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Effective alignment of institutional processes with digital technologies is imperative for enterprises, including those in healthcare. Unfortunately, in the context of health laboratories, the scope and complexity of existing digital health interventions has not allowed incorporation of all data and information needs for all core functions of the laboratory subsector. Besides, several operational and management issues still hinder the effective management of information on laboratory services at the health facility, sub-national, and national levels in low-income countries such as Uganda. Although approaches that support implementation of digital health interventions exist, there is still limited technical guidance on the strategic planning and implementation of complex systems such as a nation-wide integrated Health Laboratory Information Management System (HLIMS). Therefore, this article demonstrates how the strategic planning process of such systems can be strengthened by adopting the thinking pattern of enterprise architecture, as a holistic approach for aligning business processes with digital technologies. It specifically presents a process for leveraging Enterprise Architecture in Information Systems Strategic Planning (EAISSP). The process was instantiated in Uganda’s health laboratory subsector, by using it to formulate an architecture-oriented information systems strategy; and the strategy then guided the design of a master plan for a national integrated HLIMS and its implementation plan. Although EAISSP was tested in the context of the laboratory subsector, it can be contextualized to support other efforts like developing a national e-health strategy or information systems strategy of an enterprise in another sector.

Several efforts have been undertaken to define generic guidelines that address specific gaps in the ‘build’ activity of Design Science Research (DSR) artifacts, i.e., constructs, models, methods and frameworks, and instantiations. Unfortunately, explicit guidance is still lacking on how to coherently operationalize such guidelines when building a DSR artifact, particularly a framework. In addition, there is no an elaborate procedure or logical thinking pattern that can be followed when building a DSR artifact, particularly a framework for solving an unstructured problem. Consequently, structural compositions of some artifacts insufficiently subscribe to several general design guidelines, which often hinders the artifacts from fulfilling their intended purposes. To address this gap, Soft Systems Methodology can be leveraged during the design cycle of a DSR initiative, to elaborate the ‘build’ activity and simultaneously support the coherent operationalization of existing general design guidelines. This is demonstrated herein by presenting a Technique of Building Frameworks for guiding Interventions against unstructured problems (TBUFI). From 2011 to 2023, TBUFI has undergone 11 evaluation iterations, which involved: (a) using it to support the building of frameworks for guiding digital interventions in ten research studies; and (b) engaging information systems specialists in a group walkthrough meeting to deliberate its structural composition. Evaluation iterations since 2011 (including feedback from information systems specialists) confirm TBUFI’s ability to successfully guide the design of frameworks that can direct interventions against complex and unstructured problems, by making their ‘build’ activity more elaborate, coherent, and aligned with existing general design guidelines. Thus, TBUFI can be perceived as a supplement for the ‘build’ activity in DSR.

The growth and uptake of e-government in developing economies are still affected by the interoperability challenge, which can be perceived as an orchestration of several issues that imply the existence of gaps in methods used for e-government planning and implementation. To a great extent, various counterparts in developed economies have succeeded in addressing the method-related gaps by developing e-government enterprise architectures, as blueprints for guiding e-government initiatives in a holistic and manageable way. However, existing e-government enterprise architectures are country-specific to appropriately serve their intended purpose, while enterprise architecture frameworks or methods are generic to accommodate several enterprise contexts. The latter do not directly accommodate the unique peculiarities of e-government efforts. Thus, a detailed method is lacking that can be adapted by developing economies to develop e-government enterprise architectures that fit their contexts. To address the gap, this article presents research that adopted a Design Science approach to develop an e-Government Enterprise Architecture Framework (EGEAF), as an explicit method for guiding the design of e-government enterprise architectures in a developing economy. EGEAF was designed by extending the Architecture Development Method of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF ADM) to address requirements for developing interoperable e-government solutions in a developing economy. EGEAF was evaluated using two scenarios in the Ugandan context, and findings indicate that it is feasible; its design is understandable to enable its adoption and extension to accommodate requirements for developing interoperable e-government solutions in other developing economies.