Enterprise architecture is an IT best practice that has been around since the 1980s. It provides a description of the organization in its desired state. This practice typically includes several views, such as the organization’s objectives and strategy, operational capabilities, business processes, and data models. As such, an enterprise architecture guides IT decision-makers in strategically evolving their IT infrastructure and systems for the long term.
With the obvious benefits of this approach, you would think more enterprises would make heavy use of it. However, while it is one of the most adopted practices in our study, most organizations practice it inconsistently, availing only a portion of its benefits.
As shown in Figure 3 from our full report, Enterprise Architecture Adoption and Best Practices, of the 85% of enterprises that have adopted this practice (the green bars), 34% practice it inconsistently and another 21% practice it informally.
As suggested, enterprise architecture provides numerous benefits. For instance, it improves integration between systems, promotes agility, optimizes business processes, and imposes structure on the development of the IT function. Furthermore, formally defining and describing the enterprise architecture can prevent problems arising from developing systems in isolation based on requests from business groups that may not understand the larger business strategy or future state.
“It may still be difficult for some business and IT leaders to agree on an enterprise architecture that aligns the vision for the business with future IT infrastructure, systems, and capabilities,” said Rob Devers, senior fellow/principal at Avasant LLC, based in Los Angeles. “However, it is essential to do so if IT is to become a key element of business strategy.”
In this study, we examine how many organizations have adopted enterprise architecture, how many adopters have fully embraced the practice, and how many organizations are likely to adopt the practice in the future. We conclude with an assessment of the numerous approaches to enterprise architecture and recommendations on best practices. The rating is based on a comparison of the adoption of this practice with 34 others in our annual major study, IT Management Best Practices.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Enterprise Architecture Adoption and Best Practices. The full report is available at no charge for subscribers, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website (click for pricing).