NAF Academy
The Netherlands Architecture Forum (NAF) has instituted the NAF Academy to strengthen its ties to academia. The goal of this initiative is to organise a yearly architecture event on the boundary of theory and practice, and hence to stimulate the knowledge exchange between both worlds. This event will be linked to an existing scientific conference taking place in the Netherlands in that year.
In 2009, the NAF Academy is organised on June 11 in the form of an industrial track on enterprise transformation at the CAiSE 2009 conference in Amsterdam. NAF will receive 20 free CAiSE tickets for members from its two non-academic pillars ('Users' and 'Providers'). More information on this will be provided later.
Practice-driven Research on Enterprise Transformation
Modern day enterprises, be they businesses, organisations, or government departments, are in a constant state of flux. New technologies, new markets, globalisation, mergers, acquisitions, etcetera are among the "usual suspects" which require enterprises to transform themselves to deal with these challenges and new realities. Most information systems practitioners will find themselves working in a context of enterprise transformation. One could even go as far as to claim that a business oriented perspective on information systems is really about enterprise transformation, where enterprise transformation involves the use of methods and techniques from enterprise engineering, enterprise modelling, enterprise architecture, and information systems engineering.
As a field of study, enterprise transformation requires a close interaction between practice and academia. What works and does not work requires validation in real-life situations. Conversely, it is in industrial practice where challenges can be found that may fuel and inspire researchers.
The industrial track at the 2009 CAiSE conference focuses on enterprise transformation. The track will run in parallel to the main conference and will be filled with key-note speakers, paper sessions, and poster sessions, which cater to both an industrial and academic audience. To further stimulate the exchange between academia and industry, the industrial track will also be combined with an industrial exhibition.
Publication
The proceedings of the NAF Academy working conference are organised in terms of a small number of longer papers of about 20 pages on average, while the program of the actual event focused on interaction between theory and practice. In this in-augural year, we have received thirty high quality submissions. From these submis-sions the program committee has selected eleven submissions based on their sci-entific quality as well as their potential in bridging the gap between industry and academia. For example, by providing practical insights, evaluations of theories in terms of experiences from real-life practice or identify practice-driven challenges for further research.
The proceedings of the working conference are available through Springer: http://www.springer.com/business/business+information+systems/book/978-3-642-01858-9