Enterprise Architecture Service Provision: Pathways to Value

Enterprise architecture (EA) provides a blueprint of an organisation’s current and desirable future IT infrastructure, systems, data, processes and capabilities, together with a roadmap for achieving the desirable future state. Despite significant interest and investment in EA, organisations still have difficulty articulating the business benefits of EA. In this research in progress paper we conceptualise EA as a service provision function within organisations, rather than an artefact. Using the ResourceBased Theory (RBT), we propose a research model that explains how EA service provision capabilities enhance three types of organisational capability: planning capability, project delivery capability and operating platform capability, to create value. We define the model based on an extensive analysis of the literature and on nineteen interviews with EA experts. The model forms the basis for future empirical work including focus groups, case studies and a survey.