In the last year I’ve been invited to address two Enterprise Architecture (EA) conferences on opposite sides of the world on the role of EA in driving business innovation. In both cases, it seemed that EA is underplaying its hand, big time. Conferences, conversations and books on the subject seem to find it hard to break free from EA being IT-centric, or at least primarily done to make IT-related decisions. Even the recent and much-regarded book Enterprise Architecture as Strategy can’t help talking about EA with a predominantly IT focus. Meanwhile, the EA work that I do with CIOs and other executives is almost nothing to do with IT at all. It’s about executing corporate strategy: key business outcomes and metrics; distribution of business accountabilites and competencies; corporate culture; business processes and knowledge. Its purpose is to help inspire and shape the company’s plans for investing in change. Some of the resulting investment projects include IT, some don’t. Where we paint EA as a predominantly IT-related discipline we are stifling its potential contribution to business innovation and value creation. How can we break EA out of its IT-centric focus? Related content brandpost Fireside Chat between Tata Communications and Tata Realty: 5 ways how Technology bridges the CX perception gap By Tata Communications Sep 24, 2023 9 mins Emerging Technology feature Mastercard preps for the post-quantum cybersecurity threat A cryptographically relevant quantum computer will put everyday online transactions at risk. Mastercard is preparing for such an eventuality — today. By Poornima Apte Sep 22, 2023 6 mins CIO 100 Quantum Computing Data and Information Security feature 9 famous analytics and AI disasters Insights from data and machine learning algorithms can be invaluable, but mistakes can cost you reputation, revenue, or even lives. These high-profile analytics and AI blunders illustrate what can go wrong. By Thor Olavsrud Sep 22, 2023 13 mins Technology Industry Generative AI Machine Learning feature Top 15 data management platforms available today Data management platforms (DMPs) help organizations collect and manage data from a wide array of sources — and are becoming increasingly important for customer-centric sales and marketing campaigns. By Peter Wayner Sep 22, 2023 10 mins Marketing Software Data Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe