An Examination of the Role of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks in Enterprise Transformation

Enterprise architecture frameworks have been used to plan and manage large-scale enterprise information technology and business process deployments for more than four decades. They are increasingly being used as a proxy for managing and transforming entire organizations—enterprises. However, as an interdisciplinary tool for the management and transformation of the enterprise, there are limitations to their efficacy. This article discusses these limitations and proposes enhancements to the use the frameworks in enterprise transformation based on research into extant business management frameworks and surveys of enterprise architects and systems engineers involved in enterprise architecture and transformation. Research into the common elements of successful business management frameworks combined with surveys and interviews with enterprise architecture experts confirms the limitations of existing frameworks and suggests key considerations for enhanced efficacy. The article concludes with implications of these findings for systems engineers engaged in enterprise architecture and enterprise transformation efforts and a recommendation that systems engineers take a more holistic approach in their enterprise architecture and enterprise transformation efforts.