As EA scholar and practitioners, we are sensitive to the relevance of EA research to the EA practitioner community. In relation to EA research, researchers have argued for more practically oriented EA governance methods and frameworks (Simon et al., 2013) and others have argued for research that balances the current narrow technical focus of existing research with a focus on the interactions between architects and their stakeholders (Rozanski & Woods, 2007). Whilst existing governance approaches may have served a technically oriented audience well, they have resulted in a lack of research and skills in the social context of and conditions associated with the successful outcomes of EA initiatives. Whilst the existing research into EA governance has built knowledge concerning approaches to EA management, organizational structures, and driven the development of new frameworks and tools (Lankhorst et al., 2005), researchers have largely ignored the social relationships between architects, business and
technology stakeholders and the importance of these relationships to the governance of EA initiatives.
Assignment Task
Review the enterprise architecture literature. In seeking to define the most effective ways to approach the governance of EA initiatives, to what extent have authors examined the relationship between architects and their stakeholders? What are the implications for EA practice and the recruitment and training of architects?
