Increasing the Relevance of Enterprise Architecture through "Crisitunities" in U.S. State Governments

The common assumption is that an enterprise architecture (EA) program should be incrementally implemented (the maturing approach). But our research found that U.S. state governments are also using two other approaches, both of which take advantage of a “crisitunity,” a term popularized by The Simpsons. When told that the Chinese word for crisis consists of two characters, danger and opportunity, Homer Simpson suggests the word “crisitunity” to describe the situation. Although EA has been around for many years, the core question that remains unanswered is: How can EA deliver its promised benefits? As described in the full article, the answer lies in an organization choosing an appropriate and relevant EA approach. As well as the maturing approach, the choices are the refreshing and bundling approaches. The first step in building a relevant EA program is to understand and embrace the most appropriate implementation approach for your organization, using the decision process depicted in the figure.