CIAO! Enterprise Engineering Network
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3rd Enterprise Engineering Working Conference (EEWC 2013)

May 2013, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Modern enterprises face a strong economical pressure to increase competitiveness, to operate on a global market, and to engage in alliances of several kinds. But the vast majority of strategic initiatives in enterprises fail, meaning that enterprises are unable to gain success from their strategy. Abundant research indicates that the key reason for strategic failures is the lack of coherence and consistency among the various components of an enterprise. At the same time, the need to operate as a unified and integrated whole is becoming increasingly important. These challenges are dominantly addressed from a functional or managerial perspective, as advocated by management and organization science. Such knowledge is necessary and sufficient for managing an enterprise, but it is inadequate for bringing about changes. To do that, one needs to take a constructional or engineering perspective. Both organizations and software systems are complex and prone to entropy. This means that in the course of time, the costs of bringing about similar changes increase in a way that is known as combinatorial explosion. Regarding (automated) information systems, this has been demonstrated; regarding organizations, it is still a conjecture. Entropy can be reduced and managed effectively through modular design based on atomic elements. The people in an enterprise are collectively responsible for the operation (including management) of the enterprise. In addition, they are collectively responsible for the evolution of the enterprise (adapting to needs for change). These responsibilities can only be borne if one has appropriate knowledge of the enterprise. 

The EEWC 2013 is the 3rd Working Conference resulting from a series of successful conferences and  CIAO! Workshops over the years.  These events were aimed at addressing the challenges that modern and complex enterprises are facing in a rapidly changing world.  The participants of the events shared a belief that dealing with these challenges requires rigorous and scientific solutions, focusing on the design and engineering enterprises. 

The conference has a packed agenda for both academics and practitioners, contributing to the further development of Enterprise Engineering as a mature discipline.