Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations


The Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations is a worldwide association of professional organizations which have come together to provide a forum to standardize, professionalize, and otherwise advance the discipline of enterprise architecture.

Organization

The Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations is a worldwide professional organization for the advancement of enterprise architecture. Its mission is "to provide a forum to discuss cross organizational activities, standardize, professionalize and otherwise advance the discipline of enterprise architecture." The founding director Brian Cameron explained that the idea arose from the "desire to do something about the current fragmentation between the many enterprise architecture related professionals organizations."
FEAPO was founded in 2011 by nine professional organizations, and in 2015 consists of the following 17 member organizations.

''Common Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture,'' 2013

The 2013 paper "Common Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture" describes the field of enterprise architecture and the value that the enterprise architecture function brings to an organization. The focus of this paper is to provide a unified perspective of enterprise architecture to a wide-ranging audience, not just to the architects themselves, but also to the people who interact with the architects, and others who want to learn about enterprise architecture. In the paper enterprise architecture is defined as:
A well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a holistic approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes.

As a formalized practice the field has its roots in the 1990s, and its development has led to many "definitions, perspectives, and schools of thought surrounding Enterprise Architecture." The main results the enterprise architecture practice can deliver are listed as:

  • An articulation of the strategic requirements of the enterprise
  • Models of the future state, which illustrate what the enterprise should look like across all EA viewpoints in support of the business strategy
  • A road map of the change initiatives required to reach that future state
  • The requirements, principles, standards and guidelines that will steer the implementation of change initiatives While these outputs are often

With this paper the FEAPO wanted to provide "a high level description of Enterprise Architecture and what it can do for an organization, removing much of the jargon that often surrounds such efforts. It was written to provide insight into what Enterprise Architects do, what kind of skills are needed, and what results an organization should expect from their Enterprise Architecture efforts. Note that details of how to establish an Enterprise Architecture practice within your organization will be covered in a future paper."