On 7th of December, Neda Fakhr from Uniper will join us for a guest lecture on the energy company’s scaled agile transformation. As a SAFe Release Train Engineer, she will share first-hand insights into how an Agile Release Train is set up and run in a large corporation, where agile principles meet established structures, and what it takes for teams to not just adopt agile practices but actually thrive with them. The lecture takes place within the master module “Agile Project Management” but is open to all students of information systems.

Room: R09 R04 H02
Date: 7th of Dec, 2026, 10 AM to 1 PM (CET)

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Am 07.12. begrüßen wir Neda Fakhr von Uniper zu einem Gastvortrag über die skalierte agile Transformation des Energieunternehmens. Als SAFe Release Train Engineer gibt sie Einblicke aus erster Hand: wie ein Agile Release Train in einem großen Konzern aufgebaut und gesteuert wird, wo agile Prinzipien auf etablierte Strukturen treffen und was es braucht, damit Teams agile Praktiken nicht nur einführen, sondern wirklich leben. Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen des Master-Moduls „Agile Project Management“ statt, ist aber für alle Studierenden der Wirtschaftsinformatik geöffnet.

Raum: R09 R04 H02
Termin: 07.12.2026, 10 bis 13 Uhr (CET)

The paper emerged from Antonias PhD (supervised by Jan vom Brocke and Ralf Plattfaut). In the article the authors dive into the impact of regulation on digital transformation. They show that regulatory resilience as an organizational capability can help to both overcome regulation-induced resiliance and increase the generative potential of regulations.

The paper is available open access.

In a case study of a German statutory health insurance organization, we (Ralf Plattfaut, Carolin Vollenberg, Ali Ergün, and Ronja Rieger) show how Collaborative Citizen Developer Teams act as boundary spanners and low-code/no-code artifacts as boundary objects between business and IT. The paper is part of our DFG-funded project “Governance of Lightweight IT" (project number 541177056) and can be read open access in Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO).

A Fireside Chat on Tradition and Family Business
At the heart of the evening was a Kamingespräch between Prof. Dr. Hannes Rothe and Dr. Stauder. Since 1867, the name Stauder has stood for brewing in Essen. As an independent family business now in its sixth generation, the brewery offered a rich starting point for the conversation. Personally and with a good deal of humour, Dr. Stauder shared what it takes to preserve craft and character over such a long period of time, and how a family brewery holds its own in a demanding and consolidating market.

An Impulse from Research: How AI Shapes Entrepreneurial Innovation
The evening opened with an impulse by Prof. Dr. Hannes Rothe on how artificial intelligence is reshaping entrepreneurial innovation processes. His talk set the stage by connecting current research to concrete questions of practice, exactly the bridge between academia and industry that the RIS After Work Exchange is designed to build.

Networking Over a Cold Stauder Beer
After the fireside chat, the evening moved into an open Get Together. Over a cold Stauder beer, participants continued the discussion in a more informal setting. This is what the format is all about: good conversations, new contacts, and an honest exchange after work, in an atmosphere that makes it easy to connect across research, industry, and student life.

About the RIS After Work Exchange
The RIS After Work Exchange is a recurring evening series at the Rhine-Ruhr Institute of Information Systems that brings research and practice together in a relaxed setting. The next edition will feature Prof. Dr. Ralf Plattfaut. Anyone who would like to take part is welcome to get in touch to be added to our mailing list for upcoming events.

On June 23, 2026, the Process Innovation and Automation Lab (PIA Lab) at the University of Duisburg-Essen opened its doors as part of the Essen Science Summer 2026. Under the title "AI Meets HR Processes: A Hands-On Look Into the Lab," around nine participants spent 2.5 hours exploring the future of human resources work in the age of artificial intelligence — practical, interactive, and free of charge.

What AI Can Do — and What It Cannot Replace

The event centered on a key question: Which tasks in HR processes can machines genuinely take over today — and which human competencies become not obsolete, but more important as a result? Speaker Jannis Nacke, together with student assistant Frederik Ernst, walked attendees step by step through a typical manual HR workflow before demonstrating live how AI tools can support, accelerate, or transform that same process. In front of the audience, the two built automations and AI workflows from scratch — making the technology tangible and immediately visible.

Program of the Evening

The afternoon was structured in three phases: After a welcome and an introduction explaining why HR processes make an ideal testing ground for AI applications, participants collectively reconstructed a typical manual HR workflow. The third segment brought everything together with a hands-on demonstration directly in the lab — a format designed to bridge theory and practice in real time.

Part of the Essen Science Summer 2026

The event was embedded in this year's Science Summer, held under the overarching theme "Future Skills — Human Competencies in the Context of Change and New Technologies." The PIA Lab used the platform to make research tangible and to foster dialogue between academia, industry, and the general public.

Diese Woche hat die Fakultät für Informatik zum ersten Mal den Tag der Informatik gefeiert. Mit über 150 Gästen konnten Themenstellungen rund um künstliche Intelligenz diskutiert werden. Unsere Arbeitsgruppe war vielfältig beteiligt:

• Prof. Dr. Ralf Plattfaut hat eine Keynote zum Thema "Leading AI-Augmented Teams – Thesen zur Führungskraft der Zukunft” gehalten
• Im Anschluss war Ralf Plattfaut teil des Panels zum Thema “KI im Spannungsfeld zwischen gesellschaftlicher Verantwortung und unternehmerischer Innovation”
• Parallel haben Nachwuchswissenschaftler der Arbeitsgruppe mehrere Poster zu aktuellen Forschungsthemen präsentiert

Highlight war sicherlich die Prämierung des Posters von Ali Ergün als Runner Up für das beste Poster.