An Analysis of the Adoption and Usage of Enterprise Architecture

A changing market demand and technological evolution has required that enterprise systems constantly be updated and reengineered. Enterprise Architectures (EAs) emerged as 'tools' to assist organisations with managing enterprise systems. The potential benefits obtained by the adoption of an EA programme has resulted in a steady increase in the interest in EAs and in a study of EA activity worldwide, South Africa was ranked 10th. However, EA is a challenging concept and a number of heterogeneous architecture definitions, interpretations and classifications have been developed. It is imperative that an EA programme is considered not only as an issue for the Information Technology (IT) function, but also as a strategic and organisational challenge. Organisations embarking on an EA programme are faced with many complex decisions regarding which EA framework to select, which models and modelling notations to use, as well which technology strategies to adopt. Some organisations are embracing these programmes and are obtaining many benefits, others are faced with an abundance of challenges. This study investigates three popular EA frameworks and proposes an EA component classification map. Several medium to large South African organisations are investigated to validate and update elements of the classification map.