Nils Labusch

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is a means to guide the consistent evolution of business and IT artifacts from an enterprise-wide perspective. This paper aims at understanding the means by which EAM supports this coordination task. Informed by theory of coordination and based on empirical data (n=95) we group participating enterprises in different clusters: (1) non-coordinators, (2) dominators and (3) negotiators. We find that a similar awareness of opportunities exists in all three clusters, yet there are gaps in the realization of EAM coordination support: non-coordinators show the lowest realization, negotiators the highest. Based on this clustering and two follow-up focus groups, we provide implications about the occurrence of the clusters in enterprises and on further EAM development options.

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is considered a means to guide the alignment of business- and IT-related concerns from an enterprise-wide perspective. Our goal in this paper is to understand by which means EAM supports this coordination task today and potentially in the future. We designed a questionnaire and conducted an empirical study (n=95) with participants from the field of EAM. Based on common coordination mechanisms from literature, we analyze (1) the relation between coordination mechanism and their current EAM support, (2) to what degree participants are aware of opportunities of EAM supporting coordination mechanisms, and (3) what the perceived gap between potential and realized EAM coordination support is. An exploratory factor analysis leads to three factors that represent coordination mechanisms in enterprises. Using these factors, we group participating enterprises in three different clusters: (1) non-coordinators, (2) dominators and (3) negotiators. We find that a similar awareness of opportunities exists in all three clusters, yet there are gaps in the realization of EAM coordination support: non-coordinators show the lowest realization, negotiators the highest. Based on this clustering, we provide implications on further EAM development options.

In this Chapter we present a reference framework, more specifically a catalogue of capabilities, needed for doing ACET. As such, it also provides guidance on which elements/artefacts of enterprise architecture can be used to support which aspects of enterprise architecture. For architects, it shows where their services might generate value, if requested. For transformation managers, it provides a “capability catalogue”, describing for which parts of enterprise architecture they may seek advice from the enterprise architects. The framework as a whole provides a structure for the solution components that addresses the challenges as presented in Part II, and it comprises of the perspectives of strategy, value and risk, design, implementation, and change. The capabilities of all the perspectives together support transformation management, which is concerned with the management tasks at the overall transformation level, and with the architectural coordination function, which forms an umbrella function of integrating the individual perspectives into a consistent whole.