Actively doing training, education and consulting in Enterprise Architecture (EA) globally for approximately 20 years, I’m still seeing interest in EA in large organizations with a global footprint in many different verticals, in financial services companies and ones in healthcare and manufacturing, especially with particular needs such as supply chain management. However, EA in the U.S. government is almost non-existent in a relative sense compared to the need for it. Whereas there is a U.S. law mandating acquisition reform (FITARA), it doesn’t explicitly link to EA; therefore, EA is being largely ignored in the Federal government and its “absence” there has a ripple effect on its relative absence at all levels of the U.S. government. 

All in all, in my opinion, EA is probably only at the 5% penetration level in organizations of all kinds. This is really unfortunate. Personally, I see the need for the role of EA Ambassadors to help dramatically increase the understanding, appreciation, and application of EA. For example, EA orientations should be included in all engineering, MBA, and pre-Med and pre-Law curricula. There is huge potential if EA can be better explained, marketed, and rolled out. 

There are many reasons for EA’s failure overall to cement itself as a core discipline in organizations, reasons I will explore next month, but the imperatives now include being honest about its shortcomings and how to address them, especially in light of the “New Normal” requiring so many decisions in all organizations over the next year or two. EA done well and maturely provides better-informed decisions faster. But to bring this value, EA must be better understood, much faster to launch, and more emphatic about its value proposition in a large variety of use cases.

With this in mind, I’m working on a book that will contain approximately 150-200 use cases presented as scenarios. It will be published this Summer, so stay tuned for more information about it. Several other “field manuals” will be linked to this foundational one’s release. Look for the first of these to be released this Fall. I’m seeking to help business analysts and technologists think like an architect, to begin to see all the possibilities for effective architecture use in addressing every organization’s transformation efforts.

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Authored by Dr Steve Else.