Building Information Technology Based on a Human Behavior- Oriented Approach to Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks (EAF) define a comprehensive step-by-step process with an expected outcome an EA plan that details the guidelines for governing and aligning an enterprise’s strategic business plan with it’s information technology (IT) capabilities. The process attempts to simplify the capture and validation of the design artifacts used to implement new information systems. Yet, many EA projects fail. In analyzing failure, EA changes the culture, character, and structure of an enterprise that often manifests itself in new stakeholder behavioral patterns (i.e., organizational transformation). Existing EAFs, though technically comprehensive, fail to acknowledge non-technical factors such as stakeholder behavior which may have more influence on EA than technology. This paper progresses earlier work assessing the affect of stakeholder behavior and organizational transformation on EA. Our approach to EA encourages a more holistic, humanistic, and behavior-driven process using Giddens’ Theory of Structuration as a lens guiding EA design.