A Practice-Based Framework for Enterprise Coherence

Abstract

In this paper, the authors discuss a practice-based framework that enables enterprises to make the coherence between key aspects, such as business and IT, explicit. The term “coherence” is preferred over 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. Enterprise coherence considers the alignment of all important aspects of an enterprise.

The core driver for the development of the Enterprise Coherence Framework (ECF), as presented in this paper, was the costly failure of many (large scale) enterprise transformation projects. These resulted in the initiation of the GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) multi-client research programme, involving twenty client organizations. This, still ongoing, research programme started in 2006. The current focus of the programme’s efforts is on the continuous evaluation and further improvement of the programme’s results. One of the core results of the GEA research programme is the Enterprise Coherence Framework (ECF), which enables a more explicit reasoning about the coherence between the relevant aspects of an enterprise. This framework, on its turn, enables the deliberate governance of enterprise coherence.

In this paper, both the practical and theoretical roots of the framework will be discussed, as well as experiences in its use in real world settings.

This work has been partially sponsored by the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (www.fnr.lu), via the PEARL programme.