The Enterprise Architecture Value Framework

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a discipline aimed at managing the complex interrelationships of business processes and IT in the continuous changing environment of organizations. Despite this ambitious agenda of EA, it is not clear what exactly constitutes the value of EA for an organization or which activities architects should initiate to maximize their effectiveness. In this paper, we present the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework (EAVF). The EAVF is a framework for classifying benefits and costs of EA along the dimensions of organizational goals and EA-related activities. It is derived from definitions of its underlying concepts and is independent of methods, techniques and tools used by architects. The framework is validated both theoretically and by mapping other frameworks on the EAVF. Results support the hypothesis that it offers a framework on which all EA benefits and costs can be mapped uniquely, thus providing a means to unite previous and future research on EA benefits. The development of the EAVF is a first step in creating a measurement instrument for EA benefits and costs. It can be used in practice to align the activities of architects with the goals of the organization, thereby optimizing their effect on the performance of the organization