How Does Enterprise Architecture Add Value to Organisations?

Authors

Toomas Tamm, Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, AustraliaFollow
Peter B. Seddon, Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Graeme Shanks, Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Peter Reynolds, Center for Information Systems Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Abstract

Enterprise architecture (EA) is the definition and representation of a high-level view of an enterprise’s business processes and IT systems, their interrelationships, and the extent to which these processes and systems are shared by different parts of the enterprise. EA aims to define a suitable operating platform to support an organisation’s future goals and the roadmap for moving towards this vision. Despite significant practitioner interest in the domain, understanding the value of EA remains a challenge. Although many studies make EA benefit claims, the explanations of why and how EA leads to these benefits are fragmented, incomplete, and not grounded in theory. This article aims to address this knowledge gap by focusing on the question: How does EA lead to organisational benefits? Through a careful review of EA literature, the paper consolidates the fragmented knowledge on EA benefits and presents the EA Benefits Model (EABM). The EABM proposes that EA leads to organisational benefits through its impact on four benefit enablers: Organisational Alignment, Information Availability, Resource Portfolio Optimisation, and Resource Complementarity. The article concludes with a discussion of a number of potential avenues for future research, which could build on the findings of this study.

DOI

10.17705/1CAIS.02810

Recommended Citation

Tamm, T., Seddon, P. B., Shanks, G., & Reynolds, P. (2011). How Does Enterprise Architecture Add Value to Organisations?. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 28, pp-pp. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.02810