Enterprise Architecture Remains Immature Practice

http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1947

 

There are several competing and complementary definitions for enterprise architecture. However, as the name implies, enterprise architecture essentially is a high-level description of the “architecture” of an organization in a future state. It typically includes a number of views, such as the organization’s objectives and strategy, its operational units, its organizational structure, its business processes, and its data. As such, enterprise architecture guides IT decision-makers in evolving their IT infrastructures and systems in a way that improves integration, promotes agility, optimizes business processes, and imposes structure on its computing environment.
Enterprise architecture is both a discipline—the process of developing a plan—as well as a document, the resulting architecture itself. In theory, formally defining and describing the enterprise architecture can avoid problems that come from incompatible systems, lack of foresight, and the failure of developers to adhere to the organization’s standards.
While there are various methodologies and definitions of enterprise architecture, the idea was first developed by IBM in the 1980s. The discipline gained traction as organizations began struggling with problems of integrating enterprise systems and data. It is increasingly common today to find enterprise architects, solution architects, network architects, and data architects employed by companies to address the common challenges of guiding IT development. It remains, however, a practice that is not widely adopted.
In the full study, we will 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 various approaches to enterprise architecture and recommendations on best practices