Trends Report

EA Team Structures Vary Widely

Most Enterprises Leverage Small Organizations To Get The Job Done

April 11th, 2008
Jeff Scott, null
Jeff Scott
With contributors:
Katie Smillie , Gene Leganza

Summary

Organizations challenge enterprise architects to implement comprehensive, strategic technology programs using limited resources: Most EA teams have small organizations, limited discretionary funding, and little political power. To cope with these limitations, enterprise architecture (EA) leaders create organizational structures in all shapes and sizes — centralized, federated, matrixed, and various composites of all three —as they search for the best format to drive EA success. Successful EA leaders design and extend their teams using governance and collaboration efforts that match their larger organizations' operating style. As a result, no two EA teams look exactly alike. The key to success is not team size or organizational placement but how the team extends its resources by collaborating with and leveraging others throughout the organization.

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