ABSTRACT
Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a practice offers significant opportunities for practitioners, within and outside an organization, to apply their skills as a business unit in itself. This chapter starts with a brief review of the realities of an EA practice. Once the senior leadership of the organization directing the Digital Transformation (DT) accepts the idea in an EA practice, a business plan for it is created within the overall digital strategy. This chapter outlines how to create such an EA practice, to gain support and sponsorship to establish it, and to ensure it becomes part of the fabric of the organization. This chapter also explains the “why” and “how” of running an EA practice like a business entity. The EA practice utilizes standards, frameworks, guidelines, reference models, and measures to deliver business value. The steps necessary for substantiating EA as a practice and how to get it started are discussed. Qualitative and quantitative value generation and measurements, as well as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are outlined as integral to the EA practice.
