Connecting Enterprise Architecture with Strategic Planning Processes: Case Study of a Large Nordic Finance Organization

Abstract

The business environment is changing faster than ever before. Successful navigation in these treacherous waters requires both business agility and capability to govern strategydriven business transformation. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an approach providing insight and overview to manage the complexity of an organization and to aid strategic decisionmaking. Studies have tried to bridge the gap between EA and strategy, but very few empirical studies have been published on the subject. In this exploratory case study, we provide an empirical view of how EA can be connected to the strategic planning process and bring value to an organization. The findings are based on 13 interviews conducted in a large Nordic financial services group. This study strengthens the view that although EA could provide significant value in the strategy formulation phase it is still mainly a tool for translating the strategy into actions. EA can thus provide the most value in the strategy implementation phase of the strategic planning process.

Enterprise architecture and enterprise architecture artifacts: Questioning the old concept in light of new findings

“…Even though they are based on solid research, these ideas did not shape the mainstream view of EA prevalent in academic EA publications. This fact has multiple different manifestations in the existing EA literature including, but not limited to, the following ones. First, the recent comprehensive EA literature review covering 1075 publications (Kotusev, 2017b) identifies only seven publications (Blomqvist, Halen, & Helenius, 2015; de Vries & van Rensburg, 2009; Fallmyr & Bygstad, 2014; Halen, Blomqvist, & Helenius, 2014; Harrell & Sage, 2010; Kiat, Chiew, Hong, & Fung, 2008; Nurcan & Schmidt, 2009) that intentionally discuss the ideas of Ross et al (2006), for example, operating models, core diagrams and IT engagement models, and none of these publications appeared in the leading IS journals. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of the identified EA publications were, to different extents, based on the ideas of popular EA frameworks (FEAF, 1999; Sowa & Zachman, 1992; TOGAF, 2011).…”

Artifacts, Activities, Benefits and Blockers: Exploring Enterprise Architecture Practice in Depth

“…EA practices in organizations imply a variety of diverse activities integrated with other organizational activities [4,27,28]. For example, at the top executive level EA practices can be integrated with corporate strategic management [8], strategic planning [29] and business model management [30]. At the middle management level EA practices can be intertwined with risk management [31], information management [32] and change management [33].…”

Enterprise Architecture Functions for Villages in Indonesia: a Perspective on Indonesia’s Village Law

“…Most of the paper was obtained from Elsevier publisher: three journal papers [4], [5] and [6], and two paper proceedings [7] and [8]. Three proceedings were published by IEEE, [7], [8] and [9]. In total, there are eleven journals and nine proceedings.…”

“…Next, the utilization of EA functions applied in health organization and financial organization (banking) was found in two papers. While the use of EA by automotive organizations, cement, small medium enterprise, IT consultant, retail, and education, was found in four paper [15], [16], [17] and [8]. Figure 1 shows the quantity of organizations applying the EA framework.…”

“…Among the twenty selected papers, there are nine (9) EA frameworks references: Zachman, TOGAF, FEAF, Gartner, DODAF, TEAF, E2A, EAP, MODAF. The most commonly used EA framework for reference is the Zachman framework [4], [5], [6], [21], [11], [7], [8], [18] and [22] and TOGAF framework, found in nine papers [4], [5], [6], [11], [7], [14], [17], [18] and [22].…”