What is it about?
Organisations use enterprise architecture to understand how their business processes, data, applications, and technologies fit together and support their strategic goals. But how do they actually evaluate whether their architecture is effective and meets their changing needs? This publication explores how enterprise architecture evaluation works in practice by examining three large organisations: two banks and a telecommunications provider in three different European countries. Through interviews with business, IT, and architecture leaders, supported by internal organisational documents, the study investigates how architecture is evaluated, what challenges organisations face, and how their evaluation practices can be improved. The findings reveal that organisations rarely use a single, formal evaluation method. Instead, they rely on a combination of governance routines, architectural reviews, portfolio mechanisms, external benchmarks, repository data, and expert judgment. The research highlights opportunities to make evaluation more recurring, evidence-based, business-inclusive, and decision-oriented.
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Why is it important?
Organisations make major investments in technology and digital transformation, yet often lack systematic ways to evaluate whether their enterprise architecture supports the right decisions. Although academic research proposes numerous evaluation methods, little is known about how organisations actually evaluate their architectures in practice. This study is important because it bridges that gap by providing evidence from real organisations. It reveals why formal evaluation methods are rarely adopted, identifies practical challenges such as limited formalization, incomplete or unstable evidence, delivery pressure, uneven business participation, contextual c omplexity, and the difficulty of justifying the effort required to adopt more formal evaluation methods. The findings suggest that effective enterprise architecture evaluation requires more than technical tools or theoretical methods. It needs to become a continuous, evidence-based activity involving business, IT, and architecture stakeholders. By making evaluation more practical, transparent, and closely connected to strategic decisions, organisations can better manage risks, prioritise investments, reduce unnecessary complexity, and support long-term transformation.
Perspectives
This publication represents an important step in my ongoing research into enterprise architecture evaluation, as it brings academic research closer to the realities of how organisations operate. My previous systematic literature review identifies numerous evaluation methods, but an important question remains: why are these methods rarely adopted in practice? By examining three large organisations and engaging directly with architecture, IT, and business leaders, this study provides valuable insights into the challenges that prevent systematic evaluation from becoming an established organisational practice. For me, the most important takeaway is that developing scientifically rigorous evaluation methods is not enough. They must also be practical, accessible, and capable of delivering measurable value to organisations. I believe the future of enterprise architecture evaluation lies in combining structured methods, meaningful business involvement, and greater automation to support continuous, evidence-based decision-making. This perspective also guides my ongoing research towards developing an enterprise architecture evaluation approach that bridges the gap between academic theory and industry practice.
Norbert Rudolf Busch
Warsaw University of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Enterprise Architecture Evaluation in Practice: A Multiple Case Study, October 2026, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-39236-7_35.
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