Large information technology projects fail too often. The statistics have been disturbing for decades—with seven in 10 enterprise projects not delivering on their promised results. This is important because, over time, the value of your corporate brand and enterprise IT success rate are related.

When enterprise architecture (EA) works well, it is a tremendous asset to the business units that employ it. EA provides the ability to manage complexity across a number of domains, decrease costs, reduce redundancy, increase revenue, improve processes, and expand business opportunities.¹

Since the turn of the decade, forward-thinking executives and technologists have pondered how to use enterprise architecture and IT planning processes to drive enterprise strategy. This has not been an easy road.

In the run up to the dot-com bubble, IT organizations went on a spending binge. Most companies purchased technologies without proper due diligence or strategic planning. By 2000, CIOs had a larger share of the enterprise budget than ever before.