A paper considering the importance of organization to ensure Architecture work is undertaken as efficiently as possible within an EA function.

An enterprise architecture capability, like any other business function, requires a number of elements such as people, processes, technology, and information in order to operate effectively. This paper aims to explore how we are organized to do the work as efficiently as possible within the EA function and considers the contributing role that the EA function has in the larger enterprise organizational design context and taking into account the operating model of the enterprise.

Key to understanding this we need to explore why we are organizing in the first place, organizational theory suggests that organizing on purpose (“Why” interrogative) i.e. the purpose for which a group exists should be the foundation for everything its members do including the choice of an appropriate way to organize.

The idea is to create a way of organizing that best suits the purpose to be accomplished, regardless of the way in which other, dissimilar groups are organized. “Architecture is about constraining decisionmaking options; it is about the things that have to be done a particular way to ensure that a solution is fit for purpose for its mission in those environments where it may be deployed” as written by Leonard Fehskens, VP, Skills and Capabilities at The Open Group.

The EARF defines Enterprise Architecture as the continuous practice of describing the essential elements of a socio-technical organization, their relationships to each other and to the environment, in order to understand complexity and manage change.

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