Information systems architecture modeling based on loosely coupled structures: An e-learning use case

Traditional approaches to information system architecture development have a little concerns with information technology interdependency. They are sustained in a positivist vision of the world, where the information systems, can be constructed from a set of requirements, done by a detached observer, who captures or elicits it. Organizations are each more concerned about information flow and knowledge availability as the central element for innovation and empowerment. This flow and knowledge have always a relation of interdependency. There is clear construction of a technosocial system whose relevance and differentiation come from user interrelation with information technology. It´s the structure of this technosocial system that is the key element for the information system architecture dynamic development. This paper presents information technology as a commodity, resulting from a positivist development, and blueprints a definition of three loosely IT coupled structures namely, software as service, computation as a service and infrastructure as a service, structured under an information system modeling architecture. This modeling approach addresses an interpretive vision, and aims to give directions to achieve and promote differentiation, for enterprise development. An exploratory use case, regarding a two-year e-learning project, is presented as a result of the adoption of the presented modulation vision.