ZDNet – Enterprise architecture: time to get the business to sit up and take notice

The key to attaining running a lean and agile enterprise technology infrastructure is embracing enterprise architecture. However, many organizations still relegate EA teams to peripheral roles while they spend countless dollars, euros, pounds or rupees cobbling together creaky IT infrastructures — budget sinkholes that just barely deliver.

EAs don’t yet have enough leverage in today’s enterprises. A thread that weaves its way through many of Bossert and Laartz’s ideas is that many organizations may have enterprise architects and EA teams, but don’t provide these people the leverage to influence overall IT strategy. If anything, EA tends to remain a “siloed” activity — even though their roles are to tear down the silos. “Companies should give EA departments more responsibility for certain big-picture decisions — for instance, approving new IT-related projects or changes to the technology landscape,” they point out. To overcome organizational inertia, EA proponents need to identify executives or professionals who can step up to leadership roles and challenge the business to develop a greater vision and cohesion for its information technology strategy.

EA needs to reflect the business. Another theme running thro

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