Int. J. Information Systems and Change Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2007 81
Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Facilitating change management with configurative
reference modelling
Jörg Becker,* Christian Janiesch,
Ralf Knackstedt and Tobias Rieke
European Research Center for Information Systems,
University of Münster,
Leonardo-Campus 3,
Münster 48149, Germany
E-mail: becker@ercis.de E-mail: janiesch@ercis.de
E-mail: knackstedt@ercis.de E-mail: rieke@ercis.de
*Corresponding author
Abstract: Change management describes a structured approach to transitions
from the present state to a desired state. Reference models can assist this
process since they provide a solution schema for specific problems by adapting
best or common-practice approaches. The configuration of reference models
has been a field of research in the past. However, the integrative configuration
of different reference models or respective reference models serving multiple
purposes lacks applicable methods. In practice this is a common problem, as
the simultaneous implementation and/or maintenance of business processes in
an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and business intelligence
system shows. We propose a methodology that allows the integrated
configuration of conceptual models for transaction processing and decision
support by integrating meta models for respective modelling languages.
Additionally, its application is exemplified by extending an existing reference
model in a business case.
Keywords: change management; configuration; transaction processing;
decision support; integration; methodology; reference models.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Becker, J., Janiesch, C.,
Knackstedt, R. and Rieke, T. (2007) ‘Facilitating change management with
configurative reference modelling’, Int. J. Information Systems and Change
Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.81–99.
Biographical notes: Jörg Becker is a Professor of Information Systems and
Information Management and Head of the Department of Information Systems
at the University of Münster and Managing Director of the European Research
Center for Information Systems (ERCIS). He is one of the two Editors-in-Chief
of Information Systems and e-Business. His research interests include
information management, conceptual modelling, data management, logistics,
retail information systems and strategic IT-management consulting. He has
authored numerous books and journals and conference papers. He has also been
serving regularly as programme committee member of various conferences
such as the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS).
Christian Janiesch is a Research Assistant and PhD student at the European
Research Center for Information System (ERCIS) under Jörg Becker at the
University of Münster, Germany. He has been researching at Università della
Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland and at SAP Research CEC