Improving Enterprise Architecture at Agile Working Financial Organisations

Abstract

Organizations have to adapt to a rapid pace of technological innovation that enables new technical solutions and business opportunities. In these organizations EA should be an enabler of such adaptations by being more efficient and effective, so that in combination with working in an agile way (IT development) these organizations can evolve fast and in a structured way, to accommodate changes needed. However, EA is not always perceived as an organization wide effort, it sometimes is still seen as purely an IT effort, not always suited to work together with agile, as EA has a long-term focus, while Agile has a short-term focus.

This research aims to improve the EA discipline in organizations, so that it can become an enabler for structured organizational change, based on the vision and the mission of the business. The research showed through a Systematic Literature Review and four Case Studies that EA can be such an enabler, if it is organized and implemented the right way into the organization. It is independent of the IT development method, it doesn’t even matter it is agile or plan-driven: EA can always be organized efficiently and effectively.

Eight Essential Elements (EEs) [33] were found that help make the EA discipline more effective and efficient in the organization. Three of the four case studies used most of those EEs and reported to have a streamlined EA discipline in their organization that initiated IT projects based on architecture, while one of the case studies did not address all eight EEs and reported a (very) ineffective EA discipline in their organization, which was delaying their IT development and caused their architectural landscape to be incoherent and scattered.