Exploring Enterprise Architecture Evaluation Practices: The Case of a Large University

EA evaluation has received very little attention in academic publications on EA. While EA evaluation to some extent has been described in the literature, the different ways of evaluating architecture have mainly used a top-down approach deriving measures from theory rather than a bottom-up approach using empirical and practical studies. This paper presents the findings from a case study exploring how enterprise architecture (EA) evaluation takes place in practice. The aim of the case study is to explore EA evaluation from the practical view of primarily enterprise architects and project managers. The findings show that while few formal approaches for EA evaluation were in place, the organization succeeded in evaluating complex projects using informal ad hoc evaluation and by viewing the project from different perspectives.