Aligning Portfolio Establishment Activities to Business Drivers Is Key to Gaining Buy-in and Adoption

The ArchiMate® enterprise architecture modeling language has been developed to provide a uniform representation for enterprise architecture descriptions1. It offers an integrated architectural approach that describes and visualizes the different architecture domains and their underlying relationships and dependencies. In a short time, ArchiMate has become the open standard for architecture modeling in the Netherlands. It was officially launched in April 2009 as an Open Group standard; since then, the international interest in ArchiMate has been growing rapidly.

An enterprise architecture is rarely if ever successfully implemented in its entirety in a single project; it is generally implemented incrementally, as a succession of individual business solution projects or coordinated solution programs. How one thinks of architecture critically affects the ability to govern the implementation of these solutions. Modeling is often emphasized as the basis for architecture, but principles provide a more robust foundation that makes it possible to straightforwardly derive solution-level governance from enterprise-level governance.

Enterprise architecture governance is a consensus-driven framework. Business and IT professionals use it to guide significant architecture decisions. The framework helps professionals oversee the delivery of business value from major enterprise-level architecture activities. To maximize the effectiveness of the governance process, a consistent measurement program with a set of easy-to-use metrics is recommended. EA metrics can simplify and validate architecture decisions and in doing so assist the organization in delivering the targeted business value.