Pragmatic approaches to enterprise architecture in the financial services sector.

Abstract

Organisations are increasingly failing to implement enterprise architectures that align information technology activities to business strategy and objectives. The large gap between IT and business supports the idea that the promise of EA is a long way off from the reality experienced in the financial services sector. The purpose of EA is to drive alignment and collaboration between business and IT through an all-encompassing framework, but organisations give the impression that traditional approaches, no longer aid the alignment, nor assist businesses achieve value. The intention of this study is then to investigate the claims that traditional EA no longer fulfils its function; in addition this paper will provide alternatives to traditional frameworks by reviewing pragmatic approaches that are more suited to the flexible and agile nature of organisations. This study is conducted by means of interviews, evaluated through the use of cognitive maps to investigate the pragmatic approaches to support the better implementation of enterprise architecture within financial institutions. It extends to discuss challenges pertaining to the implementation of enterprise architecture. These aspects are analysed through the views of both senior management in Information Technology as well as practitioners who operate in the area of architecture and enterprise architecture. The analysis concludes that organisations continue the pursuit of EA, despite the state of it in practise. Organisations are well aware of the issues and challenges associated with traditional approaches and therefore actively seek to implement frameworks through practical and pragmatic means. EA has also matured significantly to the point where the majority of its implementations are being driven by business. With the increase in collaboration and business’s implementing EA through scalable, light-weight and agile means; organisations are achieving more success, through better dealing with the largely, non-technical, EA challenges.