Enterprise Architecture (EA) and organizational performance assessment and improvement are often viewed as separate and distinct disciplines. The former, often residing in the realm of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), tends to focus mainly on Information Technology (IT) issues. By contrast, organizational performance assessment and improvement tends to be in the realm of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Chief Operating Officer (COO) and focuses mainly on business operations topics.[restrict] The boundaries between the business side of the house and the IT side of the house are sometimes impermeable – making communication, collaboration, and cooperation between the two organizational functions difficult. Consequently, EA and organizational performance assessment and improvement do not leverage their respective value-adding qualities to bring success to each other and to create value for the organization or stakeholders. This article provides a summary of the two disciplines – EA and organizational performance assessment and improvement. The article then describes a popular EA framework – The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) – and a widely used organizational performance assessment and improvement framework – the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and methodology. The article goes on to illustrate how these two frameworks intersect, interact, and provide mutual support. Finally, the article provides a prescription for senior executives and other change agents to help bring about integration of EA (specifically, TOGAF) and organizational performance assessment and improvement (specifically, Baldrige).
The writer makes two assumptions in this article. The first is that the reader of this Journal is familiar with the concepts and practice of Enterprise Architecture in general and with The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) in particular. The second assumption is that the reader may not be as familiar with the Organizational Performance Assessment and Improvement discipline. A corollary is that the reader may not be familiar with the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and Baldrige organizational performance assessment and improvement methodology. Accordingly, treatment of EA in this article will be perfunctory; treatment of Organizational Performance Assessment and Improvement will be more extensive.
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