Investigation of the lack of common understanding in the discipline of enterprise architecture

Despite growing interest in the discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA) around the world in recent years, EA suffers from a lack of common understanding because researchers and practitioners do not use a shared approach and terminology when describing EA, its application, methodology, process or outcomes. A few studies have conducted a deep analysis on the extent of this situation but they all have methodological limitations. The objective of this thesis was to fill this gap in applying well know methodological design and techniques to shed some light on the lack of common understanding in the discipline of EA. To achieve this objective, this thesis is subdivided in three complementary studies which treat each a specific aspect. The first study conducts a Systematic Mapping Study and identifies, and classifies, sources of variety in the literature which could be on the basis of the lack of common understanding in the discipline of EA. The second study conducts a Systematic Literature Review using concepts from the academic field of terminology and thematic analysis techniques and identifies sources of implicitness, incompleteness, complexity and incoherence in the definitions of EA which could be on the basis of the lack of common understanding. The third study conducts an opinion survey with EA practitioners analyzed with the help of exploratory data analysis techniques, and identifies different EA practitioners’ major worldviews regarding organizations and the people within them. The findings of this thesis contribute to a better knowledge of the lack of common understanding in the discipline of EA and provide a better possibility to deal with this lack, as implication for practitioners. These findings also provide relevant directions to researchers for future studies concerning this topic or using the methodological design and techniques applied. To continue clarifying the characteristics of the lack of common understanding of EA, this thesis recommends both researcher and practitioner to support more descriptive and experimental research which prioritize the practice of EA (EA evolution, EA measurement, practitioners’ role, practitioners’ worldviews, etc.), to pay more attention to the definition of EA they provide when they produce a new article, and to integrate all ways of approaching EA into a shared reference, even if they seem to be divergent and conflictual sometimes