EA Team Structures Vary Widely

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.