 
t r ri  ( li t , rt r )
ERP
Back-end Business Process
(Ordering, Purchasing, HR,
Accounting)
-  i  r
( r ri , r i , ,
ti )
CRM
Marketing Analysis
Channel Management
(Customer Based)
r ti  l i
l t
( t r )
SCM
Supply Chain Business Process
(Demand Planning, SC Planning,
Transportation)
l  i  i  r
(  l i ,  l i ,
r rt ti )
 
Figure 2.2: EA Integrates Several Generations of EIS (based on Kamogawa and 
Okada, 2004) 
 
As shown on Figure 2.2, Kamogawa and Okada (2004) state that EA should integrate 
various generations of Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) such as Supply Chain 
Management (SCM) system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, 
and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.  These software systems may have 
been created by different programming languages, databases, and may be operating 
on different technology platforms. These differences in technologies and platforms 
may cause problems for enterprises that want to run their business processes across 
various EIS. Cook (1998) advocated that EA should allow integration and 
coordination of using different generation EIS across whole enterprise, including 
internal and external enterprises. 
 
2.2.2 Enterprise Architecture (EA) Elements 
 
An "Enterprise Architecture" (EA) is the instantiation and application of an 
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PhD Thesis Page 23 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
architectural framework in order to create an enterprise-level architecture that can be 
applied to all the systems of a specific enterprise (based on McGovern et al., 2004). 
Such application of an architectural framework brings together, in a cohesive manner, 
the specifications and the details of all interfaces, applications, networks, databases 
and security aspects of the enterprise. Thus an EA cuts across multiple systems and 
multiple functional groups within an enterprise.  
 
 
Figure 2.3: Enterprise Architecture (EA) Elements (overall) 
 
Figure 2.3 shows the comprehensive EA is made up of the frameworks, models and 
transition road maps. Following is the introduction of the EA elements: 
 
(a) Frameworks and abstractions 
Frameworks are a key part of any EA environment. An Enterprise Architecture (EA) 
framework is a business and engineering guideline (i.e., a blueprint, a set of 
instruction, and a specification) for the building of an EA. This EA framework 
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PhD Thesis Page 24 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
provides the future blueprint and high level abstraction to the enterprise. (The details 
of EA framework will be discussed in the section 2.3). 
 
(b) Models 
Models provide a pictorial representation of the enterprise-wide view of how the 
individual technical elements of the systems relate to each other. This pictorial 
representation can be called the ‘reference architecture’ for work within the 
organization. The architectural and design patterns that form the ‘standards’ for the 
organization are also a part of the model.  
 
(c) Transitions 
Transitions provide a migration path for the enterprise from where ‘it is’ to where it 
‘should be’. Thus, the transition paths are ‘road maps’ that guide the organization in 
adopting new technologies, methodologies and business processes.  
 
A well constructed EA can drive the modernization effort of a business because this 
EA can handle the wide variations and changes in both internal and external 
environment of the organization. While the changes are inevitable, the preparedness 
for the changes makes the difference between success and failure.  The ability of an 
organization to respond to changes is a highly significant advantage for it, as – it 
enables the organization to become “Agile”. An organization is agile when it is able 
to record and analyze external as well as internal events quickly and accurately; and 
when its systems change rapidly in order to support the changes to its business 
processes. So EA enables that to happen by incorporating maximum possibilities of 
changes and expansions of applications and systems for the future. Practical models 
of an enterprise architecture also involve multiple, heterogeneous systems and 
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PhD Thesis Page 25 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
multi-vendor software packages. The architectural frameworks are of immense value 
in helping an organization create truly open systems-based solution architectures. In 
the absence of an EA, organizations find themselves pushed in inflexible solutions, 
from time to time also restricted to single-supplier solutions. Such solutions can 
“close” the organization to multi-vendor solutions and packages – something to be 
avoided especially in the mobile enterprise market. EA plays an important role in 
enabling the organizations to remain flexible and responsive in a timely and cost 
effective manner, and thereby to compete and grow successfully.  
 
2.2.3 Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a Constraint 
 
An Enterprise Architecture (EA) provides a common platform for creation of 
business application. This common platform for application development abstracts 
and encapsulates significant aspects of application development. However, the EA 
also applies constraints on this abstraction which are (a) organizational specific and 
(b) technology specific.  
 
The organizational specific constraints are based on what is allowed, available, and 
acceptable as a standard which forms part of the policies within the organization. For 
example, an organizational standard mandates a certain common functionality (such 
as a password or key word) for all wireless PDA access by a user - such as an 
employee or a customer. This functionality is a constraint on the requirements for all 
applications that are modeled in the problem space. The technology specific 
constraints come from what the technology itself has to offer – and that dictates the 
solution design. For example, if a wireless network technology has a limit in terms of 
the distance range it can address, the wireless access to the contents or a specific 
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PhD Thesis Page 26 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
search on the database will be limited to that network restriction which dictates that 
solution.  
 
An enterprise-wide suite of activities can be grouped into three core activities: 
understanding the problem, providing the solution and applying the constraints. 
These activities are as shown in Figure 2.4. The architectural elements that come into 
play in the problem space are called the Business Architecture, the ones in the 
solution space are the Solution Architecture, and the ones in the background space 
are the Technology Architecture. These architectural elements and corresponding 
activities are discussed next.  
 
 
Figure 2.4: Enterprise Architecture as a Constraint (Unhelkar, 2005) 
 
(a) Understanding the problem 
The understanding of the problem includes understanding the challenges of the 
business, their requirements, their interactions with external and internal parties and 
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PhD Thesis Page 27 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
their constraints. The understanding of the business problem and its modeling have 
evolved into the profession of business analysis. The information architects and the 
business analysts of the organization discuss through workshop and prototype in 
order to elicit requirements; subsequently they model them after, apply quality 
techniques to the models, and use those models to communicate the requirements 
throughout the project. These information architects deal with the five phases of a 
business architecture as discussed by Orr (2007) – i.e. (1) strategic intention 
discovery; (2) business context modeling; (3) business value chain modeling; (4) 
business value stream modeling; and (5) business process modeling. A Business 
Architecture that defines the enterprise business model, process cycles and timing 
also shows what functions should be integrated into the system. Furthermore, the 
business architecture also deals with the data and the corresponding models which 
need to be integrated into the system. The information architects and the business 
analysts, together with the users work in the “problem space”.  
 
(b) Providing the solution 
The provision of solution to the problem (described in the problem space) requires 
detailed understanding of the technologies that are to be used in providing the 
solution. Therefore, the solutions architects, system designers and the developers use 
their knowledge of programming languages (e.g. Java), development environment 
(e.g. dotNet) and databases (e.g. Oracle) in order to craft the solution. The Solution 
Architecture, which has also been referred to as an application portfolio, is the 
collection of information systems supporting the business architecture, which helps 
the user to easily understand and use the interface and components. The solution 
architects, system designers and developers work in the “solution space”.  
 
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PhD Thesis Page 28 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
(c) Applying the constraints 
The requirements models in the problem space, and the designs in the solution space 
are either expanded or tempered, based on the constraints in both organizational and 
technical level. These constraints result in a background or technology architecture, 
which is also a consistent set of ICT standards, which provide the infrastructures to 
support the aforementioned two architectures.   
 
The business requirements of speed, for example, are tempered by the availability of 
the bandwidth for the organization; and the business process of ‘broadcasting’ 
information to a group of users is re-engineered dramatically with the availability of 
a wireless hotspot. These constraints are provided and used in the “background 
space” by the enterprise architects. Architecture is, thus, the profession of identifying, 
understanding and applying constraints at the problem and the solution level of the 
organization. This application of the constraints is achieved by identifying and 
refining the requirements of the stakeholders, developing views of the architecture 
that show how the concerns and the requirements are going to be addressed, and 
demonstrating the trade-offs amongst potentially conflicting concerns of different 
stakeholders. 
 
Thus, an EA provides a strategic context for the evolution of the IT systems and 
strategies in response to the constantly changing needs of the business environment. 
Furthermore, a good EA also achieves the right balance between IT efficiency and 
business innovation. A comprehensive EA brings the following benefits to the 
enterprise:  
• A well-defined architecture providing system modularity and information 
reusability, which are important attributes of a streamlined architecture as 
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PhD Thesis Page 29 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
they enable lower costs of system development, support, and maintenance 
fee. 
• An efficient ICT operation that is prepared for changes to the requirements, 
and provides excellent interoperability amongst its systems and networks.  
• An enterprise-wide holistic view of the requirements of the business from its 
systems. Similarly, a holistic view of the solutions design.  
• A common and robust security policy that applies to all systems amongst the 
enterprise. 
• Risk reduction by utilization of previous architectural experiences within and 
outside the organization, and by utilization of an architectural framework.  
• Flexibility to decide on the “make or buy” aspects of software solutions and 
packages. Provide for future growth in response to the needs of the business. 
• Opportunity to handle outsourcing of processes development and 
maintenance work. 
• Simplification of the otherwise complex applications development through 
the use of architectural layers 
• Reduction in ‘time to users’ for software applications due to the use of 
components and frameworks. EA supports the rapid deployment of 
mission-critical business applications, achieving faster time-to-user for new 
products and services. Thus, EA increases the company growth and 
profitability. 
 
2.3 Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks 
 
An Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework is a business and engineering guidelines 
(i.e., a blueprint, a set of instruction, and a specification) for the building of an EA. 
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PhD Thesis Page 30 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
In this section, the researcher discusses the importance of EA frameworks, and 
overview of some industrial famous EA frameworks. 
 
2.3.1 Relevance of EA frameworks 
 
The architectural framework encapsulates the knowledge and experiences of 
accomplished architects in a succinct manner. The knowledge and experiences of 
numerous contributing experts in the field enable a good architectural framework to 
incorporate numerous possibilities and options in it. For example, an architectural 
framework provides guidelines and encourages the architect to think in terms of 
upcoming changes to the wireless network standards (such as from 2G to 3G) and 
upcoming security requirements. The framework also offers an excellent mechanism 
for the architects and planners of the enterprise to organize their activities around it.  
As a result of utilizing these meta-architectures, there is significant reduction in the 
risks and potential rework associated with the actual architectural work in the 
organizations. Architectures based on these frameworks also facilitate creation of 
rapid designs and successful software implementations.  
 
An architectural framework can be enacted for different types of architectures across 
the enterprise – each of which describes a method for designing an information and 
communication system based on its building blocks. Instantiation of an architectural 
framework demonstrates how the components of a system fit together. Therefore, the 
description of an architectural framework should be precise, with a commonly 
understood vocabulary; and wherever possible, the framework should be supported 
by Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. There is obviously a need 
for a list of recommended standards that can be used in instantiating the architecture 
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PhD Thesis Page 31 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
based on the frameworks and the available components.  
 
The critical success factor of structured and implemented EA is having a best 
practice approach by using an architecture framework. The EA framework provides a 
method of organizing architecture documents, dividing them into manageable parts 
and defining cross linkages between them. The results of these architectural 
abstractions are some well-known architectural frameworks such as The Open Group 
Architectural Framework (TOGAF) (http://www.theopengroup.org) and the Zachman 
Framework (http://www.zifa.com/). Apart from the two aforementioned and highly 
popular architectural frameworks of TOGAF and Zachman, there are several other 
enterprise architectural frameworks primarily coming out of government agencies. 
Examples of such frameworks are the Department of Defense Architecture 
Framework (DOGAF) (US), Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) 
(US), and Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF). These frameworks 
influence each other. Each of these frameworks (and many more) provides a robust 
suite of principles and guidelines that are gleaned from the original knowledge as 
well as the practical experiences of their creators and contributors. Understandably, 
the way architecture is interpreted by these architectural frameworks also varies.  
 
2.3.2 Zachman EA framework 
 
One popular reference framework of EA can be based on is the Zachman framework. 
Zachman (1987) created the Zachman Framework which has been described by 
many authors as basis for their work. (See EA Framework work by Finkelstein 
(2006), for example). This framework provides a formal and highly structured way to 
define the concepts of an enterprise. The Zachman Framework describes a holistic 
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PhD Thesis Page 32 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
model of an enterprise’s information infrastructure from six perspectives: planner, 
owner, designer, builder, integrator, and the user. This framework contains six rows 
and six columns referring 36 cells to documentation of building an enterprise (which 
shows on Figure 2.5).  
 
The columns describe the modeling blocks of an enterprise. These modeling blocks 
are: data (what), process (how), network (where), people (who), time (when) and 
motivation (why). The columns intersect with the rows representing various models 
of a functioning enterprise – namely, the scope (contextual), business model 
(conceptual), system model (logical), technology model (physical) and detailed 
representations of the models and the description of each row and column are as 
follows: 
 
6 rows of Zachman EA Framework: 
The scope/ strategy row corresponds to an executive summary for a planner who 
wants an estimate of the size, cost, and functionality of the system. The enterprise 
model shows all the business entities and processes, and how they interact. The 
system model is used by systems analysts who must determine the data elements and 
software functions that represent the business model. The technology model 
considers the constraints of tools, devices, technology, and infrastructure. The Built 
level represents individual, independent modules that can be allocated to contractors 
for implementation. The functioning enterprise level describes and validates the 
operating system from the user’s view. 
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PhD Thesis Page 33 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 2.5: Zachman EA Framework (http://www.zifa.com/) 
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PhD Thesis Page 34 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
6 columns of Zachman EA Framework: 
The motivation/why level outlines the motivation of the enterprise. This section 
shows not only the enterprise goals, aims, and objectives, but also the business plan, 
knowledge architecture and knowledge design. The function/how level shows the 
functions within each perspective. Examples include business process, software 
application function, computer hardware function, and language control loop. The 
data/what level details the entities involved in each perspective of the enterprise. 
Examples include business objects, system data, relative tables, or field definitions. 
The people/who level describes the people structure within the enterprise. The design 
of the organization has to do with the allocation of work and the relationship of 
authority and responsibility. The vertical dimension represents delegation of 
authority and the horizontal represents the assignment of the responsibility. The 
network/where level represents the locations and interconnections within the 
enterprise. This section includes major business geographic locations, separate 
sections within a logistics network, allocation of system nodes, or even memory 
addresses within the system. The time/when level represents the time or the task 
relationships that establish performance criteria and quantitative levels for enterprise 
resource. This is useful for designing the master schedule, the processing architecture, 
control architecture, and timing devices workflow. 
  
Following Table 2.1 is the documentation practice list of Zachman Framework for 
construction of an EA from above description: 
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PhD Thesis Page 35 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 2.1: Zachman Framework 
Layer What 
(Data) 
How 
(Function) 
Where 
(Network) 
Who 
(People) 
When 
(Time) 
Why 
(Motivation) 
Scope 
Context 
Boundary 
List 
important 
data to the 
business 
List 
important 
business 
processes 
List 
business 
operates 
locations 
   List 
important 
organization 
List 
significant 
 
event 
List 
 business 
goals and 
strategies 
Business 
Model 
Concepts 
Entity 
relationship 
model 
Business 
process 
model 
Business 
logistic 
system 
Work flow 
model 
Master 
schedule 
Business 
plan 
System 
Model Logic 
Logical 
data model 
Application 
architecture 
Distributed 
system 
architecture 
Human 
interface 
architecture 
Processing 
structure 
Business rule 
model 
Technology 
Model 
Physics 
Data 
information 
Business 
system 
design 
Technology 
architecture 
Presentation 
architecture 
Control 
structure 
Rule design 
As Built 
Component 
Configuration 
Data 
definition 
Program Network 
architecture 
Security 
architecture 
Timing 
definition 
Rule 
specification 
Functioning 
Enterprise 
Instances 
Data Function Network organization Schedule Strategy 
 
The strong point on this framework is that it provides everyone in the enterprise and 
enterprise architect group a clear picture of how the enterprise is operating including 
its people, processes and technologies. However, there is no guidance on sequence, 
process, or implementation of the framework; the focus is on ensuring that all aspects 
of an enterprise are well organized and exhibit clear relationships that will ensure a 
completed system regardless of the order in which they are established.   
 
2.3.3 TOGAF framework 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 36 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The TOGAF framework is quite popular amongst all these EA frameworks. The 
Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium seeking to enable 
access to integrated information within and among enterprises, based on open 
standards and global interoperability. The Open Group already developed an 
architectural framework known as The Open Group Architectural Framework 
(TOGAF), Version 9.0 at 2009 (The Open Group website, www.togaf.org, 2009). 
TOGAF is a meta-architecture, TOGAF V9.0 includes seven parts:  
(1) Introduction,  
(2) Architecture Development Method (ADM),  
(3) ADM Guidelines and Techniques,  
(4) Architecture Content Framework,  
(5) Enterprise Continuum and Tools,  
(6) TOGAF Reference Model, and 
(7) Architecture Capability Framework. 
 
Part 1, introduction, provides a high-level introduction to the key concepts of EA and 
in particular the approach of TOGAF. It contains the overview of TOGAF, a 
definition of the terms used in TOGAF, and also releases notes detailing the changes 
between the current new version and previous version. 
 
Part 2, Architecture Development Method (ADM), as shown on Figure 2.6, is the 
core section of TOGAF, and describes a step-by-step approach of developing an EA. 
Additionally; part 3, ADM Guidelines and Techniques contain a collection of 
guidelines and techniques available in applying TOGAF ADM on creating an EA. 
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PhD Thesis Page 37 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 2.6: TOGAF- Architecture Development Method (ADM) 
(www.theopengroup.org ) 
 
TOGAF ADM is a “migration plan” to show the clearly process from current 
different generations of EIS to the Enterprise target dream architecture. An 
explanation in the documentation on the ADM, the development of architecture 
views, is an iterative process. The typical progression is from the business to 
technology, using a technique such as business scenarios to properly identify all 
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PhD Thesis Page 38 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
pertinent concerns, and from high-level detail, continually referring back to the 
concerns and requirements of the stakeholders, throughout the processes. Moreover, 
the ADM specifically declares the technical architecture as a capability, a discipline, 
and an approach used to define, apply, and maintain the technology environment 
within the enterprise. Perks and Beveridge (2003) states that technical architecture of 
ADM embodies the life cycle for defining the organization’s technical strategy, 
setting and adopting technical standards, and maintaining the technical environment 
through changes in both business and technology.  
 
Part 4, Architecture Content Framework, describes a structured meta-model for 
architectural artifacts, the use of re-usable architecture building blocks, and an 
overview of typical architecture deliverables. Architecture is the structure of 
components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing 
their designs and evolution over time. This structural description of the components 
has the task of defining and providing the building blocks that provide basis for 
putting together the software systems. 
 
 
Figure 2.7: TOGAF - Enterprise Continuum (www.theopengroup.org) 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 39 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Part 5, as shown on Figure 2.7, the Enterprise Continuum and Tools, discusses 
appropriate classifications and tools to categorize and store the outputs of 
architectural activities within an enterprise. The Enterprise Continuum describes as a 
series of “current” (problem analysis- Architecture Continuum) and “target” 
(possible answer – Solutions Continuum), another set of terms for these are “as-is”, 
“to-be”. The current architecture is a formal description of a system, or a detailed 
plan of the system at component level to guide its situation and problem. This formal 
description has the task of providing supports for creating the architectural solution, 
which constructs the integrated information systems based on the requirements of the 
organization. To sum up, TOGAF Enterprise Continuum describes how an 
organization can move or transit itself from where it is to where it wants to be. 
 
Part 6, TOGAF Reference Model, provides a selection of architectural reference 
model, which includes TOGAF Foundation Architecture, and the Integrated 
Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM). The last part, Part 7- 
Architecture Capability Framework, discusses the organization, processes, skills, 
roles, and responsibilities required to establish and operate an architectural function 
within an enterprise. 
 
Therefore, the strong point of this framework is the technical corresponding of the 
business strategy (i.e. the future shape of business given in a current environment), 
and it clearly shows a approach step-by-step constructing an EA. Using TOGAF as 
the architectural framework will allow architectures that are consistent, to be 
developed and reflect the needs of stakeholders, employ best practice, and give due 
consideration both to current requirements and to the likely future needs of the 
enterprise. 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 40 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
2.3.4 Other industrial EA frameworks 
 
As mentioned earlier, there are many EA frameworks and new ones are being added 
everyday as well. Other known industrial EA frameworks are: Department of 
Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF), Federal Enterprise Architecture 
Framework (FEAF), and Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF). 
 
Following is an overview of those above mentioned the other industrial EA 
frameworks: 
(a)  Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) 
The Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is the guiding 
document that provides a common language for describing architecture across all 
segments of the United States Department of Defense. The DoDAF is a reference 
model to organize the EA and system architecture into complementary and consistent 
views. DoDAF defines a set of products, a view model that acts as mechanisms for 
visualizing, understanding, and assimilating the broad scope and complexities of an 
architecture description through graphic, tabular, or textual means. The three views 
of the DoDAF are the operational view, the systems view, and the technical standards 
view (which shows on Figure 2.8). 
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PhD Thesis Page 41 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 2.8: DoDAF 3 Views and Linkages (Department of Defense (DoD), 2007) 
 
The operational view describes the participants (players), the activities they perform, 
and the information they need to exchange. The systems view describes the hardware 
and software that the participants use in order to accomplish their activities. The 
technical standards list the interface criteria that the systems must satisfy or govern 
their implementation in other way.  
 
(b)  Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) 
The Federal Enterprise Architecture is the EA of the United State Federal 
Government, which provide a common methodology for IT accruement, achievement, 
use, and disposal in that Federal government. The FEAF is built with a collection of 
reference models that define and align the Federal government’s business functions 
and supporting IT systems. These models are: Performance Reference Model (PRM) 
which is a standardized framework to measure the performance of major IT 
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PhD Thesis Page 42 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
investments and their contributions to program performance; Business Reference 
Model (BRM) which is a function-driven framework for describing business 
operations of the federal government independent of the agencies that perform them; 
Service Component Reference Model (SRM) which is a business-driven and 
performance-driven functional framework that classifies service components 
according to how they support business or performance objectives; Data Reference 
Model (DRM) which is a model describing, at an aggregate level, the data and 
information that support program and business line operations; Technical Reference 
Model (TRM) which is a component-driven and technical framework used to identify 
the standards, specifications, and technologies that support and enable the delivery of 
service components and capabilities. 
 
 
Figure 2.9: FEAF Structure (Federal Chief Information Officer Council, 2001) 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 43 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The major components of the FEAF are (also see Figure 2.9): 
• Architecture Drivers: represents external motivation that causes the FEA to 
change. 
• Strategic Direction: ensures that changes are consistent with the overall federal 
direction. 
• Current Architecture: represents the current state of the enterprise. Full 
characterization may be significantly beyond its worth and maintenance. 
• Target Architecture: represents the target state for the enterprise within the 
context of the strategic direction. 
• Transitional Processes: apply the changes from the current architecture to the 
target architecture in compliance with the architectural standards. 
• Architectural Segments: focus on a subset or a smaller enterprise within the total 
federal enterprise. 
• Architectural Models: provide the documentation and the basis for managing and 
implementing changes in the federal enterprise. 
• Standards: include standards (some of which may be made mandatory), voluntary 
guidelines and best practices, all of which focus on promoting interoperability. 
 
(c)  Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF)  
Among the various Departments in the US Government, the Department of the 
Treasury is one of several leading organizations in the promotion of a Treasury 
Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF) in response to the FEAF and the 
Treasury IT Strategic 2000-2003 PLAN. TEAF has three basic parts: (1) a definition 
of the framework, (2) a set of activities that guide architectural planning and 
implementation, (3) a set of guidelines that support strategic planning, EA 
management, EA implementation approach, and building a repository for EA 
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PhD Thesis Page 44 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
products. Additionally, TEAF prescribes the four architectural views: functional view 
(how, where and when), information view (what, how much, and how frequently), 
organizational view (who and why), and infrastructure view (enabler).  
 
The key principles in TEAF include: 
• Compliance with applicable laws, orders, and regulations are required. 
• Business objectives must be defined before building IT solutions. 
• Total business value is the primary goal that drives IT decisions. 
• EA is an integral part of the Investment Management Process. 
• Architectural decisions shall maximize interoperability and reusability. 
• EA must be consistent with departmental guidance and strategic goals. 
• Standardization will be used to fulfill common requirements and provide 
common functions. 
• Information and infrastructures are vital assets that must be managed, 
controlled, and secured. 
• Collaboration among Treasury IT organizations will facilitate the sharing of 
information, data, and infrastructures required by the business units. 
 
2.3.5 Abstracting EA framework 
 
This section is abstracting above mentioned five EA frameworks, and following 
comparative table is a community of those five EA frameworks: 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 45 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 2.2: Comparative view of 5 EA Frameworks 
 Zachman TOGAF DoDAF FEAF TEAF 
Publish Date: 1987 
V1: 1995~ 
V9:2009 
2003 1999 2000 
Publisher: Zachman 
The Open 
Group 
Department 
of Defense 
Federal 
Chief 
Information 
Officer 
Council 
Department of 
the Treasury 
Components 
6*6 
Tables 
7 parts 3 views 
5 models 
and FEAF 
Structure 
3 parts and 4 
views 
Migration 
Paths 
Out of 
scope 
ADM/ 
Enterprise 
Continuum 
Out of 
scope 
Transitional 
Processes 
EA 
implementation 
approach 
Views 
/Models 
36 
models 
Reference 
Model 
3 views 5 models 4 views 
 
 
2.4 Web Service (WS) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) 
 
These Web Services (WS) enabled technologies provide collaboration and 
integration of applications on the Internet. The WS paradigm refers to the 
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), which constitutes a distributed computing 
environment in which application call functionality from other applications either 
locally or remotely over an internal network or an IP network in a loosely-coupled 
way. Therefore, SOA is part of an EA and can be viewed as “sub-architecture” of an 
EA, and SOA has existed before the advent of WS. This section looks at the 
technologies of WS and SOA, and also discusses the importance of WS and SOA to 
EA.  
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 46 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
2.4.1 Web Service (WS) Technology 
 
A Web Service (WS) is a delivery mechanism that can serve many different 
consumers on many different platforms at the same time. WS technology acts as an 
enabler to connect incompatible stand-alone systems to integrate a complex 
distributed system that was not possible existing in previous technologies (Stacey 
and Unhelkar, 2004). Marks and Werrel (2003) defined Web Service (WS) as 
“loosely coupled, self-describing services that are accessed programmatically across 
a distributed network, and exchange data using vendor, platform, and 
language-neutral protocols.”  
 
WS are self-contained and they describe their offerings in a standardized manner 
using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) so that they can be published, located 
and invoked across the Internet. Such ubiquitous XML provides many opportunities 
for integrating enterprise applications. However, XML/Simple Object Access 
Protocol (SOAP), together with Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) and 
Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI), form a comprehensive 
suite of WS technologies that have the potential of transcending beyond mere 
application integration within an organization, and providing capabilities for 
integrating processes across multiple organizations. 
 
WS is characterized by the ability of publishing a service on an IP-network in a 
registry. The network is either public (Internet) or private (enterprise intranet). The 
registry is standardized, called Universal Description Discovery and Integration 
(UDDI) and could be public or private as well. UDDI consists of an XML schema 
that defines 4 data structures: business definition, service definition, binding 
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PhD Thesis Page 47 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
specification, and programmatic interface as well as the application programming 
interfaces (APIs) that process on those structures. 
 
WS are configured and deployed across corporate intranets or the Internet using Web 
Services Description Language (WSDL). WSDL contains 3 elements: the white 
pages, which have basic information about the providing company and its services; 
the yellow pages, which organize services by industry, service type and geography; 
and finally the green pages, which contain the technical mechanism, for example, 
how to accomplish a WS. 
 
 
Figure 2.10: Web Service Technology 
 
As shown on Figure 2.10, WS has 3 corresponding roles: the WS Service Provider, 
the Service Consumers (Requester), and the Service Broker (UDDI Registry) 
(Harrison and Taylor, 2005). The WS Service Provider, typically the owner of the 
service, uses WSDL to submit a service description to be published in a Service 
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PhD Thesis Page 48 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Registry. The Service Brokers have the relationship between the Requester and 
Provider, but it is important to understand that services are typically hosted and 
executed by the Service Provider. The Service Consumer is a software component in 
search of a service to invoke. The Service Requester finds the service by discovering 
through the UDDI Registry- the set of available services that meet pre-defined 
criteria. Once a suitable service has been discovered, it uses the returned UDDI and 
WSDL specifications from the Service Broker UDDI registry to prepare its client 
service request. These are then sent as SOAP input messages to the SOAP server 
nominated by the Service Provider with the WS processing results returned as SOAP 
output message. The Service Requester then binds to the Service Publisher to invoke 
the service at runtime and uses the binding information provided in the service 
description.  
 
In this era, WS are about to create a new wave of change. This new engine of change 
is relatively simple: the catalyst for WS is agreement. At its foundation is agreement 
on the adoption of three foundational standards for communicating between 
computer systems: Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/ IP), 
Hypertext Transport protocol (HTTP), and also XML. All of them are the pervasive 
standards for computing what is emerged from the Internet revolution. The Internet 
capped the client-server era of computing by making computer pervasive to all users 
in organizations and at homes. The Internet extended the reach of computing into 
virtually all aspects for the users from emailing holiday photos to friends. As much as 
the Internet broke the communication and information bottleneck for information 
consumers of the client-server computing model, WS will break the connection and 
information bottleneck for business enterprises.  
 
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PhD Thesis Page 49 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
2.4.2 Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) 
 
EA represents a technology-business philosophy that provides the basis for 
cooperation between various systems of the organization that may be inside or 
outside the organizational boundary. An EA that links together the applications and 
WS within organization, across enterprise, and across the Internet can be called the 
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The W3C (2004) defines SOA as “A form of 
distributed systems architecture. This architecture consists of a set of components 
which can be invoked, and whose interface descriptions can be published and 
discovered”.  
 
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architecture that makes the services of a 
system to interact and perform a task supporting a request. Technologies such as 
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and Distributed Component 
Object Model (DCOM) afforded the opportunity to create SOA. However, WS is an 
ideal technology for developing sophisticated architecture (Barry, 2003). SOA is a 
collection of WS capable of interacting in three ways, commonly referred to as 
“publish, find and bind” (as discussed in the previous WS section). Service must be 
able to make its interface available to other services (publish), which must be capable 
of discovering the interface (find), and finally, services must be able to connect to 
one another to exchange messages (bind). The loose coupling of an SOA is achieved 
firstly through the separation of data exchange from the software agents involved in 
the exchange, and secondly through the discrete nature of the service. 
 
SOA is an IT architectural approach that increases business agility by aligning IT 
technologies and services with business goals. SOA enables organizations to 
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PhD Thesis Page 50 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
establish an environment that uses loosely coupled services to support the 
requirements of today's highly competitive businesses.  
 
SOA facilitates ability to share data and information with business partners by 
enabling their applications to ‘service’ with each other. Thus, WS supports enterprise 
applications, services, related IT service providers as well as deployment of services, 
applications and processes (Wiehler, 2004). Creating and managing the WS based 
architecture should result in an infrastructure that would enable enterprises to take 
their fine-grained services and other information data repositories and compose them 
into real-time business management information system. The objective of a 
successful SOA is to provide real-time responses in both internal business processes 
and external supplier and customer relationships. Thus, with SOA, business 
processes could be configured to automatically launch communications with relevant 
players across the enterprise. 
 
Application 2
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Service Oriented Architecture
(SOA)
Applications of Internal Enterprise or
Other Businesses (Clients, Partners)
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Application 1
JavaScript

li ti  
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Application 3
CORBA /ISAN

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 /I






 
Figure 2.11: SOA Integrates the Applications 
 
As shown on Figure 2.11. SOA integrates a set of enterprise application, not only 
EIS, but also the people, data, processes, applications, platforms, and middleware 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
PhD Thesis Page 51 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
together. Furthermore, whenever translation from one platform to another is required, 
the XML makes the task easy. The secured application 1 offers the service which can 
be located and consumed by application 2. This kind of software systems, built 
around the concept of ‘services’ being offered and received, which provides basis for 
most modern-day EA. This SOA integration makes EA provide the best solution as 
an integrated enterprise. Additionally, applications of other businesses, which are 
external enterprise users, include the customers, partners, suppliers, or all members 
in a supply chain are also able to see a unified view of the SOA as well. This internal 
and external enterprise application integration (EAI) is the blueprint solution for the 
future application coordination of the different generation EIS (Ghanbary and 
Unhelkar, 2009). 
 
2.4.3 Value of WS and SOA to enterprise 
WS technology has now advanced so that functions are within existing application 
programs and suites – as well as functions within ERP, CRM, SCM, and other 
packages – can be easily and reliably published to an intranet or the Internet for 
remote execution using SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. 
 
Specifically, Lawler and Howell-Barvber (2008), Minoli (2008) and Marks and 
Werrel (2003) have discussed about what benefits WS brings to the enterprise: 
• WS will take B2B communication to new levels. The Internet enabled 
personal collaboration via email and instant messaging tools;  
• WS will enable corporate collaboration via loosely coupled applications 
across original boundaries.  
• WS will enable much more than information exchange between organizations 
based on dedicated interfaces at the system level.  
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PhD Thesis Page 52 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
• WS will enable businesses to interoperate at the business process level in 
dynamic and emergent ways as new processes arise in response to changing 
business conditions and changing corporate priorities. 
• WS will support application integration internally and externally across the 
firewall. 
• WS will provide easier B2B collaboration between business partners 
• WS will transit software deployment models from high-footprint 
implementations to just-in-time applications that are appropriate to the 
business challenges being addressed. This is the beginning of the idea of 
Just-in-Time (JIT) IT based on WS. Software rental models and grid 
computing are simply specific subsets of the idea of JIT IT. 
• WS will reduce costs of software procurement, deployment, and integration. 
• WS will increase business and technology agility by deploying loosely 
coupled business applications and monolithic enterprise applications. 
 
Additionally, in order to increase the ability of the enterprise to serve its customers as 
well as deal with its business partners in today’s dynamic business environment, 
there is a need to integrate these IT products and services through a common SOA. 
Dr. Hazra (2002, 2009) stated that business leaders must guide their teams to 
transition and deploy applications as services leveraging a service-oriented 
architecture (SOA). However, a clear understanding of an SOA before embarking on 
a Web services initiative is imperative. To arrive at the future of SOA and all its 
potential, the time to act is now -- build business services today. SOA can make 
business agile and help adapt to the transformational changes of business 
environments today and tomorrow. A carefully thought out and implemented SOA 
provides the enterprise with competitive advantages by opening up opportunities to 
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PhD Thesis Page 53 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
streamline processes, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and enable 
thorough strategic planning (Lan and Unhelkar, 2005).  
 
Popkin (2007) stated that SOA is emerging as the popular commercial industry 
solution for improving collaboration across time, place and platforms. Additionally, 
Dowell (2007) stated that the key to manage the SOA solutions is in understanding, 
defining, and measuring service level achievement to meet strategic outcomes. 
McGovern et al. (2004) stated that SOA provides an important new avenue for the 
integration of applications. Creating the new applications under SOA offers a 
significant increase in the qualities of availability, interoperability, maintainability, 
and reliability of those applications.  
 
Butler Group (2004) listed the SOA benefits in their Technology Evaluation and 
Comparison Report which include: Faster assembly of solutions; Reduction in cost 
and complexity with consequent lowering of maintenance overhead; Lowered costs 
of on-going change; Business interactions distanced from technology constraints; 
Better enterprise flexibility; The ability to maximize existing IT investments; and a 
more robust IT environment. However, there is the growing requirements for better 
integration between systems to support business processes agility, and the needs for 
real-time and location-independence monitoring of business operations (Harmon and 
Daim, 2009; Sherringham and Unhelkar, 2009). This need of business agility is 
leading to the development of a flexible SOA which brings about a synergy between 
systems, processes, and information that can provide the necessary agility. Services 
in a flexible SOA can be created, modified, and removed dynamically in almost a 
real-time manner anywhere by the access provided to the users through any devices. 
These advantages of SOA, however, need to be considered in collaboration with and 
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PhD Thesis Page 54 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
as extensions of mobility in order to provide greater advantages to businesses in 
terms of their agility. 
 
2.5 Mobile Technologies (MT) and services 
 
This section discusses the mobile technologies (MT) basic definition, and overview 
of the MT which could help extend the EA, including the mobile network and 
communication, mobile service, and mobile commerce. 
 
2.5.1 Mobile technology basics 
 
“Mobile Technology” is usually used to describe modern wireless connections such 
as those in cellular networks and wireless broadband Internet. Wireless technologies 
encompass communication that is achieved without land-based or wired mechanisms. 
In modern usage, wireless is a method of communication that uses low-powered 
radio waves to transmit data between the mobile terminals (Hammer and Champy, 
2001). The terminals, such as mobile phones, I-Pods, Personal Digital Assistants 
(PDA), Global Positioning System (GPS), watches, email-only devices, handheld 
computers, and "wearable" technology, are carried by individuals and are far more 
“personal” than mere desktop PCs.  
 
The mobile work paradigm, however, is much more than the ‘ad-hoc’ utilization of 
these mobile technologies in business. Mobility is a formal, strategic and integral use 
of mobile technologies in the economic, technical, process and social dimensions of 
a business – from both within and outside the organizational boundary.  
 
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PhD Thesis Page 55 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The time and location independence of the mobile work paradigm opens up 
tremendous opportunities for organizations to offer integrated and personalized 
services to their clients and partners. A well-formulated mobile business strategy 
brings about not only internal integration, but also, through extension, offers much 
more efficiency to its external suppliers, customers and other trading partners over 
the Internet.  
 
2.5.2 Mobile networks and communications 
These mobile technologies include wireless communication networks (such as the 
“3G” cellular networks, Mobile satellite networks, Infrared, Bluetooth, Wireless 
Local Area Network (WLAN), Wi-Max and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).  
 

 3G Mobile Network 
The development of 3G-related technologies has overcome the limitation of the 
previous generations of mobile technologies by allowing higher transmission rates 
and more complex e-commerce interactions (Barnes, 2002). Kuo and Yu (2005) as 
well as Huber (2002) listed three 3G standards including Wideband Code Division 
Multiple Access (WCDMA), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000), 
and Time Division – Synchronized Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), 
approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  
 
W-CDMA is the most popular 3G mobile network which is capable of transferring 
multimedia between terminals; it is the technology behind the 3G Universal Mobile 
Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard combined with the 2G Global System 
for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, which is mainly dominated by 
European and Japanese firms.  
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PhD Thesis Page 56 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Due to the promotion of the GSM organization and the 60% popularity usage of the 
2G system in the global market, CDMA2000 gained the attention of many companies, 
especially U.S. and Korean firms that mainly support it (Paavilainen, 2001). One of 
the advantages of CDMA2000 system is the upgradeability of the narrow-band 
CDMA system, so the user doesn’t need to change her/his mobile device – just 
upgrade her/his user plan. 
 
The TD-SCDMA includes three main key technologies: 1. TDMA/TDD principle; 2. 
smart transmitter and receiver; 3. joint detection/terminal synchronization. It is 
mainly supported by China’s Datang Telecom, which advocates its low-cost 
infrastructure. 
 

 Mobile Satellite 
Mobile satellite networks represent the convergence of the latest mobile technologies 
with space technologies. Satellites are operated at microwave radio frequencies in 
various bands, which are allocated by the International Telecommunications Union 
(ITU, 2001). Olla (2005) declared that integrating space technology into mobile 
communications offers two main advantages. The first one is providing access to 
voice and data service anywhere in the world – of which the current popular 
application is Internet phone (Voice over IP – VoIP). The second one is the exact 
positioning of useful location-sensitive information used for direction-finding- and 
map-reading-based services – the current popular application of which is a car 
Global Positioning System (GPS). These applications are becoming commonplace; 
with Fitch (2004) pointing out that the technique for interfacing satellite links to 
global networks is well developed, including methods to overcome timing problems. 
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PhD Thesis Page 57 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 

 Infrared 
Infrared (IR) technology provides directional electromagnetic radiation for “point to 
point” communication within short range. The radiation wavelength of IR 
communication is approximately between 750 nm and 1 millimeter (mm). IR data 
transmission is a mobile application for short-range communication between a 
computer terminal and mobile device, such as a PDA or a mobile phone. Infrared 
communications are useful for indoor use in areas of high population density. IR 
doesn’t transmit through physical barriers such as a wall, and so doesn’t interfere 
with other devices in the vicinity. Infrared transmission is, therefore, the most 
common way for remote controllers to control physical machines. Furthermore, 
infrared lasers are used to provide the light for optical fiber communications systems; 
they are the best choice for standard silica fibers, as using infrared lasers can be a 
cheaper way to install a communications link in an urban area (Okuhata et al., 1997). 
 

 Bluetooth 
Bluetooth is a short-range radio technology developed to connect devices without 
wires. It is an effective technology for a new generation of internet-capable mobile 
terminals. It enables numerous innovative services and applications, which function 
regardless of the mobile operator. The most important solution enabled by Bluetooth 
technology is synchronization between a PC server and one or more other mobile 
terminals. Synchronization has been particularly successful in cooperative 
applications, providing access to SCM systems (Paavilainen, 2001). Buttery and 
Sago (2004) describe the Bluetooth application as being built into more and more 
mobile telephones, allowing some very interesting M-Commerce opportunities to be 
created. As people currently carry mobile phones with Bluetooth technology, which 
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PhD Thesis Page 58 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
can be used for making payments and related service concepts through simple 
downloads on their mobile devices (Shiratuddin et al., 2009, Zmijewska and 
Lawrence, 2006). Retailers might also be able to provide samples of products to 
download via a Bluetooth link located close to the actual item, potentially resulting 
in better customer service and an enriched shopping experience. Bluetooth can 
operate up to 10 meters (eventually up to 100 meters in future versions). Since 
Bluetooth technology is a radio transmission, it doesn’t need line-of-sight with 
another Bluetooth-enabled device to communicate (Scheniderman, 2002). Once 
Bluetooth technology is in place, one can envisage consumers walking around and 
giving out messages wirelessly via Bluetooth in order to buy items from vending 
machines, or buying low-value tickets, or even making small-value “cashless” 
purchases, such as newspapers.  
  

 Wi-Max 
Wi-Max is defined as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the 
Wi-Max Forum. The Forum describes Wi-Max as “a standards-based technology 
enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable 
and DSL”. The Forum also state that it “will be incorporated in notebook computers 
and PDAs by 2007, allowing for urban areas and cities to become ‘metro zones’ for 
portable outdoor broadband wireless access” (Wi-Max Forum, 2006). Wi-Max 
delivers 72 Mbps over 30 miles point-to-point and four miles non-line-of-sight 
(NLOS) (Ohrtman, 2005). Its purpose is to ensure that broadband wireless radios 
manufactured for customer use interoperate from retailer to retailer. The main 
advantages of the Wi-Max standard are to enable the implementation of advanced 
radio features in a standardized approach, and provide people in a city with online 
access via their mobile devices.  
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PhD Thesis Page 59 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 

 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) 
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology is closer to the fundamental 
principle of the Internet, wherein anybody can establish an individual network as 
long as it follows the general intranet guidelines (Patel, 2009). The wireless links 
would provide a network connection to all users in the surrounding areas, ranging 
from a single room to an entire campus. The backbone of such a WLAN network 
may still use cables, with one or more wireless access points connecting the wireless 
users to the wired network. Currently, laptop computers and some PDA devices can 
be attached to a WLAN network using a Compact Flash (CF) or a Personal 
Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card. In the future, 
PDAs and mobile phones might support multiple network technologies. WLAN is 
expected to continually be an important form of connection in many business areas. 
The market is expected to grow as the benefits of WLAN are recognized 
(Paavilainen, 2001; Burness et al., 2004).  
 

 Radio frequency identification (RFID) 
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that has been 
increasingly used in logistics and supply chain management (SCM) in recent years 
(Gupta et al., 2009). RFID technology can identify, sort, and control the product and 
information flow all through a supply chain. Today RFID is a standard technology 
that uses radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several 
methods of identification, the most common of which uses RFID tags and readers.  
Ngai et al. (2005) suggests that RFID is made up of two components: the transponder 
located on the object to be identified; and the reader depending upon the design and 
the technology used, which may be a read or read /write/ device.  
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PhD Thesis Page 60 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Roberts (2006) stated that an RFID system will typically comprise the following 
three components: 
• An RFID device (tag) - unique identifier for an object or person; 
• A tag reader with an antenna and transceiver; and 
• A host system or connection to an enterprise system. 
 
At first, the supplier incorporates data inside an RFID tag. When the tag goes 
through a tag reader, the information inside the tag will automatically transfer to the 
host system, which is stored in a data centre. After the data centre analyzes and 
organizes the RFID tag information in the host system, specific useful tag 
information will be sent to a different enterprise SCM system. Moreover, DeVries 
(2008) also demonstrated that RFID effective baggage tracking in the airline 
industry. 
 
EPC global, a development of the earlier Auto- ID Center, is one of the two primary 
RFID standards setting groups. It proposed an Internet-based supply chain model that 
is aimed at improving supply-chain end-to-end efficiency. A key component of the 
EPC global model is the Electronic Product Code or EPC. The manufacturer adds an 
RFID tag to every item of its product line. Each tag contains a unique EPC, which is 
a 96-bit code that uniquely identifies objects (items, cases, pallets, locations) in the 
supply chain (EPC global website, 2005). 
 
From above discussion, following Table 2.3 is the summarized and comparative table 
of functions and applications from those MT communication standards and networks 
which could help extend EA.  
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PhD Thesis Page 61 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Table 2.3: Functions and Applications of Mobile Networks and Communications 
Mobile Technology Applications and Characteristics 
3G Mobile Network Application: mobile phone device 
Characteristics: Higher transmission rate, popular use and 
high market acceptance (Huo and Yu, 2005) 
Mobile Satellite Application: GPS device and Internet phone (VoIP) 
Characteristics: Space technology-Direction finding and 
map reading (Olla, 2005) 
Infrared Application: remote controller 
Characteristics: Communication in short distance and low 
cost (Okuhata et al., 1997) 
Bluetooth Application: Bluetooth device, Bluetooth earphone 
Characteristics: Transfer data between a computer, server 
and one or more other mobile device “synchronously” 
(Shiratuddin et al., 2009) 
Wi-Max Characteristics: Wireless online in urban by using mobile 
devices or computers (Ohrtman, 2005) 
WLAN (Wireless 
Local Area Network) 
Characteristics: Wireless link PC or mobile device network 
connection in particular surrounding area (Burness et al., 
2004) 
RFID (Radio 
Frequency 
Identification) 
Application: RFID tag, and reader 
Characteristics: Product tracking and controlling by system 
(automatically update from the RFID tag location through 
RFID reader to the system) (Roberts, 2006) 
 
2.5.3 Mobile services 
 
The extension of EA with MT will also provide a strong basis for the organization’s 
desire to reach more customers and corporate foundation. The Mobile Host as WS 
provider can be established on the smart phone, which has been defined as Mobile 
Web Services (MWS) (Srirama et al., 2006). MWS creates the opportunities for 
multiple organizations to interact in one application. The WS initiative effectively 
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PhD Thesis Page 62 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
adds computational objects to the static information of yesterday’s Web, and 
therefore offers distributed services capability over a network (Davies et al., 2004). 
WS have the potential to create new paradigms for both the delivery of software 
capabilities and the models by which networked enterprises will trade. 
 
The collaborating organizations that have m-enabled WS technology make it 
possible for sale-/service-providers to benefit all people involved in the process 
(Zhao, 2009). A mobile application that is using the WS to transmit its data is 
classified as MWS. Mobile users interact with the system by mobile terminal 
browsers (software components in mobile phones). The GPS-enabled terminals can 
provide location data and so allow the retrieval of information which is pertinent to 
their locations (Puustjarvi, 2006). 
 
According to the Australian Computer Society’s (ACS, Sept 08, 2005) report on 
MWS, mobile phones now have the potential to actually consume useful services 
with MWS. Developing a mobile client requires careful assessment of the 
SOAP/HTTP. First of all, turning one’s mobile phone into a SOAP, client might 
have some performance costs related to slow data speeds and processing both HTTP 
commands and XML. Secondly, most mobile phones don’t have WS support built in. 
Finally, the user can hide the WS complexity and leverage existing technologies to 
make use of their widespread availability. The gateway would be required between 
the mobile phone user and the WS to handle the passing and conversion of messages, 
but there is no longer any worry about client-side performance issues or even 
deploying a client (http://www.acs.openlab.net.au/). 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 63 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Location-based services through the use of mobile technologies in business are based 
on the ability of mobile technologies to be able to provide value at a specific location 
of the user (Lee et al., 2009). The popularity and utility of Location-based services 
has lead to phenomenal technological infrastructure including networks, applications, 
and processes (Gidófalvi et al., 2008). However, at the same time, there are 
increasing challenges emerging due to the operational models of cellular network 
operators. These operational models provide competition between the operators, 
service providers, and enablers. Therefore, even though the customers are 
increasingly interested in location services, their uptake is stunted due to the 
competitive operational models of the network operators and service providers 
(Harmon and Daim, 2009). 
 
2.5.4 Mobility, ubiquitous and pervasive commerce 
 
In the 21st century, we are in the era of wireless and handheld technologies, and the 
impact of the Internet and wireless telecommunication has taken a new turn (Barnes, 
2002; Lawrence et al., 2007). Mobile technologies are at the core of the 
communication revolution. They have increased commercial efforts from the 
removal of physical connectivity for people, processes, and businesses, resulting in a 
significant impact on communication (Unhelkar, 2009a, 2009b). Therefore, mobile 
devices can also be used to optimize the flow of information and materials. An 
increased number of mobile workers and time sensitivity driven companies turn 
towards to advanced mobile solutions (Wagner, and Klaus, 2009). Younessi (2009) 
also stated that creating business value through mobile technologies is really 
successful in strategic view. 
 
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PhD Thesis Page 64 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
In the recent years, there are several Mobile commerce (M-Commerce) applications 
works have been done in the market: Mobile Education (M-Education), Mobile 
Government (M-Government), Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Traffic, Mobile 
Traveling Services, Mobile Retailing and Marketing, Mobile Enterprise Resource 
Planning (M-ERP), Mobile Supply Chain Management (M-SCM), and Mobile 
Health Care. All these M-Commerce applications include following service 
processes: transactions and payment services in Mobile Banking services, 
information sharing and updating services, and instant communication services. 
These M-Commerce applications are part of process layers of M-EA model, so they 
will be discussed in section “5.4.2 Extending M-EA model” section of chapter 5 as 
well. 
 
Tung et al. (2007) evidenced that Mobile Library (M-Library) could add lots of 
benefits on education by providing students do research or M-Education at anywhere 
7/24. Moreover, Chang (2010) also stated that an agent-based system for 
collaborative informal learning in a pervasive environment helps the students got 
supervised and educated more effective and efficient.  
 
Kushchu and Kuscu (2003) defined Mobile Government (M-Government) as “a 
strategy and its implementation involving the utilization of all kinds of wireless and 
mobile technology, services, applications and devices for improving benefits to the 
parties involved in e-government including citizens, businesses and all government 
units". Roggenkamp (2004) and Benlamri et al. (2010) both demonstrated that 
M-Government could make public information and government services available 
"anytime, anywhere" and this brings the citizens and the government employment 
can use the government services and applications ubiquity. 
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PhD Thesis Page 65 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Mobile entertainment includes any leisure activity undertaken via a personal mobile 
device, which is, or has the potential to be, networked and facilitates transfer of data 
over geographic distance either on the move or at a variety of discrete locations 
(Moore and Rutter, 2004). A mobile service falls under mobile entertainment 
category: a form of leisure activity, interaction with service providers, utilization of 
wireless telecommunication networks, and transaction which incur a cost upon usage 
(Wong, and Hiew, 2005). While workable, the definition does not cover whether 
mobile entertainment services must interact with service providers or telecoms 
(Wiener, 2003). If mobile entertainment were said to be a subset of mobile commerce, 
hence, it must involves transaction of an economic value.  
 
Bhalla and Chaudhary (2009) demonstrated that Wi-Max can be combined with GPS 
(Global Positioning System) for Traffic Management, solve traffic related offences 
and help in providing a clear way for Public safety vehicles like fire brigades and 
ambulances. Mobile Wi-Max has increasingly gained extensive support in the 
industry. Demand on wireless internet bandwidth is increasing. Mobile Wi-Max, also 
called Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks, is Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) of the 
Metro. Mobile Wi-Max offers wireless Internet experience within the city as Wi-Fi 
offers within your office or home.  
 
Both Wagner and Klaus (2009) and Heinonen and Strandvik (2007) indicated that 
consumer responsiveness to mobile marketing will increase the company quickly 
direct respond to the customers requirement in order to keep their original customers 
and bring new customers because their better services. The majority of enterprises 
use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to improve their business 
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PhD Thesis Page 66 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
processes. Simultaneously, mobile technologies which can be used within ERP have 
gained further importance. This is so because ERP, together with mobile technologies, 
offers a wide spectrum of synergies and have a significant impact on enterprise 
efficiency. The improvement possibilities in ERP due to mobility range from sales 
activities, over logistic processes, up to effects on the human resource management 
(Werth and Makuch, 2009). Sherringham and Unhelkar (2009) also highlighted that 
Mobile Technology can add real time decision making value to the manager when 
they using M-ERP system. 
 
Example M-Commerce Applications of M-SCM system: 
Paavilainen (2001) highlights that the solutions of supply chain management systems 
are highly time sensitive. The requirement of the time sensitivity is that SCM 
systems must have the ability to transact product as close to real time as possible – 
opening up opportunities for the application of mobile technologies. By 
incorporating mobility in the SCM system processes, monitoring and receiving of 
immediate messages from the market can be improved. M-supply chain management 
focuses on the shortened cycling time from an order’s making to the fulfillment – 
which, in most cases, would be delivery of the product to the customer (Jankowska et 
al., 2007). With mobility, response and confirmation time are much quicker than with 
the use of the standard Internet connections. People can use email via the web to an 
Internet web portal to access the SCM system to get information or conduct 
E-Commerce (Andersson et al., 2009). In addition, they also can use SMS via mobile 
device to a mobile portal or SMS gateway to access the SCM system to get 
information or carry out M-Commerce (May, 2001).  
 
Mobile Supply Chain Management (M-SCM) refers to integrating the RFID system, 
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Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce), and Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) 
through the Internet portal and ICT communication into Supply Chain Management 
system in a mobile environment. Therefore, M-SCM architecture is divided into four 
parts: the RFID system, SCM system, E-Commerce, and M-Commerce, and is 
proposed as an extension to the original ideas by Ngai et al. (2005). They state that 
RFID technology can be integrated with wireless networks to send information to a 
supply chain management system through a portal to staff, customers, and partners.  
 
Using an RFID system in the supply chain has been demonstrated by Asif and 
Mandviwalla (2005). Firstly, the SCM system constructs the item “where and when” 
during processing. When the items leave the manufactory and arrive at the place 
where they are to be read by the readers, the same information will be transferred 
directly to the distributor. The items are quickly sent to the correct trucks. As these 
items arrive at the retail outlet, they are read by the receiving RFID readers and the 
retail outlet’s inventories are updated automatically. Since the shelves at this outlet 
also have their own readers, they can directly increase replacement orders. However, 
using RFID technology in the SCM system, the items’ quality can be automatically 
updated by the RFID reader sending into the SCM system. This provides highly 
location-based tracking, reduces the cost and human-error risks, and also improves 
the effectiveness and efficiency. Moreover, automatic data-reading and updating can 
be accessed from any mobile devices without the restriction of time and place. 
Traffic control systems can be used to deliver products in the supply chain, and also 
automatically detect the products and report cars’ and trucks’ locations. 
 
Eng (2005) declares that three main concerns of M-SCM are:  
1. A place for efficient distribution of products and services,  
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2. Timing for meeting customer demand and managing logistics, and  
3. Service quality for responsiveness and customer satisfaction.  
 
In this globalization era, many enterprises in a supply chain are located in different 
countries (Atkins and HajiAli, 2009). Enterprises in some countries can provide low 
labour costs, and some in different countries may have low material costs, or others 
in different countries may provide professional skills or ideas about product designs. 
However, all enterprises want to sell their product globally. The resultant ability of 
businesses and customers to connect to each other ubiquitously — independent of 
time and location — is the core driver of this change (Unhelkar, 2005). It leads the 
supply chain management to global supply chain management. Mobile technologies 
are thus a key influence in any efforts towards the globalization of business 
(Unhelkar, 2004, and Unhelkar et al., 2009). The processes of such M-transformation 
can lead an existing business into the mobile business via the adoption of suitable 
processes and technologies that enable mobility and pervasiveness (Marmaridis and 
Unhelkar, 2005). 
 
M-SCM can further enhance the global SCM by reducing timing, costing, increasing 
correct delivery, customer satisfaction, and allow global enterprises to conduct their 
business at anytime and anywhere. Long (2003) pointed out that international 
logistics management focuses on international ship delivery schedule management, 
time, place, and product quality management. An M-SCM system covers from 
planning, purchase, produce, to delivery to the customers. Mobile technology, as for 
global enterprises, enhances to a much higher level of efficiency and effectiveness. 
Global enterprises can conduct their business at anytime and anywhere, and provide 
high-quality products at low cost, and also support customer service 24 hours a day, 
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seven days a week, by using a M-SCM system. 
 
2.6 Value of MT to EA 
 
While EA has successfully managed to integrate these various technologies used by 
the enterprises (such as Internet-based application, reusable components, security and 
database components), enterprises are now seeking to capitalize on the MT. This has 
resulted in a need to further extend and integrate mobility into the EA. MT is a 
significant emerging technology that has the potential to influence various 
organizational applications (Unhelkar, 2010), in addition, to impact EA as they are 
technologies without wires with the ability to communicate through a multiplicity of 
hand-held devices. The advantage of mobility comes from its ability to overcome 
“time and location” boundaries that would enable enterprises to operate effectively 
real-time respond to the ever-increasing changes on this competitive marketplace. 
The need, therefore, to have a comprehensive EA that would enable delivery of 
services to the “location independent” market has grown. Along with that need is the 
need to have a formal process to incorporate and extend the EA with mobility.  
 
However, there is the growing requirements for better integration between systems to 
support business processes agility, and the needs for real-time and 
location-independence monitoring of business operations. This need of business 
agility is leading to the development of a flexible EA which brings about a synergy 
between systems, processes, and information that can provide that necessary agility 
(McGovern et al., 2004). Therefore, enterprises seek to capitalize on the emerging 
mobile technologies because mobility can overcome “time and location” boundaries 
to provide enterprises with the ability to operate effectively, in real-time, and respond 
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quickly to the ever increasing changes in a competitive marketplace. The need for 
this extension, as argued earlier, is requested because mobile technologies are now 
popular and effective in business as well as in EA (Unhelkar, 2005). Mobility plays a 
role in creating mobile collaborative enterprises through mobile web services. 
 
2.7 Challenges to EA due to MT 
 
Extended EA with mobility in order to create Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) 
might have the following challenges:  
• Cost of implementing M-EA: the facilities and consultation of 
implementation fees might be so expensive  initially  to the enterprise 
• Different types of organization incorporate mobility in different ways 
depending on: for example, the bandwidth on Internet, the capability of 
mobile devices and the number of users/population influenced by Mobility 
but most of challenges still could be solved or at least be reduced. 
• Security and privacy issues: including data transaction security.  
• Companies need to re-engineer their business processes also require 
employee trainings 
 
2.8 Gap in the literature on EA and MT 
 
Umar (2005) stated that the NGE will rely on automation, mobility, real-time 
business activity monitoring, agility, and self-service over widely distributed 
operations to conduct business. Many organizations would like to build their entire 
systems by using the today’s emerging technologies, among which MT is a crucial 
part. Undoubtedly, MT can integrate in EA to provide the enterprise to have 
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M-service and M-store. The enterprise can provide 24 hours, 7 days, globalization 
service with any product enquired or technical support to the customers. 
Inter-organizational EIS integrates all process between extended enterprises, such as 
supply chain and customer relations systems. MT help to upgrade the traditional 
supply chain to Mobility Supply Chain Management (M-SCM), traditional CRM to 
Mobility Customer Relationship Management (M-CRM) (Lee, 2006) and trading 
procurement to Mobility procurement (M-procurement). This research looks at these 
extensions and integrations in greater details considering capabilities of MT; 
moreover, these kinds of extensions and integrations will also bring EA to Mobility - 
Enterprise Architecture (M-EA).  
 
The time and location independence of mobility open up tremendous opportunities 
for organizations to offer integrated services to their clients and partners. M-EA 
brings about not only internal integration, but also, through extension, offers much 
more efficiency to its external suppliers, customers and other trading partners over 
the Internet. Thus, M-EA will connect existing and new systems to enable 
collaborative operation within the entire organization in real-time – providing access 
among systems on production planning and control, inbound and outbound logistics, 
material flows, monitoring functions, and performance.  However, EA with mobility 
has the challenges of security, privacy, computing power and usability. Our project 
aims to identify these challenges, to understand and document them, and to work out 
strategies to handle them, which may result in successful EA with mobility. An 
integrated EA with mobility will provide immense benefits to organizations in 
extending their business EIS to go beyond the organization’s boundaries.  
 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
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Figure 2.12: Detail Gap from EA to M-EA (based on Wu and Unhelkar, 2008, 2009) 
 
The literature review conducted as part of this study provides a better understanding 
of the problem, which is the gap between ICT and ICT supported and integrated with 
MT. This simple Figure 2.12 provides a visualization of the M-EA integrating System, 
Process, People, and Data in an organization in a manner that enables easy 
incorporation of MT in its business processes. As MT integrates into EA, business 
processes and enterprise IS will have to be re-engineered. Because this business 
transition progress changes among the systems and processes, people also need to be 
trained about how to use the system to operate the processes. As well as the data need 
to be changed to adopt into the new system functions. Therefore, the new M-EA 
model will have to handle these four aspects of an EA as they have a major impact on 
the way an organization functions.  
 
2.9 Summary of this chapter 
The chapter has summarized an investigative literature review in the area of EA and 
mobility with the aim of extending it to Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA). 
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
 
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Enterprise Architecture (EA) introduction, component, and their importance have 
been investigated, as also review of the current and popular industrial EA framework. 
Furthermore, Web Services (WS) technology and Service-Oriented Architecture 
(SOA) are taken into consideration for their importance to the EA. The chapter also 
described Mobile technologies (MT) as a significant area which can extend EA to be 
a more comprehensive model. This chapter, described the existing literature in many 
different MT applications, includes literature about what technologies, 
communication network, commerce and service could be applied with extend EA to 
M-EA. The next chapter will describe the research methodologies used in this 
research. 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
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Chapter 3: Research methodology – arguments and 
selection 
 
3.1 Overview of this chapter 
 
The aim of this chapter is to study, understand, identify and justify the use of the 
most suitable approach or a combination of suitable approaches that would serve the 
purpose of this research. Understanding the research philosophy and methodology 
provides the necessary background for setting up a reasonable and valid research 
framework. The importance of the research framework was particularly understood 
by this researcher during her earlier course of Graduate Certificate in Research 
Studies in 2006. Therefore, considerable significance has been attached in this 
chapter to the various research approaches, methodologies and philosophies that 
make up a comprehensive research framework. This chapter describes and justifies 
the selection of the philosophies, approaches and methodologies that make up the 
research framework for this research project.  
 
3.2 Theoretical background  
 
There are many research methodologies and approaches available to modern-day 
researchers. The immediate increasing question is the appropriateness of the 
selection of these suitable research methodologies and approaches in designing a 
fully research framework to achieve the aim of the research project.  
 
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Figure 3.1: The research onion with the specific criteria used in this research project 
(adapted from Saunders et al., 2007) 
 
Figure 3.1 provides the background standard for designing a complete research 
framework, called a “Research Onion” (Saunders et al., 2007). This research onion 
outlines the different aspects of research that need to be considered in designing the 
comprehensive research framework. The layers identified in the research onion are 
Research Philosophy, Research Approach and Methodology, Research Methods, and 
Data-Collection Methods. Each layer of the onion depicted in Figure 3.1 provides 
information on the significance to the research effort. These four aspects, make up 
the research framework, that are used in this particular research project have also 
been superimposed in the research onion in Figure 3.1.  
 
The broader research philosophy gives an identity to research work. The philosophy 
associated with research study is based on the philosophical view of the researcher, 
and the detailed discussion is in the section 3.3 of this chapter. The Second layer is 
research approach and methodologies, which requires justifying two aspects related 
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to a specific research work. The two aspects of research methodologies are 
qualitative or quantitative methodologies. Furthermore, the research approach is the 
deductive approach from any existing theories to justify particular scenarios, or the 
inductive approach that combines findings to construct the new theoretical concepts. 
The detailed discussion about research approach and methodologies are discussed in 
the section 3.4 of this chapter. The third layer of this research onion is research 
methods layer, which requires the researcher to select the suitability of several 
techniques to conduct the research project. The core layer of the research onion is 
data-collection method. There are several data-collection methods deployed in the 
information system research area, such as questionnaires, survey, observation, 
interviews, and action research. These two layers are discussed in the section 3.5 of 
this chapter. 
 
3.3 Research philosophies 
 
There are many academic researchers trying to define what the philosophy is. 
However, there is no one comprehensive and united definition of philosophy. 
Therefore, this research follows by the definition of “Philosophy” in the p.557 of 
Oxford Compact Dictionary and Thesaurus (1997); Philosophy is “the use of reason 
and argument in seeking the truth and knowledge, especially of ultimate reality or of 
general causes and principles”.  
 
The research philosophy is the outermost layer of the onion in Figure 3.1. This 
research philosophy deals with how the researcher understands the research. The 
explanation of the research by the researcher is through an acknowledged philosophy 
or a set of such philosophies.  
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Figure 3.2: Research Philosophy 
(Adapted from Saunders et al. (2007), and Bryman (2004)) 
 
There are numerous classic models of research philosophies defined in the literature, 
which includes positivism, realism, interpretivism, objectivism, subjectivism, 
pragmatism, constructivism, functionalist paradigm, interpretive paradigm, radical 
humanist paradigm, and radical structuralist paradigm (which shows on the above 
Figure 3.2, and definition and description are in the following Table 3.1).  
 
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Table 3.1: Lists of several research philosophies 
Research Philosophy Definition and Description 
Epistemology 
A branch of philosophy that studies the nature of 
knowledge and what constitutes acceptable 
knowledge in a field of study. (Matthias, 1996) 
Positivism 
The epistemological position that advocates 
working with an observable social reality. The 
emphasis is on highly structured methodology to 
facilitate replication, and the end product can be 
law-like generalizations similar to those produced 
by the physical and nature scientists. (Leslie, 1999) 
Realism 
The epistemological position that objects exist 
independently of our knowledge of their existence. 
believing that “reality is real and only imperfectly 
and probabilistically apprehensible” (Healy and 
Perry, 2000). 
Interpretivism 
The epistemology position that advocates the 
necessity to understand differences between humans 
in their roles as social actors. (Saunders et al., 2007) 
Ontology 
A theory concerning the nature of social phenomena 
as entities that are to be admitted to a knowledge 
system. (Gruber, 1993) 
Objectivism 
An ontological position that asserts that social 
entities exist in a reality external to, and 
independent of, social actors concerned with their 
existence. (Leonard, 1991) 
Subjectivism 
An ontological position that asserts that entities are 
created from the perceptions and consequent actions 
of those social actors responsible for their creation. 
(Ratner, 2007) 
Pragmatism 
An ontological position that argues that the most 
important determinant of the research philosophy 
adopted is the research question, arguing that it is 
possible to work within both positivist and 
interpretivist positions. It applies a practical 
approach, integrating different perspectives to help 
collect and interpret data. (De Waal, 2005) 
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Research Philosophy Definition and Description 
Constructionism (often also 
referred to as Constructivism) 
An ontological position that asserts that social 
phenomena and their meanings are continually 
being accomplished by social actors.  
believing in “multiple local and specific constructed 
realities” (Cronje and Burger, 2006) 
Functionalist paradigm 
A philosophical position which is concerned with a 
rational explanation of behaviors and institutions 
such as why a particular organizational problem is 
occurring in terms of the functions they perform. 
(Burrell and Morgan, 1979) 
Interpretive paradigm 
A philosophical position which is concerned with 
understanding the way we as humans make sense of 
the world around us. (Burrell and Morgan, 1979) 
Radical humanist paradigm 
A position concerned with changing the status quo, 
of existing social patterns. (Bryman, 2004) 
Radical structuralist paradigm 
A position concerned with achieving fundamental 
change based upon an analysis of underlying 
structures that can’t be easily observed, for 
example, organizational phenomena as power 
relationships and patterns of conflict. (Bryman, 
2004) 
(Adapted from Bryman (2004), and Saunders et al. (2007)) 
 
The selection of an appropriate philosophy for this research from these classical 
models of research philosophies is considered at this stage. The most important 
points of these philosophies are considered in order to select the most suitable 
philosophy, which would help to conceptualize the research aim of this research 
project, which is described in Chapter 1. A survey of the literature on research 
philosophies and examination of the available philosophical models have shown that 
the constructivist philosophy provides the most logical way in which to approach the 
specific aim of this research (Genus and Maohamed, 2005; Heidegger, 1977).  
 
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Constructionism, is a paradigm using models to construct or a method of research 
with active participation of the researcher and is thought to be the most appropriate 
philosophy for the research into M-EA. The constructionism research philosophy 
develops the solution to a problem, and it is used to contribute toward serving an 
identified problem in need of an innovate construction of a model or theory. It 
implies that social phenomena and categories are not only produced through social 
interaction but they are in a constant state of revision. This decision on the use of the 
constructivist philosophy is based on the fact that the constructivist approach 
attempts to observe problem-solving through the construction of models, diagrams or 
plans, which are widely used in technical sciences, mathematics and operational 
analysis (Kasanen et al., 1993). Furthermore, constructivists focus on the role of 
ideas, knowledge and culture, stressing on the collectively held ideas and 
understandings of the  social life as a core feature in the research philosophy 
(Finnemore and Sikkink, 2001). As pointed out by Philips (1995), the good thing 
about constructivism is the emphasis on the active participation by the learner 
together with recognition of the social nature of learning. The constructivism also 
depicts reality as seen by the researcher through a construct or a model (Cronje and 
Burger, 2006). 
 
3.4 Research approach and methodology 
 
The research approach and methodology is the second layer of the research onion. 
This second layer deals with the manner in which the research is seeking to arrive at 
solutions. Additionally, this layer describes the selection of methodology and 
approach through which the findings of the research will be analyzed, discussed, 
argued and documented. 
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3.4.1 Inductive and deductive approaches 
 
There are two main research approaches, inductive and deductive research 
approaches, as considered by Blaikie (1993). The inductive approach helps to build a 
theory through observations, whereas the deductive approach tests a theory through 
specific instances of application (Chalmers, 1991). The following Table 3.2 is 
comparison of deductive and inductive approaches. 
 
Table 3.2: Comparison of deductive and inductive approaches 
 Inductive approach Deductive approach 
Process Observation/Findings -> Theory Theory-> Observation/ Findings 
Theory Binding theory Testing theory hypothesis 
(Adapted from Baldwin (2003), Blaikie (1993), Bryman (2004), Chalmers (1991), 
and Saunders et al. (2007)) 
 
The inductive approach is predominantly a theory-building process, which starts with 
observations of specific instances that evolve when the researcher is seeking to 
establish generalizations about the phenomenon under investigation (Baldwin, 2003). 
With an inductive stance, theory is the outcome of the research. In the other words, 
the process of induction is drawing the conclusion from the observation.  
 
The deductive approach, on the other hand, is a theory-testing process, which 
commences with an established theory or generalization to verify that the theory or 
the generalization applies to specific instances (Spens and Kovacs, 2006). The social 
scientist researcher always declares the hypothesis and then translates it into 
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operational terms. In the other words, the process of deductive approach is collecting 
data in relation to the concepts that make up the hypothesis. However, this research 
selects a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, as stated in Blaikie 
(1993).  
 
 
Figure 3.3: Research Approach 
 
This research uses a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, as the 
preliminary case-study information is later applied as an input to construct a model, 
and additional data are gathered and used to test the constructed model. This strategy 
is further illustrated in Figure 3.3.  Firstly, this research follows the inductive 
research approach which combines the findings from Literature Review (LR) and 
Case Studies (CS) to construct the theory of M-EA model. The literature review 
method helps the researcher understand MT and current frameworks of building EA. 
The researcher conducted case studies by interview to establish the draft M-EA 
including the definition, advantages, limitations, implementation framework, and the 
blueprint expectation of M-EA.  
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
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Secondly, this research uses the deductive approach which takes the theory of M-EA 
model to test it by action research. The action research is conducted by visiting three 
participated companies to study their EA, implemented M-EA, and understand their 
point of view after applying M-EA, which could help validate the M-EA and also 
improve the security of M-EA.  
 
Finally, this research follows constructivism philosophy to establish a full M-EA and 
to use inductive approach again to bind all the theories together to publish the 
doctoral research theory. Therefore, this research project uses the combination of the 
inductive and deductive research approaches to reach the research aim. 
 
3.4.2 Qualitative research methodology 
 
Research methodologies are concerned in the second layer of the research onion as 
well. The most common group of research methodologies are qualitative and 
quantitative research methodologies (Myers, 1997).  
 
Quantitative research methodologies use numerical analysis or mathematical 
modeling on data collected through surveys, laboratory experiments, and observation 
metrics. Quantitative research is the systematic scientific investigation of quantitative 
properties, phenomena and their relationship. Quantitative methodologies manipulate 
variables and control nature phenomena. They construct hypotheses and “test” them 
against the hard facts and reality (Leedy, 1993). Quantitative research also involves 
analyses of numerical data. 
 
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Qualitative research is based on the use of a naturalistic approach that seeks to 
understand phenomena in context-specific settings. Qualitative research is any kind 
of research that produces findings which cannot be achieved by means of statistical 
procedures or other means of quantification, but involves analysis of actual data. 
Qualitative research generally aims to answer research questions which are rather 
different from those addressed as hypotheses in quantitative research. Qualitative 
research is essentially “exploratory”, setting out to describe, understand and explain 
particular phenomenon (Flick, 2006). Qualitative research methods developed 
originally in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social phenomena, and 
are widely used in information science disciplines today (Clarke, 2000; Iversen et al., 
2004).  
Table 3.3: Comparisons of qualitative and quantitative research 
 Qualitative Methodology Quantitative Methodology 
Philosophy 
Subjective – individuals’ 
interpretation of events is 
important  
Objective – seeks precise 
measurement and analysis of 
target concepts 
Approach Inductive approach Deductive approach  
Available 
Research 
Methods 
uses observation, case 
studies, interviews, focus 
groups, document analyses, 
ground theories etc. 
uses surveys, questionnaires, 
experiments etc. 
Data Form 
Data is in the forms of 
words, pictures or objects. 
Data is in the forms of numbers 
and statistics.  
Analysis 
Data Method 
Researcher is the data 
gathering tool, uses general 
approach or tables to 
arrange data. 
Researcher uses tools, such as 
questionnaires or equipments to 
collect numerical data. E.g. use 
SPSS program or excel to 
finalize the numerical data. 
 (Analyzed from Collisand Hussey (2009), Mcmurry et al. (2004), Walter ed. (2006), 
Bakers and Foy (2008), and Miles and Huberman (1994)) 
 
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As Bryman and Burgess (1999) established that as a term “qualitative research: is 
sometimes taken to imply an approach to social research in which quantitative data 
are not collected or generated.” This research project doesn’t collect any quantitative 
data, thus, this research follows the qualitative methodologies. Examples of 
qualitative methods are action research and case study research. The qualitative data 
are gathered through various data-collection methods, such as observations, 
interviews, e-mails and meetings that are described further in the following Section 
3.5 of this chapter. 
 
 
3.5 Research methods and data collection methods 
 
The third layer describes various research methods that are available in order to 
select the most appropriate method, or combination of methods, for a specific 
research project. The core of the onion, or the fourth layer, describes the actual data 
collection methods, which would be very specific to the individual research project. 
In this section, the researcher outlines the selection justification of research methods 
and data collection methods. 
 
As per the qualitative strategies, a suite of methods were used in this research study. 
The well-known methods are ground theory, case study, action research, and 
observation. In this research project, the researcher use three research methods to 
complete the research project, which are literature review, case studies, and action 
research. There is a preliminary literature review to construct the basic knowledge 
of EA and MT, and case study of initial data for model construction, followed by 
three action research projects for model verification. Step 1: Literature Review 
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shows the researcher how the idea extends the EA with mobility by studying the 
documents of this research area. At this stage, the researcher analyzes the gap 
between literatures, and constructs the aim and objective of this research project 
(which has already discussed in the Chapter 2). Step 2: The case study was carried 
out by interviewing 10 experts, namely enterprise architects, business analysts, 
solution architects, and chief information officers (CIOs). The data for these case 
studies were collected through interviews, meetings, and e-mails. The data gathered 
and the result analysis from the case studies will be discussed in Chapter 4 in detail. 
Step 3: This research takes the constructed M-EA model to three participation 
companies doing action research. These research projects are carried out through 
observations, meetings, interviews, site visits, e-mails, and internal documents. In 
Chapter 6, action research processes, results analysis and how the results verify the 
model will be discussed in detail. 
 
3.5.1 Step 1: Literature review in order to create an M-EA outline 
 
Research methods: Literature review 
Data-collection methods: Study of documents 
 
Firstly, this research starts by constructing initial M-EA structure to investigate and 
analyze which mobile technology applications could be integrated. The literature 
review brings the outline of how to extend EA to M-EA, and apply construct method 
to create the initial M-EA model. At this stage, by studying the documents, books, 
literatures, academic articles of EA and MT, which facilitates the method to collect 
data for constructing the knowledge of M-EA. 
 
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The literature is all sources of published data on a particular topic, and this literature 
refers to the existing body of knowledge. Searching and reviewing literature is a 
major part of the research project. The intensive phase at the beginning of the project 
will continue on a narrowed-down scale until finding the gap from literature or until 
end of the research. Hartman and Hedblom (1979) stated that literature review is “an 
exhaustive review in which the researcher includes all literature relating to the 
problem”. Literature review is critical evaluation of the existing body of knowledge 
on a topic which guides the research and demonstrates that the relevant literature has 
been located and analyzed. Reviewing the literature involves locating, reading and 
evaluating reports of research, and as well as reports of casual observation and 
opinion (Borg and Gall, 1989).  
 
Marshall and Rossman (1989) suggested that a literature review involves 4 processes: 
1. demonstrates the underlying assumptions behind the research questions and 
display the research paradigm; 2. demonstrates that the researcher is thoroughly 
knowledgeable about related research; 3. demonstrates the gaps in previous research; 
4. refines and redefines the research questions and the aim of research project. 
 
Therefore, a foundation literature review helps develop the subject knowledge and 
provides a context for the research object. Ryan et al. (2002) have offered a 
structured approach to analyzing the literature, using a network diagram to illustrate 
relationship between the primary citations. This approach is based on the assumption 
that articles in the literature are “a series of nodes in an interlinked network of 
theoretical and empirical developments.”  
 
Strengths of using Literature Review Methods: 
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Abraham (1994) stated that the major strength of a literature review is the 
background it provides for the study, setting in the context of previous work. Bailey 
(1987) suggested that the researcher is able to draw on past studies in formulating 
hypotheses. However, in exploratory studies, literature review provides evidence of a 
gap in the literature, and becomes the basis for the research project.  
 
Weakness of using Literature Review Methods: 
Hartman and Hedblom (1979) pointed out that the limitations such as time, language, 
and library resources may make this an impractical goal, and this may be a weakness 
of review. Additionally, Dooley (1984) stated that “if some studies are overlooked, 
the researchers can’t know if the review’s conclusion applies to all studies or only to 
a biased selection of studies”.  
 
3.5.2 Step 2: Case study by interview to update the M-EA model 
 
Research methods: Case study 
Data-collection methods: Interviews, meeting, and e-mails   
 
Secondly, the initial M-EA model takes the form of case studies that includes 
interviewing several experienced enterprise architects to get advice on the M-EA 
implementation framework. This initial M-EA model provides the implementation 
details of enterprises that need to change their architecture before they use mobile 
technology application. Enterprises can provide a perspective on what Business 
Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Mobile-Transformation preparation need to be 
done first before they integrate M-EA. Case studies by interviews to establish the 
draft M-EA structure, includes the definition of M-EA, the advantages and 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 89 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
challenges of M-EA, the implementation team work of M-EA, and what the 
expectation is after implemented M-EA (which is the validation criteria). 
 
Case Study research method is mostly used in business studies in which the 
researchers study a small sample of cases in depth. Cases are analyzed to build or 
validate theories, typically through the collection of qualitative information, through 
observations and interviews (Yin, 1994). Therefore, the case study method was 
selected for this initial investigation to study the experiences from experts in terms of 
understanding how mobile technology helps extend enterprise architecture. The case 
study method is appropriate when investigators are restricted by the circumstances as 
indicated in Yin (2003): 
• To define research topics broadly but not narrowly 
• To cover complex multiple variable conditions, and not isolated variables 
• To investigate multiple sources of evidence, and not just one source. 
 
A case study is a worthwhile way of exploring existing theory. A well-constructed 
case study can provide material to challenge existing theory, and provide a source of 
a new hypothesis (Saunders et al., 2007). Clearly, the case study research method is 
particularly well-suited to IS research since the object of our discipline is the study of 
information systems in organizations, and "interest has shifted to organizational 
rather than technical issues". (Benbasat et al., 1987) Thus, the case study approach 
fits well into the requirements of this research objective. 
 
Strengths of using Case Study Methods: 
Smith (1988) listed three strengths of case studies: 
1. Namely the opportunity to study rare phenomena, sources of ideas and 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 90 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
hypotheses. 
2. The stimulation of “theory development and future systematic research”. 
3. The exploration of “possible causal links in real-life interventions that are too 
complex for survey or experimental strategies”. 
 
King (1985) added further strengths: 
• Namely the real world emphasis 
• The provision of a large range of details 
• The uncovering of relationships and a heuristic quality. 
 
Stake (1981) underlined the importance of “experiential knowledge” delivered from 
case study, and he also listed four distinguishing features: 
1. more concrete  knowledge 
2. more contextual knowledge 
3. more developed by researcher’s interpretation 
4. based more on reference populations that are defined by the researcher’s and 
the participated people’s previous experience 
 
Weakness of using Case Study Methods: 
King (1985) states that the problem of case study methods having the difficulty in 
generalizing from a single case, and on its limitations for drawing causal inferences. 
The larger number of variables that are encountered can make analysis difficult. 
Additionally, Dooley (1984) stated that “if some studies are overlooked, the 
researchers can’t know if the review’s conclusion applies to all studies or only to a 
biased selection of studies”. Yin (1994) also noted that the researcher might take too 
long and result in massive and unreadable documents. However, Yin (1994, 2003), 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 91 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Billingsley and Poole (1986), Patton (1990), and Smith (1988) believed that, with 
careful design, many of these problems could be avoided or at least reduced. 
 
Interview is one of data-collection methods in which selected participants (the 
interviewees) are asked with questions to find out what they do, think or feel. Kahn 
and Cannell (1957) defined an Interview as a purposeful discussion between two or 
more people. Interviews are concerned with exploring “data on understandings, 
opinions, what people remember doing, attitudes, feeling and the like, that people 
have in common” (Arskey and Knight, 1999). McMurray (2004) declared that 
interviews are suitably used to explore a topic or issue in greater depth than any other 
research method. The researcher could obtain more detailed information and gain 
deeper insights into the interview questions of research area.  
 
3.5.3 Step 3: Action research to validate the M-EA model 
 
Research methods: Action research 
Data-collection methods: Observations, meetings, interviews, site visits, e-mails, and 
internal documents 
 
Followed by, this initial M-EA model will be validated by undertaking action 
research studies in a few chosen organizations. The business processes 
re-engineering, practical issues, benefits, challenges and limitations of the M-EA 
model are also being identified, documented and discussed during and after 
implementation. Following that, the model will be modified based on those results. 
Such comprehensive M-EA reduces the risks and enhances the benefits to the 
organization.  
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 92 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Action Research (AR) has its origin in the works of the social psychologist Kurt 
Lewin (1946). He defined that “Action Research is applying scientific thinking to 
real life problems (classroom problems for teachers) and represents a great 
improvement over teacher’s subjective judgments and their limited personal 
experiences.” 
 
The main characteristics of action research are summarized as follows (Argyris et al., 
1985; Greenwood and Levin, 1998; Gummeson, 2000; McDonagh and Coghlan, 
2001): 
• Action research takes action 
• Action research is discuss-oriented 
• Action research is going to deeply research in the field 
• Action research is mainly based on an argument theory 
• The process of action research started on practice problems 
• The researcher is an agent of change 
 
McNiff and Whitehead (2002) identify that action researchers regard learning and 
experience as processes which enable individuals to make choices about who they 
are and how they are together. The purpose of Action research is to use practice in 
the improvement of the lives of common place, people, and to emancipate them 
through participative learning and new understanding. To put it briefly, action 
research may be viewed as a commonsense way of learning by doing. (McMurray et 
al., 2004) 
 
In the field of Computing and Information Technology (CIT) research case, there is 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 93 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
much research situated within action research methodology- particularly in the 
development of information system cases (Myers, 1997). Burstein (2000) describes 
that a set of research methodologies has been explored for use in the general field of 
information system research; it also needs to be followed by system development 
cycle. From designing the model, evaluating and modifying the prototype, and 
testing it repeatedly, the process is mostly like Oosthuizen’s (2000) definition of the 
action research, plan -> action -> results -> reflection -> plan (a typical action 
research circle).  
  
Strengths of using Action Research Methods: 
Auer and Follack (2002) identify from an action research point of view the strengths 
of using action research on their project:  
1. It can handle complex systems.  
2. It can support the structuring and sharing of knowledge on changing models 
concurrently. 
3. It can predict the outcomes more accurately through the support of risk free 
experiments. 
4. It can create a learning environment for researcher and participant organization. 
5. It can be grounded on theory and be practically applicable. 
6. It can require (inter)-action as an integral part of the process itself. 
 
Weakness of using Action Research Methods: 
Muller (2005) lists some problems of action research project: 
• The practical problem of research is in the forefront 
• Projects are dominated by action but not by reflection 
 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 94 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Bichou and Gray (2004) have an action research project in a logistics and supply 
chain approach to seaport efficiency. They suggest that action research is a research 
strategy to be used on subsequent stages of testing and measurement. They outline 
that the basis of action research is the combination between theory and practice as 
well as the benefit of generalization. Middel et al. (2005) identify that they use action 
research methodology in collaborative improvement within the extended 
manufacturing enterprise. They state that action learning has provided a useful 
methodology for the development of a capacity for learning as part of collaborative 
improvement processes.  
 
Dick (1999) declared that action research is a family of research methodologies that 
follow action (or change) and research (or understanding) at the same time. It was 
recognized when the researcher is required to analyze and identify the development 
of the mobile technologies application in the real world, the effect of this action 
research will be during the change of the mobile technology application for 
integrating it into the EA of the participated company which may operate through 
different applications. The researcher is expected to have a positive influence on the 
small sample of enterprises through a participatory approach, using observations and 
interviews as key data-collection mechanisms. Therefore, for the continuation of this 
research to test if the construct model works successful or not, this research has 
selected three organizations for the action research. Also action research is applicable 
to use in the field of M-EA case. 
 
Action research is chosen as part of the methods, since it allows the researcher to 
become involved in the model implementation process in order to verify the M-EA 
and participate in this process. Expected benefits from this exercise are two-fold to 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 95 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
the researcher and to the participated companies. The researcher should benefit in 
terms of new knowledge and verify the model to comprehensive version, and the 
companies or industry sector under consideration should benefit by carrying out the 
M-EA successfully to gain a competitive business advantage. Action research focuses 
on change and reflects with an immediate result to the researchers as well as to the 
companies used in the research. In action research, the emphasis is more on what 
practitioners do, rather than on them saying what they do (Myers et al., 1999). Action 
research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate 
problematic situation, and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within 
a mutually acceptable ethical framework (Rapoport, 1970).  
 
3.6 Research evaluation and feedback 
 
After considering all of the greater details of the research in the above sections, and 
by referring to Figure 3.1, the overall design framework of the research is illustrated 
in Figure 3.4. This research follows the constructionism philosophy, this aims to 
construct a comprehensive M-EA as an outcome of this doctorial research project.  
This research uses qualitative research methodology and combination of inductive 
and deductive research approaches. The selection of research methods are literature 
review, cases studies, and action research. Step 1 method is searching the current 
literature in the research area and collecting the data by studying the document in 
literature review stage. Step 2 method: the use of cases studies use interviews, 
meetings, e-mails to collect data. Additionally, step 3, action research data was 
collected by Observations, meetings, interviews, site visits, e-mails, and internal 
documents. Finally, the researcher constructed a comprehensive M-EA to achieve the 
research aim of this project. 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 96 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 3.4: Research Framework of This Research Project 
 
The model validation does not fully reach the action research evaluation level 
because certain actions are still pending owing to time and decision-making 
constraints. The actions already implemented are analyzed and evaluated by the 
researcher. However, as shown in Figure 3.4, the research strategy for carrying out 
the implementation of the M-EA is more relevant as an action research, rather than a 
case study. Therefore, the action research is still used as the strategy to validate initial 
M-EA model in the empirical studies described in Chapter 6.  
 
The following table is feedback to Hartman and Hedblom (1979), King (1985), 
Dooley (1984), Yin (1994), and Muller (2005)  who listed weaknesses when 
literature review, case study, and action research methods which are used in this 
research project: 
 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 97 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 3.4: Lists of feedback to this research project 
Weaknesses of using LR, CS, 
and AR methods 
Feedback to this research project 
Literature Review 
Time, language, and library 
resources may make this an 
impractical goal. (Hartman and 
Hedblom, 1979) 
This research uses not only library books and 
journals, but also online databases as the resource 
when using literature review. As UWS library 
e-resource are fully established, such as ACM 
Digital library, Emerald Fulltext, IEEE Xplore, 
ScienceDirect. The researcher found at least 100 
papers as references in this research area. 
Furthermore, the researcher works in the library as 
casual staff; therefore, the researcher saves a lot of 
time on searching and collecting data. Additionally, 
the researcher comes from Chinese background, so 
she could not only collect English papers but also 
Chinese books as literature review references. 
Case Study 
The difficulty in generalizing 
from a single case, and on its 
limitations for drawing causal 
inferences. (King, 1985) 
This research project simplifies 10 case studies to 
analyze data for 4 research sections in order to 
have the conclusion. 
The larger number of variables 
encountered can make analysis 
difficult. (King, 1985) 
This research project uses the questionnaire 
interviews to gather 4 sections research question to 
organize the conclusion. 
If some studies are overlooked, 
the researchers can’t know if 
the review’s conclusion applies 
to all studies or only to a 
biased selection of studies. 
(Dooley, 1984) 
The researcher interviewed experienced enterprise 
architects, business analysts, CIOs, and IT 
executives. Collected the 10 case studies data by 
asking their experiences, and then sorted and 
analysed the collected data for 4 research sections 
in order to have the conclusion. 
The researcher might take too 
long and result in massive and 
unreadable documents. (Yin, 
1994) 
The data are gathered by asking questions to 
interviewees, each interview won’t take more than 
45 minutes. The interview itself will be recorded 
by having interviewees’ permission and won’t take 
too long; and the answers are gathered for specific 
research area. 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 98 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Weaknesses of using LR, CS, 
and AR methods 
Feedback to this research project 
Action Research  
The practical problem of 
research is in the forefront. 
(Muller ,2005) 
Necessity is a combination discussion of 
theoretical knowledge and practical 
implementation on M-EA project 
Projects are dominated by 
action but not by reflection. 
(Muller ,2005) 
Open discussion about the aims and the content of 
the project between researcher and interviewers 
Action research process varies 
significantly across studies. 
(Muller ,2005) 
• Researcher keeps an open mind regarding the 
process, not only the result 
• Researcher develops and tests new advance 
• Researcher requires theoretical justifications 
• This research could be used as a cycling process 
 
3.7 Summary of this chapter 
 
This chapter detailed the selection process of the research methodology and its 
application in this thesis. The selection process was based on the framework of the 
“research onion” by Saunders et al. (2007). In the above-mentioned selection process, 
the characteristics of the research are matched against the features of each research 
philosophy, approach and methodology, methods, and data-collection methods, in 
order to select the most appropriate research at each level.  
 
This research follows the constructionism philosophy and aims to construct a 
comprehensive M-EA as an outcome of this doctoral research project.  This 
research uses qualitative research methodology and combination of inductive and 
deductive research approaches. The selection of research methods are literature 
review, cases studies, and action researches. Methods of collecting the data include 
studying the document, interviews, meetings, e-mails, observations, site visits, and 
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 99 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
internal documents.  
 
With this background knowledge of the suitable research framework, this research 
constructs a comprehensive M-EA, in order to achieve the aim of this research 
project. The next chapter carries out an in-depth discussion about the case study by 
interviews, which help the researcher construct the initial M-EA model, and create 
the verification criteria for action research during this research project.  
  
 
Chapter 4: Eliciting M-EA from Case Studies
PhD Thesis  Page 100 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
Chapter 4: Envisioning the Mobile Enterprise
Architecture (M-EA) model through Knowledge
Elicitation
4.1 Overview of this chapter
The chapter describes the further elicitation of the initial Mobile Enterprise
Architecture (M-EA) model that was described earlier in Chapter 2 (based on the
literature review). The initial M-EA model is envisioned and modeled through case
studies by interviews. The researcher interviewed several experienced enterprise
architects in order to reach a comprehensive definition of model of the M-EA. This
M-EA definition was refined to produce an updated M-EA implementation
framework. In this chapter, the research questions of the case studies, their design
and the data-collection methods are outlined and described. The initial M-EA based
on the Literature Review is updated model through interviews result. Thus, this
chapter discusses and documents those findings from interviews and to undertake
initial verification of the draft M-EA.  The definition, advantages and limitations of
M-EA, how M-EA could be implemented, and what the expectations after having
implemented M-EA, are described here as well. Finally, the validation criterion for
expected outcome of applying M-EA model that also includes the ensuing action
research method is also described here.
4.2 Initial outline of M-EA
In this section, the initial M-EA model based on the literature review is documented.
Chapter 4: Eliciting M-EA from Case Studies
PhD Thesis  Page 101 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
The definition and model of draft M-EA have been published in ACIS 2007 DC and
IEEE VTC 2008 (Wu and Unhelkar, 2007, 2008). Section 4.2.1 initially shows M-EA
definition results from the literature review. Further M-EA definition is justified in
the section 4.8.1 from the interviewees. Section 4.2.2 shows the researcher creating
the draft M-EA model from the literature review and also discusses this model with
the interviewee. The model outline is further expanded based on the result from
interviewees. The updated version of the M-EA model is described and documented
in next chapter (Chapter 5).
4.2.1 M-EA definition
An M-EA is best understood as a model of mobile architecture that includes both
business and systems. Additionally, architectures are themselves patterns that enable
creation of design and successful implementations (Carbone, 2004). A good
architecture provides quality and reusability and it also prevents rework. This is so
because it incorporates numerous possibilities and options that would otherwise be
very costly to incorporate as an ‘add-on’. Enterprise architectures provide a basis for
incorporating maximum possibilities of changes and expansions of applications and
systems in the future (Britton, 2004). However, as new and disruptive technologies
are introduced in the organization, the architecture itself needs an upgrade (Pulkkinen,
2006, and Unhelkar, 2005). For example, from a standard 3-tier architecture (data,
business and interface layers), a good architecture now also incorporates people.
Such architecture allows us to consider the ‘disruptive’ mobile technology in a more
strategic manner.
Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) brings about not only internal integration,
Chapter 4: Eliciting M-EA from Case Studies
PhD Thesis  Page 102 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
through extension, but also offers much more efficiency to its external suppliers,
customers and other trading partners over the Internet. Thus, M-EA connects existing
and new systems to enable collaborative operation within the entire organization in
real-time – providing access among systems on production planning and control,
inbound and outbound logistics, material flows, monitoring functions, and
performance measurements (Rolstadas and Andersen, 2000). An integrated EA with
mobility provides immense benefits to organizations in extending their business
systems to transcend beyond the organization’s boundaries.
The literature review, as discussed in Chapter 2, provided better understanding and
revealed the problem to be investigated in order to analyse the gap within mobile
technologies and EA. The primary purpose of the research is to identify how mobile
technology could extend the people, process, data, system, and the underlying
technology that would result in an M-EA. Therefore, this research study defines
Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) (which shows on Figure 4.1) as:
Figure 4.1: Initial M-EA Definition (Wu and Unhelkar, 2007, 2008, 2009)
Chapter 4: Eliciting M-EA from Case Studies
PhD Thesis  Page 103 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
“A structure for integrating business processes with mobile technology and ICT,
includes relationships among the System, Process, People, and Data in an
organization” (Wu and Unhelkar, 2008).
As  MT  integrates  the  EA  with  business  processes  and  systems  that  are  mobile.
Following on from the changes to the systems and processes, people also need to
know  how  to  use  the  system  to  operate  the  process  as  well  as  the  data  need  to  be
changed to be adopted for the new system functions. Moreover, M-EA will connect
existing and new systems to enable collaborative operation within the entire
organization in real-time service – which extends EA to provide better access among
systems on production planning and control, inbound and outbound logistics,
material flows, monitoring functions, and performance measurements.
4.2.2 Initial version of the M-EA model
Figure 4.2 shows the initial version of the M-EA model. This model comprises
people, process, data, and system from a mobile perspective. The mobile phone is
classified as a necessary gadget in the 21
st
 century. The uses of mobile devices are
very popular specifically with the application of 3G Mobile network technology.
Mobile network technology provides better service and real-time response
communication between business and consumers of EA. Some of mobile devices
have started to provide with Bluetooth device from last two years. Bluetooth
technology is synchronization between a personal computer (PC) server and one or
more other mobile terminals (Shuaib and Boulmalf, 2006); Synchronization which
provides access to EA has been particularly successful in cooperative applications.
Wi-Max can help EA integration much more effectively and update unanimity
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PhD Thesis  Page 104 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
between all retailers of enterprise. The general intra-organizational M-EA application
integration  can  use  WLAN  technology  to  provide  all  the  employees  to  access  the
enterprise system anytime, anywhere. VoIP technology helps EA to extend the
globalization business and also overcome the purchase timing problems though
different countries. In addition, Hurster et al. (2006) pointed out that GPS devices
and RFID tags and readers have already been used on SCM systems to improve
delivery service and tracking production location. RFID Technology helps highly
location-based tracking, reduces the cost and human-mistake risks, and also
improves the effectiveness and efficiency of EA (Schilhavy and Salam, 2006).
Consideration  of  these  six  MT  is  important  in  the  exercise  to  integrate  EA  –
particularly as the technologies as well as their applications are maturing rapidly
(Ghanbary, 2006).
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PhD Thesis  Page 105 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
Figure 4.2: Initial Mobile Enterprise Technology Architecture Model (Wu and
Unhelkar 2007, 2008, 2009)
Figure 4.2 shows these mobile elements as they are into integrated enterprise
technology architecture. This initial M-EA result from literature review, and is named
here as “Initial Mobile Enterprise Technology Architecture Model”. The base part of
the Figure 4.2 demonstrates how the application service and information/data storage
go through the enterprise bus or middleware cooperation. This transfer of data is a
basis to help business processes orchestration. Moreover, the new processes are the
basis of integrating different generation of enterprise information systems. The most
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PhD Thesis  Page 106 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
popular enterprise information systems are Supply Chain Management (SCM)
system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Enterprise Relationship
Planning (ERP) system, and Financial Information (FI) system operating within
enterprise architecture. RFID technology could specifically support the SCM system
to help tracking the location of the materials and products. This underside section
includes the M-EA business process, system, and data structure. People can hold
various mobile devices through mobility server and access web service to connect to
Internet portal, including web and mobile portal to run those business process,
system and access through data base. The technologies of Web Services build on top
of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Web Services Description Language
(WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) provide an
excellent  basis  for  integrating  the  applications  of  the  enterprise  –  particularly  when
they are on separate platforms. There is a need, however, to provide wireless glue to
EA as outlined here. This would result in strategic incorporation of MT into EA on an
enterprise repository. The end-result is a comprehensive system containing all
applications and the enterprise model. People can reach the system using the Internet
through  the  native  API/  XML,  web  forms,  and  web  service.  They  can  use  their
mobile, some with Bluetooth headphone, GPS, PDA, portable computer (laptop)
through service provider (WAP), or wireless Hub (HTTP) to connect with enterprise
repositories to access the enterprise information systems.
4.3 Advantages and Limitations of M-EA
In  this  section,  the  initial  research  output  from  literature  review  of  M-EA,  the
advantages and limitations are listed. From several literatures studied earlier, it is
found that mobility or mobile technology could help the enterprise build better
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PhD Thesis  Page 107 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
enterprise architecture or improve their productivity and customer service. After
review and analysis of the literature, the researcher listed the most important or
popular benefits and challenges in this section. After discussion of all the points
listed here with interviewees, the refined advantages are documented in the section
4.8.2 and updated practical issues are documented in the section 4.8.3.
4.3.1 Advantages of using M-EA
Based on the understanding developed during the literature review, the EA is meant
to  clearly  show  the  enterprise-wide  view  of  how  to  integrate  MT.  Such  a  view
provides the blueprint for future IT direction. Additionally, it also brings the
following benefits:
· M-EA allows people anywhere anytime access to applications (Alag, 2006;
Rolstadas and Andersen, 2000).
· M-EA facilitates faster information flow and enhanced reliability (Saha (Ed.),
2007; Yang and Wang, 2006; Milojicic et al. (Ed.), 1999).
· Combination service can be provided through M-EA (Qiu (Ed), 2007).
· Increase enterprise flexibility in order to raise efficiency and effectiveness of
business processes by streamlining real-time decision-making (Sherringham and
Unhelkar, 2009).
· Reduce costs by reaching out to the extended M-EA supported and sustained over
time (McGuire, 2007).
4.3.2 Limitations of M-EA
Followings are the list of the limitation and challenges of M-EA:
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PhD Thesis  Page 108 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
· Security and privacy issues, including data transaction security (Nand, 2006).
· No single standard for mobile technologies (Ghanbary, 2006).
· Mobile device form factor and also device trust (Forman and Zahorjan, 1994).
· Expensive Costs of M-EA facilities implementation at initial (Patel, 2009).
· Companies having to re-engineer their business processes also employee training
being required (Cook, 1996).
However,  most  of  challenges  above  can  be  handled  by  refining  the  M-EA.  More
details  of  how to  handle  these  limitations  of  M-EA will  be  analyzed  in  the  Section
4.8.3 after discussing all these points with interviewees.
4.4 Research questions in the case study
A limitation of only using Literature Review methodology to create the initial M-EA
model by the researcher’s own self is not objective. Therefore, this research
envisions the updated M-EA model through knowledge elicitation by interview
results.  As  above  the  description  of  the  outcome  from  Literature  Review  of  the
understanding of M-EA, this case study method aims to update the model through by
interviewing several experienced experts and knowledge of this research area. The
research questions are divided by 4 parts:
1. Personal understanding and experience of using and implementing EA;
2. The advantage and disadvantage of mobile technology bring to EA;
3. Personal definition of M-EA;
4. The expected outcomes of having applied M-EA.
In the first part, personal understanding and experience of using and implementing
EA are focused on the interviewees’ story. The questions include:
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PhD Thesis  Page 109 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
l What, according to the interviewees, is Enterprise Architecture?
l How is EA used in the organization?
l Which documents and teams are used when the company builds and implements
EA?
l What criteria or aspects are of utmost concerns when the organization builds the
EA?
l What migration plan does the company have?
l What is the current information sharing privacy and security condition
applying?
In the second part, the researcher asked the interviewees’ personal understanding of
the advantage and disadvantage of mobile technology as brought to EA. The answer,
for some interviewees, could be their experience or their expectations, and concerns.
The questions include:
l Does the company bring the mobile technology to EA right now?
l Is mobile technology separate or integrated with EA?
l What kinds of the current mobile technology application do the employees of
the company usually use?
l What, according to the interviewees, would be the major advantages in
integrated mobile technologies with EA?
l What, according to the interviewees, would be the challenges and the risks in
integrated mobile technologies with EA?
In the third part, this research focuses on gathering the interviewees’ personal
definition of M-EA. The questions include:
l What, according to the interviewees, is Mobile Enterprise Architecture?
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PhD Thesis  Page 110 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
l What criteria or aspects are the most concerns of constructing the Mobile
Enterprise Architecture?
l Which applications of mobile technologies, according to the interviewees’
suggestion, may enable to extend the enterprise architecture?
Lastly, this research gathers the interviewees’ expected outcomes of applied M-EA
which is planned to be used as the criteria for the action research project. The
questions are: according to the interviewees’ current position, what expectations do
the interviewees’ have of applying M-EA to the organization? From people, process,
system, and information perspectives, what do the interviewees expect after
implementing M-EA to the enterprise?
4.5 Design of the case study
As discussed in the Chapter 3, this research follows a qualitative research
methodology. Berg (2004) states that case study methods involves systematic
collection of  information about a particular person, social setting, event, or group
to permit the researcher to effectively understand how the subject operates or
functions. Yin (2003) outlined that the case study isn’t actually a data-gathering
technique but a methodological approach (which was identified as our research
method) that incorporates a number of data-gathering measures. The approach of
case studies ranges significantly from general field studies to the interview of the
single individual or focus group. This research project aims to use the case study as
research method and interview as data-collection method. Interviewees are invited to
tell the story of their experiences, with those chosen representing different levels
within the same position or different perspectives of the same situation of process to
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permit depth of perspective (Cooper and Schindler, 2008).
The interviewees of this research are people who are business analyst, or enterprise
architects, or CIO, or IT executives who have experienced the building of an
enterprise architecture. The interviewer also tried to understand if and how the
interviewees’ company was using mobile technologies. Therefore, the researcher can
target on doing action research within the company trying to extend enterprise
architecture with mobile applications. However, if they are not using any mobile
device in the company, they are asked to explain why they are not interested to use
this modern technology. The participants were selected from supervisors, or PhD
candidates, or from meetings in the Australian Computer Society – business
intelligent group workshops, business systems architecture and design workshops,
business analyst group seminars or forums.
The number of interview samples depends on the nature of the topic and on the
resources available. A key point is that more interviews don’t necessary imply better
quality or more detailed understanding. There are two bases to this claim. Firstly,
there are a limited number of interpretations or versions of reality. Secondly, there is
the issue of the size of the corpus to be analyzed. For these two reasons, there is an
upper limit to the sample size of interviews - around 10 interviewees from different
industries or companies. This sample size is determined to enable the researcher
understand those business analysts’ experiences in building enterprise architecture
and the status of mobile applications in their companies.  The participants are
selected from experienced people in related positions of industries who are interested
in this research area and are willing to answer the questions in the interviews. The
research doesn’t involve any children and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
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participants. The questionnaire includes personal experiences and expert thoughts in
a specific area so that only experienced adults could participate in this research
project.
4.6 Process of data collection and analysis
A personal interview was considered to be the most suitable method for this research
project. Many interviews are conducted face-to-face, with the obvious benefits of
being able to observe and record non-verbal as well as verbal behaviors. An
interview, however, can be conducted by phone or online. Phone and online
interviews offer the opportunity to conduct more interviews within the same time
frame and draw participants from a wider geographic area. This approach also saves
the travel expenses of moving trained interviewers to participants, as well as the
travel fees associated with bringing participants to a neutral site.
Firstly, the participants are treated with respect, kindness and in brief asked whether
they have experiences of building enterprise architecture and the status of mobile
technology in their companies. This is followed by handing out of our information
sheet (Please see Appendix A) to introduce our research project. The participants are
kindly asked for their interests in this interview. After getting a positive response of
their interests, a dialogue statement and sample interview questions are sent to them
by email. (Please see the third page of Appendix A as the email attachment). Once
the participants’ answers of sample questions are collected by email, an
acknowledgement email is automatically sent. After summarizing each respond to
this specific research area, more detailed information is occasionally required.
Therefore, the researcher calls the participant or sends an email to make a phone-call
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or makes a face-to-face interview appointment with the interviewees. The research
purpose and other details, such as the confidentiality and anonymity of this study are
explained to the participants during the interview process. The interviews are
recorded by digital video and recorded with interviewee’s permission, then the
details are typed as a document to be taken in print form and the data will be
analyzed and processed by sorting the raw data to answer those 4 specific research
questions.  Lastly, the researcher discusses the interviews results with supervisor
and research team analyses all related useful information in order to elicit the
updated M-EA model.
4.7 Results from case study by interview
There are 10 interviewees that responded to the interviews. These interviews were
conducted both face to face and also with the interviewees responding by email. This
section documents the result of the first part of interview questions, which try to
understand the background of the interviewees’ personal understanding and
experience of using and implementing EA.
Case 1: A.G., Post-Doc research fellow at a university
The interviewer has conducted a face-to-face interview with this interviewee who has
completed his PhD in SOA research area. In his opinion, SOA reuses data, process,
and service to reduce the data duplicate in order to provide effective process and
service. Back bone system supporting or providing supports for front desk is to offer
better  and  faster  service  to  the  customers,  which  brings  better  CRM.  Moreover,
Mobile technology can impact on EA by people accessing systems and processing
business anywhere and anytime. Therefore, the interviewee states that extending EA
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with mobility brings really a good opportunity to the company to improve their
CRM.
Core Input: From the understanding of expert researcher in SOA area, Case 1
confirms that extending EA with mobility provides better CRM to the company in
order to bring more customers and remain the original customers by his action
research working experience.
Case 2: A.H., chief architect at a specialist security company, Canberra, Australia
The interviewer has conducted face-to-face interview with this interviewee who is a
chief architect in his company. According to his experience, mobility can bring the
company a greater level of data mobility and better productivity. Additionally, better
mobile processes become standard and accepted by all stakeholders. Mobile phones,
Short Message Service (SMS), laptops with WLAN enable the company to conduct
business remotely as the offices of some of their senior managers are located in
different location. Therefore, he strongly agreed that extending EA with mobility
increased effectiveness of business process as well as reduced the traveling costs for
the company.
Core Input: From Case 2 expert architect’s experience, he states that extending EA
with mobility brings location-independence benefits to the company in order to
reduce the travel time and costs, and also improve the speed of business processes.
Case 3: C.P., senior manger at a large publishing house in Sydney
The interviewer has conducted a face-to-face interview with this interviewee who is
an IT executive in the large size organization. From his experience, his company has
already employed an Enterprise Architecture approach to IT systems. The company
has purchased IT servers from the one vendor, and only uses MS-SQL databases
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although some systems are only available with an Oracle database. The company
insists on a Standard Operating Environment (SOE) for all desktops, which are
purchased from single vendor and are refreshed (i.e. replaced every 4 years). Some
of the key documents relevant to build the IT Enterprise Architecture are the general
IT Security policy document and the Application Security Policy document. The
employees  of  whole  organization  are  required  to  have  acknowledged  the  Computer
Use policy. Security issues need to be concerned when the company adds new
technologies  into  EA,  such  as:  ensure  the  staff  network  passwords  are  changed
regularly (every 90 days).
Core Input: From Case 3 IT manager’s experience, he provides the EA structure of
his company and also states that security issue is really an important issue when
extending mobility with EA.
Case 4: D.C., enterprise architect in a global insurance broker with head office in
New York
The interviewer has conducted face-to-face interviews with this interviewee who is
an enterprise architect in a global insurance enterprise. According to interviewee’s
experience, his company has focused more on the technical and information
architecture rather than the business architecture. The business alignment and
governance are not particularly well developed. Additionally, the interviewee is not
entirely convinced that the global model being implemented, at least in terms of
business imperatives, represents a correct prioritization of opportunity development.
The company has two architects groups to develop the EA, which are Business
architects team and technology architects team. The company doesn’t use mobile
technologies in a processing system sense. However, internal users could carry
Blackberry devices primarily for email capabilities and messaging. The company
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couldn’t control their customer use in the kind of mobile device to run the business
process. Different mobile devices, even same devices but different brands, have
different standards, languages, and platforms. Thus, the company can’t design only
one single form to their customers to fill in by using on any mobile devices.
Core Input: From Case 4’s expert experience, he declares there are two teams to
construct the EA when implementing in his company, and also declares establishing
M-EA is very difficult to his company, due to so many different mobile devices, even
the same devices but different brands have different standards, languages, and
platforms.
Case 5: G.M., consultant solutions architect to the banking and finance sector in
Sydney, Australia
The interviewer conducted a phone interview with this interviewee who is a solution
architect in an external consulting company. According to interview’s experience, his
company was employed to help in developing the EA. The interviewer declares that a
clear understanding of the framework is very important to build the EA to the
Company. A framework derived from Zachman and TOGAF along with a proprietary
methodology could be used. Additionally, a well defined business strategy with a
clear delivery plan is also important. The plan is always about 12-18 months period
of time, including analyzing strategy, evaluating current system, finding a gap, and
drawing a Visio diagram for the new architecture. A strong and diverse background
in IT architecture is also able to translate high level business requirements into
useable IT requirements and specifications. Finally, the Enterprise Architect team of
the company provided includes four small groups: infrastructure, database, business
analysis, and development and support groups. Security of information is considered
to be an important aspect of service delivery (from purchase order to fill customer
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request); therefore part of the underlying infrastructure is used to deliver the business
value. Every new project initiated whole EA team has a security consideration task
associated with it which has to satisfy the organizations security requirements.
Core Input: From Case 5’s consultant experience, he demonstrates that a framework,
a well defined business strategy, a good plan, and a good structure of EA team are
very important to construct a whole EA to the Company.
Case 6: J.H., chief architect in a large state government owned transport agency
The interviewer has Internet interviewed (several Email replies). This interviewee is
a chief architect in a large state government owned transport agency. According to
interview’s experience, her company has an ongoing EA program.  It is used
primarily to guide investment in combined business and technology change. The
company typically divides the documentation into layers at a contextual, conceptual,
logical and physical level.  The EA looks at the contextual and conceptual layers.
These are then broken down into business terms information, application and
technology architecture. Solution Architecture concentrates on the logical and
physical layers. Each Reference Architecture or Domain Architecture includes a
roadmap which is then used as an input into program planning and capital forecasts.
Core Input: From this Case 6 expert architect’s opinion, he confirms that transition
road map is important to implement M-EA, and also suggests that the researcher
needs to describe more details of each layer of M-EA model.
Case 7: K.S., consultant to a large building and construction company
The interviewer has Internet interviewed (several Email replies). This interviewee is
a consultant in a building and construction company. He has written several chapters
with the researcher’s supervisor about mobile business topic, which includes
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business driven EA for mobile business. According to his knowledge, he states that
“business need” is the major concern when the company wants to build EA.
Application of market forces and proven design and engineering principles to EA.
Making ICT the assembly line supports standardized knowledge worker operations.
Additionally, mobile technology can allow us to access knowledge as required, to
transact ability as required and to have more effective communication. Some mobile
technologies are commonly used in the company, especially in warehousing which
has been used effectively.
Core Input: From this Case 7 consultant’s experience, he points out that MT makes
process as more effective, but always have budget problems.
Case 8: P.S., solutions architect at global mobile communications and service
provided company
The interviewer has conducted a face-to-face interview with this interviewee who is
a solution architect in a global mobile communication service provided enterprise.
According to interview’s experience, his company has focused more on the technical
and information architecture rather than the business architecture. However, he
indicates that a good EA should encompass three pivotal points including People,
Processes and Technology in its entirety; and the ability of these three entities should
be well managed and delivered. EA can also be termed as a Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA), where certain functions are grouped together and are controlled
independently of each other allowing data transferring among one or more functions
using a common bus interface. The interviewee’s company partly uses SOA and
partly performs point to point architecture. SOA in his organization is used for
provisioning new services via the use of TIBCO EAI.
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Core Input: From this Case 8 expert solution architect’s experience, he confirms that
“people” is really an important aspect of constructing full M-EA, and he outlines that
SOA brings better CRM.
Case 9: R.A., consultant enterprise architect to a large Indian IT outsourcing service
provider based in Melbourne, Australia
The interviewer has Internet interviewed (several Email replies) with this interviewee
who is a consultant enterprise architect to a large Indian IT outsourcing service
provider. According to his knowledge, he defines that EA should describe how
business operating model for an organization is implemented to use IT at
macroscopic level and also to describe the classification of relationships amongst key
business, information, IT application and IT infrastructure assets. The interviewee’s
company provides services for providing EA capabilities to clients. A number of
services provided by the interviewee’s company are implemented to use integrated
frameworks, which serve as the EA for delivery of these services and providing tools
to support these services. EA services to clients use a number of popular industry
frameworks. These are Zachman, RM-ODP, Rational 4+1, TOGAF, FEAF and
various  Frameworks  specifically  to  industry  verticals.  New  technologies  are
incorporated into EA as part of the Technology strategy process.
Core  Input:  From  this  Case  9  consultant  architect’s  experience,  he  outlines  that
building EA can use several popular industry frameworks.
Case 10: S.P., CTO of an Indian solutions provider company based in Sydney,
Australia
The interviewer has Internet interviewed (several Email reply) with this interviewee
who is a CTO of an Indian solutions provider company. The interviewee’s company
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sells, implements, and customizes the enterprise application in Australia and New
Zealand (ANZ) region for Engineering, Manufacturing and Process companies.
According to this interviewee, there are three basic building blocks for a pure
Enterprise Architecture, that the application should be Pure Internet, Integral and
Interoperable.
a) Integral
a. Modular solutions sharing a single database / schema
b. Single business object and process model
c. Consistent and unified Web-based user interface
b) Pure Internet
a. Written 100% in Java with the broadest and most sophisticated support of J2EE
and Internet standards
b. Proven seamless intranet / extranet deployments with existing Internet and
security infrastructure
c. Industry-standard J2EE, Internet and Web services interfaces
c) Interoperable
a. Seamless interoperability with heterogeneous systems
b. Powerful federation for maintaining data with other systems
c. Standards-based integration with commercial EAI vendors and turnkey
process integration with TIBCO or other technologies ready to be fit into the
enterprise layers.
d. Whole Web services connectivity with any other technology Microsoft .NET
Web service applications
Core  Input:  From this  CTO expert’s  experience,  case  10  indicates  that  the  pure  EA
includes 3 basic building blocks which are Pure Internet, integral and interoperable.
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4.8 Analysis and discussion of findings to verify the initial
M-EA
The analysis and discussion of findings are followed in the last 3 parts of questions to
verify the initial M-EA. First part: the discussion of interviewees’ definition of M-EA,
are documented in section 4.8.1. Second Part: the analysis of interviewees’
understanding and experiences of advantage of mobile technology bring to EA are
discussed in section 4.8.2. Third Part: the discussion of interviewees’ understanding
and experiences of the limitations and the challenges mobile technology brings to EA
are discussed in section 4.8.3. Final Part: The analysis of interviewees’ expected
outcomes of applied M-EA are outlined in section 4.8.4.
4.8.1 Updated M-EA definition
Case 1: A.G., Post-Doc research fellow at a university
M-EA facilitates information and knowledge sharing in the organization; therefore, it
provides an organization with an opportunity to arrange its internal departments, their
systems and applications in an efficient way. M-EA also enables cooperation between
different departments and their corresponding mobile information systems and
processes.  Thus,  as  a  result,  M-EA  becomes  a  starting  point  for  a  collaborative
organization, especially when it supports mobile web services.
Case 2: A.H., chief architect at a specialist security company, Canberra, Australia
M-EA is the collection of organization’s information systems and business processes
with mobility being an integral part of them. The most important element of M-EA is
to  help  a  company  manage  all  of  its  mobile  data  and  information  and  store  it  in  a
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secure place.
Case 3: C.P., senior manger at a large publishing house in Sydney
M-EA is a design or a model that an organization adopts to provide consistent results,
reliable deliverables and secure mobile transactions. Usually, M-EA refers to the IT
hardware, software, data, and system of an organization; however, M-EA can be
easily applied to other more general business processes of the organization. M-EA
can potentially be made up of policies, document suites, workflows, procedures and
forms.
Case 4: D.C., enterprise architect in a global insurance broker with head office in
New York
M-EA is a function that ensures a business’s mobile and information technology
strategy to correctly align with its business strategy and objectives. Additionally,
M-EA is a combination of outputs based on this alignment work and associated with
its technology and business objectives. M-EA should include models of the business,
information and technical systems and, additionally, the principals and governance
needed to deliver the required alignment. Governance (people) is very important,
because they interact with the system.
Case 5: G.M., consultant solutions architect to the banking and finance sector in
Sydney, Australia
M-EA is a framework used to build the organization’s mobile information systems
that deliver the business outcomes. M-EA defines both the structure and the behavior
of the organization’s mobile processes which include their technical components and
their location-independent interactions. M-EA can also be defined as the abstraction
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of the design of the mobile business systems.
Case 6: J.H., chief architect in a large state government owned transport agency
M-EA is a blueprint to integrate business and mobile technology viewpoints of an
organization. The purpose of M-EA is to describe the current and target models of an
organization in order to guide and document the transitions of the organization to the
target model. M-EA in the company is used primarily to guide investment in the
combined business and mobile technology change. We typically divide our
enterprise-wide models into layers at a contextual, conceptual, logical and physical
level.  M-EA looks at the contextual and conceptual layers whereas the Solution
Architecture concentrates on the logical and physical layers of this enterprise-wide
modeling and documentation. While mobility is regarded as a broader concept,
mobile technologies should be treated as an integral part of an EA.
Case 7: K.S., consultant to a large building and construction company
M-EA facilitates the design and application of mobile ICT to enable the business to
provide services and contents with ease. A mobile system design includes
requirements, specifications, design, implementation and deployment of mobile
applications. This mobile system design is carried out with higher quality and lower
risks when it is based on an M-EA. At times, an isolated mobile system design may
exclude business systems integration; however, M-EA is also able to handle these
system integration issues well.
Case 8: P.S., solutions architect at global mobile communications and service
provided company
M-EA  encompasses  three  pivotal  points  of  any  architecture:  People,  Processes  and
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Technology. Considering these points in their entirety, managing them well to deliver
solutions is the responsibility of an M-EA. M-EA also nudges the organization
towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) with mobility. A mobile SOA groups
like functions together wraps them with a mobile interface and controls them in order
to allow service calls, responses, and data transfer among them. The mobile
technologies used and provided by in the interviewee’s organization currently are:
3G, Skype on mobile, Mobile TV, mobile Email, Blackberry and Mobile Web, to
name but a few. Introduction of a new mobile application implies considerable
utilization of the framework of M-EA and its business process.
Case 9: R.A., consultant enterprise architect to a large Indian IT outsourcing service
provider based in Melbourne, Australia
M-EA describes how a business operating model for an organization is implemented
by using mobile technologies at both micro and macro level. Moreover, M-EA also
describes the classification of and relationships amongst key business, information,
IT application and mobile communication infrastructure assets.
Case 10: S.P., CTO of an Indian solutions provider company based in Sydney,
Australia
Three basic building blocks for a pure M-EA are the mobile Internet, Integration
amongst applications and interoperability amongst applications. The mobile Internet
with supporting software provides all Internet capabilities on the wireless, facilitates
deployment of mobile intranet and extranets, and is made up of development
environments (such as Java) with the broadest and most sophisticated support of
J2ME, J2EE and the Internet standards. Integration amongst mobile applications
happens through a common business view, a common and sharing single database
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and its schema and a consistent and unified mobile user interface. Interoperability
amongst mobile, non-mobile and heterogeneous systems requires the use of
commercial EAI vendors as well as turnkey process integration (e.g. with TIBCO) or
other technologies ready to be fit into the various mobile enterprise layers.
From above discussion, and an analysis of the results from the interviews, the initial
M-EA definition can be arrived at as shown in Table 4.1:
Table 4.1: Results from the interviewees that outline the 5 aspects of the M-EA
Case
No.
Business
Process
People
Data/
Information
System
Mobile
Technology
Others
1 √ √ √ √
2 √ √ √ √ Security
3 √ √ √ √ √ Security
4 √ √ √ √ √
5 √ √ √ √ Security
6 √ √
7 √ √ √
8 √ √ √
9 √ √ √
10 √ √ √ √ √
In the Table 4.1, it shows most of the interviewees agree that M-EA constructs
include the process, people, data, system, and also technology aspects. Three
interviewees totally agreed these five aspects to construct the M-EA model, and all of
the interviewees agree the business and mobile technology aspects are important.
However, there are only 4 interviewees state that “people” is the most important
aspect because they all declare that people are the only ones who can control, access,
manage, and make decision of constructing the M-EA. Additionally, several
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interviewees also suggest that “security” is also the other important aspect of the
M-EA, which also can help modify the initial model to comprehensive one.
Furthermore, the researcher considers validating the initial model with “security of
M-EA” to the comprehensive M-EA model which documented on Chapter 5.
4.8.2 Refined advantages of using M-EA
The advantages of M-EA are good assumptions for enterprise investigation in mobile
technology area. These advantages are also justified as a genuine opportunity to
support the company objectives within a business strategy manner. After discussing
with the interviewees about the lists of M-EA advantages (see section 4.3.1), the
results from the interviewees’ personal knowledge and experience are analysed and
documented as following:
l M-EA allows people anywhere anytime access to applications
Case  1 identifies that people accessing systems to get any kind of information of
organization and processing business anywhere and anytime by holding mobile
devices, which is the major advantages using M-EA. Case 2 states that MT can have
a positive impact on EA by enabling people access to conduct business anywhere and
anytime. It enables access to information by linking the organization’s systems to
portable devices. Mobility could allow people to carry smaller devices and have
more  effective  communication.  It  provides  the  enterprise  with  a  far  greater  level  of
data mobility and potential productivity. Thus, properly treating any external
infrastructure and services is part of an organization’s mobile solution. Additionally,
in many instances, global organizations will leverage third party communication
infrastructure and associated services as part of their overall mobility solution set as
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well. Additionally, Case 10 declares that the modern mobile phone market caters for
a wide variety of customer tastes and lifestyles. Smart phones and PDA are very
handy  in  terms  of  end  user  response  and  ease  of  use  from  the  application  point  of
view. Most Windows mobiles (PDA) or the smart phones which support browser
facility are capable of running our enterprise application anywhere and anytime. The
application is pure internet and is very light weight in terms of rendering and
transferring data across browsers to the servers. All these users can access the system
through their mobile devices to run the business processes whenever they want.
l M-EA facilitates faster information flow and enhanced reliability
Case  1 identifies that Mobility is very useful on fast flow of knowledge when you
enter the co-operation between internal departments to make faster easier and access
to external parties- customers or suppliers. Drive action into the enterprise by
successful re-engineering business processes to match marketing strategy model also
can help identify and reduce process bottlenecks quickly. Furthermore, Case  3
declares that the major advantages in an integrated MT with EA are reliability,
consistency, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness. Enhanced reliability- Systems that are
designed to operate only when connected with certain other system, such as file
servers, may not function well when a file server is unavailable. In contrast, systems
that are designed to expect no connectivity may be able to ignore the outage- when a
host can’t tell difference between a non-functional network and a non-functional
computer connected to it- and recover later when the server returns to active status.
Moreover, Case  6 indicates  that  MT  (mainly  mobile  phones  and  home  wireless
networks) has almost become ubiquitous and thus a mode of interaction that cannot
be ignored by organizations which currently (or plan to) provide services via the
internet. EA with integrated MT allows for the organization to provide services via
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any mode and thus design systems with just the business functionality in mind. MT
then becomes part of the infrastructure concerned with delivery of the information.
Mobility is very useful on information fast flow when you enter the cooperation
between internal departments to make faster easier to access external parties-
customers or suppliers. If rules or policies change, the information flow faster to the
enterprise which makes EA respond to those changes more easy and quickly.
l Combination service provided through M-EA
Case  5 states that MT (mainly mobile phones and home wireless networks) have
almost become ubiquitous and thus a mode of interaction that cannot be ignored by
organizations which currently (or plan to) provide services via the internet. An
increased reliance on mobile phones as compared to fixed line phones is noticeable.
Mobile technologies provide a newly evolving mode of interaction with corporate
and enterprise systems. EA with integrated mobile technologies allows for the
organization to provide services via any mode and thus design systems with just the
business functionality in mind. Mobile technologies then become part of the
infrastructure concerned with delivery of the information. Also, Case  8 lists some
advantages of integrated Mobile Technologies into EA: 1. Able to present a single
view to the customer; 2. Ability to deliver multiple technologies using a single EA; 3.
Ability to deliver multiple applications over the Mobile Technology using EA. The
following mobile technologies are currently integrating in the interviewee’s
organization’s EA: 1. 3G mobile applications; 2. Skype; 3. Mobile TV; 4. Email; 5.
Blackberry; 6. Mobile Web etc. In addition, Case  9 recognizes that using MT
facilitates the delivery of additional access channels, which makes sense to have in a
mobile context, e.g. service requests, payments and information/reminder channels.
Better mobile processes are becoming standard and accepted by all users. A number
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of resource requests for travel, accommodation and for equipment (e.g. laptops,
mobile) could be submitted by using a mobile platform as it may be the natural
choice of convenience. The interviewee’s company has an internal MT interest group.
The modern mobile phone market caters for a wide variety of customer tastes and
lifestyles.  People  can  use  smart  phones  and  PDA which  are  very  handy in  terms  of
end user response and ease of use from the application point of view to access this
combination service.
l Increase enterprise flexibility in order to raise efficiency and effectiveness of
business processes by streamlining real-time decision-making.
Case 2 points out that mobility can bring to have greater level of data mobility and
better productivity, also better mobile process becomes standard and accepted by all
stakeholders. Company conduct business remotely as senior managers and the Board
of Directors and distributors are based in different locations. Similarly, Case 7 states
that  MT  allows  the  user  to  access  the  knowledge  as  required,  ability  to  transact  as
required and more effective communication. Some mobile technologies are
commonly used in the interviewee’s company, and especially in warehousing as it
has been used effectively. The manager can use a RFID system to track the material
amount in real-time in order to make the decision directly to reduce the ordering
process cycle time.
l Reduce cost by reaching out to the extended MEA is supported and sustained
over time
Case  3 highlights that high quality, longer used, and easy to modify and extend IT
infrastructures in future, which facilitates cooperation by leverage M-EA to set a
successful technology direction. From longer using IT infrastructures also leads cost
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PhD Thesis  Page 130 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
reduction as well. Likewise, Case  4 outlines  that  the  investigation  of  MT  was
justified as a genuine opportunity within the Business Strategy and could support the
company objectives. MT are finally realizing some of their potential (lower operating
costs for the consumer, better interfaces, and better integration) makes the ability to
carry out some functions more ergonomic now than in the past 3-4 years. Typically,
the interviewee observes the use of MT as a useful addition for providing consumers
with additional access channels for things that make sense to have in a mobile
context, e.g. service requests, payments and information/reminder channels.
Furthermore, Case 6 thinks the benefits from an M-EA are much different from the
overall benefits of EA – i.e. Lower cost base through technology standardization,
business enablement through improved integration, faster provisioning of new
services, etc.
4.8.3 Updated practical issues of M-EA
Enterprise might not have enough knowledge to understand the technologies of
mobile hardware and software which is integrated into M-EA. Therefore, enterprise
might limit or stop extending their EA with mobile technologies due to it. Thus, in an
ever changing world wherein the new technologies being introduced everyday, it
may  be  difficult  to  just  keep  pace  with and let alone overcome the challenges it
brings. However, in keeping with tradition, following the right processes, having the
right people and having the right technology may be the keys to overcome any
challenges that new technologies may bring with it. From discussion with the
interviewee about numbers of limitations and challenges that need to be considered
as part of an M-EA implementation, the result has been analysed by the researcher
and documented as follows:
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l Security issues
All of the interviewees’ responses to this issue are very important in extending EA to
M-EA; following are the results from the analyzed interview records by the
researcher:
Case  1 points out that it is critical to incorporate the security concerns associated
with mobility solutions in any related EA activity. Data security and non-repudiation
(especially for financial transactions); targeting only those applications which can be
deployed with sufficient usability and security, it may not be safe enough to push
customers accessing or storing their financial data into their mobile handsets.
Additionally, this will vary greatly by type of handset or device. It would need to be
treated alongside the core mobile infrastructure for Multi-factor authentication,
encryption… etc.
Case  2 indicates that data security and Intellectual Property (IP) security is very
important as well. The interviewee’s company currently uses industry standard
firewall, software and hardware security systems, also regular risk assessment and
procedures to get over this issue.
Case  3 demonstrates that security issues are important when adding new
technologies  into  EA,  such  as:  ensure  that  staff  network  passwords  are  changed
regularly (ever 90 days). All internal systems that allow internet traffic must have the
session initiated according to the inside-out rule. I.e. no communication commences
with the external party. Data security is overcome by on-going encryption and
secures connections. The interviewee’s company ensures up-to-date data with all IT
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PhD Thesis  Page 132 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
security patches from all the vendors. Additionally, having e-mail sweeping software
eliminates  rogue  and  bogus  e-mails  from  even  entering  our  corporate  e-mail
repositories. Also, all employees of the Company adhere to a published Application
Security Policy.
Case  4 outlines that from an authentication and authorization points of view, the
most important aspect relates to individual user/team access to client data. There is a
large component of the technical EA focused on Team Rights Management. Finally, a
key aspect is having a clear idea of the scope of use and capabilities of mobile
technologies available today. One area of risk is the sheer size of the market for
mobile devices and capabilities. It makes supporting this a potentially very complex
and risky proposition, especially in an EA environment, which largely focuses on
internal capabilities under complete control of the organization in security issue.
Case 5 summarizes that Security of information is considered as an important aspect
of service delivery (from purchase order to fulfill customer’s request) and therefore
part of the underlying infrastructure used to deliver the business value. Every new
project initiated by whole EA team has a security consideration task associated with
to satisfy the organizations security requirements.
Case 6 states that the specific variations in an EA with respect to mobility, however,
are addressed in the interviewee’s organization by creating a ‘Mobility Reference
Architecture’. This architecture, which is developed by us in 2008, will address
issues that are mobile-specific – such as identity management, encryption, location
services, scalability, security in mobile communication infrastructure and a mobile
development environment. This will be a mix of commercial 3G mobile data services
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PhD Thesis  Page 133 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
and focused on deployment of broadband wireless hotspots. This infrastructure will
need to be supported by enhanced authentication and encryption technologies.
Furthermore, M-EA also has a challenge in proper treatment of an external
infrastructure and services that form part of an organization’s mobile solution.
Organizations need to leverage third party wireless communications infrastructure
and associated services as part of their overall set of mobility solution. Traditional
EA modeling techniques don’t tend to address this aspect (third party infrastructure)
particularly well. It is also important to incorporate the security concerns associated
with mobility solutions into any related EA. Multi-factor authentication, encryption,
etc would need to be treated alongside the core mobile infrastructure. Lastly,
application delivery mechanisms will still be concerns for many organizations. Thick
client application delivery is still a reality for most companies and will continue to
present challenges notwithstanding the increasing bandwidth of mobile data
technologies.
Case 7 declares that security has to be given due consideration when the enterprise
wants to implement M-EA into their company. The increased mobile computing
power of handheld devices introduces new security threats, which would be in the
form of loss of confidentiality, integrity and availability. Password protection is
included in most handheld devices as a counter measure. Furthermore, network and
application security measures also need to be considered when extending enterprise
architecture with mobility. Having risk identification and risk planning measures
could help to overcome some risks. A possible solution is to build security measures
into mobile platforms and applications themselves.
Case  8 indicates that handling security issues of M-EA is required to follow the
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PhD Thesis  Page 134 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
business rule validations (all business processes are constructed based on business
reengineering). Additionally, from the intranet of EIS to Internet, there is firewall
needed in the company. Following Figure 4.3 is the structure of the interviewee’s
company to handle the security issues of their M-EA:
Figure 4.3: The structure of Case 8 handling security issues of M-EA
Case 9 highlights that targeting of extending EA with mobile applications, which can
be deployed with sufficient usability and security issue (as it is not safe for the
company to push customers or financial data to mobile handsets as yet). The
important security concerns in the interviewee’s company are 1.Authentication and
authorization services, and 2. Privacy of information assets.
Case 10 observes that the http and https both protocols under SSL (Secured Socket
Layer) and also using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) for better
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PhD Thesis  Page 135 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
encryption and deployment of the user access policies is a kind of solution of
security issue. The solution also follows by firewall restrictions under http and https
layers.
l No single standard for mobile technologies
Case  2 considers  that  MTs  are  still  immature  but  are  improving  at  a  great  rate.
Additionally, there are a lot of competing standards. There are still considerable
efforts required to standardize technologies for interoperability. Furthermore, there
are a range of protocols in use, including GSM, Edge, 3G as well as the older CDMA.
Different types of organization incorporate mobility in different ways depending on,
for example, the bandwidth on Internet, the capability of mobile devices and the
number of users/population influenced by Mobility.
Case 4 recognizes that in the primary business areas, Risk Management and Middle
Market Commercial have limited use for mobile technologies to be introduced. This
is primarily because of the bespoke processing nature of the business itself which is
both consultative and document intensive. However, within the Consumer business
(much higher volume and very low touch) there would be a much greater opportunity.
Consumers who are typically much more Return on investment (ROI) focused on
individual initiatives to any use of this form of technology would be closely
scrutinized. From a technology viewpoint, the interviewee’s company is not
particularly advanced in its use of automated systems and mobile technology because
it couldn’t control the customer to use which kind of mobile device to run our
business process. Different devices, even same devices but different brands, have
different standards, languages, and platforms. However, the company can’t only
design one single form for the customers to fill in by using on any mobile devices.
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PhD Thesis  Page 136 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
This form will be changed on different mobile devices, and the company couldn’t
test the form on so many different mobile devices as well.
Case 9 also indicates that there are several MT having been standardised around the
world and there still exists a difficulty in achieving a ubiquitous standard technology
that could be used for people travelling. This also brings many risks when new
technologies are introduced and are completely new in the market, and this creates
confusion in the marketplace as consumers attempt to understand and choose from
what is available.
l Mobile Device Form Factor and Device Trust
Case 3 outlines that it has taken a great deal of time to convince the public in general
of the relative security of the Internet and its use in delivering financial transactions.
This trust has yet to be reached in devices applied in the Mobile space, especially
with financial transactions.
Case 5 declares that MT involves a different presentation mechanism to the currently
well established ones such as desktop computing for the Internet and Telephone. As
with each presentation channel, the mode of communication along with the
limitations of the devices used for the purpose pose the greatest challenges. For
example, size of display, communication infrastructure required, authentication and
authorization mechanisms, small screen and keyboards limit the overall usability etc.
Ease of use for the staff is needed to operate the devices, overcomes through
thorough and regular training. One example of reducing this problem is to use the
web  browsing  capabilities  of  current  mobile  phones  along  with  a  re-designed  web
interface suited to a significantly smaller screen size as well as limitations of the
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PhD Thesis  Page 137 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
communication infrastructure. This has the need for each application to have custom
presentation mechanisms and relies on the user to decide and select the appropriate
one. Even if the mobile phones are handy enough to use, hundreds of millions of
people are not going to replace the full screen, mouse and keyboard experience with
start of the little screen. This is more conventional than adoption of things, but can be
catered with time. The other method is to use new mobile interfacing tools that adjust
the information transfer based on the parameters of the device used in the
communication. For example, a mobile device with a large color screen is able to
display more information and use colors to distinguish the type of information. On a
smaller monochrome screen, less information is displayed and a small number of
grayscales are used to show the different types of information. A mobile phone with
no web access would request information via SMS and the response would be
optimized to cater to the limitations of the SMS technology.
l Cost of M-EA implementation
Case 6 shows that some of the challenges relate particularly to user perception of the
real value of this area. At present, extent MTs are still seen as unnecessary “toys” as
opposed to value channels to be supported/ utilized. In the context of an EA program,
the  primary  way  to  overcome  this  is  to  be  very  sure  that  the  inclusion  of  this
technology is both cost/value justified and is a key enabler in helping the business
reaching its desired strategic objectives; for example, this must be measurable/
quantifiable. Also, the costs of the internet usage on these devices are concerned by
customers as well.
Case 8 thinks MT finally realized some of their potentials (lower operating costs for
the consumer, better interfaces, and better integration) which makes the ability to
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PhD Thesis  Page 138 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
carry out some functions are more ergonomic now than in the past 3-4 years.
Case 10 advocates that the most important part of this is the costs of the internet
usage on these devices. Other than this even if the mobile phones are handy enough
to use, hundreds of millions of people are not going to replace the full screen, mouse
and keyboard experience with staring at a little screen. This is more conventional
adoption of things, but can be catered with time. As the product is used for discrete
engineering/manufacturing companies, the changes to the Web technology and
performance are the main criteria for a change.  Also, there are aspects of
compliance to various federal laws which are required to be followed and
implemented in the development of the product/solution. Therefore, the changes and
adoption of new technology is a must and based on the market research and need of
the time as well.
l Companies need to re-engineer their business processes also employee
training is required.
Case  1 lists some issues that need to be concerned as following: Internal issues->
CIO to set up how to access and share information of organization, integrating issues,
and small screen are mobile technology barriers. Also employees need to be training
to understand how to use the new EIS of new M-EA. The users need to know how
the new mobile business processes works on their new mobile device.
Case  7 lists the risks in integrated mobile technologies with EA are business
integration issues regarding re-engineering the business processes, and getting the
information and work-flow organized. Additionally, when re-engineering the
business processes, external attack, loss of data and internal nefarious activities may
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PhD Thesis  Page 139 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
be the risks that take place.
Case 8 points out that decision on which system would handle a particular business
function is always concerned when re-engineering the business processes of building
M-EA.  In  most  cases,  deciding  which  system  would  handle  a  particular  piece  of
business requirement is  often one of the crucial  pieces of the puzzle within the EA.
However,  the  interviewee’s  company  has  a  custom  document  which  lists  all  of  the
interfaces created among the various systems for all projects carried out is the only
source  of  information  that  is  kept  up-to-date.  When  a  new  technology  needs  to  be
implemented in current EA of the interviewee’s company, a Proof of Concept system
will  be  tested  in  all  forms  and  be  proven  before  any  of  the  software,  hardware  and
resources are really poured into the project.
4.8.4 M-EA expected outcome
From discussion  with  the  interviewees,  all  of  them indicate  that  M-EA could  bring
the enterprise location-independence, be accessible at anytime to system, and provide
personalized services to customer. From technology points of view, some
interviewees  (Case  1,  3,  4,  6,  9)  state  that  M-EA  helps  the  enterprise  establish  the
mobile controlling and monitoring, mobile communication, mobile intranet, and also
mobile Internet in order to create mobile office environment. From business points of
view,  some  interviewees  (Case  2,  5,  6,  7,  8)  also  declare  that  M-EA  could  provide
mobile commerce platform and improve the business processes to become
service-oriented in order to help the manager receive and respond to the real-time
market needs. The detailed discussion with interviewees of these expected outcomes
are analyzed and documented to the following 10 points:
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PhD Thesis  Page 140 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
1. Mobile device usability:
Some mobile devices that are popularly used in the interviewer’s work environment
and form part of the M-EA outcomes are as follows:
* Mobile phones: only the cost phone usage is monitored across the business.
* Warehouse RFID: Used across the business to optimize warehouse operations
including pack and scan.
* RFID in vehicles: used to monitor vehicles movements, positions, schedules.
* Laptops: used across the business for mobile workers to enable them to access the
ERP, CRM and SCM systems of the enterprise.
* PDAs: staffs bring in their own as needed with little ICT support and accessible to
corporate applications.
2. Accessing system anytime and anywhere:
Personal and business resources can be accessed anywhere using any device via any
network, whether fixed-line or wireless. Instant connectivity to the Internet and
intranet from a mobile device is becoming a reality. GPS and UMTS services greatly
accelerate the development of this capability, which also make new wireless devices
as the preferred mode of accessing information anytime and anywhere.
3. Mobile office:
Enterprise provides appropriate wearable devices with wireless connection capability
to create the mobile office environment. Employees could display and input E-mail,
calendar, contact, and notice on their devices anytime in this environment. The most
important  application  is  E–mail  with  the  ability  to  view attachments,  such  as  Word
files and Excel spreadsheets.
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PhD Thesis  Page 141 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
4. Customer personalization service:
Personalization is one of the key features provided by mobile enterprise portals. The
mobile device becomes an everyday business tool and permits easy access to selected
information on the basis of the user’s location and the relevant business scenario.
Points of interest, instant couponing, location finding, tracking, and travel services
are some examples of location-based services.
5. Service-oriented process orchestration in order to provide real-time response:
M-EA enforces reconsideration of all existing business processes from a mobile
viewpoint. As a result, a synergy is brought about among loosely associated
applications and processes by applying the concept of business re-engineering to
them. All business processes are re-engineered in order to get real-time responses to
the market information updated.
6. Mobile control and monitoring:
Emergency services, motoring, remote control, repair, surveillance, and telemetric
applications all make a genuine contribution towards simplifying activities such as
process control and also help improve lifestyles.
7. Mobile commerce & payments:
M-Commerce includes all transaction-based applications such as ordering,
purchasing, selling, auctioning, trading, payment, banking, money transfer, brokering
and ticketing. Mobile commerce has huge potential of dramatic changes in
consumer’s lifestyles and the way service providers and network operators run their
business.
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PhD Thesis  Page 142 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
8. Mobile information service:
The value of the information to the user increases as it becomes more personalized
and localized. Data can be pushed from or pulled to the mobile device. The more
urgent the information needed for making a decision (e.g. flight delays); the more
users are willing to pay. Such as news, stock market, weather, traffic situation are
examples of information services.
9. Mobile communication:
People could have delivered and received their voice message, SMS, Internet
program messaging, multimedia services anytime on their hand devices. The mobile
communication brings people additional options for communicating each other,
irrespective of their location and desired contact partner.
10. Mobile Internet service and applications:
Intranet provides secure access to corporate applications, and other business
scenarios even allows partners or customers to access enterprise application, services
or resources using mobile devices. The rapid increase in the use of intranets and
extranets is creating a mobile workforce that expects access to desktop applications,
messaging and information retrieval whether in the office, in the car, waiting at
station or airport, working at home or visiting a customer.
From above discussion, the researcher arranged the interviewees’ expected outcome
of implemented M-EA and its aspects in the following Table 4.2.
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PhD Thesis  Page 143 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
Table 4.2: Interviewees’ expected outcome of implemented M-EA model
M-EA 5 aspect Interviewees’ expected M-EA outcome
PEOPLE
· Working with/on Mobile Device;· Establishing Mobile Office;· Providing Customer Personalization Service;
PROCESS
· Orchestrating Service-Oriented Process· Real-Time Responding to Market· Mobile Controlling and Monitoring the Materials and Products· Providing Customer the Mobile Commerce & Mobile Payment Methods.
DATA · Providing Employee and Customer Mobile Information Service
SYSTEM
· Employee, Customer, and Supplier Accessing Enterprise Information
System (M-SCM/ M-CRM/ Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning
(M-ERP) Anytime and Anywhere in order to Provide Mobility
Location-Independence
Technology
· Mobile Communications Networks· Mobile Internet Service and Applications;
From the  10  point  s  of  the  interviewees’  expected  outcomes  of  implemented  M-EA
model, the Table 4.2 mapping these 10 points to the M-EA 5 aspects. The first point:
mobile device usability, the third point: mobile office, and the fourth point: customer
personalization service are mapping into the expected outcome of M-EA” people
aspect. The fifth point: service-oriented process orchestration in order to provide
real-time response, the sixth point: mobile control and monitoring, and the seventh
point: mobile commerce and payments are mapping into the expected outcome of
M-EA” process” aspect. The eighth point mobile information service is mapping into
“data” aspect. The second point: accessing system anytime and anywhere is mapping
into  “system” aspect.  Finally,  the  ninth  point:  Mobile  communication  and  the  tenth
point: mobile Internet service and applications are mapping into M-EA “technology”
aspect.
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PhD Thesis  Page 144 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU
4.9 Summary of this chapter
This  chapter  has  discussed  the  result  of  the  ten  cases  studies  from interviewing  the
experts during this research project. The interviewees contributed to the updating of
the  EA  model  based  on  their  experiences.  This  chapter  firstly  declared  the  results
from literature review and definition M-EA, advantages and limitations of M-EA,
and also the researcher created the initial M-EA model. After interviewing the ten
case studies, the researcher summarised the result of verifying the draft M-EA model,
including updating the definition of M-EA, the advantages and limitations of M-EA,
and what the interviewee’s expectation are after having implemented M-EA (which is
the validation criteria for following action research steps, and documented in Chapter
6). The next chapter will introduce the updated M-EA structure from the result of
literature review and ten case studies.
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 145 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Chapter 5: Extending and updating Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) model 
 
5.1 Overview of this chapter 
 
After the discussion in Chapter 2 about the review of literature it was then used to 
build a model, which is updated in Chapter 4 (based on the interviews), this chapter 
explains in detail the updated and refined outcome. Firstly, this chapter introduces 
and explains the mapping of M-EA to technologies, processes, systems, data, and 
people. Additionally, this chapter also discusses the core philosophies of extending 
EA with mobility to produce a M-EA framework, core M-EA 5+1 layer model, and 
M-EA migration transition roadmap in detail. The M-EA framework offers a 
blueprint of how people, systems, process, data, internal and external factors 
contribute to EA. This M-EA framework is an abstraction of how emerging 
technologies or new methodologies fit with an organization’s IT requirements. M-EA 
5+1 layered model demonstrates how the mobile technology works in each of these 
layers and connects seamlessly to each other. The M-EA transition roadmap provides 
the process for transition from the current status to target one for the company. The 
roadmap shows the company how to plan for different generation enterprise 
information system situations and customize them specific to an M-EA. 
 
5.2 Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) extensions 
 
As discussed in Chapter 2 and later updated in Chapter 4, the time and location 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 146 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
independence of mobility open up tremendous opportunities for organizations to 
offer integrated services to their clients and partners. M-EA not only brings about 
internal integration but, through its extension, also offers much more efficiency to its 
external suppliers, customers and other trading partners over the Internet. An 
integrated EA with mobility provides immense benefits to organizations in extending 
their business systems beyond the organization’s boundaries. Therefore, to the part of 
this research identifies and documents all the components of M-EA, and also works 
out strategies to handle the transition from EA to M-EA.  
 
This research study redefines Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) as: 
 
“A structure of integrating business processes with mobile technology and 
information technology, supported by a visualization of the enterprise that includes 
relationships amongst its System, Process, People, and Data. A successful M-EA 
supports internal and external mobile users via enabling them to run to secured 
transaction processes, access to the systems, and search and monitor functions. 
Additionally, a comprehensive structure of M-EA includes a high level framework, a 
model on how to use mobile technology in each layer, and a mobile transition road 
map.”  
 
M-EA connects existing and new systems to enable collaborative operation within 
the entire organization in location-dependent, personalized and in real-time. 
Extending EA to M-EA provides better access among systems, production planning 
and control, inbound and outbound logistics, material flows, monitoring functions, 
and performance measurements.   
  
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 147 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
5.3 Mapping M-EA to technologies, process, system, data, and 
people 
 
As discussed in Chapter 2, an Enterprise Architecture (EA) represents the 
enterprise’s key business processes, information, application systems, user 
requirements, and technology strategies/trends and their impact on business functions 
and processes. Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA) focuses on the integration of 
business information systems and business processes, Enterprise Information 
Architecture (EIA) considers on data storage, Enterprise Solution Architecture (ESA) 
and Enterprise Technology Architecture (ETA) collaborates the technology devices, 
applications, middleware, platforms, and standards. Furthermore, “people” are an 
important aspect of establishing the completed enterprise architecture, because 
people handle, arrange, manage, interact, and make the decision of how to establish 
and to operate the business process. As MT integrates into EA, business processes 
and enterprise information systems also have to be re-engineered to support the new 
business strategy. These changes in systems and processes require, people to be 
trained so that they understand how to access the system and to operate the processes. 
In most enterprise, business requirements change frequently. The design of data in 
M-EA must be agile and should allow for easy and rapid reorganization to adopt to 
the new system functions.  Therefore, handling these four aspects of an EA is very 
important, because they have major impact on the way the organization functions 
when extending EA with mobile technology. A well-structured M-EA is a logical 
organization of information pertaining to the following corporate-level, 
enterprise-wide elements: 

 Mobile technology infrastructure  

 Business processes orchestration 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 148 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 

 Application systems  

 Data elements  

 User requirements 
 
5.3.1 M-EA and technologies  
 
M-EA is about extending the original enterprise architecture (or single/several 
enterprise information systems) with mobile technologies. Therefore, incorporating 
the “new mobile technologies” is very important aspect in M-EA. In this section, a 
consistent set of new mobile technology standards, applications, infrastructures, and 
models are considered. The technical architecture provides the foundation that 
supports the applications, data and business processes identified. The technical 
architecture identifies and plans the computing services form the technical 
infrastructure for the enterprise.  
 
The International Standard Organization (ISO) document guides the engineering of 
an organization’s developing information systems and technology infrastructure 
across the various domain architectures. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) 
model (Zimmermann, 1980) defines a networking framework for implementing 
protocols in seven layers, which are: Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, 
Network, Data Link, and Physical layers. Application layer defines interface to user 
processes for communication and data transfer in network, and provides standardized 
services such as virtual terminal, file and job transfer as well as operations. 
Presentation layer specifies architecture-independent data transfer format and 
provides independence from  data representation (e.g. encryption) by translating 
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PhD Thesis  Page 149 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
from application to network format, and vice versa. Session layer controls 
establishment and termination of logic links between users, and reports upper layer 
errors. Transport layer manages end-to-end message delivery in network also 
provides reliable and sequential packet delivery through error recovery and flow 
control mechanisms. Network layer determines how data are transferred between 
network devices, and provides flow and congestion control to prevent network 
resource depletion. Data link-layer defines procedures for operating the 
communication links, and controls how a computer on the network gains access to 
the data and permission to transmit it, also controls frame synchronization, flow, and 
error checking. Physical layer defines sending data over network devices and optical, 
electrical and mechanical characteristics (Zimmermann, 1980).  
 
Besides OSI 7 layers, middleware layer is also an important technical layer which 
glues  all layers that  communicate with each other, or various devices in each 
layer are able to communicate with each other. Furthermore, from the result of case 
study, most interviewees advocate that security layer for all technical layers is really 
needed to be concerned for implementing and applying new MT into EA. 
 
5.3.2 M-EA and process  
 
An Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA) defines the business of the organization 
and contains a business model (the Enterprise Business Model-EBM) that defines the 
business functions of the independent organizations that perform those functions. 
The Business Architecture is the result of defining the business strategies, processes, 
and functional requirements. It’s the base for identifying the requirements for IS, 
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which support the business activities. The process view or process architecture 
describes the view of the architecture that includes running processes and instantiated 
objects that exist in the system. The business processes are made up for the creation, 
operation, funding, maintenance, and growth of an EA. The enterprise process 
architecture describes important concurrency and synchronization issues, and 
contains the current and future state models of business processes in order to reach 
the enterprise business goals and objectives. Maximize process could carry out 
efficiency through leverage of mobile technologies. Therefore, enterprise needs 
re-engineering their original business processes in order to be running the processes 
on the users’ mobile device. 
 
As the use of wireless communication isn’t restricted to line of sight, the use of 
personal area networks (PANs) is an important step towards ubiquitous mobile 
commerce. Customers start to seek on-line shopping by using a mobile phone, 
perhaps along with a PDAs or pocket PC. This technology will require the enterprise 
to re-engineer their business processes for providing their customers the ability to 
purchase products or to check information on their mobile devices. Mobile 
commerce transaction processes and digital content delivery processes are necessary 
when applying MT into EA. Mobile commerce transaction processes include: 
marketing, order, payment, wireless wallet, digital money, delivery goods setting by 
using mobile devices. Digital content delivery can be seen in applications such as 
browsing status information like weather report, transit schedules, sports scores, 
special menu, goods price, shop location, product availability, market services and 
directory services. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 151 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
5.3.3 M-EA and system  
A business system is a logical representation of functionality to be executed by the 
enterprise in the course of carrying out the business processes. Enterprise systems 
offer a range of opportunities to the organizations that deploy them. At their most 
basic level, enterprise systems allow organizations to integrate and disparate systems, 
and also provide real-time information to employees, customers and suppliers. An 
information system is a unique configuration of IT resources and organizational 
processes whereby the IT recourses (and the information they provide) are applied to 
support specific organizational processes.  
 
M-EA provides a framework focused on developing and/or implementing application 
systems to fulfill the business requirements and to achieve the quality necessary to 
meet the needs of the business. There are many different generation information 
systems (applications and components, purchased or custom-developed) needed to be 
collected and integrated when applying MT into EA. Therefore, M-EA provides 
user-oriented services and database-oriented services which have been produced 
from the development and deployment of information systems.  
 
An organization gains enhanced visibility into its internal processes by integrating 
the enterprise information systems. This visibility allows managers and executives to 
make more informed and often better decisions. The systems of M-EA across the 
entire supply chain, which are extended toward customers, suppliers, and other 
stakeholders, the horizon of managers and executives. Therefore, M-EA systems’ 
integration helps the enterprise mangers across all levels of management to obtain 
real-time information on the status of external as well as internal operations in order 
to greatly increase the positive decision-making potential. 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 152 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
. 
5.3.4 M-EA and data  
 
For all but a few privileged organizations, it is exceptional to have complete 
enterprise data architectures. Data to an EA is like blood to the human body: it is 
everywhere, it feeds all body parts, it requires storage, maintenance facilities, and it 
makes use of a network of production centers, pipelines, and processing centers. Data 
architecture is made up of the structure of all corporate data and its relationships to 
itself and external systems. Additionally, data must be organized into various data 
types, stored in database tables; and these tables need to have relationships with each 
other so that specific data elements can be retrieved in fast and economic ways. Data 
in the M-EA are identified, defined, represented, organized, and managed through the 
use of entities, attributes, and relationships. Transactional data of M-EA that are high 
in volume are shared across locations that are current, centralized, and mandatory 
(Goh and Taniar, 2006). 
 
Data architecture of M-EA describes the data’s physical and logical aspects, as well 
as the enterprise’s information flows/value chains, and is based on the business 
functions in business model. Data architecture of M-EA aims to identify the key 
artefact of the defined business functions, to extend beyond organizational 
boundaries to external sources, and to target information managed as enterprise data 
resources. It’s the result of modelling the information required to support the 
business processes and functions of the enterprise. 
 
The organizational context provides input into data architecture and is the primary 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 153 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
tool for the management and sharing of enterprise data. It enables architects, data 
modelers, and stakeholders to identify, classify, and analyze information 
requirements across the enterprise, as well as allows the right priorities for data 
sharing initiatives. Data architecture states how data are persisted, managed, and 
utilized within an enterprise. Additionally, data architecture describes: 

 How data are stored in both a transient and permanent manner. 

 How components, services, and other business processes utilize and manipulate 
the data. 

 How legacy systems and external business partners access the data. 

 How common data operations (create, read, update, delete) should occur in a 
consistent manner. 
 
5.3.5 M-EA and people  
 
“People” is the other very critical aspect of implementing and using M-EA. One of 
the first steps in applying M-EA is to define the roles and responsibility of the team 
members. The scope of the project determines who will be involved in the project to 
a large extent. M-EA considers the people either internally, by employees of the 
company itself, or externally, the customers and the suppliers. According to the 
M-EA vision, access to information systems deeply embedded into the environment 
is mediated by objects or simply through the observation of users and the reflective 
interpretation of their intentions by the system. Therefore, mobile devices become 
invisible, and interaction is directly with the human sensory and entire enterprise 
information systems. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 154 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Interest in mobile access is strong among a wide range of people and enterprises 
involved in mobile access technology, such as hardware manufacturers, software 
providers, communication service providers, content providers, and end-user 
organizations. W3C is working toward making information on the World Wide Web 
accessible to mobile devices. The key challenge of mobility with people is in the 
device that is characterized by small screens, limited keyboard, low bandwidth 
connection, small memory, and so on. However, these devices are highly portable 
and connect to the server using a wireless network. As the devices continue to grow 
in their telephony and computational power, their adoption is increasing manifold. 
Therefore, people have been incorporated in the M-EA design to hold mobile devices 
such as phones, PDA and smart devices to run several processes. For example, they 
could be reading news, doing transaction processing, banking and also chatting. 
 
5.4 Extending M-EA for business 
 
M-EA establishes guidelines, standards, and operational services that define the 
enterprise business information systems development environment. When M-EA is 
documented as below, it can be used to accomplish the following: 

 Facilitate change management by linking strategic requirements to systems that 
support them and by linking the business model to application designs  

 Enable strategic information to be consistently and accurately derived from 
operational data  

 Promote data sharing, thus reducing data redundancy and maintenance costs  

 Improve productivity through component development, management and reuse  

 Reduce software development cycle time  
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 155 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The core outcome of this doctoral research is a comprehensive structure of “Mobile - 
Enterprise Architecture” (M-EA) for business. This M-EA includes following three 
basic components as outlined by Unhelkar (2008) and discussed earlier in the 
literature review in Chapter 2: 
• Framework – Providing a High level  blueprint of M-EA 
• Model – 5+1 layers of M-EA diagram to encapsulate and represent an 
approach to using mobility 
• Mobile Transition Paths/“Road Maps” of the implementation 
M-EA
Road Maps
(Transitions)
 
( r iti )
Models
(Standards)
l
( t r )
Frameworks
(Abstraction)
r r
( tr ti )
 
Figure 5.1: M-EA Components (adopted on Figure 2.3) 
 
 (a) Frameworks and abstractions: Frameworks are a key part of any EA 
environment. The framework for M-EA offers a blueprint picture of how the people, 
systems, process, data, and internal and external factors that contribute EA. This 
M-EA framework is an abstraction of how the emerging technologies or new 
methodologies fit with an organization’s IT requirement. The framework provides 
the company not only the clear idea of IT or MT investment direction but also 
contents on how to link together in an EA environment. 
 
(b) Models: Models provide a pictorial representation of the enterprise-wide view of 
how the individual technical elements of the systems relate to each other. This 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 156 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
pictorial representation can be called the ‘reference architecture’ for work within the 
organization. The architectural and design patterns that form the ‘standards’ for the 
organization are also a part of the model. M-EA model is 5+1 layers architecture 
model, it shows how the mobile technology works in 5+1 layers and connects 
seamlessly to each other. The model provides to the company not only the details of 
mobile technology application of each layer but also about all layers how to glue 
together in an EA environment. 
 
 (c) Transitions: Transitions Road Map provide a migration path for the enterprise 
from where ‘it is’ to where it ‘should be’. Thus, the transition paths are ‘road maps’ 
to guide the organization in adopting new technologies, methodologies and business 
processes. The transition road maps for the company aim to show the company how 
to plan from the different generation enterprise information system situation to 
mobile specific EA. The migration table for M-EA provides the transition process 
from the current status to target status. 
 
5.4.1 M-EA framework in business 
 
The M-EA Framework shows a high-level picture, which extends the EA with people, 
process, system, and data integrated with mobile technology. This framework is an 
abstraction of how the mobile technologies fit with the enterprise requirement to 
achieve business goals.  This M-EA framework (as in Figure 5.2) gives an 
understanding of how well it is aligned enterprise system, process, data, and people 
who are the high-level business goals by providing a consistent and predictable flow 
of information that users can trace from the business objectives to the technical 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 157 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
details. Executives then have a complete view of technology issues from a strategic 
perspective. 
 
As discussed in previous chapter, MT helps enterprise to offer better service and 
real-time response communication between business and consumer. Today, most 
people have more than one wearable mobile device, such as cellular phones with 
Bluetooth technology. Thus, people currently use their mobile devices for making 
payments, texting, talking and, of course, simple downloads. Wi-Max ensures 
broadband wireless radios manufactured for customer using interoperate from retailer 
to retailer, which in order to help EA integration much more effectively and update 
unanimity between all retailers and customers. The intra-organizational M-EA with 
WLAN technology provides all the employees to access the enterprise system 
anytime, anywhere. In addition, Hurster et al. (2006) pointed out that GPS devices 
and RFID technologies have already been popularly used on SCM systems to 
improve delivery service, tracking location of goods, and reduce the cost of 
human-mistake risks. This results in improved effectiveness and efficiency of the 
enterprise (Schilhavy, and Salam, 2006, and Gupta et al., 2009). In our M-EA 
framework, the researcher considers how MT is integrated with EA to derive the 
aforementioned advantages to the enterprise. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 158 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 5.2: M-EA Framework (Wu and Unhelkar, 2008, IEEE VTC) 
 
The M-EA Framework, as shown in Figure 5.2, points out the information/data of the 
application services and in the data storage goes through the enterprise bus or 
middleware to do the EA cooperation. This cooperative action is a basis to 
re-engineering processes to service-oriented business processes orchestration. These 
orchestrated processes are the basis of integrating different generation of enterprise 
information systems to construct the system layer of M-EA. The most popular four 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 159 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
enterprise information systems are SCM system, CRM system, ERP system, and 
financial information (FI) system. Ng E. H. and Kwahk K. Y., (2010) stated that 
Mobile Internet service provide better the customer relationship development 
perspective.  Moreover, RFID technology could specifically support the SCM 
system to help tracking the location of the materials and products.  
 
Composite mobile environment consists of various segments of wireless technologies 
such as 3G, also beyond 3G (Skianis et al, 2005), digital video broadcasting 
(Mastorakis et al, 2007), WLAN, and WiMax etc. People could hold various mobile 
devices through mobility server and web service to connect to Internet portal, 
including web and mobile portal to access the M-EA business process, system, and 
data structure. The technologies of Web Services build on top of XML, Web Services 
Description Language (WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery and 
Integration (UDDI), provide an excellent basis for integrating the applications of the 
enterprise – particularly when they are on separate platforms. There is a need; 
however, to provide wireless glue to EA as outlined here. The solution for this 
requirement would result in strategic incorporation of applying MT into EA. People 
can reach the system by Internet through the native API/ XML, web forms, and web 
service. They can use their mobile, some with Bluetooth headphone, GPS, PDA, 
portable computer (laptop) through service provider (WAP)/ wireless Hub (HTTP) to 
connect with enterprise repositories – facilitated by EA (Finkelstein, 2006). 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 160 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 5.1: Mapping Zachman Table for the M-EA Framework 
Layer What (Data) How (Function) 
Where 
(Network) 
Who 
(People) 
When 
(Time) 
Why 
(Motivation) 
Scope Context 
Boundary 
Extended M- data 
M-Business 
processes 
Business operation 
locations 
Important 
organizational 
roles 
List of 
significant 
event 
Business goals and 
strategies 
Business Model 
Concepts 
Entity relationship 
model 
M-Business process 
model 
Business logistic 
system 
Work flow model 
Master 
schedule 
Business plan 
System Model 
Logic 
Logical data 
model 
Application 
architecture (SOA) 
Distributed WS 
system architecture 
Human interface 
on Mobile device 
Processing 
structure 
M-Business rule 
model/ Contracts 
Technology Model 
Physical 
Mobile data/ 
contents 
M-Business system 
design 
Mobile technology 
architecture (MWS) 
Presentation 
architecture 
Control 
structure 
Rule contract 
design 
As Built 
Component 
Configuration 
Mobile 
multimedia 
contents 
Program 
Mobile network 
architecture 
Security 
architecture 
Timing 
definition 
Rule specification 
Functioning 
Enterprise 
Instances 
Data Function Network organization Schedule Strategy 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 161 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
From the worked out M-EA framework, which was produced from this research, on 
Zachman 6*6 cells table, and the output is listed in Table 5.1. When applying M-EA 
into business, there are several cells of Zachman framework required to be updated. 
The scope of motivation lists business goals and strategy of M-EA, which identifies 
that the aim of M-EA is to integrate different systems and extend with mobile 
technologies, in order to run the business processes in real-time and provide 
customer personal service at anytime and anywhere. The scope of business 
functions lists the important target m-business process, which identifies that 
reengineering the old business process to new m-business real-time processes. The 
scope of data lists the important extended M-data, which identifies the data extended 
from the new m-business processes. Additionally, the business model of functions is 
the M-Business process model which organizes the lists of use case to perform in use 
case diagram. Furthermore, the logic system model of people is looking at the human 
interface on mobile device which constructs the people and interface structure in 
human interface architecture diagram. The logic system model of motivation is the 
M-Business model which represents how each M-business process works in start 
chart diagram. Moreover, the physical technology data describes in detail the 
organization of the data extended from M-processes. The physical technology of 
business process is application architecture which represents all the M-process in 
class diagram. The physical technology of network is the all 7 layer design of mobile 
technology architecture which could help connect different location server in the 
enterprise to run the business processes more effectively. In addition, the component 
configuration of the network is the communication layer of mobile technology 
architecture which designs all physical wireless network connection in business area 
of the enterprise. The component configuration of people is the security layer which 
designs and sets up the access level of different users. 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 162 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
5.4.2 Extending M-EA model 

	






	



	



	



	
















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Figure 5.3: M-EA 5+1 Layers Model (adapted and extended from Unhelkar, 2008) 
 
The layered approach to M-EA reduces its complexity and provides sound basis for 
successful creation and management of mobile business processes, mobile 
organization, mobile contents, mobile security and mobile networks. An 
M-EA-based approach also implies that mobility is not treated by the business as an 
‘add-on’ to the existing business and its processes. Instead, M-EA, mobility is 
considered as an integral part of the enterprise and reflected in all dimensions of the 
enterprise. This M-EA 5+1 layers model is created from  the adaptation of the OSI 7 
layers model and also from the result of  literature review and case study by 
interviews.  
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 163 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Layer 1 -Communication Layer 
Mobile Networks / Communications Architecture (Layer 1) 
 
Figure 5.3 shows the communications or network layer of mobile enterprise 
architecture. This is the first layer, or one could say the base layer of the architecture. 
This Layer 1 of M-EA model is instantiated from correspondence with the physical, 
network and transport layers of the OSI model. There are numerous mobile network 
technologies that form part of this layer. The network stacks in this network layer of 
the architecture start with the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol Suite 
(TCP/IP) at the base, followed by the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), personal 
area network (PAN) and, depending on the needs of the applications, metropolitan 
area networks (MAN). TCP/IP protocol (Stevens, 1994) stacks exist for all operating 
systems currently in use, and also used for Internet communication, web services, 
and messaging protocols. WAP is an open international standard for application layer 
network communications in a wireless communication environment,  it is mostly 
used to enable access to the Mobile Web from a mobile phone or PDA ,which are  
wearable devices. PAN (Jelena, 2008) is a computer network used for 
communicating among computer devices, including mobile phones and PDAs, close 
to one person. MANs are large computer networks usually spanning a city. They 
typically use wireless infrastructure or optical fiber connections to link their sites. 
 
The network communications technologies further include the IEEE 802.1x group of 
standards, the generations (G) of cellular standards (i.e. 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G), Infrared, 
Bluetooth, RFID, Wi-Max and Wireless VoIP, the UMTS, GSM, GPS, CDMA 
standards (most of them have been introduced in section 2.5.2 of Chapter 2). The 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 164 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
network architecture not only includes the stock of networks, but it also provides 
links or programmable interfaces for Infrared, Bluetooth and the cellular networks. 
These various mobile communications networks standards and protocols in this layer 
of M-EA can be roughly divided into two: the short range and long range networks 
standards.  
 
Short Range Mobile Networks 
The short range communication protocol standards are the IEEE 802.1 group of 
network protocols that support wireless communications on relatively shorter 
distances-usually few hundred meters. Examples of these short range uses are offices, 
homes and local ‘hotspots’ (such as a coffee shop). The IEEE 802.11b, also known as 
wireless Ethernet and Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) is a widely used short-range standard 
for wireless communication that also combines well with a LAN environment. This 
Wi-Fi (Praphul, 2007) defines the physical layer and Media Access Control (MAC) 
layer of the short-range wireless networks. The other important protocols of this 
family are the 802.11a, and the 802.11g protocols. These protocols also employ the 
same MAC layer protocol for communication but they have a different range and 
bandwidth to the 802.11b. 802.11a operates at 5GHz, and 23 mbps, whereas 802.11g 
has 2.4 GHz frequency with a much higher 54 mbps transfer rate (Matthew, 2005).  
 
Wi-Max (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is yet another standard 
for point-to-point communication that is based on radio-frequency standardized 
technology that commercializes the IEEE 802.16. Wi-Max (Wi-Max Forum, 2006) 
now evolved to a standard point-to-multipoint wireless networking, which also 
provides wireless Internet communication by using transceivers to base antennas. 
WiMax forum is supported by vendors and companies like: AT&T, Fujitsu, Intel, and 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 165 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Siemens mobile, British Telecommunications, France Telecom, and Quest 
Communications. Wi-Max can serve as cheap backbone technology compared to 
Wi-Fi, DSL, and cable technologies for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN hot spots to 
provide Wi-Fi services to mobile users (Vaughan-Nichols, 2003). IEEE 802.20 is 
another standard for mobile broadband communications technology provides 
high-speed wireless, IP based connectivity to mobile devices like cell phones, PDAs, 
and laptops (Ron, 2005). 
 
Bluetooth technology (Buttery and Sago, 2004) which operates at 2.4 GHz provides 
a very short-range radio frequency wireless connectivity between portable gadgets 
like mobile phones and PDAs etc. through communication. Bluetooth can also 
provide support to multipoint communication (in addition to point-to-point 
communication) due to its use of RFID. The M-EA needs to consider the most 
appropriate forms of these short range networks when it is initiated. 
 
Long Range Mobile Networks 
The long range mobile networks are primarily the cellular networks.  The various 
standards in these cellular networks are identified through their generations, and 
following Table 5.2 summarizes these generations of cellular networks. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 166 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 5.2: Different Generations of Cellular Networks 
1G (1980s) 
Analog Cellular communication, used in early mobile phones. 
Not very clear and not secured either. However, this generation of 
networks introduced the mobile phone to daily use. 
2G (1990s) 
Digital cellular networks used Global System for Mobile 
Communications (GSM). Popularized the mobile phone; 
relatively cheaper to use than the 1G network. Challenges of 
interoperability emerged immediately. 
2.5G – 3G 
(2000s) 
Merging standards between the GSM and CDMA networks as 
well as convergence of device functionalities. Therefore, more 
opportunities for mobile business applications. Moving towards 
mobile Internet. 
4G (2010s) 
True interoperability between all carrier networks resulting in 
seamless global mobility. Convergence of devices and 
applications. Security challenges due to feature-rich applications 
and wide-ranging networks. (Until this thesis written, the 4G 
hasn’t yet commercially realized and defined it.) 
5G (2020s?) 
This generation is still in the realms of imagination and early 
experimentation. Potential business is in the areas of 
bio-technologies, bio-informatics, nano-technologies, and mobile 
green and so on. (The 5G should have matured in 2020s.) 
 
Currently, most cellular wireless networks are using the 2.5G standards.  These 
network standards are evolving to 3G. However, 3G systems to be commercially 
viable, their quality-of-service (QoS) need to be improved considerably.  The 
standards for 3G communication are the Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Qualcomm 
and CDMA2000 Ericsson (Kuo and Yu, 2005). These transmission standards use 
direct sequence spread spectrum in a 5-MHz bandwidth. These standards have 
different chip rate, frame time, spectrum used, and time synchronization mechanisms.  
The WCDMA standard is able to communicate with the GSM networks. This 
interactive capability is strongly supported by the European Union, which calls it the 
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The other standard, 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 167 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
CDMA2000 is widely deployed in the United States, and is not able to work on the 
Internet with the GSM standard. 
 
The M-EA for a specific organization needs to specify the standard they want to use 
for communication.  Global organizations and global roaming users across multiple 
geographic regions have a need to consider interoperability amongst the standards. 
Mobile application developers and content managers need to keep these 
communications standards in their background as they develop the applications. 
Ideally, the mobile applications which are executed on the handset should be 
independent of the communications networks. 
 
Mobile Internet 
The mobile Internet based on wireless communications results from a significant 
integration of the Internet and the wireless communications technologies. However, 
the researchers believe that the current network architectures used in either the wired 
Internet or the cellular networks would not be appropriate and efficient for future 
wireless mobile Internet. This is because the future demands from the mobile Internet 
are likely to be dramatically different, such as those mentioned in the 4G and 5G 
description in Table 5.2. For example, faster wireless connections with higher quality 
service will be required in, say, the healthcare domain, where secured mobile video 
conferencing and secured transfer of medical data (particularly image files) is an 
important part of the business process. Thus, even if we assume that the current 
cellular network infrastructure may provide the physical backbone of future networks, 
the architecture of the mobile Internet network is likely to be different from the 
current architectures.  
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 168 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Integrated Architectures 
The short- and long-range cellular networks, as well as the Wi-Max networks, need 
to be considered in an integrated M-EA to enable interoperability of applications and 
devices. Wi-Max can help EA with integrating much more effectively the devices 
and applications as Wi-Max could provide a common communication network that 
interfaces easily with the other networks. M-EA integration can use WLAN (Burness 
et al., 2004) technology to enable all employees to access the enterprise systems 
anytime, anywhere. VoIP technology (Olla, 2005) together with M-EA can extend to 
reach the organization globally.  
 
The interactive capabilities of UMTS and UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network 
(UTRAN) make them part of many network architectures (Vriendt et al., 2002, and 
UMTSWorld, 2003).  The UMTS network architecture consists of UTRAN which 
uses the network subsystem of GSM/ General packet radio service (GPRS) in order 
to support circuit switching (CS) and packet switching (PS).  The circuit switched 
network is evolving from GPRS. The packet-switched network uses GPRS to 
provide a bridge between the core network and UTRAN. UTRAN consists of radio 
network subsystems, each of which contains one radio network controller and at least 
one base station.  The network controller controls the logical resources for the base 
station which in turn manages the radio transmission and reception for one or more 
cells.  The opportunities for network integration improve with the UMTS standard, 
provided it is available in a particular region.  
 
Example of network architecture 
Examples of mobile network architectures can be an Internet connectivity supported 
by a Wide Area Network through ATM and Frame Relay connections. The 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 169 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a dedicated packet switched mechanism 
which divides and sends information into smaller packets across the lines of 
communications. The ATM enables transmission of complex multimedia (voice, text, 
data, image and video) simultaneously and with relative high speeds. 
 
The wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) provides a way of communication within 
localized areas within an enterprise. This WLAN based network topology includes 
installation of one or more wireless access points that provide Internet access to the 
specified areas within the enterprise. Furthermore, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) 
(Meeta, 2003) can also be used on top of the existing Internet. Such VPN provides a 
secured connection between the business and the external parties. VPN uses a narrow 
and dedicated network path which is not shared with other parties. As a result the 
VPN is far more secure than an open Internet connection and it provides a secured 
link to the WLAN within the office environment.  
 
The availability of network (usually 24 hours, 7 days a week) and its redundancy 
(ability of one part of the network to take over another ‘broken’ path) is another vital 
requirement from the network architecture. Therefore, the Frame Relay suggested in 
the above network architecture provides redundancy as a secondary line in case of 
failure. However, the packet-switching in Frame Relay, that divides data into 
‘frames’ achieves transfer rates of about 2 Mbps and hence is used only as a 
redundancy mechanism.  
 
The advantage of combining the WLAN with existing Internet is that it provides 
users with ease of mobility, but within a specified area. The issues associated with 
the cost and security of full roaming need to be balanced with the advantage. Most 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 170 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
office and factory environments where in users are equipped with wireless devices 
may not need full roaming capabilities as yet. In most cases, users with their mobile, 
some with Bluetooth headphone, GPS, PDA, portable computer (laptop) through 
service provider (WAP), or wireless Hub (HTTP) connect with enterprise repositories 
to access the enterprise information systems. 
 
Layer 2- Storage Layer 
Mobile Content / Database Architecture (Layer 2) 
 
Figure 5.3 shows the mobile contents and database architectural layer as the second 
layer of the M-EA model. This second layer of the M-EA model deals with the data 
aspects of the mobile systems including the sourcing of data, its storage, its provision 
and its maintenance. This Layer 2 corresponds roughly instantiated from the data link 
layer of the OSI model.  
 
The data related to mobile applications are made up of multitude types such as voice, 
video, images, charts and text.  This varied nature of mobile data can be better 
referred to as ‘content’.  Mobile contents have three separate challenges: sourcing 
of contents, their secured storage and provision or “mining” (Goh and Taniar, 2006) 
of content to applications and services. Each of these three challenges is affected by 
location-independence and personalization of mobility.  
 
The speed of access and the quality of content is vital for mobile applications. The 
modeling of the contents and mechanisms for their storage and retrieval play a part in 
the speed and access of the contents. However, speed and quality sometimes have 
opposing priority. For example, data mirroring enables redundancy and improved 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 171 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
reliability, but it may have negative effect on the speed of access. The Real time data 
updates occurring from mobile devices are a challenge for data integrity. Further 
challenge of mobile database architectures is that it has to handle the ‘randomness’ of 
mobile user connections. Mobile users are mobile, therefore their needs for specific 
data or information also changes, depending on where they are. The provision and 
usage of data by such mobile user is thus non-continuous. This non-continuity of 
need for specific data, and corresponding connections, is a big challenge in mobile 
database architectures.  
 
A good architectural approach to mobile database architecture requires the data to be 
stored progressively as the application executes. This progressive storage ensures 
when the consumer of the data gets disconnected, and then reconnected either 
immediately afterwards or after a while, the application is able to recommence from 
where it got disconnected.  
 
There is a further need for the mobile database architecture to provide facility to 
reconcile and collate data resulting from mobile usage. This is because the challenges 
of multiple updates from multiple users of the same data item – already a challenge 
in the existing databases which are further exacerbated by mobile users. The moment 
the user moves her location, the location-specific information (e.g. the location itself) 
of the source changes. Mobile applications that are going to use this location-specific 
information need to handle not only the conflicts resulting from multiple updates, but 
also identify in the first place that there is a conflict even if the source of data is at 
two different places. Mobile database architectures need to reconcile the movement 
of the client especially when there are multiple entrees in a database by a single 
client. 
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PhD Thesis  Page 172 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
A data model is a mathematical formalism with a notation for describing data 
structures and a set of operations used to manipulate and validate that data. The aim 
of database architecture design is to provide faithful representation of such objects as 
columns in relational tables. There are two popular database design methods, 
Entity-Relationship modeling and normalization, both used for relational database 
management systems (RDBMSs) (O’Neil and O’Neil, 2000).In contrast, typical 
content management systems are the SQL Server (in the dotNet environments) and 
Oracle9i Database Enterprise Edition. Oracle9i is an object-relational database 
management system (ORDBMSs) that puts an object-oriented front end on a 
relational database. In addition to managing data, it is also able to handle transactions, 
provides correlations for business intelligence, integration and reliability.  
 
The other popular mobile service applications which need to be included into 
extending mobile database of M-EA are:  
• Instant messages: which require service providers to transmit the messages 
and store the messages into the mobile devices database. 
• Mobile web content: consists of web data that can be viewed via handheld 
devices and can be implemented using markup languages such as HTML, 
Compact HTML (Chtml), WML, XML, and Device Independent Authoring 
Language (DIAL). For example, i-mode devices use cHTML (Kamada, 
1998) and WAP devices use WML (Wireless Application Protocol Forum, 
2001). 
• On-line games: video games playable on the Internet that allow remote 
players to play the games together by using their mobile handheld devices. 
• Telephony: the most common operation performed by Smartphone users and 
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PhD Thesis  Page 173 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
requires the telecommunication company to provide the service. 
 
Structured Query Language (SQL) (Soren, 1991) is used to access most databases. 
Since SQL is an interactive query language, it should be embedded in a host 
language to effectively access databases. Several host languages with embedded SQL, 
such as SQLJ and OraPerl, are available. Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) 
(Linthicum, 2000) is the other most popular host language at present, which is 
JavaSpft’s Database connectivity specification. JDBC enables JAVA programs to 
execute SQL statements and allows JAVA programs to interact with any 
SQL-compliant database. JDBC is really helpful for nearly all RDBMSs support 
SQL and Java itself runs on most platforms. Furthermore, JDBC makes it possible to 
write a single database application that can run different platforms and interact with 
different DBMSs. 
 
Layer 3 - Binding Layer 
Mobile Middleware / Binding Architecture (Layer 3) 
 
Figure 5.3 shows the binding layer of a mobile system, based on the overall M-EA. 
This third layer (Layer 3) of the M-EA model deals with two aspects of binding: 
firstly, between the applications or services being offered, and secondly, between the 
contents and the applications.  
 
These mobile middleware technologies bring together, or ‘gel’ the various services or 
parts of a mobile software application. The need for mobile middleware is felt due to 
the dispersed services mobile environment, varying types of devices and their 
operating environment. Middleware technologies enable interaction amongst these 
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PhD Thesis  Page 174 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
various devices, applications and databases, systems by creating and use a common 
standard for the applications. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and i-Mode are 
the two well-known mobile middleware protocols used in mobile application 
development. WAP and i-Mode middleware platforms are built on top of existing 
network protocols of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol 
(IP).  
 
WAP is the popular middleware global standard that allows applications to access 
and interact with many types of service providers. WAP is also a secure specification 
that allows users to access information instantly using mobile handheld devices such 
as smart phones and PDAs. WAP (Open Mobile Alliance, 2003) is a flexible standard 
that is supported by most operating systems such as PalmOS, EPOC, Windows CE, 
FLEXOS, OS/9 and JavaOS. Additionally, WAP supports most wireless networks, 
including CDPD, CDMA, GSM, PDC, PHS, TDMA, FLEX, ReFLEX, iDEN, 
TETRA, DECT, DataTAC, and Mobitex. Although WAP supports HTML and XML, 
the WML language is specifically designed for small screens and one-handed 
navigation without a keyboard. Furthermore, beyond the link-layer communication 
mechanisms provided by WLANs and cellular networks, the Wireless Application 
Protocol (WAP) is designed to work with all wireless networks.  The WAP Gateway 
translates requests from the WAP protocol and submits them to the Web servers (Olla, 
2005).   
 
For example, requests from mobile stations are sent as a URL through the network to 
the WAP Gateway. After processing, the responses are sent to the WAP Gateway in 
HTML, which are then further translated to WML and sent to the mobile stations or 
devices. WML (Wireless Markup Language) is a markup language based on XML, 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 175 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
which is used in specifying WAP interfaces for mobile stations.  WAP also supports 
WMLScript, which is similar to JavaScript but it has minimal memory and 
processing power requirements as it strips many of the unnecessary functions found 
in JavaScript. 
 
Another middleware technology, popular in Japan, is the i-Mode (2005) a 
packet-switched middleware Internet service. The use of packet transmissions offers 
continuous access, while the use of a subset of HTML makes content creation easy 
and makes it simple to convert existing website. This service for cellular phones is 
offered by NTT DoCoMo, enables continuous access to Internet sites, e-mails, and 
various mobile business applications like on-line shopping, banking and ticketing. 
 
Table 5.3: A comparison between the two major types of mobile middleware 
 WAP i-mode 
Developer Open mobile alliance NTT DoCoMo 
Implementation A protocol A complete mobile Internet service 
Web Language WML cHTML 
Major Technology WAP Gateway TCP/IP development 
Key Features 
Widely adopted and 
flexible 
Highest number of users and easy to 
use 
 
Layer 4 - Process Layer 
Mobile Process / Applications Architecture (Layer 4) 
 
The mobile processes, applications and services of a mobile architecture are 
represented in the fourth layer in Figure 5.3. This Layer 4 includes the business 
processes, the models for collaborative web services and the business analysis 
required by the business. The enablers, the solutions providers and the application 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 176 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
developers work in this layer of the M-EA model. The types of applications in this 
layer at the mobile user level are, for example, the billing applications and the mobile 
retailing applications. This Layer 4 corresponds to the 7th layer, the application layer, 
of the OSI model.  
 
Re-engineering 
An M-EA enforces reconsideration of all existing business processes from a mobile 
viewpoint. As a result, a synergy is brought about between loosely associated 
applications and processes by applying the concept of business re-engineering to 
Hammer and Champy (2001). Existing processes and new processes that can benefit 
by mobility need to be modeled and created ‘ground up’. Mobility has to be an 
integral part of these processes for them to derive full benefit from mobile 
technologies and be highly productive and efficient.  
 
Thus, one of the important contributions that this applications and services layer does 
in the M-EA model is that it dissuades the business from ‘attaching’ mobile devices 
at the end of existing business processes. Mobile devices used in the existing 
paper-based and even Internet-based processes only end up as ‘ad-hoc’ use of 
mobility. That ad-hoc use of mobile technology does not provide any strategic 
advantage and exploitation of the mobile technology.  
 
Interfaces 
Mobile application architecture needs to interface with the networks and middleware 
that will be used in its deployment. For example, billing applications need to be 
deployed on the cellular networks whereas micropayments or mobile retailing will 
need a combination of a Wi-Fi based WLAN together with the mobile Internet. The 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 177 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
location of the execution of the application, the involvement of third-party 
deployments and security also need to be considered in mobile applications 
architecture.  
 
The transactive, operative and collaborative uses of mobility in business (as 
discussed in detail further) require the mobile applications and services to connect at 
every step of the application execution – either to get some information or 
authenticate parts of the transactions. 
 
Mobile application architectures can force connectivity at key points in the process. 
For example, rather than synchronizing the list of events to the local database, a 
mobile Web service can be used to retrieve a list of authorized events  that the 
mobile user can synchronize with. 
 
Mobile application architecture suggests that the mobile database architecture to pool 
the data in one common database, as far as possible. This pooling of data in a 
common source enables streamlined process-flows and process architectures which 
are able to handle the information in a consistent manner. Mobile architectures also 
facilitate reuse through use of design patterns, such as the Observer pattern. 
Furthermore, this mobile application architecture needs to handle the replication of 
events on each client device. Creation or modification of events needs to be 
synchronized on each mobile device.  
  
Major Mobile Commerce Applications: 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 178 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 5.4: M-Commerce Applications 
Mobile category Major applications Types of enterprise Types of 
customers 
Education 
Mobile classrooms and 
labs 
School, university, and 
training centers 
Lectures and 
students 
ERP 
Recourse management 
and managing a mobile 
workplace for 
employees 
business employees 
Entertainment 
Games, pictures, music, 
video downloads and 
on-line gaming 
Entertainment industry All 
Health care 
Accessing and updating 
patient records, also 
includes financial 
payment system 
Hospitals and medical 
centers 
Patients 
Retailing 
Paying at vending 
machines, and checking 
products information, 
stock, and prices 
Retailers All 
SCM 
Material and products 
tracking and 
dispatching 
Delivery service center 
and transportation 
All 
Traffic 
Global positioning , 
routing services, 
toll/parking paying, and 
traffic advisories 
Transportation and auto 
industry 
Drivers 
Traveling 
service 
Reservation and paying 
services 
Airline companies, 
hotels, and travel 
agencies 
Travelers 
 
As list on the above Table 5.4, there are major 8 mobile commerce applications. All 
applications include following service processes: transactions and payment services, 
information sharing and updating services, and instant communication services. The 
mobile accounting software applications deal with customer billing, financial 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 179 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
transactions and taxation processes. Advanced features can be different styles of 
invoicing (service, distribution and recurrent), multi-currency capabilities, multiple 
bank account capabilities, multi-warehouse inventory control and other advanced 
feature (Laukkanen, 2007, and Laukkanen et al., 2008). The security payments in 
mobile service are really important (Subramanian, 2009), which will be discussed 
more in the security layer. 
 
Example Applications of mobile hospital management system: 
The hospital management system scenario needs to have robust application 
architecture. This application architecture needs to handle the fact that the mobile 
users (for example, Patients) are only occasionally going to be connected to the 
system. The application behaviour and corresponding contents related to the patient 
can be easily divided into two parts – the relatively static part related to the 
registration and personal details of the patient, and the dynamic parts of the 
application such as the documentation of the consultation session and corresponding 
prescription (Susilo and Win, 2007). Furthermore, the mobile devices carried by the 
patients need to be synchronized with the content management system of the 
enterprise (Tounsi and Qureshi, 2008). Regardless of how the information is 
interchanged, the device needs to be connected before the event to obtain this 
information (D’Andrea et al., 2009).  
 
Mobile applications need to be designed in such a way as to enable their access and 
coordination between network operators and service providers. A hospital 
management system, for example, allows mobile access for patients, as well as for 
various staff such as physicians, administrators and nurses (Andersson et al., 2007). 
The system needs to support physicians whether they are in clinic, at the hospital, 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 180 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
making house calls or at home themselves. Mobile applications need to be designed 
to keep the physician's actual “workflow” in mind. The mapping between the content 
management systems and the actual application for hospital management will include 
availability and processing of data related to all clinical activities such as patient 
history, reviews, details of physical exams, prescriptions and notes, results of 
diagnostic tests and so on (Malladi and Varshney, 2008). These details need to be 
made available in real time to the doctor and the patient, keeping the security of 
transactions and the privacy of users in mind.  
 
Layer 5- Presentation Layer 
Mobile Presentation / Usability Architecture (Layer 5) 
 
The top most, 5th layer of the M-EA model, as shown in Figure 5.3, is the 
presentation layer. This Layer 5 includes all aspects of presentation to mobile users 
including their devices, user interfaces and navigations. This Layer 5 corresponds 
with the 6th layer, the presentation layer of the OSI model. 
 
The devices, in this layer, are made up of mobile phones, I-Pods, Personal Digital 
Assistants (PDAs), Blackberries as well as “wearable” mobile devices such as 
GPS-enabled watches, email-only devices and handheld computers. Such wireless 
connected mobile devices are far more “personal” than mere desktop PCs. Therefore, 
the presentation layer needs to deal with the images associated with the use of these 
mobile devices (particularly by adolescents), their usability and their privacy. Thus, 
the mobile device manufacturers as well as the user interface designers are active in 
this layer of the M-EA. Following Table 5.5 are the lists of mobile devices available 
on the market and description of each mobile devices. 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 181 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Table 5.5: Mobile devices list and description 
Mobile device Description 
Mobile 
phones 
Also called cell phone, hand phone, cellular phone, wireless 
phone, which is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile 
telecommunications (such mobile telephony, text messaging, or 
data transmission) over a cellular network of specialized base 
stations known as cell sites. Current mobile phone has added 
many functions on standard voice function, such as Bluetooth, 
infrared, e-mail, voice recorder, radio, GPS, MMS, camera, MP3, 
and also could access to the Internet, which called multi-functions 
phone. Not all phones got all of the functions, but got several 
functions on one phone. 
PDAs 
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a handheld computer also 
known as palmtop computer. Newer PDAs commonly have color 
screens and audio capabilities with employing touch-screen 
technology, enabling them to be used as Smartphone, web 
browser, or portable media players. Currently, many PDAs can 
access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, Wireless Wide 
Area Networks (WWANs).  
Screen-phones 
A telephone equipped with a color screen, possibly a key board, 
e-mail and Internet capabilities. They are used mainly for e-mail 
or sending SMS. 
Blackberry 
To enhance wireless e-mail capabilities, includes a keypad on this 
e-mail handheld device to make it easy to type the message. It is 
an integrated package, so there is no need to dial into an Internet 
provider for access. A variety of services for data communication 
are available, so users can receive and send messages from 
anywhere. 
Laptop 
Portable PCs, which has been installed the completed operating 
system and needed program, can access the Internet by wireless 
modem, access the Intranet by WLAN or Wi-MAX.  
Smartphone 
Mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like 
functionality (PC-mobile handset convergence),  could run 
complete operating system software to provide a standardized 
interface and platform for application developer. A smart phone is 
simply a phone with advanced features like wireless email, Web 
surfing, PDA, and MP3 functionality. 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 182 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
A good mobile device should include following features: 
• Should be easy to carry with mobile user. 
• Input methods should be easy to understand and use. 
• Screen should be large enough for reading the contents and using the stylus 
without difficulty. 
• Memory and storage should be large enough for most mobile commerce 
applications. 
• Battery life should be sufficient for operations lasting several hours before the 
batteries need to be recharged. 
• Device- to-PC/ peripherals synchronization should be convenient and easy. 
 
However, the mobile nuances of location-independence and personalization play a 
significant part in this layer.  The mobile user interface (MUI) challenges are more 
than the Graphical user interface (GUI) design challenges as the mobile devices have 
a much smaller screen space, lower battery life and higher demand for ruggedness 
(such as being able to read information in varying light conditions). Furthermore, 
mobile devices, particularly smart cellular phones, need to be able to handle 
multimedia contents. Smart phones with video facilities need the ability to record and 
play videos and audios with high resolution graphics.  And finally, the users of 
these devices are on the move.  
 
The principles of usability, discussed by Constantine and Lockwood (1997), apply to 
mobile user Interface as much as they apply to other applications. Technical design in 
this presentation layer utilizes the application programming interfaces (API) to 
display as well as to receive information from the mobile user interfaces and connect 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 183 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
that information to the mobile applications and underlying content management 
systems. 
 
Layer Plus- Security Layer 
Mobile Security Architecture (All Layers) 
 
The mobile security architecture applies to all layers of the M-EA model as shown in 
Figure 5.3. This is because each layer (from 1 to 5) in the M-EA model shown in 
Figure 5.3 has its own unique security requirement. Thus, the security deals with 
networks, data, middleware, applications and presentation layers. The pervasive need 
of security across all layers is seen in the OSI model and it is not a specific layer in 
the architectural framework as well.  
 
The increased mobile computing power of handheld devices introduces new security 
threats, which would be in the form of loss of confidentiality, loss of integrity and 
loss of availability. Password protection is a basic mobile security mechanism to be 
included in most handheld devices as a countermeasure (Guizani and Raju, 2005). 
Furthermore, network and application security measures also need to be considered 
when using mobile technologies. 
 
Security in mobile enterprises includes a wide variety of technologies, including 
authentication, cryptography, secure communications, and secure mobile payment 
methods. This mobile security is especially crucial, as communication through 
wireless and mobile networks is more vulnerable to be attacked than in the wired 
networks. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 184 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Short-Range Security 
Security in short-range networks, based on the IEEE 802.11 standards, is the Wired 
Equivalent Privacy (WEP) (Bruce, 2005). This WEP corresponds to the data link 
level of the architectural frameworks. The architecture of WEP-based mobile 
security starts with a key on the mobile device that is also shared with the base. The 
encryption algorithm used in WEP is a stream cipher, which allows the mobile 
devices to be identified wherever they are, and whenever they connect to the base 
station. The newer version of the short-range protocol, called 802.11i, is expected to 
provide more enhanced security. Other short-range networks, such as Bluetooth, have 
a different security mechanism to the WEP.  Bluetooth provides security by using 
frequency hopping in the physical layer, sharing passkeys between the master and the 
slave device and encrypting communication channels.  
 
Long-Range Security  
The security architecture for the long-range GSM networks makes use of the 
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) that contains the subscriber’s authentication 
information, such as cryptographic keys. The cellular networks also have a unique 
identifier, called the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI).  The SIM is 
provided as a smart card in the mobile user device.  The SIM key is stored on 
GSM’s network side in the authentication center (AuC). The IMSI is stored in the 
home location register (HLR).  The GSM networks short messages allow being 
stored in the SIM and calls are directed to the SIM rather than the mobile terminal.  
As a result, the same SIM can be used across different terminals. The security 
features provided between GSM network and mobile station include IMSI 
confidentiality and authentication, user data confidentiality, and signaling 
information element confidentiality.   
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 185 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
UMTS is designed to reuse and evolve from existing core network components of the 
GSM/GPRS and fix known GSM security weaknesses such as the one-way 
authentication scheme and optional encryption.  Authentication in UMTS is mutual 
while encryption is mandatory (unless specified otherwise) to prevent message 
replay and modification.  In addition, UMTS employs longer cryptographic keys 
and newer cipher algorithms, which make it more secure than GSM/GPRS.  WAP 
security is provided through the Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) protocol 
(in WAP 1.0) and IETF standard Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol (in WAP 
2.0).  These security protocols provide data integrity, privacy, and authentication.   
 
Security Platform (CLEW) 
An ideal mobile security approach is to build security features in the mobile 
application development platforms. An example of such an in built security is CLEW 
(Closed Loop Environment for Wireless) (Tatham, 2006). CLEW is an Intelligent 
Mobile Internet Interaction which is more secure than SMS message. Messages sent 
out by CLEW to recipients are authenticated by the recipients by signing off with a 
password. Therefore, it is much more secure than SMS, and also if the recipient does 
not sign off, the backend systems of CLEW can send out messages to other 
pre-agreed people in a list agreed upon with the organization until it schedules the 
required number of personnel (will discuss more details in Chapter 6). 
 
Updated M-EA model after validating it through 3 action research studies 
The above description is created from the researcher based on the literature review 
and case study result. After completing the 3 action research studies, the M-EA 
model has been updated as following Figure 5.4. 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 186 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 

	






	



	



	
















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Figure 5.4: Further Updated M-EA 5+1 Layers Model 
 
As shown on above Figure 5.4, the updated M-EA 5+1 layers model displays much 
clear of how each layer corresponding to the OSI 7 layer model. Additionally, after 
applying action research to M-EA model within the participating companies, the 
layer 1 – communication layer and the layer 2- storage layer are swapped with the 
layer 1 – storage layer and the layer 2- communication layer. This is so because the 
storage layer considers the enterprise database repository, which is the main based 
content in the M-EA model. Therefore, the communication layer changes from layer 
1 to layer 2, and storage layer changes from layer 2 to layer 1 as shown in Figure 5.4. 
The more details about this validation will describe in Chapter 6, section 6.5.3. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 187 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
5.4.3 M-EA migration road map for business 
 
At the case study by interview stage of this research project, the researcher has 
interviewed with experienced Enterprise Architects, Business Analysts, CIOs and IT 
executives. One objective of these interviews is to help us construct this M-EA 
implementation framework. These experts’ experiences indicate that enterprises need 
to understand the human, system, process, and technology aspects of the M-EA in 
order to reach a clear vision of M-EA and to build up the many services that support 
M-EA, Thus, creating the centre of excellence for similar cross-functional group, to 
provide resources and guidance, to serve as a repository for best-practice information, 
and to operate tools that support the M-EA implementation is the critical factor for 
success.  
 
M-EA implementation team 
 
Figure 5.5: M-EA Implementation Team (Curtis and Wu, 2009) 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 188 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
This M-EA implementation team (see Figure 5.5) is designed and based on output 
from numerous interviewees. There are two cross-service architect teams: the first 
team is the Business Architects team, whose responsibility is to analyse the business 
systems, processes, information, and people structure of the M-EA; the second team 
is the Mobile Technology Architects team, whose responsibility is to support the 
creation of mobile technology solutions that meet the requirements from the Business 
Architects Team. The primary goal for these two teams is to understand how people 
work, who owns what responsibilities, and which interdependencies link business 
processes and technology resources. 
 
Based on expert advice and discussions with another EA, the team of Business 
architects in the framework is further divided into 6 groups and it covers internal and 
hybrid organizations. The teams within the internal organization have 4 groups 
which are Distribution and Marketing groups, Financial groups, Operations groups 
and Product and Placement groups. Team of hybrid organization has 2 groups, SCM 
and CRM groups. The goal for the business team is to discuss and agree on the 
business elements of an application. The architects of all groups in a business team 
have to determine their department direction, to describe the core business processes, 
to define the department services, to declare the application requests, to prioritize 
features and most importantly to meet the users and services requirements within the 
business strategy and to support the department’s objectives. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 189 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The CIO interviewee pointed out that Mobile Technology architects team should be 
divided into 3 groups, which are the Analysis and Planning group, Implementation 
and Training group and the Support and Maintain group. After the Business 
Architects team has documented the requirements for business processing, the 
Mobile Technology team formulates how to implement this technology to maximize 
the effectiveness of the business process implementation and to provide a better 
services. The goal for mobile technology team is to discuss and agree on how to 
manage the technological underpinnings and support to the business.  
 
The architects of the Analysis and Planning group initially analyse the emerging 
mobile technology and the adapted infrastructure. The architects should investigate 
the technical complexity of implementing the new mobile technology. The IT 
Executive manager interviewee provided some questions that need to be addressed in 
this stage including:  
• Could the chosen mobile technology integration of M-EA support hardware, 
software and database software within the current structure support or not?  
• Does the organisation have the right skills and expertise to implement or 
whether outsourcing is required?  
• How will this knowledge be transferred to support and maintain group 
internally if outsourcing is required? 
 
After investigating and answering all the aforementioned questions from the 
architects and the analysis team helps to understand how the M-EA utilizes the 
original enterprise information systems, servers, database and infrastructure. This can 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 190 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
then be followed by making plans for implementation and getting corresponding 
funding to do so. Needless to say, the architects have to make available to the 
organization options for their transition plans. 
 
Once the final implementation plan is completed, the documents and the work are 
passed to the Implementation and Training team. The implementation team follows 
the plan and also provides service and mobility solution to business architect team. 
The training of M-EA needs to be organized, so that is decided who should attend the 
training class, how to hold the class, and also the real-life practice training period 
support. Therefore the help desk, desktop support, production support, systems team, 
computer operators, also the support and maintenance architect group should be 
trained during the implementation period. The support team and maintenance team 
should have the mobile technology support outline or handbook from training group 
if the implementation project is outsourcing. Finally once the M-EA is successfully 
implemented, the support and maintenance team should be able to fix and respond all 
the problems for M-EA Business architect team. 
 
The implementation of M-EA should use "Current" and "Target", "As-is" and 
"To-be" framework to identify the clearly process migration plan from current 
different generation EIS to the Enterprise target dream architecture, which is M-EA. 
The manner in which this IT and mobile technology incorporation takes place 
successfully is studied here through the framework outlined in the migration plan 
table. The migration table plan lists information system lifecycles including 
description, analysis, design, and implementation plan of current state of enterprise, 
and desired target state M-EA of enterprise. Following Table 5.6 is the designed 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 191 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
migration plan table of M-EA implementation for this research. 
 
 Table 5.6: M-EA Migration Plan Table (extended from Wu and Unhelkar, 2009) 
 
Firstly, M-EA implementation team understands the key factors of people, process, 
technology, data, and system of current EIS; analysis and document them into the 
current state description section. From those documentations, it should find the gap 
and draw the diagrams to show the reserve assessment indicator for the target state. 
After that, M-EA implement team discusses with the company of those diagrams and 
those assessment indicator results. Moreover, it is critical to discuss in the meeting to 
analyse and decide which IT and MT infrastructures could be extended with current 
EA as target M-EA opportunities into their company. After meeting, the M-EA 
implement team will construct the current EA diagrams and also target M-EA diagram 
to show how the MT could be adapted to new M-EA, and make the new M-EA to be 
 
Current state 
“as-is” 
Desired Target 
state “To-be” 
Details of Documentation 
Description Key factors 
Reserve assessment 
indicator 
Platform and interoperability 
diagrams from existing 
enterprise information systems 
Analysis 
Assessment 
indicator result 
Target M-EA 
opportunities 
Which IT and MT 
infrastructures want to be 
existed and extended with 
current EA 
Design 
Construct current 
EA 
Construct Target 
M-EA 
M-EA diagrams show how new 
M-EA can be matched with 
target M-EA  
Implementation 
plan 
Target M-EA 
opportunities 
result 
Target M-EA 
implementation plan 
M-EA migration progresses of 
data, process, system, people 
implementation 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 192 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
matched with the enterprise expected extension. Furthermore these diagrams will have 
to be modified through meeting with the company to conclude with final decision 
which MT application opportunities they would like to integrate into their M-EA and 
have a plan schedule to show how the implementation processes and timeline should 
be achieved.  After finalizing the implementation plan schedule, the implementation 
plan tables of people, processes, technology, data and systems have been completed as 
well. At the last stage, the M-EA implement team has constructed the comprehensive 
M-EA implementation table to prevent duplication of implementation process 
between different factors’, implementation tables, also take effective life cycle of the 
implementation processes and reduce the implementation schedule time. 


M-EA Transition Road Map 
 
A good M-EA enables the organization to respond to its goals. These goals of an 
organization can be driven by technology changes (disruptions) or business changes. 
The transitions of an organization from where it is to where it wants to be (goals) are 
outlined in a transition path, or ‘road map’. An overall M-EA can be made up of 
numerous road maps, which apply to different situations within the organization. A 
mobile enterprise transition roadmap is discussed in the Mobile Enterprise Transition 
and Management book by Unhelkar (2009b). 


Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 193 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 


Figure 5.6: M-EA Transition Road Map (adapted from Unhelkar, 2009) 
 
Figure 5.6 depicts this mobile enterprise transition roadmap, which is made up of the 
four dimensions of economics, technology, process and sociology. These dimensions 
of a mobile transition maps with four out of the six columns discussed earlier in the 
Zachman framework. The economic dimension of the transition provides the 
motivation (why), the technical dimension is the ‘what’, the process dimension is the 
‘how’ and the social dimension deals with the people ‘who’.  
 
The recommendation in terms of application of the transition roadmap is that it 
should also evolve – gradually incorporate increasing levels of complexities of 
mobile technologies from all five layers of the M-EA framework shown earlier in 
Figure 5.3. These increasingly complex transition of business with mobility is also 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 194 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
outlined in Figure 5.6 through the mobile-informative, mobile-transactive, 
mobile-operative and mobile-collaborative usage.  
 
The mobile-informative use of mobile technologies is by business deal with the 
one-way communication to its users on their mobile devices. The mobile-informative 
use incorporates transmission of informative messages such as weather reports, train 
and plane schedules and advertisements.  
 
The mobile-transactive use of mobile technologies by business is a two-way 
communication between the business, its customers and other external parties. This 
mobile-transactive use is what is understood as mobile commerce, wherein purchase 
of goods and services is involved, and the corresponding payment through a visa. 
Therefore, the mobile-transactive usage is more complex than the 
mobile-informative use.  
 
The mobile-operative use of mobile technologies by business includes not only the 
above two informative and transactive uses, but also the use of mobility in all 
internal operations of the business. Internal processes like inventory management, 
timesheets and payroll management start using mobility in this use.  
 
Mobile-collaborative includes all three above uses but, in addition, there is 
collaboration amongst numerous businesses with the help of mobile web services. 
The MEA for a collaborative use of mobility requires proper understanding, 
modeling and application of services-orientation as discussed further. 
 
Chapter 5: M-EA Model 
 
PhD Thesis  Page 195 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
5.5 Summary of this chapter 
 
This chapter has discussed the comprehensive M-EA structure, which includes a 
framework, a model, and transition roadmaps, in detail description. This research 
offers a blueprint picture of how the people, systems, process, data, and internal and 
external factors that contribute EA in M-EA framework. This M-EA framework is an 
abstraction of how the emerging technologies or new methodologies fit with an 
organization’s mobile information communication technology requirements. This 
research project provides the transition process from the current status to target status 
for the company in transition road map, which aims to show the enterprise how to 
schedule from the different generation EIS situation to particular M-EA. M-EA 5+1 
layers model demonstrates how MT helps in each 6 layers and connects seamlessly 
to each other. The researcher also updated the comprehensive version after validating 
the model through 3 action research studies, the detailed discussion of the action 
research studies result will be documented in next chapter (Chapter 6).  
 
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PhD Thesis Page 196 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Chapter 6: Validating the extension of Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) through action research 
 
6.1 Overview of this chapter 
 
This chapter describes further validation and extension of the Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA).The outcome of the case studies (described in section 4.8.4 of 
Chapter 4) forms the basis for refinement of the validation criteria and input. 
Extension of Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) structure is based on the work 
carried out in the previous Chapter 5. The action research studies of three companies 
that agreed to participate are described in this chapter. The selection of three 
organization within Australia was done keeping in view their diversity in terms of 
their size, nature of industry, the level of technical sophistication, their organizational 
background, processes involved, their willingness and readiness to participate in this 
research. Further validation of the M-EA structure is summarized at the end of the 
chapter. 
 
6.2 Objectives of the action research studies 
 
Action research, as explained in the research methodology discussion in Chapter 3, is 
a collaborative approach to research that provides people with the means to take 
systematic action in an effort to resolve specific problems. This approach endorses 
consensual, democratic and participatory strategies to encourage people to examine 
reflectively their problems or particular issues affecting them or their community. 
Furthermore, it encourages people to formulate accounts and explanations of their 
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PhD Thesis Page 197 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
situation and to develop plans that may resolve these problems. The empirical 
research was carried out as action research studies, including a study of the existing 
EISs, EA, and MT usage in organizations in order to understand the impact of M-EA 
structure in their enterprise. Technically, the three participating companies were 
asked to help validate different parts of the M-EA structure. Firstly, the mobile 
communication company aim was used to validate and also extend each of the 5+1 
layers of the M-EA model. Secondly, the consulting company was used in the action 
research study to help upgrading the implementation of migration project plan; and 
thirdly, the security / transaction processing company helped with extending M-EA 
on a security specific aspect.  
 
6.3 Designing action research project 
 
This action research aims to validate the M-EA structure by introducing the model 
developed to the participating companies and getting feedback from their vast 
experience and knowledge The ‘Action Research’ approach could be explained as a 
participatory form of research method wherein the researcher introduces changes into 
processes and then observes and documents the corresponding effects of these 
changes. Therefore action research offers a very scientific and subtle way of 
observing changes in an organization and introducing new changes without 
drastically changing the ongoing operations of the organization. The “action” 
research means doing some actions in the company and getting feedback, followed 
by changing the plan from feedback, and repeating to see the validation results. It 
finally aims to get the best of M-EA model to achieve the research project objectives. 
The proposers of this research believe that this will be the most appropriate form of 
research to be carried out in the practical settings of this research project. 
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PhD Thesis Page 198 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
This research chooses three companies with different sizes and industries; each of the 
company has its expertise in IT, business, and mobile communication industry. The 
purpose of gathering their experts’ experiences and company technology is to help 
validate our M-EA structure in a more comprehensive and functional manner.  
 
Table 6.1: Details of the participated action research enterprises 
Company Size Industry Aim 
A Large Mobile Communication Validate 5+1 layers model part 
B Medium IT Consulting 
Upgrade the implementation 
migration project plan  
C Small 
Security/ transaction 
processing Technology 
Validate security part 
 
The first action research wass carried out in a mobile communication enterprise 
which provides mobile communication products and services to other business, 
companies, or organizations. This enterprise provides technological services to other 
organizations in order to increase its performance and quality. This enterprise was 
selected because it is a large-sized company having its own EA consultant team 
which has broad knowledge and experience in delivering and implementing EA to 
other companies. The enterprise participated in order to see how mobile 
communication technology could be introduced to its customers’ existing EA 
structure. 
 
The second action research was carried out in an IT business consulting company 
which provides integrated IT into business processes services to other business, 
companies, or organizations. This company helps other organizations to set up the 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 199 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
integrated IT plan and get other organizations to outsource the business process 
transaction project. Company B has its own business analyst team and project 
development team. This enterprise was selected because it is a medium-sized 
company and has its own business analyst consultant who has vast experience in 
handling the project of integrating IT into business processes as well as having its 
own project development methodology to handle these projects. The enterprise 
would like to know how mobile technology can be integrated into business processes 
so that it could be introduced to its customers to enhance its market competition.  
 
The third action research was carried out in the security technology company which 
provides a security platform to a mobile transaction payment system service to other 
businesses, companies, or organizations. This company provides security technology 
to be integrated into other companies’ mobile payment transaction process. The 
company then uses this service to provide more secure mobile business payment 
transactions to its consumers. This enterprise is selected because it is a small-sized 
company and has its own security technology. The enterprise participated to find out 
how its security technology could help extend EA with mobility in order to enhance 
its security technology market competition. 
 
6.4 Validation criteria for against M-EA and its expected outcome  
 
Table 4.8.2 in chapter 4 has listed the expected outcome from the interviews, and 
Section 4.8.4 has already discussed these interviews expected outcome after 
implementing M-EA into the company. After analysing the expected outcome and 
referring not only as the M-EA 5 aspect but also the M-EA 5+1 layers model, the 
researcher adds two more points and designs to the following Table 6.2 as the action 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 200 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
research project validation criteria. The first column of Table 6.2 shows the criteria 
of mapping to the 5 aspects – people, process, data, system, and technology aspects. 
The second column shows it mapping to the 5+1 layers M-EA model – presentation 
layer, process layer, storage layer, binding layer, and communication layer. This 
table brings M-EA framework and M-EA model together; moreover, it also shows 
how enterprise could investigate and what to expect of the IT and MT direction in the 
near future.  
 
Table 6.2: Action research project validation criteria 
M-EA 
5 Aspects 
M-EA 5+1 layers 
model 
M-EA Validation Criteria 
(for Action Research project in real organizations) 
PEOPLE 
Presentation 
Layer 
• Mobile Device Usability  
• Mobile Office 
• Customer Personalization Service 
PROCESS Processes Layer 
• Service-Oriented Process Orchestration 
• Real-time response  
• Mobile control and monitoring  
• Mobile commerce and Mobile payment 
DATA Storage Layer 
• Mobile Data (Extended Data Repository) 
• Mobile Information Service 
SYSTEM Processes Layer 
• Accessing any system (M-SCM/ M-CRM/ 
M-ERP) anytime and anywhere due to Mobility 
Location-Independence 
Technology 
Binding Layer 
Communication 
Layer 
• Mobile Communications 
• Mobile Internet Service and Applications 
• Middleware Platform helps integrate different 
languages within each layer  
 
The “people” aspect, which verifies as the “presentation” layer of M-EA model, 
contains three validation criteria points: Mobile Device Usability; Mobile Office; and 
Customer Personalization Service. It focuses on investigating if the enterprise could 
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PhD Thesis Page 201 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
provide the employee with a mobile device in the work environment, and provide the 
personalization service to its customer after extending the EA with mobility. 
 
The “process” aspect, which verifies as the “process” layer of the M-EA model, 
includes four validation criteria points: Service-Oriented Process Orchestration; 
Real-time response; Mobile control and monitoring; Mobile commerce and Mobile 
payment. It focuses on finding, whether the enterprise could provide better real-time 
M-business service, including mobile payment and control products processes, after 
extending its EA to M-EA. 
 
The “data” aspect, which verifies as the “storage” layer of the M-EA model, 
comprises of two validation criteria: Mobile Data (Extended Data Repository); and 
Mobile Information Service. It focuses on investigating what the company provides 
to its customer in order to get information and to process its own mobile devices after 
extending its EA to M-EA. 
 
The “System” aspect, which verifies as the “process” layer of M-EA model, includes 
only one validation criteria: Accessing any system (M-SCM/ M-CRM/ M-ERP) 
anytime and anywhere due to Mobility Location-Independence. It focuses on 
observing how the enterprise provides its system users, access to the system anytime 
and anywhere after extending its EA with mobility. 
 
The “technology” aspect, which verifies as the “communication” layer and “binding” 
layer of M-EA model, contains three validation criteria points: Mobile 
Communications; Mobile Internet Service and Applications; and Middleware 
Platform which helps integrate different languages within each layer. It focuses on 
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PhD Thesis Page 202 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
researching how the enterprise could provide better communication and Internet 
service by secure platform after implementing M-EA. 
 
6.5 Action research company A 
 
The first action research project was carried out at Company A. This action research   
applied Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) 5+1 layers model together with the 
existing mobile transition roadmaps within the company, in order to create  
Company A’s Mobile Enterprise Architecture (CAMEA). This CAMEA would not 
only specifically fill the request from Company A, but also help the researcher 
validate the original M-EA structure to comprehensive M-EA. 
 
6.5.1 Background of the mobile communication company 
 
Company A as an enterprise provides professional expertise, world-class 
methodologies, consultation, and application service with adaptive platforms, 
intelligent solutions and advanced projects to deliver the business expected by its 
customers. It has over 10 million customers and 160,000 professional staff in 60 
countries around the world. There are 3,000 employees in Australia and New 
Zealand. 
 
Company A is a full service provider of information technology and communications 
solutions. The company partners with the customers to consult, design, build, operate 
and support business solutions. From strategic consulting to application and 
infrastructure solutions and services, Company A has earned a reputation as the 
single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organisations. 
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PhD Thesis Page 203 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Company A’s consulting services provide proven methodologies that deliver results. 
The skilled professional team draws on a rich pool of in-depth experience and 
intellectual property., by linking organisations’ business strategies and change 
agendas to enable technologies that are already delivering value for a prestigious 
portfolio of clients spanning government departments, manufacturing, banking and 
finance, retail and service industries.  
 
6.5.2 Modeling of processes in the company 
 
Firstly, the researcher introduced the M-EA structure to Company A’s EA consultant 
team and discussed validation criteria with them. After the short presentation and 
discussion with the consultant team, about the process within the Company, the 
researcher decided to conduct a detailed discussion about each layer in each meeting 
during the action research project, which would be followed by validating each layer 
with criteria that is updated from the original M-EA model to fully comprehensive 
M-EA structure. Finally, Company A gave suggestions and comments about the 
M-EA structure, and also received a formal report and 30 minutes presentation of 
CAMEA to the EA consultant team. 
 
The EA consultant team has lots of experience in implementing EA to other 
company’s, and this gives this action research project more of a standing. Their 
experience and knowledge helps us to validate M-EA model in more detail and 
comprehensive way. They suggested that the researcher goes into details about each 
layer in order to provide more information and technology in a major figure for each 
layer. These figures could make the reader easier to understand as to what should be 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 204 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
integrated in each layer of the M-EA model, and as well as provide more suggestions 
to the company to understand which technology can be chosen to be integrated into 
M-EA model. 
 
6.5.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA 
 
The following (Table 6.3) shows how CAMEA validates the company’s status before 
and after applying M-EA into its EA structure by using the action research validation 
table. The company enterprise architecture consultant team’s suggestions and 
comments are also documented into this table. 
 
Table 6.3: CAMEA Validation M-EA Table 
M-EA Validation 
Criteria 
Before M-EA was 
applied in the 
Organizations 
CAMEA  Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Mobile Device 
Usability  
Ad-hoc Customised to 
the user 
• Handling requirements of 
different levels of users 
(e.g. Manager had less 
need to shield the mobile 
screens; Workers had to be 
provided with larger font 
sizes etc.  
• Mobile Office Informal Formal • Teleworking was improved 
due to mobile usage. 
Meetings were scheduled 
using mobile conferencing 
facilities.  
• Customer 
Personalization 
Service 
Not 
personalization 
Personalization • As enabled by integrated 
mobile architecture. 
• Real-time 
response  
Asynchronies  Synchronize  • As seen in company’s 
mobile processes. 
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PhD Thesis Page 205 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
M-EA Validation 
Criteria 
Before M-EA was 
applied in the 
Organizations 
CAMEA  Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Service-Oriented 
Process 
Orchestration 
Unstructured  Structured  • Enabling mobile 
collaboration. 
• Mobile control 
and monitoring  
Not specific Specific • Updated the data in 
real-time. 
• Mobile 
commerce and 
Mobile payment 
Not provide Provided • Updated Mobile payment 
processes and allow the 
customer do M-commerce. 
• Mobile Data 
(Extended Data 
Repository) 
Disconnected  Connected • Extended Mobile data 
adapt to run new mobile 
processes. 
• Mobile 
Information 
Service 
Website only SMS info 
customers 
• Company can provide 
more personalized 
information and 
advertisement to its 
customers. 
• Accessing any 
system anytime 
and anywhere 
due to Mobility 
Location- 
Independence 
Closed; dedicated open • Earlier, when systems have 
to “Interface”, they issue 
dedicated calls. After 
M-EA, they have 
opportunities to use mobile 
web services. 
• Mobile 
Communications 
Only for private 
use 
Business 
contact 
• Company provides mobile 
communication network/ 
service for the employee. 
• Mobile Internet 
Service and 
Applications 
single multiple • Multiple services and 
applications collaborating. 
• Middleware 
Platform helps 
integrate different 
languages within 
each layer 
No Consider  • Consider to add enterprise 
bus or middleware 
platform into EA. 
 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 206 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The validation from Company A is not only for completing the table, but also going 
into detail to discuss and validate each layer of the M-EA 5+1 layers model. The 
result is shown in 6 single diagrams from each layer, as well as the suggestion to 
present the confirmation of the OSI 7 model to our M-EA 5+1 layer model. The 
following section shows the model after validation from Company A. 
 

	






	



	



	
















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Figure 6.1: CAMEA 5+1 Layers Model 
 
Figure 6.1 after discussion with consultant team, creates the CAMEA 5+1 layers 
model for the Company A. This model is modified from the original M-EA 5+1 
layers model, which is shown in Figure 5.3. This modification is because the 
consultant team suggests the “data” is the basic concept of the computer system. 
Networks link the data together, and therefore should be changed to layer 2. This 
figure also notices the communication from the OSI 7 layers model to the M-EA 5+1 
Layers model. 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 207 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Layer 1- Storage Layer 
Mobile Content / Database Architecture  
 
 
Figure 6.2: CAMEA Model Layer 1- Storage Layer 
 
Figure 6.2 shows CAMEA Model Layer 1- storage layer, which presents the mobile 
databases that need to be extended from the original enterprise repository. In this 
layer, the EA consultant team suggested 7 steps to build this data layer:  
Step 1: creates the data organizational model, which defines the data principles, data 
constraints, data assumptions, and data access standards.  
Step 2: creates the data diagnostic model, which defines all the data assets, both 
legally and planned.  
Step 3: creates the subject area data model, which identifies for the first time the 
main subject areas in the data model design effort.  
Step 4: creates the conceptual data model, which analyses to look into the overall 
data requirement of the proposed information system. A detailed specification of the 
data entities, a list of attributes that characterizes each entity and a complete set of 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 208 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
entity relationships that are technology independent are documented in this step. 
Step 5: creates the logical data model, which extends the model effort represented in 
the logical data model to accomplish relations and normalization.  
Step 6: creates the physical data model, which defines and quantifies fields that 
populate the various tables in the database, and also identifies the primary and 
foreign keys by agreeing on naming conventions for tables and fields, and by 
deciding on the database environment itself. 
Step 7: communicates the data architecture view to teams and projects, which 
documents and communicates to other IT engineering teams and projects through 
reports, presentations, solicited within comments, and invitations to engineering and 
customer (EA owner) personnel to attend the working session of the M-EA 
implementation project and the M-EA data model team. 
 
Layer 2 -Communication Layer 
Mobile Networks / Communications Architecture (Layer 2) 
 
 
Figure 6.3: CAMEA Model Layer 2- Communication Layer 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 209 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 6.3 shows CAMEA Model Layer 2- communication layer, which presents the 
various communication networks in a composite radio environment. Mobile devices 
connect to networks by using Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Binary language 
from requesting entry of networking and WML Binary language to response from 
networking. The networking includes not only the Internet, but also pervasive 
networking and use HTTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) request and 
responds in the composite radio environment. Virtual Private Networks allows 
mobile users to access the corporate network using the Internet as the transmission 
medium. VPN makes possible the secure exchange of information across a public 
network which is indispensable when deploying mobile devices in radio network. In 
this layer, the EA consultant team suggests 3 parts to build this communication 
network layer: 
Part 1: choose from the most suitable short range mobile network, such as Wi-Fi, 
Wi-Max, LAN, WLAN, RFID technology. 
Part 2: choose long range mobile network, such as mobile satellite, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, or 
4G communication network and available mobile device. 
Part 3: consider whether to implement Mobile Internet into M-EA or not. 
 
Layer 3 - Binding Layer 
Mobile Middleware / Binding Architecture (Layer 3) 
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PhD Thesis Page 210 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Figure 6.4: CAMEA Model Layer 3- Binding Layer 
 
Figure 6.4 shows CAMEA Model Layer 3- binding layer, which presents different 
computer languages that could communicate to each other by using middleware 
platform or enterprise bus. In this layer, the EA consultant team mentions that 
middleware is not only the glue for communicating between different layers, but also 
for communicating between different languages in the same layer. TCP/IP could be 
used in network communication layer, .NET, JAVA platform could be used in 
presentation layer, SAP platform could be used in process layer, and Oracle could be 
used in storage layer. There are several middleware platforms and languages 
available in the market, such as CORBA, WAP, and i-mode. Moreover, there are also 
some hardware infrastructures, such as hub, and adopter that could be selected when 
building this layer. 
 
Layer 4 - Process Layer 
Mobile Process / Applications Architecture (Layer 4) 
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Figure 6.5: CAMEA Model Layer 4- Process Layer 
 
 Figure 6.5 shows CAMEA Model Layer 4- process layer, presents the various 
business processes; from re-engineering to service-oriented real time processes. The 
EA consultant team lists eight more popular business processes in a common 
enterprise, which include: ordering process, scheduling process, operation process, 
dispatch process, resourcing process, supporting process, reporting process, and 
financial process. The system of MCRM (includes: customer based marketing 
analysis channel management business processes), MSCM (includes: demand 
planning, supply chain planning, and transportation these supply chain business 
processes), and MERP (includes: ordering, purchasing, human resource, accounting 
these back-end business processes) all need to be integrated and orchestrated into 
M-EA. In this layer, the EA consultant team suggested 7 steps to build this business 
process application layer: 
Step 1: gathers list of business functions and requirements, which includes review of 
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PhD Thesis Page 212 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
system requirements, business processes, and business systems hierarchy. 
Step 2: application principles, assumptions, and constraints, which includes approved 
security mechanisms and computer languages, and object-oriented approach. 
Step 3: general applications model, which includes client server for human-computer 
interaction, web server with applications and controlled means for data access. 
Step 4: defines application design rules, which explains how application components 
work across web servers, client servers, and data stores, that support technology 
architecture.  
Step 5: application templates and languages tools, which link development products 
to technology components, and automated development tools. 
Step 6: allocates applications to architecture components, which distribute 
applications across business systems, servers, and data stores. 
Step 7: communicates applications architectural view, which presents applications 
architecture above to all business and IT engineering teams, validation and feedback, 
and review the revise applications architecture. 
 
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Layer 5- Presentation Layer 
Mobile Presentation / Usability Architecture (Layer 5) 
 
 
Figure 6.6: CAMEA Model Layer 5- Presentation Layer 
 
Figure 6.6 shows CAMEA Model Layer 5- presentation layer, which presents the 
various important consideration point of choosing mobile devices. There are four 
mobile devices: mobile phone, laptop, smartcards, and PDA, which are used widely 
in the market today. In this layer, EA consultant team suggests 7 points to be 
considered for building this presentation layer: 
1) Screen size: Mobile devices have limited screen size. Therefore, it is vital that 
screen size be fully utilized. The various functions available in a mobile 
application need to be organized in a logical and organized manner, depending on 
the requests of the users. The screen size must be large enough for mobile users to 
read the content effortlessly and use the stylus without difficulty.  
2) Battery life: Mobile devices are powered by batteries that have relatively short 
life – both in their daily usage (changing and recharging) as well as the overall 
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operational life of the batteries. The processors on the devices should be powerful 
enough to use as little power as possible to extend battery life. Most mobile 
gadgets have batteries that last from 2 to 7 days and beyond depending on the 
usage.  Advances in battery technology means recharging of phones have 
become convenient and easy. Many public places such as airports and hotels have 
recharging booths provided with compliments of the manufacturers.  
3) Ruggedness: The mobile device should have the durability and ruggedness 
capability to function in any kind of physical environment. The mobile device 
must be in a working condition despite high temperatures, freezing temperatures, 
moisture and impact and yet provide clear voice clarity in these conditions. 
4) Usability: Usability of mobile applications and corresponding mobile devices 
plays an important role in making mobility acceptable to customers. The device 
should also be simple enough for developers to write applications. Also the device 
should be compatible with various accessories to be used with it. The memory and 
storage must be large enough for most mobile commerce applications. 
5) Navigation: The navigation becomes all the more important in a 
short-screen-space mobile application, in which the logical grouping, dependency, 
and performance of each mobile page is vital for the usability of the application. 
6) Language: Conversion from one language or culture to another is a feature that 
the device can support. However, this conversion and language support is still at a 
physical level. The users would want this conversion to be automatic and 
sufficient across different language, time zones, and regions of the world. 
7) Privacy: Mobile business need to ensure the privacy of information in especially 
sensitive area such as patient records, child tracking, shopping habits and credit 
ratings. Mobile business need to realize that personal data is even more important 
than searching for more customers and selling more services to them as it helps 
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PhD Thesis Page 215 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
build trust before enforcement of legislation. The provision of location-specific 
services can no longer be based on trust alone between the parties involved. There 
is a need for regulations to monitor and manage the privacy of the information. 
 
Layer Plus- Security Layer 
Mobile Security Architecture (All Layers) 
 
 
Figure 6.7: CAMEA Security Layer for all Layers 
 
Figure 6.7 shows CAMEA Model Layer plus- security layer, which presents the 
various security focus on all 5 layers. In this plus layer, the EA consultant team 
suggests 6 security methods that could be implemented when building M-EA: 
1) ID authentication: provides a means for identifying a user. After being 
authenticated, the user can be granted access to the services one requires, and the 
activities can be monitored. Authentication mechanisms range from the familiar 
username and password to authentication certificates to sophisticated biometrics 
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PhD Thesis Page 216 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
systems which authenticate users through physical characteristics such as 
fingerprints. ID authentication is a foundation of any security implementation, and 
is usually a key part of other security solutions (Wiehler, 2004). 
2) Cryptography: Cryptography is a technology about hiding information. 
Applications of cryptography include ATM cards, computer passwords, and 
E-commerce. Until modern times cryptography referred almost exclusively to 
encryption, which is the process of converting ordinary information into 
unintelligible gibberish. The encryption technology can be divided into two parts: 
transport encryption technology and data encryption technology (Davison et al., 
2008). Transport encryption is implemented in standard transport protocols such 
as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and the Secure Socket Layer 
(SSL),protocols used for communication via Internet as well as the Wireless 
Transport Layer Security (WTLS), protocol designed for WAP applications in 
wireless network. These protocols allow the transmission of messages that are 
secured from eavesdropping, tampering or message forgery. Data encryption is 
applied to protect any content (text, data, photo, voice, video) stored on any movie 
devices, server, or other storage repository and to assure that only authorized user 
who process the secret (key) needed for decryption can access and manipulate the 
content.  
3) Secure mobile payment method: Secure mobile payment service is a secure, 
universal e-payment or m-payment transaction method, which allows real time 
payment transactions independently of the type and value of the purchase. The 
transaction processes could be as follows: After, having selected the required 
goods, customer receives certain payment transaction related data from the 
commercial, such as an electronic invoice. Having received the necessary 
transaction details, the customer prepares and signs a payment request and 
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PhD Thesis Page 217 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
forwards it to its own payment processor. Necessary funds if available the 
commercial receives a payment confirmation, a kind of guarantee from its own 
payment processor. The customer is also notified about the fulfillment of its 
payment request. Total response time is about 25-30 seconds. 
4) Secure platform: Built-in security features in the mobile application development 
platforms is an idea to a mobile security architectural approach. An example of 
such a built-in secure platform is the Closed Loop Environment for Wireless 
(CLEW), which is a technology belonging to the third participated action research 
company.  A more detailed introduction and discussion will be documented in 
the section 6.7, later of this chapter. 
5) WEP/ SIM: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a deprecated algorithm to secure 
IEEE802.11 wireless networks (Goransson and Greenlaw, 2007). Wireless 
networks broadcast messages using radio are at more risks to listen to than the 
normal wired networks. A subscriber identity module (SIM) on a removable SIM 
card securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) which used to identify a 
subscriber on mobile telephony devices (such as laptops and mobile phones). The 
SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from 
one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband 
telephony device. 
6) Copyright registration: Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the 
author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to 
that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time 
the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright is described under the 
umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks. Copyright 
applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and 
discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" 
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PhD Thesis Page 218 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. When the 
employees publish or update their ideas of the development products in the mobile 
meeting, the idea of the new products or new services are really needed to register 
the copyright. This is so because copyright registration could prevent other 
company or third party to copy or thieve the idea of the products, service, or any 
information which you have already registered. Therefore, register the copyright 
of new mobile business services or transaction processes are really important 
when applying M-EA into the company. 
 
6.6 Action research company B 
 
The second action research project was carried out at Company B. Company B has 
already got its basic enterprise reference architecture (ERA). This action research 
will be applying Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) 5+1 layers model together 
with the M-EA implementation plan within company, in order to create a Company 
B’s Mobile Enterprise Reference Architecture (CBMERA). This CBMERA would 
not only be specific to understanding the existing situation and fit the request from 
Company B, but also help the researcher validate the original M-EA structure to 
comprehensive M-EA. 
 
6.6.1 Background of the IT consulting company 
 
This research project is undertaken in a software development company- Company B. 
Company B is a leading Australian company of 600+ IT professionals supplying 
services to a wide range of corporate and local, state and federal government 
organisations for over 25 years. Company B provides professional services in area of 
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application development, web services, product deployment, project management 
and consultancy. There is an enterprise data repository which provides employees 
consulting and support by its template of documentation in Company B. This 
enterprise repository, which is the basic enterprise reference architecture (ERA) of 
Company B, considers the technology architecture, application architecture, 
information architecture, and presents the foundation to record the process and data 
structure. This basic ERA also could offer the business intelligence solutions for the 
system integration that focuses on business objectives, business entities, technology, 
organization issues, team, and project management.  
 
6.6.2 Modeling of processes in the company 
There is a project management methodology database as well as the basic enterprise 
reference architecture (ERA) in Company B, which provides the employees and 
consulting staffs with support for carrying out their projects. This basic ERA 
considers the technology architecture, application architecture, information 
architecture, and also provides the foundation to record the process and data structure. 
However, it does not comprise a full range of EA and it is also discovers that the 
layers of an EA do not map with the work at Company B. Furthermore, there is no 
specific mobile element in this basic ERA. Mobility can improve Company B’s 
competitiveness and can enable its clients to implement real-time business processes. 
Moreover, mobility can grow the customer’s business through location-independent 
access and customer personalization services. Therefore, this action research aims to 
apply M-EA model (created through interviews by the researcher) to Company B’s 
enterprise repository in order to create a “Company B Mobile Enterprise Reference 
Architecture” (CBMERA). 
 
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This application of M-EA aims to “validate” the original model of M-EA and its 
underlying concepts that were elicited from the interviews. The end result of this 
action research is validation of M-EA and creation of CBMERA. CBMERA includes 
a 5+1 layers CBMEA model, and a mobile transition road map to encapsulate and 
represent Company B’s approach to use mobility. CBMERA also validated the 
approach to change management including changes to people, process, data, and 
systems. The suitable “fine tuning” of the M-EA model at the end of the action 
research would be required to make it practically applicable. 
 
6.6.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA 
 
The Following Table 6.4 shows the validation from Company B when applying 
M-EA to CBMERA. The business analysts, business consultants, project managers, 
and branch manager of Company B joined the meeting and gave their suggestion and 
comments on modification, which are documented in the following Table 6.4.  
 
Table 6.4: CBMERA Validation M-EA Table 
M-EA 
Validation 
Criteria  
Before M-EA was 
applied in the 
Organizations 
CBMERA  Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Mobile 
Device 
Usability 
Ad-hoc Customised 
to the user 
• Handling requirements of 
different levels of users (e.g. 
Manager had less need to 
shield the mobile screens; 
Workers had to be provided 
with larger font sizes etc.).  
• Mobile 
control and 
monitoring  
Not specific Specific • Updated the data in real-time. 
 
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M-EA 
Validation 
Criteria  
Before M-EA was 
applied in the 
Organizations 
CBMERA  Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Mobile 
Office 
Informal Formal • Teleworking was improved 
due to mobile usage. 
Meetings were scheduled 
using mobile conferencing 
facilities.  
• Customer 
Personalizati
on Service 
Not personalization Personalizati
on  
• The mobile device becomes 
an everyday business tool 
and permits easy access to 
selected information on the 
basis of the user’s location 
and the relevant business 
scenario. 
• Service-Orie
nted Process 
Orchestration 
Unstructured  Structured  • Business processes 
re-engineering to 
service-oriented. 
• Real-time 
response  
Asynchronize  Synchronize  • Business processes 
re-engineering in order to get 
real-time responded to the 
market information updated. 
• Mobile 
control and 
monitoring  
Not specific Specific • Updated the data in real-time. 
• Mobile 
commerce 
and Mobile 
payment 
Not provide Provided • Updated Mobile payment 
processes and allow the 
customer do M-commerce. 
• Mobile Data 
(Extended 
Data 
Repository) 
Disconnected  Connected • Data can be pushed from or 
pulled to the mobile device.  
• Mobile 
Information 
Service 
Website only SMS info 
customers 
• The more urgently 
information is needed for 
making a decision (e.g. flight 
delays) the more users are 
willing to pay. 
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M-EA 
Validation 
Criteria  
Before M-EA was 
applied in the 
Organizations 
CBMERA  Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Accessing 
any system 
anytime and 
anywhere 
due to 
Mobility 
Location- 
Independenc
e 
Closed; dedicated Open • Personal and business 
resources can be accessed 
anywhere using any device 
via any network, whether 
fix-line or wireless. Instant 
connectivity to the Internet 
and intranet from a mobile 
device is becoming a reality. 
• Mobile 
Communicati
on 
Only for private use Business 
contact 
• People have additional 
options for communicating 
each other, irrespective of 
their location and desired 
contact partner. 
• Mobile 
Internet 
Service and 
Applications 
Single Multiple • Creating a mobile workforce 
that expects access to 
desktop applications, 
messaging and information 
retrieval whether in the 
office, in the car, waiting at 
station or airport, working at 
home or visiting a customer. 
• Middleware 
Platform 
helps 
integrate 
different 
languages 
within each 
layer 
No Consider  • Applying enterprise bus or 
middleware platform if it is 
required. 
 
The validation from Company B not only helped in completing the table, but went 
into detailed discussions and validations of the relevance of the M-EA 5+1 layers 
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PhD Thesis Page 223 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
model to the company. The result is documented in the following section. 
Furthermore the Company B also creates the implementation strategic alignment to 
update the transaction road map, and it is also documented after M-EA 5+1 layer 
validation.  
 
The validation from CBMERA implementation organization revealed that after 
applying mobility into its ERA, the process interaction between the users and the 
business upgrades to mobility service-oriented and real-time response process 
orchestration; the processes become more pervasive, simple, and platform-neutral. 
The CBMERA model is thus successfully applied and it has resulted in opening 
greater opportunities for various mobile devices and applications to be incorporated 
in the business processes of the organization within mobile office environment. This 
new CBMERA brings about not only internal integration but, through its 
extendibility, also offers greater efficiency to its external suppliers, customers and 
other trading partners over the mobile network and Internet. All customers, suppliers, 
also employees can access any system (M-SCM/ M-CRM/ M-ERP) anytime and 
anywhere, the mobile device becomes an everyday business tool and permits easy 
access to selected information on the basis of the user’s location and the relevant 
business scenario. Company B also states that a comprehensive CBMERA provides 
the company with an excellent opportunity for creation of an ‘agile’ technical 
platform that would enable delivery of business services to a “location independent” 
market. 
 
Layer 1- Storage Layer 
Mobile Content / Database Architecture  
 
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The mobile contents and database architectural layer is the base layer of the 
CBMERA. This Layer 1 of the CBMERA deals with the data aspects of the mobile 
systems including the sourcing of data, its storage, its provision and its maintenance. 
The data related to mobile applications is made up of a multitude of voice, video, 
images and text. This varied nature of mobile data can be better referred to as 
‘content’. Typical content management systems are the SQL Server and Oracle9i 
Database Enterprise Edition. In addition to managing data, are also able to handle 
transactions, provide correlations for business intelligence, integration and reliability. 
Currently, Company B has a good enterprise data repository, and has updated this 
basic ERA which will provide more contents and make more references reusing. 
However, Company B could apply mobile information service and central mobile 
data repository into this layer in the future. 
 
Layer 2 -Communication Layer 
Mobile Networks / Communications Architecture (Layer 2) 
 
The communications or network layer of M-EA is the second layer, and is also 
known as Layer 2 of CBMERA. There are numerous mobile network technologies 
that form part of this layer. The network stacks in this network layer of the 
architecture with TCP/IP at the base, followed by WAP, personal area networking 
(PAN) and, depending on the needs of the applications, metropolitan area networks 
(MAN). The network communications technologies further include the IEEE 802.1x 
group of standards, the generations (G) of cellular standards (i.e. 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G), 
Infrared, Bluetooth, RFID, Wi-Max and Wireless VoIP, the UMTS, GSM, GPRS, 
CDMA standards. The network architecture not only includes the stock of networks, 
but also provides links or programmable interfaces for Infrared, Bluetooth and the 
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PhD Thesis Page 225 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
cellular networks. Currently, Company B uses laptops with Internet, mobile Internet, 
mobile phone, and some wearable PDA. However, Company B could apply Mobile 
office, mobile internet, mobile intranet application and service into this layer in the 
future. 
 
Layer 3 - Binding Layer 
Mobile Middleware / Binding Architecture (Layer 3) 
 
The binding layer of a mobile system is based on the overall CBMERA. This third 
layer (Layer 3) of the CBMERA deals with two aspects of binding: firstly, between 
the applications or services being offered, and secondly, between the contents and the 
applications. These mobile middleware technologies bring together, or ‘gel’ the 
various services or parts of a mobile software application. The need for mobile 
middleware is felt due to the dispersed services mobile environment, varying types of 
devices and its operating environment. Middleware technologies enable interaction 
amongst these various devices, applications and databases, systems by creating and 
using common standards for the applications. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 
and i-Mode are the two well-known mobile middleware protocols used in mobile 
application development. WAP and i-Mode middleware platforms are built on top of 
existing network protocols of TCP/IP. Currently, there is no middleware used in 
Company B, however, Company B could apply enterprise bus and middleware to 
link all layers of communication between each other if it is needed in the future. 
 
Layer 4 - Process Layer 
Mobile Process / Applications Architecture (Layer 4) 
 
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The mobile processes, applications and services of a mobile architecture are 
represented in the fourth layer of CBMERA. This Layer 4 includes the business 
processes, the models for collaborative web services and the business analysis 
required by the business. The enablers, the solutions providers and the application 
developers work in this layer of the CBMERA. The types of applications in this layer 
at the mobile user level are, for example, the billing applications and the mobile 
retailing applications. Currently, Company B business process follows process life 
cycle approach, and target re-engineering to provide real-time service by applying 
M-EA. In addition, Company B could apply mobile control and monitoring, Mobile 
commerce and Mobile payment into this layer in the future. 
 
Layer 5- Presentation Layer 
Mobile Presentation / Usability Architecture (Layer 5) 
 
The top most, 5th layer of the CBMERA is the presentation layer. This Layer 5 
includes all aspects of presentation to mobile users including their devices, user 
interfaces and navigations. The devices, in this layer, are made up of mobile phones, 
I-Pods, PDAs, Blackberries as well as “wearable” mobile devices such as 
GPRS-enabled watches, email-only devices and handheld computers. Such 
wirelessly connected mobile devices are far more “personal” than mere desktop PCs. 
Therefore, the presentation layer needs to deal with the images associated with the 
use of these mobile devices (particularly by adolescents), their usability and their 
privacy. Thus, the mobile device manufacturers as well as the user interface 
designers are active in this layer of the CBMERA. Currently, Company B employees 
use mobile phone, PDA, and laptop to communicate with each other and customers. 
Company B could try to provide its customers and employees using mobile devices 
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to reach and access the system anytime and anywhere, in order to provide mobile 
customer personalization service. 
 
Layer Plus- Security Layer 
Mobile Security Architecture (All Layers) 
 
The mobile security architecture applies to all layers of the CBMERA because each 
layer (from 1 to 5) has its own unique security requirement. Thus, the security deals 
with networks, data, middleware, applications and presentation layers. Just as all 
other companies, Company B faces the increased mobile computing power of 
handheld devices introducing new security threats. The security threats would be in 
the form of loss of confidentiality, loss of integrity and loss of availability. Password 
protection is a basic mobile security mechanism that is included in most handheld 
devices as a countermeasure (Guizani and Raju, 2005). Furthermore, network and 
application security measures also need to be considered when using MT. Company 
B could apply mobile security which includes a wide variety of technologies, 
including authentication, cryptography, secure communications, and secure mobile 
payment methods. This mobile security is especially crucial, as communication 
through wireless and mobile networks is more vulnerable to attack than in the wired 
networks. 
 
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CBMERA Implementation Transition Road Map 
Business Strategy
Organisational infrastructure 
and processes
MIT infrastructure and 
processes
MIT Strategy
Business
Scope
Business
Governance
Distinctive
Competencies
Mobile Technology
Scope
MIT
Governance
Systemic
Competencies
M-EA
SkillsM-Processes
Architecture
Infrastructures
SkillsProcesses
Automation Linkage
External 
Strategic 
Fit
Internal 
Strategic 
Fit
 
Figure 6.8: M-EA Strategic Alignment 
(Modified from Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993) 
 
Company B helps to validate the implementation strategic alignment as in the above 
Figure 6.8. This strategic alignment should be articulated in terms of an external 
domain and an internal domain. Within the business domain, the business strategy for 
external market includes business scope, distinctive competencies, and business 
governance. Mobile Information Technology (MIT) strategy involves: 1) Mobile 
technology scope: the specific MIT that support current business strategy initiatives 
or could shape new business strategy initiatives for the firm. This is corresponding to 
business scope, which deals with choices pertaining to product-market offerings in 
the output market. 2) Systemic competencies: the specific MIT strategy that could 
contribute positively to the creation of new business strategies or better support 
existing business strategy. This is analogous to the concept of business distinctive 
competencies, which deal with those attributes of strategy (costing, quality, 
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PhD Thesis Page 229 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
value-added service, superior distribution channels) that contribute to a distinctive, 
comparative advantage to a firm over its competitors. 3) MIT governance: selection 
and use of mechanisms for obtaining the required MIT competencies. This is 
referring to business governance, which involves make-versus-buy choices in 
business strategy. Such choices cover a complex array of inter-firm relationships 
such as strategic association, joint business enterprise, marketing exchange, and 
technology licensing.   
 
In a business domain, the business strategy for internal enterprise includes 
architecture infrastructure, business processes and skills. MIT infrastructure and 
processes involve: 1) M-EA: choices that define the portfolio of applications, the 
configuration of hardware, software, communication network, and data architecture 
that are integrated as technical architecture of M-EA. This is analogous to the choices 
within the internal business strategy arena to articulate the administrative structure of 
the firm dealing with the roles, responsibilities, and authority structures. 2) 
M-processes: choices that define work processes central to the operations of the 
mobile business processes of M-EA. This is referring to the need for designing the 
business processes that support and shape the ability of the firm to execute business 
strategy. 3) Skills: choices pertaining to the acquisition, training, and development of 
knowledge and capabilities of the individuals required to effectively manage and 
operate the MIT infrastructure within the organization. This is corresponding to the 
skills required within the business domain to execute a given strategy.  
 
Company B suggested that when building M-EA, business strategy is the driver and 
MIT strategy is the enabler. The enterprise need not only align external and internal 
domains of MIT, but also needs to integrate business and MIT domain. The 4 
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PhD Thesis Page 230 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
dominant alignment perspectives that use the 2 strategies as the driver are equally 
useful and powerful in considering about the position of MIT in organizational 
transformation. Company B believes that this M-EA strategic alignment could be 
updated to CBMERA Implementation Transition Road Map. 
 
6.7 Action research company C 
 
The third action research project was carried out at Company C, Alacrity Technology 
Australia. This action research validated the researcher’s Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) 5+1 layers model with the help from Alacrity’s Closed Loop 
Environment for Wireless (CLEW) technology – particularly from the viewpoint of 
security and multi-channel authentication. This action research demonstrates how 
CLEW fits in to M-EA and also validates the security layer in 5+1 M-EA model. The 
suitable “fine tuning” of the M-EA model will be the result at the end of the action 
research. 
 
6.7.1 Background of the security/ transaction processing company 
 
Company C, Alacrity Technology Australia (http://www.alacritytech.com.au/), is an 
Australian company and based in Canberra, which delivers on the promise of mobile 
internet. CLEW, an acronym for Closed Loop Environment for Wireless, is a new 
mobile-based technology to provide the secure intelligent Mobile Internet interaction. 
This technology is a patented combination of technologies enabling organizations to 
send information to important stakeholders such as customers and staff and 
automatically track, trace, secure, audit and react to their responses, according to 
preset business rules. 
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CLEW combines Internet, mobile phones and wireless devices to enable time-critical 
information to be sent simultaneously to multiple recipients and to enable recipients to 
respond to the originator’s message. CLEW not only provides an additional 
communication channel tailored to mobile device users, but also allows all real time 
interaction in a secure environment. CLEW technology is simple to use and to 
implement because it is a flexible system that supports a wide range of M-business 
transactions. Moreover, CLEW will prevent unauthorised access to networks in an 
efficient and cost-effective manner. Network access can be initiated and authorised 
securely by the organisation along with the authorised user. Access can now be 
promptly and securely authorised or rejected by the user, eliminating the need for 
costly alternatives. CLEW provides greater control to network access, risk 
minimisation and stronger overall confidence in the organisations security systems 
and processes. 
 
 
Figure 6.9: CLEW for Secure Access Control 
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PhD Thesis Page 232 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
The above Figure 6.9 presents the CLEW technology for secure access control. The 
CLEW system sends a secure alert to authorized users before they can access the 
network. The users will then receive the alert on their internet connectable mobile 
device, after securely entering a session via a login and password issued by the 
organization. Additional methods of security can be incorporated, if requested by the 
organization. The user then responds to the information and if they are trying to access 
the network they will approve the alert. If the user is not trying to access the network 
they will decline the request which will restrict access to the hacker. Unlike alternative 
systems CLEW uses out of band authentication which means CLEW uses a different 
authentication path to the transaction. The response is held in an irrefutable audit log 
and can be used for confirmation and reporting requirements.  
 
Additionally, CLEW technology improves the security of using mobile technology; it 
is more secure than SMS message, and also records the replies from the receiver. 
Messages sent out by CLEW to recipients are authenticated by the recipients by 
signing off with a password. Therefore, it is much more secure than SMS, and also if 
the recipient does not sign off, the backend systems of CLEW can send out messages 
to other pre-agreed people in a list agreed upon with the organization until it schedules 
the required number of personnel. Based on the client technology, CLEW ensures all 
interactivity takes place on enterprise’s server, to maintain unparalleled levels of data 
security. Once the interaction is complete, CLEW leaves no transactional 
information on the recipient’s mobile handset. Therefore, customers now could use 
CLEW to automate time-intensive manual processes to get real-time information to 
make M-commerce decision in a cost-effective manner. 
 
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6.7.2 Modeling of processes in the company 
 
Beside the trend toward increased mobility, enterprises are now operating the global 
marketing and growing mobile offices in multiple locations with increasing numbers 
of remote workers who all need to communicate and share information in real time. 
Communication and sharing information between different offices of the internal 
enterprise or between supply chain members of external enterprise are now 
imperatives, no matter where they are located or what time it is It is essential for 
communication and information sharing to be guaranteed by secure business process, 
regardless of whether or not the different business partners have access to protected 
intranet data and application. 
 
Security has always been a top priority, especially where M-commerce and sensitive 
M-business processes are concerned. The new challenges of wireless Internet access 
and the greater integration of mobile employees, partners and customers make 
potential shortfalls significantly more probable. Moreover, web service and M-EA 
will add a new dimension to the challenge posed by security, particularly in cases 
involving dynamic interaction of partners who have never done business together 
before. 
 
Therefore, security has to be given due consideration when the enterprise considers 
implementing M-EA. The increased mobile computing power of handheld devices 
introduces new security threats. The security threats would be in the form of loss of 
confidentiality, loss of integrity and loss of availability. Password protection is 
included in most handheld devices as a countermeasure (Guizani and Raju, 2005). 
Furthermore, network and application security measures also need to be considered 
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when using mobile technologies. Having risk identification and risk planning 
measures could help to overcome some risks (Ghosh, 2001). A possible solution is to 
build security measures into mobile platforms and applications themselves.  
 
Security modules in use (e.g. GSM/UMTS SIM cards) must be configurable and 
manageable by the enterprise itself.  Key management, authentication mechanisms, 
and cryptographic algorithms, unifies and integrates management processes and 
policies for information flow security across the enterprise. Security infrastructures 
in place on the client and server must be accessible for third-party application 
development. Additionally, deployment, management, and maintenance of secure 
mobile business application must be as far as possible expressible in corporate 
policies, thereby, controlling all security issues in security layers among people, 
process, system, data, and technology while doing mobile transaction in others 5 
layers of M-EA model. 
 
Therefore, this action research validated the researcher’s Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture (M-EA) 5+1 layers model with the help from Alacrity’s Closed Loop 
Environment for Wireless (CLEW) technology – particularly from the point of view 
of security and multi-channel authentication. This action research studies 
demonstrates how CLEW fits in to M-EA and also validates the security layer in 5+1 
M-EA model.  
 
6.7.3 Discussion of findings that validate M-EA 
 
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The following table (Table 6.5) shows the mapping the 5 aspects – people, process, 
data, system, and also technology aspect within the M-EA model and also the 
validation from Alacrity CLEW technology which works on security aspect.  
 
Table 6.5: Alacrity CLEW Technology Validation M-EA Table 
M-EA Validation 
Criteria 
Before 
applying 
CLEW with 
M-EA 
After 
applying 
CLEW with 
M-EA 
Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Mobile Device 
Usability 
Many choices Many choices • CLEW has minimal or no 
requirements for handsets: no 
GPRS, no 3G and no Java support, 
no imaging or multimedia 
capabilities are required. 
• Mobile Office CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
• CLEW doesn't specify this part. 
• Customer 
Personalization 
Service 
Not focus on 
any security 
part 
ID 
Authentication 
• CLEW could increase customer’s 
OATH (Initiative for Open 
Authentication) compliance. 
• Service-Oriented 
Process 
Orchestration 
SOA Could feature 
SOA as well 
• CLEW features SOA-Oriented 
Application Architecture. 
• Real-time 
response  
Not focus on 
any security 
part 
one-stop 
authentication 
service 
• Reduces the need for Secondary 
Authentication. This is because 
CLEW can act as a one-stop 
authentication service. 
• Mobile control 
and monitoring  
Not focus on 
any security 
part 
authentication 
security 
policies 
• Reduces the need for any 
post-authentication security 
policies of rules engines, 
specifically real-time monitoring 
and fraud detection. 
• Mobile Data 
(Extended Data 
Repository) 
Not focus on 
any security 
part 
increases 
security 
• CLEW increases security through 
innovative integration of available 
data. 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 236 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
M-EA Validation 
Criteria 
Before 
applying 
CLEW with 
M-EA 
After 
applying 
CLEW with 
M-EA 
Observation/ Comments/ 
Modification from Company 
• Mobile 
commerce and 
Mobile payment 
Payment 
transaction ID 
management 
User-centric 
Identity 
Management 
• CLEW compliance with 
User-centric Identity Management 
technology which enhances 
mobile commerce transaction 
more secure. 
• Mobile 
Information 
Service 
Not focus on 
any security 
part 
Authentication • Support for Risk-Based, 
Multi-Level Authentication 
Service. 
• Accessing any 
system anytime 
and anywhere 
due to Mobility 
Location- 
Independence 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
• CLEW doesn't specify this part. 
• Mobile 
Communications 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
• CLEW doesn't specify this part. 
• Mobile Internet 
Service and 
Applications 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
CLEW doesn't 
specify this 
part. 
• CLEW doesn't specify this part. 
• Middleware 
Platform helps 
integrate different 
languages within 
each layer 
Not integrated Flexible • CLEW is classified as 
vendor-independent technology 
supporting all commonly known 
SQL vendors, as well as LDAPv2 
and LDAPv3 Directory Server 
platform. 
• The 3-tier CLEW model can be 
flexibly deployed and run in a 
distributed manner in today’s 
n-tier networks within access, 
application and data layers. 
 
The validation from Company C – Alacrity, not only completes the table, but also 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 237 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
goes into detail to discuss how CLEW helps in validating each layer of the M-EA 
5+1 layers model. The validation of focusing on how CLEW could help the security 
part in the other 5 layers is documented in the flowing paragraphs. 
 
Layer 1: Storage Layer- Mobile Content Architecture 
Alacrity Technology has “LDAP” to expand the concept of data storage. CLEW is 
classified as vendor-independent technology supporting all commonly known SQL 
vendors, as well as LDAPv2 and LDAPv3 Directory Server platform. Furthermore, 
LDAP is superior technology over SQL in authentication, because it enables 
universal support for any type of schemas. The other argument for LDAP is that all 
the leading access management vendors (such as: IBM, HP, Novell, Oracle, and 
Sun…etc.) heavily rely on their integrated identity management on authentication 
against LDAP repository. 
 
Layer 2: Communication Layer- Mobile Network Architecture 
The CLEW promotes secure session management also by not transferring any 
sensitive information in session variables. This makes the CLEW session a useless 
target for attack. 
 
Layer 3: Binding Layer- Mobile Middleware Architecture 
CLEW in this layer helps~ 
• Features SOA-Oriented Application Architecture: CLEW focuses on 
Service-Oriented architecture, particularly in transaction authorization. It relies 
on WSDL interfaces and components. 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 238 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
• Support for N-Tier Networks: The 3-tier CLEW model can be flexibly deployed 
and run in a distributed manner in today’s n-tier networks within access, 
application and data layers.  
 
Layer 4: Processes Layer- Mobile Applications Architecture 
CLEW in this layer helps~ 
• Increases customer’s OATH (Initiative for Open Authentication) compliance: 
The CLEW authentication can be classified as a strong authentication method as 
defined in the OATH Technology Roadmap 2.0, because it utilizes recommended 
standards in authentication and authorization. 
• Process Improvement as a general-purpose token transporter. The CLEW 
technology could be used as a transport channel to turn mobile phones into 
non-persistent token devices and pass customer’s existing tokens between 
end-users and server software. 
• Increases security through innovative integration of available data. This is due to 
the ability of CLEW to combine data from the back-end systems with its 
messaging capabilities to throw new types of intelligent, dynamic authentication 
challenges onto the end user 
 strengthens capabilities in Knowledge-Based 
Authentication (KBA). 
• Support for organization’s data redundancy: As no credentials and no transaction 
details are stored in the handset side, the CLEW technology supports and 
accelerates the healthy data management principles by relying only on existing 
data on the corporate backend side.  
• Support for Policy or business logic redundancy: The same redundancy as with 
critical data such as credentials can be applied for business logic and policy. This 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 239 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
is enabled by dynamic service discovery by allowing the CLEW M-EA 
application to dynamically execute an existing, a service-oriented routine  
• Supports the concept of Externalizing Identity: CLEW supports the concept of 
“externalized identity” by relying on the customer’s existing authentication data 
through its LDAP strategy and by supporting existing authentication and 
authorization APIs and interfaces. The concept of “Externalized Identity” is 
closely related with data redundancy. 
• Compliance with User-centric Identity Management:  Of all the available 
technologies CLEW is the best match with one of the newest trends in identity 
management: “User-Centric Identity, a concept that attempts to put the user in the 
middle of identity related transactions, and provide greater control over the 
transaction and its own privacy. It relies on a combination of technology and 
business process to make sure that the user is involved in the exchange of identity 
data between interested parties.”  
• 2-way Interoperability with 3rd party security software. Interplays well in a 
SOA-oriented way with 3rd party fraud engines or other interfaces through its 
intruder detection interface. The CLEW system 1) Provides strong, out-of-band, 
multi-factor authentication mechanism and completely eliminates some of the 
attack patterns and 2) Provides valuable security data to a 3rd party Security 
software, such as IP addresses and failed login attempts. 
• Zero Provisioning: As CLEW out-of-band authentication re-uses customer’s 
existing data and policies, it does not need any provisioning steps for example 
adding new users. After initial installation, new users can be authenticated 
“seamlessly” without any preparation. 
• Support for Risk-Based, Multi-Level Authentication Service: Multi-factor CLEW 
authentication is an excellent addition into today’s identity frameworks where the 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 240 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
authentication level and associated authentication method can be set individually 
for each operation depending on the level of security needed. 
• CLEW has a healthy impact for the security policy management of modern 
access management frameworks. 
• Reduces the need for any post-authentication security policies of rules engines, 
specifically real-time monitoring and fraud detection. This is because CLEW can 
act as a one-stop authentication service. 
• Reduces the need for Secondary Authentication. This because in those risk-based 
frameworks which score the risk level of each login attempt real-time, CLEW 
system with its out-of-band multi-factor capabilities has low risk scoring 
 thus 
no need for Secondary Authentication. 
• Enables introduction of potentially simpler and lighter security policies 
 less 
monitoring and real-time fraud detection needed 
 simplified policies. 
• Improves and simplifies the data produced by historical and behavioral analysis 
tools 
 less incidents and threats 
 better quality of analysis data. 
• Interplays well with third party fingerprinting and device identification 
technologies, e.g. IP Intelligence. 
 
Layer 5: Presentation Layer – Mobile Usability Architecture 
CLEW in this layer helps~ 
• Achieve wider and easier market availability due to low technical requirements: 
Enabled by the thin client architecture, CLEW has minimal or no requirements 
for handsets: no GPRS, no 3G and no Java support, no imaging or multimedia 
capabilities are required. This means that well over billion mobile phones are 
straight compatible with the CLEW technology leading to a superior market 
availability compared to any other MEA technology. As of 2008, Nokia alone 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 241 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
has more than 1 billion cellular phones in the market. This is the biggest 
consumer group ever. 
• Increased usability through invisibility. Clew divides authentication into 
pre-login and primary authentication. This enhanced pre-login security protects 
vulnerable passwords from mass-hacking and denial-of-service attacks. The idea 
is to hide the login process from hackers and only allow the login screen to be 
viewed by the real end users who have to pass through the CLEW pre-login 
factors. Exchange of pre-login factors is automatic and embedded. Only primary 
authentication requires input from the user. 
 
6.8 Discussion on the overall results that validate M-EA model 
 
From the above analysis of the results of three actions research studies; this section 
has summarized the overall validation, and documented the result of the final 
discussion with each action research projects’ manager. 
 
 The first action research company supports how mobile technology can extend into 
different layers of M-EA model. The result from Company A is 6 diagrams for each 
layer of the M-EA model. The result also modifies the original figure more clearly to 
show the model. From the first action research study, the researcher has more clear 
knowledge of all the mobile technologies which can be selected and integrated them 
into M-EA.  
 
The leader of EA consultant team of Company A suggested that SOA, BPR, and 
cross enterprise processes must be taken into consideration when designing EA with 
mobility. After applying M-EA to enterprise, the enterprise implies the seamless 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 242 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
integration of all business process in order to be a real-time enterprise. The real-time 
enterprise will support not just individual business processes, optimized via MIT 
systems and applications, but will also achieve flexible, consistent integration of 
business processes with suppliers, partners and customers across enterprise 
boundaries. M-EA provides enterprise be able to respond flexibly to customer needs 
and market changes while focusing on its core competencies, leaving extensively 
integrated strategic partners to concentrate on other selected activities. Company A 
confirmed that M-EA could be a blueprint for its MIT investigation plan. 
 
Secondly, the second action research company confirmed that the M-EA model is 
functional and workable. The result from Company B has been applied into each 
layer of its ERA, as well as updating the implementation strategic alignment to the 
migration road map. From the second action research study, the researcher has 
learned the “business strategy for implementing M-EA into the enterprise”.  
 
The branch manager of Company B states that extending EA with mobile solutions 
should be based on proven, standards-oriented infrastructures, and easily integrated 
different system, modular building blocks and multitier architectures which enable 
step-by-step implementations that cater to the requirements of users while also 
responding to the needs and capabilities of both business units and IT organizations. 
Furthermore, M-EA will be based on the 5+1 layers model, which also could be a 
solution for today’s E-business and M-business. The integration of M-EA into 
existing e-business architecture or several information systems will be needed for all 
enterprise which constitutes the mainstream in the predictable future.  
 
Lastly, the third action research company has its own specific security technology. 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 243 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The result from Company C declares that CLEW technology could help the M-EA 
structure become more secure and comprehensive. This action research studies 
helped the researcher understand its CLEW technology and security issues in 
applying mobile technology to enterprise architecture. 
 
The CIO of Company C points out that, in particular, mobile applications and 
solutions for extending EA must be framed within a comprehensive enterprise 
security and web services infrastructure strategy. Security has always been a top 
priority, especially, where M-commerce and sensitive M-business processes are 
concerned. The new challenges of wireless Internet access and the greater integration 
of mobile employees, suppliers, partners, and customers make potential shortfalls 
significantly more probable. Moreover, Security in M-EA has many different 
methods, but the main objective is protecting the confidentiality and privacy, 
integrity, and availability of the information an enterprise owns or has protection over. 
Finally, Company C believes that CLEW is a secure, real time communication 
platform with unlimited interaction capacity for building M-EA. 
 
6.9 Summary of this chapter 
 
This chapter presents three action research studies processes, and results involved in 
validating the M-EA from Chapter 5. Firstly a mobile communication company 
helped in extending M-EA 5+1 layers model by working into details of each model, 
secondly a consulting company helped in upgrading the implementation migration 
project plan, and lastly a security / transaction processing company helped with 
extending M-EA on security specific aspect. All of three action research studies 
completed the validation table, and validated our M-EA 5+1 layers model in detail. 
Chapter 6: Validating M-EA Model by AR 
 
PhD Thesis Page 244 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
The overall result from these studies, the M-EA structure is workable and worth 
applying into their enterprises. The three action research studies are successfully 
validated the M-EA model to a comprehensive M-EA structure, in order to reach the 
aim of this doctoral research project. The next chapter is a conclusion chapter, which 
will outline how this research project achieved the research objective and also 
discuss the future direction of this research area. 
 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  245 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and future direction 
 
7.1 Overview of this chapter 
 
This chapter summarizes the entire doctoral research project reported in this thesis. 
This summary includes the aim of this research, its approach, the case studies 
undertaken, the action research studies used for validation and the overall findings. 
This chapter also demonstrates that the aim of the research has been fulfilled.  
Additionally, the future directions of this research and the relevant recommendations 
for potential future studies based on M-EA research area are also described at the end 
of this chapter.  
 
7.2 Achievement of the research aim and objectives 
 
The research objectives are re-emphasised here in order to demonstrate how this 
study handled them. The achievement of the objectives has resulted in fulfilling the 
research aim of this research: establishing a comprehensive M-EA structure. The 
objectives of this thesis are divided into three steps as indicated in the last section of 
Chapter 3. They are briefly discussed here from the point of view of their fulfilment, 
and also shown as following Figure 7.1. 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  246 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Literature
Review
Case 
Studies
•Updated M-EA Definition
•Updated M-EA model by 
constructing M-EA 
implementation roadmap
•Updated M-EA 
Advantages and 
Disadvantages
•Gather Interviewer’s 
expected M-EA outcome 
•Initial M-EA Definition,
•Initial M-EA Model,
•Initial M-EA Advantages 
and Disadvantages
Comprehensive M-EA
Achieve Research Aim 
Action Research
3 Organizations
M-EA StructureM-EA Model
•Use Interviewer’s 
expected M-EA outcome  
for validation criteria
•Validate M-EA 5+1 layers 
model in details
•Validate M-EA transition 
roadmap from a strategic 
alignment
•Validate M-EA specific 
security layer by CLEW 
technology
 
Figure 7.1: Research Processes 
 
As shown on Figure 7.1, the main objective of this research project was to construct 
a comprehensive M-EA. The Literature Review leads the researcher to formulate the 
initial M-EA definition and to create the initial M-EA model. This also resulted in the 
initial M-EA model’s advantages and disadvantages. After the researcher had 
formulated the initial M-EA model, she interviewed 10 cases in order to envision the 
M-EA model through knowledge elicitation. The output of the 10 case studies lead  
the researcher to update the M-EA definition, refine the advantages and 
disadvantages of M-EA, update the M-EA model to a well organized M-EA structure, 
and also gather the expected results or outcomes from the M-EA. This expected 
M-EA outcome has been analyzed and organized, which has updated to be a 
validation criteria for following Action Research projects. After that, the researcher 
constructed the M-EA structure and applied it in 3 participating Action Research 
companies in order to validating the 5+1 layers M-EA model and reach a 
comprehensive M-EA structure. The result from three action research studies further 
updated the M-EA 5+1 layers model in details, and also validated the security aspect 
and strategic implementation plan for M-EA structure. After all of the above steps, as 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  247 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
shown in Figure 7.1, the researcher finally created a comprehensive M-EA structure 
to achieve the research aim of this doctoral project. 
 
1. Updated Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) definition: 
The result from the first Literature Review which the researcher conducted, the initial 
M-EA outline was identified and the definition created. This definition cut across the 
5 aspects: people, systems, process, data, and technology (which have been shown in 
section 4.2.1). After discussion of this definition with the interviewees, their 
feedback and suggestion and the verification table have been shown on section 4.8.1. 
From the analysis of the results of the case studies, a refined M-EA definition that 
also considers the “security” aspect is created and shown in section 5.2. 
 
2. Updated Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) advantages and disadvantages: 
Mobile technology could help enterprises build more robust enterprise architecture 
that can also improve their productivity and customer service. After analyzing and 
reviewing other researchers’ literature, this researcher listed the main advantages and 
disadvantages of applying mobility into enterprise architecture (which have been 
shown on section 4.3.1 and 4.3.2). Once again, after discussing all the listed points 
above with interviewees, the researcher documented the results of refined 
advantages and updated practical issues in section 4.8.2 and 4.8.3.  
 
3. Validated Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) model: 
Table 4.2 in Chapter 4 listed the expected outcomes from the interviews, and section 
4.8.4 discussed the details of these interviewees' expected outcomes after 
implementing M-EA into the company. After analysing these expected outcomes, the 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  248 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
researcher referred them to not only the M-EA 5 aspect but also the M-EA 5+1 layers 
model, and also added two more points into them. Data in Table 4.2 has been 
updated and optimized to result in the data presented in Table 6.2 in the section 
6.4.  This updated table has been used as the validation criteria for the action 
research project, and it also helped to validate M-EA in the 3 action research 
companies. The responses from each company by completing this table are shown in 
section 6.5.3, 6.6.3, and 6.7.3.  
 
4. Updated Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA) model to structure: 
The researcher created the initial version of M-EA model from the literature 
review in section 4.2.2, and also discussed this draft model with the interviewee. The 
model outline has been further expanded, which was based on the result from 
interviewees. The updated version of the M-EA model has been described and 
documented in Chapter 5. This research has also mapped the people, systems, 
process, and data to M-EA, which has been discussed in section 5.3. The M-EA 
framework, introduced in section 5.4.1, is an abstraction of how the emerging 
technologies or new methodologies fit with an organization’s mobile information 
communication technology requirements. M-EA 5+1 layers model, which has been 
introduced in section 5.4.2, demonstrates how MT helps in each 6 layers and 
seamlessly connects to each other. The researcher also updated the comprehensive 
version at the end of section 5.4.2 after validating the model through 3 action 
research studies. In section 6.5.3, the researcher discussed the more detailed of the 
5+1 layers model which is the result from validating the original model within the 
first action research company. Additionally, the validation result of M-EA structure in 
the specific security layer by CLEW technology within the third action research 
company has been discussed in the section 6.7.3. Moreover, this research project 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  249 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
provided the transition process from the current status to target status for the 
company in transition roadmap, introduced in section 5.4.3, aiming to show the 
enterprise how to schedule from the different generation EIS situation to particular 
M-EA. The validation result of this transition roadmap from the second action 
research company by a strategic alignment has been discussed in section 6.6.3. 
 
The main contribution from this research is a comprehensive model for building 
Enterprise Architecture within mobility, which has achieved the objective of this 
research project. This comprehensive M-EA enables the enterprise integrating their 
several generation systems and infrastructure with getting new emerge mobile 
technology in order to provide more effective business process. The researcher has 
also published research outcomes through several international conferences and book 
chapters to address the lack of literature in the area of M-EA. 
 
7.3 Summary of this M-EA research project 
 
As was specified in the introductory chapter (Chapter 1), the research aim of this 
study is: 
 
To investigates the issues, processes, benefits, and challenges of extending EA with 
mobility, and identifying and describing the process of integrating MT with EA. 
Moreover, to identify how mobile technology could extend the people, process, data, 
and system of an EA that would result in a Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA).  
 
This aforementioned research aim has been achieved by following a robust research 
methodology that has been discussed and modeled in Chapter 3. This research 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  250 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
followed the constructionism philosophy and aims to construct a comprehensive 
M-EA as an outcome of this doctoral research project.  This research used 
qualitative research methodology and combination of inductive and deductive 
research approaches. The selection of research methods are literature review, cases 
studies, and action researches. Methods of collecting the data include studying the 
document, interviews, meetings, e-mails, observations, site visits, and internal 
documents. Therefore, this research project designs to follow by three steps:  
1. Literature Review (LR) to construct the based knowledge of EA and MT, 
discussed in detail in Chapter 2. 
2. Case Study (CS) of envisioning the M-EA model through knowledge elicitation, 
analyzed the result in Chapter 4.  
3. Action Research (AR) projects in three different business organizations for 
model validation, discussed the validation result in Chapter 6.  
 
Literature Review (LR) provides understanding of a gap between EA and M-EA, 
and also provides an understanding of the possible approaches of incorporating 
mobile applications into information systems design. The literature review conducted 
as part of this study provides a better understanding of the problem, which is the gap 
between IT and IT supported and integrated with MT. As MT integrates into EA, 
business processes and enterprise IS will have to be re-engineered. Because this 
business transition progress changes among the systems and processes, people also 
need to be trained about how to use the system to operate the processes. As well as 
the data need to be changed to adopt into the new system functions.  Therefore, the 
new M-EA model will have to handle these four aspects of an EA as they have a 
major impact on the way an organization functions. At this stage, the researcher has 
the result as making the definition of “M-EA”.  
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  251 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Next step is Case Study (CS) by interviewing experienced enterprise architects, 
business analysts, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and IT executives. The researcher 
interviewed several experienced enterprise architects in order to reach a 
comprehensive definition of model of the M-EA. This M-EA definition was refined 
to produce an updated M-EA implementation framework. The initial M-EA based on 
the Literature Review is updated model through interviews result. The definition, 
advantages and limitations of M-EA, how M-EA could be implemented, and what 
the expectations after having implemented M-EA, are updated and refined from the 
interviewees’ suggestion and comments as well. The results of these interviews on 
the benefits of MT on EA based on views and opinions from these experts provided 
three critical factors for mobility: 1. real-time response, 2. location-independence, 
and 3. personalization. Finally, the excepted M-EA outcomes from interviewees are 
the validation criteria for following AR projects as well.  
 
Step 3 is validating initial M-EA model by undertaking three Action Research (AR) 
project with participating enterprises. First mobile communication company helped 
extending M-EA 5+1 layers model to work on details of each model, second 
consulting company helped upgrading the implementation migration plan by 
strategic alignment, and third security / transaction processing company helped 
validating M-EA on security specific aspect. The initial M-EA model has been 
validated through three AR project in order to establish a comprehensive M-EA. 
Moreover, all of three action research studies completed the validation table, and 
validated our M-EA 5+1 layers model in details. The overall result from these studies, 
all of three companies confirm that M-EA structure is workable and worth applying it 
into their enterprises. 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  252 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
The main contribution to the research, as well as the business community through 
this research, is the proposed M-EA structure (which has been discussed in detail in 
chapter 5). The core philosophies of extending EA with mobility constructs a fully 
Mobile Enterprise Architecture (M-EA), which includes M-EA framework, core 
M-EA 5+1 layers model, and M-EA migration plan.  
 
Frameworks are a key part of any EA environment. The framework for M-EA offers 
a blueprint picture of how the people, systems, process, data, and internal and 
external factors that contribute EA. This M-EA framework is an abstraction of how 
the emerging technologies or new methodologies fit with an organization’s IT 
requirement. The framework provides the company not only the clear idea of IT or 
MT investment direction but also contents on how to link together in an EA 
environment.  
 
Models provide a pictorial representation of the enterprise-wide view of how the 
individual technical elements of the systems relate to each other. This pictorial 
representation can be called the ‘reference architecture’ for work within the 
organization. The architectural and design patterns that form the ‘standards’ for the 
organization are also a part of the model. M-EA model is 5+1 layers architecture 
model, it shows how the mobile technology works in 5+1 layers and connects 
seamlessly to each other. The model provides to the company not only the details of 
mobile technology application of each layer but also about all layers how to glue 
together in an EA environment. 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  253 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
Transitions Road Map provide a migration path for the enterprise from where ‘it is’ 
to where it ‘should be’. Thus, the transition paths are ‘road maps’ to guide the 
organization in adopting new technologies, methodologies and business processes. 
The transition road maps for the company aim to show the company how to plan 
from the different generation enterprise information system situation to mobile 
specific EA. The migration table for M-EA provides the transition process from the 
current status to target status. 
 
This M-EA structure allows people of the internal or external company anywhere 
anytime accessing the applications. M-EA facilitates faster information flow and 
enhanced reliability. Combination service-oriented business process can be provided 
through M-EA which increases enterprise flexibility in order to raise efficiency and 
effectiveness of business processes by streamlining real-time decision-making. 
Furthermore, reduce costs by reaching out to the extended M-EA supported and 
sustained over time. Therefore, M-EA structure is usable across any origination to 
reduce the implementation risks and enhance the benefits of mobility to the 
enterprises, and also creates new opportunities for a flexible and dynamic enterprise 
in an agile business world. 
 
7.4 Future direction in M-EA 
 
Development of the M-EA model has lead to many interesting areas for further 
exploration. The future direction in M-EA could include: 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  254 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
• Application of M-EA in the Collaborative process modeling space. Applying 
M-EA in the collaborative web services is a workable idea for reengineering 
business processes in order to bring the enterprise to a new market. However, 
it was identified that the engineered process still has many drawbacks. 
• Incompatible technology: when different organisations are using very old 
information system or the old information communication technology 
infrastructure and couldn’t run the single business transaction process. 
• Competition: when different organisations prefer not to share, in order to 
force the competition out of the market. As an example, why would an 
organisation allow a competitor to use its staff without allowing the 
competitor to lose the contract for lack of staff? This will provide an 
opportunity to submit a new tender. 
• Legal issues: such as licensing agreements. The roles and regulations set by 
the government 
• Mistrust: how could an organisation trust its competitor(s)?  
The aforementioned issues need to be resolved to enable collaborative process 
engineering to be used as a tool for organisations to extend the service of web 
services in M-EA. 
 
• Incorporating the environmentally specific Green IT elements in M-EA. 
Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. 
Designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and 
associated subsystems, such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking 
and communications systems, efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact 
on the environment. Green IT also strives to achieve economic viability and 
improved system performance and use, while abiding by our social and ethical 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  255 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
responsibilities. Thus, green IT includes the dimensions of environmental 
sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, 
which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. Green ICT could be a solution by 
replacing energy inefficient activities with environmentally friendlier lifestyle 
choices, reengineering businesses, industries and products to reduce greenhouse 
impact, and managing ICT infrastructure wisely to limit its direct impact on the 
environment (Eckermann, 2008). Researching how the mobile application could 
incorporate the Green ICT environmentally in M-EA is an other interesting research 
area for the future studies. 
 
• Exploring further into the security aspects of M-EA 
Mobile connection can be used for work styles leading to the reduction of travel and 
material consumption, such as using mobile terminals to check company emails 
while out of the office, connecting the mobile applications to the company LAN…etc. 
In addition, the service provides secure and reliable remote access using component 
technology enabling the use of multiple devices. The security aspect of applying 
M-EA was studied earlier in this research by validating the M-EA with CLEW 
technology in section 6.6.3, and more other way which has been introduced in 
section 6.5.3. CLEW technology improves the security of using mobile technology. 
However, security has to be given due consideration when it is used as a main 
technology for business processes. The increased computing power of handheld 
devices introduces new security threats. The security threats would be in the form of 
loss of confidentiality, loss of integrity and loss of availability. Therefore, how to 
prevent the mobile information thief and add secure business transaction platform by 
integrating ICT hardware, software, or business process could be do more detail 
research in future.  
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  256 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
 
• Quality assurance and testing of mobile applications based on M-EA 
M-EA provides a framework that can control and guide the development of mobile 
applications. However, quality assurance and testing of these mobile applications go 
beyond the framework itself. Therefore, there is a need to further investigate how 
quality assurance and testing can be incorporated based on M-EA. For example, 
testing of the security aspect of mobile applications can be separately undertaken – as 
compared with testing, say, the usability of the small screen devices. Quality control 
is a way to check which mobile applications best suitable to apply in the M-EA 
framework, this is a really interesting area for future research to update and modify 
to comprehensive M-EA structure. 
 
• Metrics and measurements related to the use of M-EA in practice.  
After applying M-EA model into the company, the company may want to use the 
quality and productivity metrics to measure the quality of service provided by mobile 
applications. While there are number of such QoS metrics in ISO standards, there is a 
need to relate them to the M-EA model. Such as: ISO 9000:2005, ISO 9001:2008 can 
be used on Quality management systems; ISO 10014:1006 can be used into Quality 
management -- Guidelines for realizing financial and economic benefits; ISO/IEC 
TR 15543 :2005 can measure Information technology -- Security techniques -- A 
framework for IT security assurance…etc (ISO, 2009). Researching for which of 
these standards and how the selected standard could help measure the performance of 
service-oriented M-EA is a really interesting future research area as well. 
 
• Using Agile methodologies with M-EA in development and maintenance of 
mobile applications. 
Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Direction 
 
 
PhD Thesis  257 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
 
Agile methods are highly popular in most modern-day software development 
approaches. Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management 
process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy 
that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering 
best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business 
approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. M-EA 
needs to be extended to facilitate the use of such methods in development. For 
example, the applications and the database layers of the M-EA model will be directly 
affected by the agile methods – which iterate rapidly to produce workable code from 
the outset.  
 
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PhD Thesis  258 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
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Appendix 
PhD Thesis  276 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
Appendix A: Interview Sample Questions 
HREC Number 07/200 Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
Information Sheets 
MOBILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE (M-EA): RESEARCH PROJECT 
Dear Participant: 
Thank you very much for your interest in this research area of Mobile 
Enterprise Architecture (M-EA). This is a sincere invitation to you to be one of 
the interviewees for this research project. The aim of this interview is to 
satisfy the requirements of doctoral-level research in “Extending Enterprise 
Architecture with Mobility”. The benefit of this project is the construction of a 
comprehensive M-EA model that will also benefit your enterprise by 
improving its effectiveness and efficiency. This study is being conducted by a 
PhD candidate, Ming-Chien (Mindy), Wu, who is under the supervision of Dr. 
Bhuvan Unhelkar, at the University of Western Sydney, School of Computing 
and Mathematics. 
 
This interview is aimed at experienced enterprise architects from the industry; 
but also includes IT executives, CIO, or CTO in the organisations. Your 
response is entirely confidential. Additionally, your integrity and honesty in 
answering the questions is gratefully appreciated and respected, and your 
name and that of your organisation are not identified in the final report.  
 
The sample questions will be sent to you beforehand in order to give you an 
idea about the M-EA study. These questions focus on your experience of 
building and implementing enterprise architecture (EA), and the investigation 
of the mobile application usage in your industry or company.  The sample 
questions cover the areas of definition of EA, utilisation of mobile technology 
devices, practical issues of M-EA, and also the challenges and the risks that 
you had to overcome when you implemented EA in your company. Please 
reply to this enquiry with a permission letter if you are able to participate and 
also your draft answers to these questions if you are able to become one of 
the interviewees. On the other hand, if you couldn’t answer these questions 
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  277 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
or feel that it is not appropriate for you to do this interview, please do let us 
know. Your decision will be respected. 
 
The phone call or face-to-face interview schedule and location will be 
organized by phone or email after receiving your permission letter and 
answers to the sample questions. The process of completing this interview 
will take about 30 minutes. The questions during interview are similar to and 
in addition to the sample ones sent to you before hand; the idea is to delve 
deeper into your earlier answers to the sample questions. Deepening the 
understanding and discussing your knowledge and experience of M-EA is the 
aim of the interview meeting. There is no risk involved in the collection of the 
data. However, with your permission, an audio record of your answers will be 
made. If you don’t have time to participate in the interview or not willing to 
audio record the interview process, your decision will be respected as well.  
 
Your responses, answers of the sample questions, and the meeting voice 
record of the interview will be processed and analysed by the researcher 
under supervision to construct the M-EA implementation framework. The 
collected records will be securely stored within UWS for five years. The 
results of M-EA model are going to be collectively discussed in my PhD 
thesis. Parts of this study may be presented in seminars and conferences. 
The final thesis is going to be submitted to the School for assessment and, if 
successful, will be available to you and the public through the UWS libraries. 
 
Queries, comments or complaints regarding this interview can be sent 
directly to me or to my supervisors. Our details are as follows:  
Researcher: Ming-Chien (Mindy), Wu; mobile 0422-439-059; email: 
mindy11110224@yahoo.com.tw  
Supervisor: Dr. Bhuvan Unhelkar; mobile 0413-821-454; email: 
Bhuvan.unhelkar@gmail.com  
 
NOTE: This study has been approved by the University of Western Sydney 
Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC 07/200). If you have any 
complaints or reservations about the ethical conduct of this research, you 
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  278 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
may contact the Ethics Committee through the Research Ethics Officers 
(phone: 02 47360883).  Any issues you raise will be kept in confidential and 
investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome. 
 
Thank you for your assistance. 
 
Best Regards, 
Mindy Wu 
 
Ming-Chien (Mindy), Wu 
MIT (IS Management), PhD Candidate 
Research area: Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility 
School of Computing and Mathematics 
University of Western Sydney  
 
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  279 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
MOBILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE (M-EA): RESEARCH PROJECT 
 (The following personal information will only be used in a generalized manner, 
 and it is optional to fill) 
About You:  
Your Name: ________________ Company Name(optional):_______________  
Contact: __________________ 
Your Role: 
 
[ ] Senior Management 
[ ] Consultant 
[ ] Project Management 
[ ] Technical 
[ ] Sales & Support 
[ ] Other _____________ 
Company Size [ ] Small (<  20 workers) [ ] Medium (20-200 
workers) 
[ ] Large (> 200 workers); 
Business Type [ ] Selling Products [ ] Selling Services [ ] Other______________ 
Industry 
Category 
[ ] Education & Training 
[ ] Manufacturing 
[ ] Health & Community 
[ ] Building & Construction 
[ ] Banking & Finance 
[ ] Government; 
[ ] Professional Services 
[ ] Information Technology 
[ ] Other ______________ 
Primary 
Region:      
[ ] Australia/NZ 
[ ] Sub-continent (India, 
SriLanka) 
[ ] Europe/UK 
[ ] Japan, Singapore, China 
[ ] North America/Canada; 
[ ] Other______________ 
 
Question 1: What, according to you, is an Enterprise Architecture? 
Question 2: Does your company have an Enterprise Architecture? If yes, 
how is it used in your organization? 
Question 3: Which documents and/or technologies have you used to build 
your EA? And what are the most important criteria that you handle/would 
handle in building your EA? 
Question 4: Has your organization created and followed a migration plan 
when you build your EA? 
Question 5: What are the most important security concerns that you have 
addressed in your EA? How does your organization overcome those 
concerns? 
Question 6: In your organization, what is the process of incorporating new 
technologies in your current EA? 
Question 7: What are the current mobile technologies and mobile 
applications used in your organization? How do you think these mobile 
technologies and applications impact to your business processes and EA?  
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  280 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
Question 8: Are mobile technologies an integral part of your EA? Please 
comment even if they are not integrated yet in your EA.  
Question 9: What, according to you, would be the major advantages in 
integrated Mobile technologies with EA? 
Question 10: What, according to you, would be the challenges and the risks 
in integrated mobile technologies with EA? How would you overcome these 
challenges? 
 
Comment: Any other descriptive comment that will help Mobile Enterprise 
Architecture 
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PARTICIPATE!! 
 
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  281 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
Appendix B: Ethics Committee Approval 
Dear Mindy and Bhuvan 
HREC Number 07/200 Mobile Enterprise Architecture 
The Committee reviewed your application and has agreed to approve the 
project. 
It is essential that the Committee is notified of any future change to the 
research methodology as well as any adverse events which may occur. 
The project Protocol Number is HREC 07/200 and should be quoted in all 
correspondence about the project as well as on all information sheets, 
consent forms and other project documentation. 
A report on the ethical aspects of the project must be provided at its 
completion. The report form is located at 
http://www.uws.edu.au/about/adminorg/devint/ors/ethics/humanethics/endpro
ject 
The approval will expire 31 March 2009 
Please contact the Human Ethics Officer, Kay Buckley on tel: 02 4736 0883 
or E-mail 
k.buckley@uws.edu.au you require any further information. 
The Committee wishes you well with your research. 
 
 
Yours sincerely 
Professor Christine Halse 
Chair, Human Research Ethics Committee 
Kay Buckley 
Human Ethics Officer 
University of Western Sydney 
Locked Bag 1797, Penrith Sth DC NSW 1797 
Tel: 02 47 360 883 
http://www.uws.edu.au/about/adminorg/devint/ors/ethics/humanethics 
 
Appendix 
PhD Thesis  282 Ming-Chien (Mindy), WU 
Appendix C: Research Timeline and Milestones 
Main Activity Milestone Timelines 
1st year (2006-2007) 
Literature Review 
Consolidation and Documentation of the literature of 
“Extending Enterprise Architecture with Mobility” 
July 2006- 
May 2007 
Publication Joint chapter publication Jun 2007 
Case studies 
Analysis of the current business processes and systems 
to construct the enterprise architecture, try to mobilize 
EA 
July – Dec 2007 
Publication 
International Conference DC Papers, joint chapter with 
one of interviewers 
Dec 2007 
Draft M-EA 
model 
Construct draft M-EA model through case studies 
July 2006 –  
Dec 2007 
2nd year (2008) 
Two Action 
Research Projects 
Test and validation the draft model to comprehend 
model by action research in organization 
Jan-Aug 2008 
Publication International Conference DC Papers May 2008 
Third Action 
Research Projects Validation M-EA model with Security aspect. Sep-Dec 2008 
Publication Joint chapters Dec 2008 
3rd year (2009) 
Establish 
Comprehensive 
M-EA 
Verify the draft model and construct comprehensive M-
EA from the results of action researches 
Jan 2008-Jan 
2009 
Thesis Writing 
Documents the thesis from the result of this doctoral 
research project Feb-Sep 2009 
Final Submission 
of Thesis 
Time line extended based on supervisors’ comments 
and correction; 
Complete and submit thesis for examination 
Sep-Nov 2009