Enterprise Coherence Assessment

In this paper, the authors discuss an instrument for the assessment of enterprise coherence (Enterprise Coherence Assessment, ECA). The term ‘coherence’ is used rather than the more common term ‘alignment’, since the latter is generally associated with bringing two concepts in line (typically ‘Business’ and ‘IT’). The word coherence, however, stresses the need to go beyond this. Coherence involves connections and synchronisation between all important aspects of an enterprise. ‘IT’ and ‘Business’ just being two of these aspects. The ECA instrument was developed as part of the ongoing GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) research programme, and has so far been applied in seven large Dutch organisations. The paper discusses the context in which the ECA instrument was developed, the instrument itself, as well as the results of the assessment study in which the instrument was applied.