Why does Enterprise Architecture Matter? by Simon Townson

Open Group in its architectural forum has just released interesting whitepaper by Simon Townson titled "Why does Enterprise Architecture Matter?".

The article focuses on Business Operations in context of Enterprise Architecture (EA). Chapter describing fundamentals of enterprise operations is very cleaver presentation of SAP EAF met-model concepts. For example, Simon writes: "Whether formally defined or not, the vision determines current business goals and the longer-term strategy. Goals are often broken down into shorter-term tactical objectives, owned by individual actors (i.e. employees or service providers), [...]" Brief look at this short exert reviles, key met model concepts such us: Vision, Goals and Actors.

Simon acknowledges that EA program proponents too often do not support their claims with EA benefits explanation and follows this thought by making a strong case for Enterprise Architecture. The Article explores key benefits of EA like strong IT to business strategy alignment, managed innovation within the enterprise and EA’s criticality to business survival.

Finally towards the end we find a simple taxonomy of EA benefits constructed around concepts such us: stakeholder, benefit type, benefit rationale and KPI.

Overall easy read pack with valuable information!