A Framework for Agile Enterprise Data Management

Abstract

The role of data in organisations has changed from primarily supporting operational processes and management reporting to enabling strategic decision-making. However, organisations are having difficulty in successfully managing their data in an agile manner to support these requirements. At the time of this study, there was limited scientific literature, and only some practitioner literature, presenting practical models and methods for how organisations can achieve agile enterprise data management (EDM) in real-world contexts. This research used a design science research (DSR) strategy to develop a framework for agile EDM founded on scientific knowledge, theory and empirical qualitative case study research. The first DSR cycle developed the structural part of a framework for agile EDM based on a systematic literature review (SLR) of the characteristics of agility in information systems (IS), and applied the components of the structural part to a qualitative case study conducted at a large financial services organisation. The second DSR cycle developed the dynamic part of a framework for agile EDM by systematically reviewing the literature on the dynamics of achieving agility in organisational and sociotechnical contexts. The constructs and relationships of the dynamic part of a framework for agile EDM were applied to the qualitative case study data to develop and propose a framework for agile EDM. Using the Delphi method, data management experts evaluated the proposed framework for use in real-world contexts. The primary contribution of this research to IS and data management practitioner knowledge is the DSR artefact that was produced, a framework for agile EDM, that can help organisations to achieve agile EDM, thereby enabling overall enterprise agility. This study also offered two potential secondary contributions in the form of solution development approaches which could be useful to researchers for the study of phenomena, other than agility, in sociotechnical contexts, other than EDM.