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Traditional Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice lacks a clear and effective governance and management layer that is easily understandable and intuitive to senior decision makers with the modern organisation. This paper uses three case studies to demonstrate the relative maturity of different EA practice groups within these organisations to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of a traditional ICT management approach versus those that include EA practice in all levels and domains of management. Concepts of Coherency Management and Pervasiveness will be used to explain the idea of a next Generation of EA practice that permeates all layers of the organisation and no longer remains the domain of technologists but instead influences and informs decision-making at all levels (operational, tactical, managerial / strategic) of the organisation. Conditions of such future EA practices are also discussed.

Next Generation EA is an emerging vision for how Enterprise Architecture will be conducted in the post global crisis world economy. Shared cost structures, shared infrastructure, optimized investment in core assets and true interoperability between vertically and horizontally aligned Organizations are some of the characteristics of this vision.Three case studies are presented, illustrating the trend that EA is beginning to penetrate the higher levels of management practices in organizations. This paper argues that the logical next step (next generation of EA) is to use EA practices on the highest levels of the organization as a tool for decision support of the senior decision makers. This is especially true when the business directions of large Organizations are being guided by poorly informed senior decision makers in an environment where information asymmetry exists. Senior decision makers within Organizations who do not have full information at the right time and the right place will always be making sub optimal investment decisions, potentially exposing the Organizations to significant risk with unknown implications.