Artifacts, Activities, Benefits and Blockers: Exploring Enterprise Architecture Practice in Depth

Abstract

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a collection of artifacts describing an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective and intended to improve business and IT alignment. The purpose of this study is to identify benefits and blockers associated with specific EA-related activities and respective artifacts. Most existing studies discuss the benefits and problems of EA practice in general without relating them to specific activities constituting EA practice. This study is based on 18 interviews with architects and leverages the grounded theory approach. As a result of our analysis, we identify eight consistent activity areas constituting EA practice. Each activity area implies certain activities supported by some EA artifacts leading to specific benefits often impeded by some blockers. Our analysis indicates that EA practice includes many diverse activities usually, though not always, closely associated with specific types of EA artifacts. Moreover, benefits and blockers of EA practice are also very activity-specific.

Enterprise Architecture: A Business Value Realization Model

“…Second, EA assets must be integrated and aligned with existing organizational practices such as project management, IT operations, and service delivery to facilitate their appropriate use. These findings regarding the appropriate use of EA assets comport with the perspectives of several earlier studies [3,7,9]. Thus, the following proposition is formulated.…”

“…Large numbers of EA artifacts are often used poorly or are even found to be useless or outdated [27]. Thus, to enable the effective use of EA artifacts, it is recommended that artifacts be linked to their associated organizational activities and expected benefits [9].…”

“…Some empirical studies have addressed EA benefits [5,[8][9][10]. Yet, studies of EA benefits often offer implicit viewpoints of the EA benefit realization process, e.g., [11,12].…”

The Role of Enterprise Architecture in Building and Sustaining Information Technology – Enabled Organizational Agility

“…The product nature of EA relates to architectural artefacts and architectural deliverables. Architecture artefacts are the conceptual designs and representations of, and the plans needed to implement, an organization's components [31], [34]. Examples include, business capability model, solution design, and roadmaps [31], [34].…”

“…Architecture artefacts are the conceptual designs and representations of, and the plans needed to implement, an organization's components [31], [34]. Examples include, business capability model, solution design, and roadmaps [31], [34]. Architectural deliverables are the actual manifestation of architectural artefacts, e.g., business capabilities, business services, and information systems components [31], [35].…”