A Model to Assess the Use of Reference Architecture in Responding to Disruptive Innovation: A Higher Education Case

This master thesis looks at the use of reference architecture in supporting the challenges of potential disruptive innovations. It looks at higher education in the Netherlands, with the Higher Education Reference Architecture (HORA) as a reference architecture. It studies the function of reference architecture and the dynamics of disruptive innovation in higher education, and how the use of HORA in this context can be improved. The focus of this research is on reference architecture used for business design or redesign. Reference architecture is defined as an architecture which is intended by its producer to be used in supporting the construction of another architecture. For the assessment of HORA, an Assessment Model has been developed. This Assessment Model is based on the premise that a reference architecture supports the challenges in two processes: (1) an architect making an architecture description based on a reference architecture, and (2) a stakeholder using this architecture description to address their concerns. The Assessment Model was used in expert meetings with enterprise and domain architects working in higher education and representatives from HORA. The use of the Assessment Model proved successful in gathering information and provided new insights for the participants of the expert meetings. Reflecting on the use of reference architecture in this context, this thesis comes to the conclusion that a new way of looking at reference architecture is needed: a bimodal reference architecture. This bimodal reference architecture contains both stable elements describing the real world, as well as elements about upcoming innovations.