EAM Goals & Benefits

Some of the most prominent goals of EAM are IT cost reduction [BBL12; Fuh11b; Fuh11d], aligment of business and IT [BBL12; Nie08; Man12; Fuh11c; Fuh11b], and reduction of IT landscape complexity [BBL12; Man12; Han12a].

EAM Goals & Benefits Foundations

There is a multitude of possible goals, which are derived from the business and IT strategy. The definition of EAM goals is the starting point for initiating EAM activities, since they provide both, guidance as well as a rationale for EAM endeavors. To measure the degree of goal achievement, key performance indicators (KPI)s should to be defined, which enable Enterprise Architects to plan, forecast, benchmark, and assess the EA activities with regards to their contribution to goal fulfillment [Mat+12].

Empirical Results regarding EAM Goals & Benefits

Lange&Mendling (2011) [LM11] identified EAM goals based on literature research and on semi-structured interviews with 16 industry experts. The results of both approaches are indicated in Figure1. The goals are ordered hierarchically with the most often mentioned goals on the top of the table.

For each of the goals mentioned in the research paper, a short description is provided. According to [LM11], the goal business and IT alignment aims at bringing business needs in line with the underlying IT implementation. This is supposed to provide a strategic advantage over competitors because of shorter reaction times and higher cost efficiency with regards to enterprise transformation [RZM14]. The cost reduction aims at reducing IT-related and business process related costs [LM11]. Standardization and consolidation efforts are supposed to reduce EA complexity, which, together with management and governance, improves the decision making [LM11]. An increased agility improves both process as well as IT flexibility, that enable the organization to adapt quickly to new market situations [LM11]. Finally, miscellaneous goals support business functions such as risk management and business continuity management while regulatory compliance ensures adherence of external regulations [LM11].

Figure 1: EAM goals identified by Lange&Mendling (2011) in a literature review and in semi-structured interviews with 16 industry experts. The goals are ordered hierarchically with the most often mentioned goals on the top of the table. [Based on: M. Lange and J. Mendling. “An experts’ perspective on enterprise architecture goals, framework adoption and benefit assessment.” In: 2011 IEEE 15th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops. 2011, pp. 304–313.]

One striking feature is that in the results provided by the industry experts, cost reduction is not mentioned as a goal. This is explained with the statement, that it is inherently included in all other goals. Further, the goal innovation emerges in practice, which was so far not covered in literature. Finally, the experts state that the goal regulatory compliance is a lot less relevant in practice than assumed in literature. This is explained by the circumstance, that regulatory compliance is usually not a part of the EAM function [LM11].

Sources:

[BBL12]	S. Bente, U. Bombosch, and S. Langade. Collaborative Enterprise Architecture: Enriching EA with Lean, Agile, and Enterprise 2.0 Practices. Elsevier, Inc., 2012.
[Fuh11b]	K. Fuhrer. “Teil 2: Standardblickwinkel und Praxissichten Planung und Steuerung.” In: Enterprise Architecture Deliverables: Welche Ergebnisse liefert Enterprise Architecture? OPITZ CONSULTING GmbH. 2011.
[Fuh11d]	K. Fuhrer. “Teil 4: Standardblickwinkel und Praxissichten Infrastruktur und Technologie, Resümee und Ausblick.” In: Enterprise Architecture Deliverables: Welche Ergebnisse liefert Enterprise Architecture? OPITZ CONSULTING GmbH. 2011.
[Nie08]	K. Niemann. “Enterprise Architecture Management and its Role in IT Governance and IT Investment Planning.” In: Advances in Government Enterprise Architecture. IGI Global, 2008, pp. 208–228.
[Man12]	T. Mannmeusel. “Management von Unternehmensarchitekturen in der Praxis: Organisatorische Herausforderungen in mittelständischen Unternehmen.” In: Analyse und Gestaltung leistungsfähiger IS-Architekturen Modellbasierte Methoden aus Forschung und Lehre in der Praxis. Ed. by J. Suchan C; Frank. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2012, pp. 35–57.
[Fuh11c]	K. Fuhrer. “Teil 3: Standardblickwinkel und Praxissichten Geschäft und IT-Entwicklung.” In: Enterprise Architecture Deliverables: Welche Ergebnisse liefert Enterprise Architecture? OPITZ CONSULTING GmbH. 2011.
[Han12a]	I. Hanschke. “EAM - einfach und effektiv.” In: Wirtschaftsinformatik & Management (WuM), Springer Verlag 04.2012 (2012), pp. 72–76.
[Mat+12]	F. Matthes, I. Monahov, A. Schneider, and C. Schulz. EAM KPI Catalog v 1.0. Tech. rep. Munich: Chair for Software Engineering of Business Information Systems. Technische Universität München., 2012.
[LM11]	M. Lange and J. Mendling. “An experts’ perspective on enterprise architecture goals, framework adoption and benefit assessment.” In: 2011 IEEE 15th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops. 2011, pp. 304–313.
[RZM14]	S. Roth, M. Zec, and F. Matthes. Enterprise Architecture Visualization Tool Survey 2014. Tech. rep. Munich: Chair for Software Engineering of Business Information Systems. Technische Universität München., 2014.

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