Developing Enterprise Architecture Skills: A Developing Country Perspective

Abstract

Through different approaches, organisations strive to evolve their competitiveness, as well as their addressing their operational and strategic needs. Some organisations employ Enterprise Architecture (EA), to bridge the gap between the business and IT, and to providing strategic goals. However, there exists scarcity of EA Skills in many developing countries. This could be attributed to the uniqueness of the discipline. The skills are instrumental in the development and implementation of the EA. What is even more challenging is that EA skills cannot be developed from any training facility, due to its nature of specialisation and seniority of the specialists. The limited training facilities contribute to the scarcity of EA skills in many developing countries, which have impact skill and transfer, and other resource developmental factors. This study therefore explored how and where EA skills can be developed, and what constitute the competency. The study was carried out in Namibia, using the survey technique, in the data collection. Some of the findings include education and training, leadership, and political implications on EA skill development.

An exploration of the many ways to approach the discipline of enterprise architecture

“…Is it clear that the use and usability of EA may fully depend on 'how it is understood, defined and scoped'. 102 In effect, without the presence of concise and precise description concerning the roles that can achieve architecture success, 'architects may be viewed as providing no specific value' for organizations. 133…”

Towards Different Enterprise Architecture Project Types

“…Therefore, it is important for organizations to take note of their enterprise architects' capabilities and views on EA, as this affects the way they practice as enterprise architects. Shaanika and Iyamu [57] state that the view on EA informs how EA is executed. This in turn has an impact on how well the organization responds to environmental changes that necessitate business and IT changes.…”