Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) und Agilität sind entscheidende Faktoren eines modernen Unternehmensa... more Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) und Agilität sind entscheidende Faktoren eines modernen Unternehmensarchitekturmanagements (Enterprise Architecture Management, EAM). Die Geschäftswelt ist volatiler, unsicherer, komplexer und schwerer prognostizierbar geworden. In diesem Kontext haben u. a. Entwicklungen im Bereich der KI in den letzten Jahren erhebliche Fortschritte erzielt. Sowohl die zunehmende Technologisierung als auch die Forderung nach Agilität wirken sich aus strategischer, organisatorischer und technischer Sicht auf die Strukturen von Unternehmen aus.
This paper showcases a prototype system for predicting and visualizing distributed product inform... more This paper showcases a prototype system for predicting and visualizing distributed product information queues at one of the largest global appliance companies, BSH Hausgerate GmbH (BSH). A design science methodology is employed to develop a viable artifact (a prediction and visualization system) as a technology-based solution to an important and relevant business problem (product information updates in a distributed environment) using novel solutions (machine learning and visualization), to demonstrate the value of the design (through user interviews), and to disseminate the results to both technical and managerial audiences. The results contribute to the ongoing academic discourse regarding the applications of artificial intelligence to business and the practical development of prediction and visualization solutions for similar environments in terms of distributed environment complexity and company size.
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2019
This paper describes the development of a continuous integration database test architecture for a... more This paper describes the development of a continuous integration database test architecture for a highly important and large software application in the public sector in Germany. We apply action design research and draw from two emerging areas of research-DevOps continuous integration practices and inmemory database development-to define the problem, design, build and implement the solution, analyze challenges encountered, and make adjustments. The result is the transformation of a large test environment originally based on Oracle databases into a flexible and fast embedded in-memory architecture. The main challenges involved overcoming the differences between the SQL specifications supported by the development and production systems and optimizing the test runtime performance. The paper contributes to theory and practice by presenting one of the first studies showing a real-world implementation of a successful database test architecture that enables continuous integration, and identifying technical design principles for database test architectures in general.
The data centers of Germany's Federal Employment Agency (FEA) provide an information technolo... more The data centers of Germany's Federal Employment Agency (FEA) provide an information technology (IT) infrastructure that is critical for both external stakeholders and internal processes. For FEA and many other organizations like it, it is essential that any IT infrastructure anomalies - deviations from normal behavior - are detected and their underlying causes are understood and, if appropriate, addressed. In this paper we develop a solution that can help increase the availability of an IT landscape such as FEA's that is characterized by increasing technical complexity and increasing relevance of its applications. The solution detects IT service anomalies based on IT service access logs analyzed with time series methods. The solution also provides visualizations to support further analyses.
Chatbots have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of banks and public institut... more Chatbots have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of banks and public institutions. Both sectors, however, are subject to special regulations and restrictions in areas such as information security and data protection. The policies of these organizations therefore, in some cases, reject the use of cloud and proprietary products because in their view they lack transparency. As a result, the implementation of chatbots in banks and public institutions often focuses on open-source and on-premises solutions; however, there are hardly any scientific guidelines on how to implement these systems. Our paper aims to close this research gap. The article proposes a reference architecture for chatbots in banks and public institutions that are a.) based on open-source software and b.) are hosted on-premises. The framework is validated by case studies at TeamBank AG and the German Federal Employment Agency. Even if our architecture is designed for these specific industries, it may also add value in other sectors-as chatbots are expected to become increasingly important for the practical application of artificial intelligence in enterprises.
A generalization of the sum of divisors function involves a recursive definition. This leads to v... more A generalization of the sum of divisors function involves a recursive definition. This leads to variants of superabundant numbers, colossally abundant numbers, and Gronwall's theorem (relevant to the Riemann hypothesis).
AI systems are increasingly evolving from laboratory experiments in data analysis to increments o... more AI systems are increasingly evolving from laboratory experiments in data analysis to increments of productive software products. A professional AI platform must therefore not only function as a laboratory environment but must be designed and procured as a workbench for the development, productive implementation, operation and maintenance of ML models. Subsequently, it needs to integrate within a global software engineering approach. This way, Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) must implement efficient governance of the development cycle, to enable organization-wide collaboration, to accelerate the go-live and to standardize operations. In this paper we highlight obstacles and show best practices on how architects can integrate data science and AI in their environment. Additionally, we suggest an integrated approach adapting the best practices from both the data science and DevOps.
Advances in Dynamical Systems and Applications, 2021
In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound... more In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound of the absolute value of the Mertens function √log(!) > | ()| when > 1. Using this likely bound we show that we have a sufficient condition to prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
In this paper, we present a novel tool for data center management that incorporates data visualiz... more In this paper, we present a novel tool for data center management that incorporates data visualization and machine learning capabilities. We developed the tool in the context of an action design research project conducted at a large government agency in Germany, which hosts three highly available data centers containing more than 10,000 servers. We derived the requirements for the tool from qualitative interviews with agency employees who are familiar with monitoring the data center infrastructure as well as from a review of existing data center and other large infrastructure monitoring solutions. We implemented a web-based 3D prototype for the tool as an Angular 6 application running on Node.js, and evaluated it with the same employees. Most participants preferred the new tool, which provided a significantly better option and enabled visualization of historical data for all server instances at the same time, as well as real-time charts. Planned improvements will take advantage of t...
The Federal Employment Agency (FEA) spent seven years developing (and continues to develop) a mis... more The Federal Employment Agency (FEA) spent seven years developing (and continues to develop) a mission-critical software system responsible for one hundred thousand transactions every day while ensuring the safe processing of more than EUR 25 billion a year. This system comprises more than 718,000 lines of code and the development team consists of approximately 90 developers. As is normal for very large private or public projects, the knowledge of external experts/consultants is involved. As a result, isolated, highly specialized knowledge is developed and not sufficiently shared. That is why an early warning KMS that incorporates visual analytics has been developed from the bottom up as an answer to specific challenges within the very knowledge intensive project. Furthermore, the well-established, structured knowledge management framework of the FEA helps support and establish appropriate activities to meet these challenges. This paper describes the motivation, challenges, specifics...
Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (abbreviated as IoT) – by now the future of many... more Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (abbreviated as IoT) – by now the future of many industries is barely imaginable without it. IoT frameworks, technologies, cloud solutions, generic platforms and development tools are proliferating at a high rate. Even though experts recognize the need for coherent standards, the world of IoT resembles a jungle, with a myriad of different, non-standardized components. In this paper, we attempt to bring some clarity to the jungle by examining the existing challenges, summarizing the IoT frameworks, technologies and tools that are being developed for the popular Java software platform, and proposing a novel, integrated reference architecture for explaining how different IoT components can be organized by architecture layers and how they can work together. The reference architecture and related IoT components summaries can help software engineers and other IoT practitioners understand the building blocks for the design, development, impl...
In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound... more In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound of the absolute value of the Mertens function √log(𝑥!) > |𝑀(𝑥)| when 𝑥 > 1. Using this likely bound we show that we have a sufficient condition to prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
This paper contributes to the digitalization research by proposing a digitalization reference arc... more This paper contributes to the digitalization research by proposing a digitalization reference architecture (RA) for the pharma, healthcare and the life sciences domain in the context of the overall healthcare landscape from a business and information technology (IT) perspective. The RA fills the gap created by the existing siloed, non-interoperable standards. The RA comprises three main components – therapeutic segments, pharma-specific functions, and generic functions. Horizontal slices – following the widespread TOGAF framework layers – characterize the RA to support a seamless view from capability to technology. The paper aims to provide a holistic RA along examples of how this architecture can be used in general and in the oncology sector – one of the largest pharma markets. The proposed RA can help companies interested in evaluating the value of digital technologies, their alignment with business models, or the impacts of regulations or other legal requirements in light of thes...
Since March 2016, architects from Lufthansa and Capgemini have been collaborating on developing a... more Since March 2016, architects from Lufthansa and Capgemini have been collaborating on developing an Aviation Reference Architecture (RA), designed to serve as the basis of an Open Group Standard. Central to the development and description of the RA is an Architecture Definition Document (ADD), which explains the RA in its four TOGAF-specific architecture domains, namely the Business Architecture, Application Architecture, Data Architecture and Technology Architecture. In this paper, the RA will be presented in these four aspects, and the “Revenue Management & Pricing” business function has been selected to model and describe the core elements of the RA.
Our understanding of enterprise architecture (EA) is evolving from EA as a way to align business ... more Our understanding of enterprise architecture (EA) is evolving from EA as a way to align business and information technology to EA as enabler of organizational innovation and sustainability. This perspective fits the new realities of today's global business environment, which can be described through the acronym VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). In a VUCA world, it is extremely important to create EAs that are sustainable, i.e. that can last a long time and evolve in response to internal and external changes. The new VUCA world and the need for sustainable yet agile EAs create new requirements for EA skills that will be valuable in the future. In this paper, we present an exploratory conceptual study of VUCA characteristics and skills in the context of sustainable EA. Our contributions are the new conceptualization of the skills and of the approaches that enterprise architects can use to develop these new skills.
Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) und Agilität sind entscheidende Faktoren eines modernen Unternehmensa... more Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) und Agilität sind entscheidende Faktoren eines modernen Unternehmensarchitekturmanagements (Enterprise Architecture Management, EAM). Die Geschäftswelt ist volatiler, unsicherer, komplexer und schwerer prognostizierbar geworden. In diesem Kontext haben u. a. Entwicklungen im Bereich der KI in den letzten Jahren erhebliche Fortschritte erzielt. Sowohl die zunehmende Technologisierung als auch die Forderung nach Agilität wirken sich aus strategischer, organisatorischer und technischer Sicht auf die Strukturen von Unternehmen aus.
This paper showcases a prototype system for predicting and visualizing distributed product inform... more This paper showcases a prototype system for predicting and visualizing distributed product information queues at one of the largest global appliance companies, BSH Hausgerate GmbH (BSH). A design science methodology is employed to develop a viable artifact (a prediction and visualization system) as a technology-based solution to an important and relevant business problem (product information updates in a distributed environment) using novel solutions (machine learning and visualization), to demonstrate the value of the design (through user interviews), and to disseminate the results to both technical and managerial audiences. The results contribute to the ongoing academic discourse regarding the applications of artificial intelligence to business and the practical development of prediction and visualization solutions for similar environments in terms of distributed environment complexity and company size.
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2019
This paper describes the development of a continuous integration database test architecture for a... more This paper describes the development of a continuous integration database test architecture for a highly important and large software application in the public sector in Germany. We apply action design research and draw from two emerging areas of research-DevOps continuous integration practices and inmemory database development-to define the problem, design, build and implement the solution, analyze challenges encountered, and make adjustments. The result is the transformation of a large test environment originally based on Oracle databases into a flexible and fast embedded in-memory architecture. The main challenges involved overcoming the differences between the SQL specifications supported by the development and production systems and optimizing the test runtime performance. The paper contributes to theory and practice by presenting one of the first studies showing a real-world implementation of a successful database test architecture that enables continuous integration, and identifying technical design principles for database test architectures in general.
The data centers of Germany's Federal Employment Agency (FEA) provide an information technolo... more The data centers of Germany's Federal Employment Agency (FEA) provide an information technology (IT) infrastructure that is critical for both external stakeholders and internal processes. For FEA and many other organizations like it, it is essential that any IT infrastructure anomalies - deviations from normal behavior - are detected and their underlying causes are understood and, if appropriate, addressed. In this paper we develop a solution that can help increase the availability of an IT landscape such as FEA's that is characterized by increasing technical complexity and increasing relevance of its applications. The solution detects IT service anomalies based on IT service access logs analyzed with time series methods. The solution also provides visualizations to support further analyses.
Chatbots have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of banks and public institut... more Chatbots have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of banks and public institutions. Both sectors, however, are subject to special regulations and restrictions in areas such as information security and data protection. The policies of these organizations therefore, in some cases, reject the use of cloud and proprietary products because in their view they lack transparency. As a result, the implementation of chatbots in banks and public institutions often focuses on open-source and on-premises solutions; however, there are hardly any scientific guidelines on how to implement these systems. Our paper aims to close this research gap. The article proposes a reference architecture for chatbots in banks and public institutions that are a.) based on open-source software and b.) are hosted on-premises. The framework is validated by case studies at TeamBank AG and the German Federal Employment Agency. Even if our architecture is designed for these specific industries, it may also add value in other sectors-as chatbots are expected to become increasingly important for the practical application of artificial intelligence in enterprises.
A generalization of the sum of divisors function involves a recursive definition. This leads to v... more A generalization of the sum of divisors function involves a recursive definition. This leads to variants of superabundant numbers, colossally abundant numbers, and Gronwall's theorem (relevant to the Riemann hypothesis).
AI systems are increasingly evolving from laboratory experiments in data analysis to increments o... more AI systems are increasingly evolving from laboratory experiments in data analysis to increments of productive software products. A professional AI platform must therefore not only function as a laboratory environment but must be designed and procured as a workbench for the development, productive implementation, operation and maintenance of ML models. Subsequently, it needs to integrate within a global software engineering approach. This way, Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) must implement efficient governance of the development cycle, to enable organization-wide collaboration, to accelerate the go-live and to standardize operations. In this paper we highlight obstacles and show best practices on how architects can integrate data science and AI in their environment. Additionally, we suggest an integrated approach adapting the best practices from both the data science and DevOps.
Advances in Dynamical Systems and Applications, 2021
In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound... more In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound of the absolute value of the Mertens function √log(!) > | ()| when > 1. Using this likely bound we show that we have a sufficient condition to prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
In this paper, we present a novel tool for data center management that incorporates data visualiz... more In this paper, we present a novel tool for data center management that incorporates data visualization and machine learning capabilities. We developed the tool in the context of an action design research project conducted at a large government agency in Germany, which hosts three highly available data centers containing more than 10,000 servers. We derived the requirements for the tool from qualitative interviews with agency employees who are familiar with monitoring the data center infrastructure as well as from a review of existing data center and other large infrastructure monitoring solutions. We implemented a web-based 3D prototype for the tool as an Angular 6 application running on Node.js, and evaluated it with the same employees. Most participants preferred the new tool, which provided a significantly better option and enabled visualization of historical data for all server instances at the same time, as well as real-time charts. Planned improvements will take advantage of t...
The Federal Employment Agency (FEA) spent seven years developing (and continues to develop) a mis... more The Federal Employment Agency (FEA) spent seven years developing (and continues to develop) a mission-critical software system responsible for one hundred thousand transactions every day while ensuring the safe processing of more than EUR 25 billion a year. This system comprises more than 718,000 lines of code and the development team consists of approximately 90 developers. As is normal for very large private or public projects, the knowledge of external experts/consultants is involved. As a result, isolated, highly specialized knowledge is developed and not sufficiently shared. That is why an early warning KMS that incorporates visual analytics has been developed from the bottom up as an answer to specific challenges within the very knowledge intensive project. Furthermore, the well-established, structured knowledge management framework of the FEA helps support and establish appropriate activities to meet these challenges. This paper describes the motivation, challenges, specifics...
Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (abbreviated as IoT) – by now the future of many... more Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (abbreviated as IoT) – by now the future of many industries is barely imaginable without it. IoT frameworks, technologies, cloud solutions, generic platforms and development tools are proliferating at a high rate. Even though experts recognize the need for coherent standards, the world of IoT resembles a jungle, with a myriad of different, non-standardized components. In this paper, we attempt to bring some clarity to the jungle by examining the existing challenges, summarizing the IoT frameworks, technologies and tools that are being developed for the popular Java software platform, and proposing a novel, integrated reference architecture for explaining how different IoT components can be organized by architecture layers and how they can work together. The reference architecture and related IoT components summaries can help software engineers and other IoT practitioners understand the building blocks for the design, development, impl...
In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound... more In this paper we derive new properties of Mertens function and discuss about a likely upper bound of the absolute value of the Mertens function √log(𝑥!) > |𝑀(𝑥)| when 𝑥 > 1. Using this likely bound we show that we have a sufficient condition to prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
This paper contributes to the digitalization research by proposing a digitalization reference arc... more This paper contributes to the digitalization research by proposing a digitalization reference architecture (RA) for the pharma, healthcare and the life sciences domain in the context of the overall healthcare landscape from a business and information technology (IT) perspective. The RA fills the gap created by the existing siloed, non-interoperable standards. The RA comprises three main components – therapeutic segments, pharma-specific functions, and generic functions. Horizontal slices – following the widespread TOGAF framework layers – characterize the RA to support a seamless view from capability to technology. The paper aims to provide a holistic RA along examples of how this architecture can be used in general and in the oncology sector – one of the largest pharma markets. The proposed RA can help companies interested in evaluating the value of digital technologies, their alignment with business models, or the impacts of regulations or other legal requirements in light of thes...
Since March 2016, architects from Lufthansa and Capgemini have been collaborating on developing a... more Since March 2016, architects from Lufthansa and Capgemini have been collaborating on developing an Aviation Reference Architecture (RA), designed to serve as the basis of an Open Group Standard. Central to the development and description of the RA is an Architecture Definition Document (ADD), which explains the RA in its four TOGAF-specific architecture domains, namely the Business Architecture, Application Architecture, Data Architecture and Technology Architecture. In this paper, the RA will be presented in these four aspects, and the “Revenue Management & Pricing” business function has been selected to model and describe the core elements of the RA.
Our understanding of enterprise architecture (EA) is evolving from EA as a way to align business ... more Our understanding of enterprise architecture (EA) is evolving from EA as a way to align business and information technology to EA as enabler of organizational innovation and sustainability. This perspective fits the new realities of today's global business environment, which can be described through the acronym VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). In a VUCA world, it is extremely important to create EAs that are sustainable, i.e. that can last a long time and evolve in response to internal and external changes. The new VUCA world and the need for sustainable yet agile EAs create new requirements for EA skills that will be valuable in the future. In this paper, we present an exploratory conceptual study of VUCA characteristics and skills in the context of sustainable EA. Our contributions are the new conceptualization of the skills and of the approaches that enterprise architects can use to develop these new skills.
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Papers by Eldar Sultanow