Enterprise Architecture Implementation A qualitative study in opportunities and obstacles of EA implementation

Abstract

Enterprises of today need to be able to innovate and adapt their business quickly to remain competitive and seize new business opportunities in a fast changing environment. Enterprise architecture (EA) is an emerging approach, which promises to provide means to manage such complexity in the form of business-IT alignment, improved communication, reduced costs and better change management. Concisely defined, EA is the architecture of the system, which in this case is the enterprise, especially its business processes, technologies and information systems (IS). Despite huge interest, investments and stated values of EA, there are sadly several examples of EA implementation failure. We believe that the complexity, transparency and lacking understanding of EA and its purpose, together with being viewed as a one-time project, pave the way for a problematic implementation of EA (EAI). Something that has not gained enough attention in prior research. This is alarming considering the huge importance of the implementation phase for any information system (IS) project. Our research is conducted through a case study at a global manufacturing company, in which we combine existent research with insights from stakeholders. We present an own model, based on a literature review of critical success factors (CSFs) of EAI, that can be used to highlight the most common opportunities and obstacles for EAI. We hope to contribute to the existing research of EAI and its CSFs, partly by pointing out that EA investments and achieved values can be undermined if important implementation factors are overlooked.