Understanding enterprise architects : different enterprise architect behavioral styles

Abstract

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an emerging field that focuses on the establishment of a conceptual blueprint that describes the structure and operation of an organization. The purpose is to enable the organization to strategically make decisions on the future state of the organization. Enterprise architects play a key role in the establishment of the EA, even though there are different views of what EA is and how the organization can establish the EA using EA frameworks. In this paper we focused on the different behavioral styles used by enterprise architects in the organization, which enable us to understand the role that EA plays in the organization and shed light on why EA is often executed differently within organizations. Nine behavioral styles are identified by focusing on the roles and competencies of enterprise architects.