Development and validation of enterprise architecture (EA) readiness assessment model

Abstract

Enterprise architecture (EA) proves to be a holistic strategy in aligning business and information technology. An increasing number of organizations, especially in the public sector, have adopted EA in order to take advantage of the opportunities that it offers. Through EA, the efficiency of the organization is improved, with the optimization of resources and the elimination of duplication and redundancy. However, the successful establishment of EA relies on the organization's readiness and ability to adopt EA practices because without proper readiness, the practices will probably fail. EA readiness refers to the assessment of how ready an organization is to adopt and to establish EA practices. EA readiness helps the organization to measure their stage of readiness, to identify any gaps, and then to redesign its strategy in order to adopt EA practices. EA is a merger between business and IT. Thus, the important elements of EA readiness should comprise of people, process, technology, and catalyst enabler. There is a lack of readiness for an assessment model that shapes these four elements towards EA; hence, a clear gap has been identified. Therefore, the objective of this study is to validate the EA Readiness Assessment Model (EARAM) by performing the Delphi technique. The study adopts a three-round Delphi Technique to verify the identified elements and factors and this is followed by developing and validating the proposed model. Results from the Delphi analysis have validated four (4) major elements of EARAM, namely people, process, technology, and catalyst enabler. The number of factors that contributes towards the readiness of the EA establishment is fourteen (14). It is anticipated that this model (EARAM) can help the Malaysian Public Sector (MPS) organization to identify and understand the elements and factors that must be considered when assessing the readiness to practice EA.