Beyond EA Frameworks: Towards an Understanding of the Adoption of Enterprise Architecture Management

Despite the increasing popularity of enterprise architecture management (EAM) in practice, many EAM initiatives either do not fully meet the expected targets or fail. EAM frameworks have been suggested as guidelines to EAM implementation, but our experience indicates that very few companies follow the steps prescribed by such frameworks. Motivated by the diverse approaches that we have observed in practice, our research strives for a broader understanding of how companies adopt EAM in their organizations. We address two questions: (1) Which approaches do companies take in adopting EAM? (2) What factors influence EAM adoption? To answer these questions, we developed an analysis framework to conceptualize EAM adoption and its contextual factors. Based on a set of eight case studies, we explore situational EAM designs and derive four EAM archetypes, which illustrate very diverse EAM adoption approaches in different situations. Our research helps broaden knowledge of EAM adoption by considering multi-dimensional and context-dependent EAM designs. It thereby relativizes the importance of frameworks and modeling, which we find over-emphasized in existing EA research. Our findings also offer starting points for prescriptive EAM research, supporting the successful introduction of EAM in organizations by taking contingencies into account.