Top Management Role in the Development of an EA Programme in Five Portuguese Enterprises

Enterprise Architecture is an active, strategic data base which defines a business, what is necessary to operate a business, including the technologies that are needed to support its operations, and the transition processes necessary for implementing new technologies in response to changes in the needs of the business (Hite, 2002). The strategic importance of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is recognised by a growing number of global enterprises all over the world (Durst & Daum, 2007; Ross, Weill, & Robertson, 2006) and investment in Enterprise Architecture programmes raises the expectations of them being beneficial. Through case study methodology, using questionnaire and/or interviews, data from five Portuguese enterprises were collected and analysed, determining the top management vision about the different stages of the development EA programme, determining the level of maturity with regard to the implementation of EA in these enterprises. The authors found that, despite the limitations of this study, the top management of the 5 enterprises consulted see EA as a business asset since it contains all the information necessary to make decisions in the business, and allows the ITs to be aligned with the business’s strategy; that management structure is important for its development, that most of the enterprises consulted do not use assessment models for investment decisions in EA, and that the AE Balanced Scorecard is considered a suitable model for business management and EA, although most do not use it.