Role of Enterprise Architect
It is sometimes found CIOs are confused regarding the role of Enterprise Architect (EA) as well as reporting structure of EA. Some are of the opinion that EA should report to CIO while others are of the opinion EA should report to business head. In my opinion both reporting structures are acceptable but it is dependent on the IT organisation structure in the organisation. For organisations which has inhouse IT department probably an EA will be able to add more value if he is part of the business unit. EA will not be driven by the preferences of the internal IT organistion but will be able to bring in impartial views which are likely to add more value to business. In organisations where IT is completely outsourced and outsourced vendor is managed by a team of people (more commonly known as Corporate IT), EA can report to CIO. In this case EA alongwith CIO is more focussed in bringing in business benefits to the organsition with IT as their thinking will be more business oriented ra...