Too many organisations still link their enterprise architecture efforts to IT, said Paul van der Merwe, consulting manager of Real IRM.
Commenting on the findings of research conducted at the recent Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference, in Kempton Park, Van der Merwe said 63% of delegates surveyed reported that they had initiated enterprise architecture to help align business and IT.
"This shows that organisations still focus too intensely on business and IT, and not on informing and enabling business strategy, which is the ultimate value and purpose of enterprise architecture," says Van der Merwe.
"This was reinforced several times during the conference, where we asked delegates to answer a set of questions that would provide a snapshot of the enterprise architecture market in South Africa."
As an example, enterprise architecture management is made up 53% of IT management (CIOs 42% and IT managers 11%), with the CEO and chief strategy officer (CSO) comprising just 19% (CEOs 14%, CSOs 5%).
"The CSO should clearly have responsibility and final answerability for enterprise architecture," adds Van der Merwe. "As long as the majority of enterprise architecture functions still reside in the IT camp, its overall value and purpose will not be delivered."
This is reinforced by empirical research conducted by Harvard, which shows that organisations that compete on the basis of their digitised processes in line with enterprise architectural principles are more competitive, more profitable and more flexible than those that have not.
Other findings of the survey, conducted among the 165 delegates at the conference, found:
* The median experience of enterprise architecture practitioners is growing: 44% of practitioners have between two and 10 years' experience, and 15% more than 10 years.
* Enterprise architecture enjoys the widest take-up in financial services (22% of delegates were from this sector), followed by energy and petrochemical (13%) and telecoms and government (10% each).
* Forty-seven percent of delegates were Open Group members, with a further 26% aiming to join.
* Breadth and depth of knowledge (32%) and interpersonal skills (28%) were cited as the most important enterprise architecture competencies.
* Fifty-six percent of delegates underwent their enterprise architecture training externally, with 26% completing a certification programme, and 27% conducting courses and training.
* Seventy-two percent of companies are working on an information architecture, with 39% of delegates reporting they were in the initial phases.
* Of delegates working on service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives, most were still in the pilot phase, with 61% reporting SOA budgets of under R1 million, and 82% of project teams smaller than 10 people.
"The results were enlightening, showing an industry moving towards broad-based adoption and maturity," Van der Merwe summarises. "The conference itself was hugely successful, with delegates reporting a high calibre of interactions and learnings. The conference will be held in Sun City next year, and we expect the number of delegates from across the world to keep on growing."
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