Towards Dependency-based Alignment for Collaborative Businesses

Collaborative Businesses are often interpreted as the new organisational form of the 21st century. Such organisational forms exist to satisfy complex needs, which one company could usually not satisfy on its own. This means that the participating companies in Collaborative Businesses are to a certain degree dependent on each other. From a business-IT alignment perspective, Collaborative Businesses require a different treatment than traditional organisational forms. The approach presented in this paper builds upon the aforementioned dependency aspect. We place the different inter-organisational dependencies, which are relevant in this context, into a layered alignment framework and discuss the conceivable alignment perspectives. Then we analyse the dependency impact on the life cycle phases of Collaborative Businesses. Finally, we exemplify how to operationally use our dependency-based alignment framework and how dependency-based alignment can be supported with Description Logics.