The Economic Benefits of Enterprise Architecture

About the Book

Most organisations have problems in explaining and managing the economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture. Managers often asked me what Enterprise Architecture can do for me. At the same time several Governmental organisations are adopting Enterprise Architecture as part of their change and E-Government initiatives.

A holistic Enterprise Architecture approach can deliver a lot of benefits to organisations depending on the focus where to find these benefits. Even so Enterprise Architecture delivers the foundation for Enterprise Portfolio Management, the ultimate business driver for Enterprise Architecture.

The main purpose of this book is achieving awareness at management level as well as at enterprise architects level about adopting an economic approach when dealing with Enterprise Architecture programs.

This book explains the areas of economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture programs, the different views as well as a holistic approach to show the areas of economic benefits. Economic methods, models and approaches are described in short to show, how to quantify and manage the economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture programs as well as how Enterprise Architecture supports Enterprise Portfolio Management.

This book has not the intention to be a scientific research document, nor a handbook to deliver solutions for all your EA related economic issues. The intention of the book is showing (board) management, CxO’s, business & IT managers, enterprise architects and students, that they can make progress in the determination of the economic value of Enterprise Architecture programs by adopting some economic methods and defining a process of collecting data of Enterprise Architecture effected activities and programs.

With the growing importance of Enterprise Architecture at the same time, the discussion started how to align Business and IT on a natural way, now and in the future and how this fits in the overall Enterprise Portfolio. This book is also showing that alignment of business and technology is hard to do, but there is hope.

This book is giving a holistic overview of the areas of economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture as well as the role, position and purpose of Enterprise Architecture programs in organizations as the foundation for change in Business and IT, embraced by Enterprise Portfolio Management. Cost / benefit figures from public sources are added to this book to show the effects of economic measurement. For the in-depth details of the described Enterprise Architecture economic approaches and methods, several references to the original sources of information are added in the chapters Terms & Definitions, References & Bibliography and Interested Links.

About the Author

Jaap Schekkerman, B.Sc. (1953) is an internationally-recognized Thought Leader in the area of Enterprise Architecture and the Founder and President of the 'Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments' (IFEAD) the Netherlands. This institute is today one of the most important sources of information related to Enterprise Architecture and working close together with other research organizations, institutes and universities all over the world to create an independent platform for Enterprise Architecture research, developments and knowledge exchange.

Mr. Schekkerman is managing IFEAD in parallel with his Enterprise Architecture opinion leader activities for Verdonck, Klooster & Associates, the Netherlands; an independent high professional consulting firm, specializing in EA.

Mr. Schekkerman is also Vice-President of the international Association of Enterprise Architects.

Mr. Schekkerman has worked for more then 30 years in the Business, IT & Consultants world and has more then 25 years experience in managing complex and large enterprise architecture programs in the Defense World, the Governmental area, Travel Industry and High Tech Industry.

Mr. Schekkerman is giving lectures on Enterprise Architecture at several Universities and received an engineer's degree in electronic engineering and information technology and a degree in clinical chemistry and business economics.

Jaap Schekkerman has published several methods, articles and books on topics related to Enterprise Architecture and he is a frequently invited speaker on national and international congresses and symposia.

For more information visit our website:
www.enterprise-architecture.info
or www.e2pm.info

Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments
Att. Mr. J. Schekkerman
Suikerpeergaarde 4
3824BC, Amersfoort
The Netherlands
Phone: +31332773767
E-mail: jschekkerman@enterprise-architecture.info