Enterprise Architecture: A Tool for IS Strategy Formulation

Abstract

Nowadays, many organizations are concerned with how successfully they can formulate an information system (IS) strategy. Have them adopted enterprise architecture, they are concerned of how to activate the business and IS decisions. From a functional perspective, enterprise architecture demonstrates how all information technology elements in an organization, systems, processes and people work together as a whole. Hence, enterprise architecture is an approach of aligning the business area of an organization with the IT area. It has become widely recognized that an enterprise architecture plays a key role in influencing the IS strategy formulation. Strategy formulation in enterprises is a continuous process and it is considered an implicit process that is influenced by a set of factors in which enterprise architecture is a major one. In this paper, we discuss that role that an enterprise architecture plays in influencing the IS strategy formulation.

Enterprise Architecture Best Practices in Large Corporations

“…Moreover, implementing EA usually starts with a strategic statement [38], and the EA framework's purpose and necessary resources are derived from this statement. However, without a shared and communicated strategy, an EA framework can have no clear direction [15,39]. As such, a shared strategy is defined here as a purposeful statement that must be communicated throughout an organization.…”

“…EA can affect how a strategy is formulated, analyzed, and executed within an organization [39]. Moreover, the EA framework can shape organizations' collective thinking, thus affecting how strategy is created.…”

“…Moreover, the EA framework can shape organizations' collective thinking, thus affecting how strategy is created. The EA methodology creates the backbone of organizational governance that enables systemized analysis and execution of strategic goals [32,37,39]. A recent study discusses the development in large organizational governance by involving IT as a component requiring its own strategy [27].…”

“…EA comes into the picture here, as the authors discuss [27], by supporting organizations to govern their IT by traditional and IT strategies. A gap exists in the EA literature because strategy and governance are usually considered individually, without a deeper understanding of other related EA practices [9,32,37,39,45]. A growing trend in the EA literature is the discussion on the usage of strategic and governance practices such as strategic auditing, SWOT analysis, balanced score cards, and competitive advantage [13,39].…”

“…A gap exists in the EA literature because strategy and governance are usually considered individually, without a deeper understanding of other related EA practices [9,32,37,39,45]. A growing trend in the EA literature is the discussion on the usage of strategic and governance practices such as strategic auditing, SWOT analysis, balanced score cards, and competitive advantage [13,39]. This shows that EA research is streamlining from being a computer and information systems discussion-engrossed discipline to only a more organizational and strategy-based approach [45].…”