In order to attain competitive advantage, contemporary
organizations are being compelled to develop the capacity to be agile in
response to the VUCA environment. Enterprise engineering is a field that
employs theories from a diverse array of disciplines in order to design
organizations that are both agile and flexible, while also capable of reducing
complexity. The concept of modularity is system sciences theory that is highly
regarded is this context. Additionally, literature contends that modularity provides
organizations with the opportunity to achieve agility and reduce complexity.
Since organizations have become increasingly dependent on information
technology (IT) to streamline their operations, IT has become a critical
element in achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. This paper posits
that in order to achieve agility and reduce complexity, certain organizational
design parameters are necessary. Despite the widespread recognition of
modularity in the field of software engineering and product development,
organizational modularity has received significantly less attention. This study
examines four cases through the prism of the modularity concept. According to
the findings, the evolvability of enterprise architecture is restricted by
various forms of coupling, which was identified as one of the primary factors
contributing to the suboptimal outcomes of the IT projects. The results further
illustrate that the critical role of modularity and knowledge parameters in
facilitating the outsourcing of tasks to achieve economies of scale, thereby
enhancing agility, reducing complexity, and conferring a competitive advantage.
During visits to the case sites, it has been observed that Belgian
organizations are losing valuable knowledge regarding their business processes
and IT architecture. In the context of outsourcing, the retention of knowledge
of specialized IT professionals within an organization has not been adequately
addressed by existing management frameworks and tools; perhaps the literature has
not adequately investigated it. This paper presents a theoretically sound
conceptual framework that illustrates the correlation between the concepts of
modularity, knowledge, outsourcing, agility, and competitive advantage, as
evidenced by the results of four case studies. The conclusion drawn from the
analyses of four cases suggests that modularity and knowledge parameters are
indispensable criteria that must be considered when designing enterprise
architecture.
