Careers in EA

C A R E E R S IN E N T E P R I S E A R C H I T E C T U R E
Solafa Ali | Daniel Krieg | Pinky Lao | Halle Shirk
ABSTRACT
Enterprise Architecture is gaining traction in more organizations that there is an increasing need to
understand the effect on the profession, Enterprise Architect (EA). The primary source of information is
the publication of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) entitled
‘The Guide to Career in Enterprise Architecture.’ Reference to other works pertaining to careers in
Enterprise Architecture along with our personal experiences will be included in corroborating the FEAPO
publication. Upon review, those who are interested to pursue a career as an EA will be informed of
what it takes to be one.
KEY FINDINGS
• No standardized description of what an EA should know
• Formal education for EA in infancy
• Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) defined EA roles

using Business, Application, Information, Technology plus Security (BAIT+S) Model
• EAs are individuals who possess overall knowledge of the organization but specializes in one
major branch
• Role of EA depends on the Team Structure
• EA journey varies
EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 1

CAREERS IN EA
Ali|Krieg|La o|Shirk
RECOMMENDATIONS
• As an individual interested in becoming or progressing as an EA:
o Understand the various types of architect roles and align career journey towards
ultimate career goal.
o Obtain the appropriate training, experience and credentials that best fits the EA career
path of choice
o Integrate with other architects and be familiar with their goals and objectives
• As an organization establishing an EA team or progressing EAs:
o Benchmark with the industry in order to learn industry best practices and innovations in
the EA career.
o Develop Career structure to enable career progression.
o Ensure the defined roles in the EA team are aligned with the team positioning in the
organization
o Understand the competency levels in order to position architects as the desired

architect type (Chief Architect, Enterprise Architect, Business Architect, etc.)
o Do not assign your Enterprise Architects short-term technical solution design

responsibilities; rather make use of them in supporting organizational and strategic
change.

CAREERS IN EA
ANALYSIS
THE NEED FOR A COMPETENCY MODEL
“Poor strategy execution is the most significant management challenge facing public and private
organizations in the 21st century according to Gartner.” (Lapkin & Young, 2011). This statement
supports the rising need for enterprise architecture in organizations of all types and sizes. EA are in high
demand. However, there are challenges in attracting and developing EA talents. For one there is no
standard description of what an EA should know. Some organizations develop a very IT centric EA
practice that lacks the business and strategy focus. And FEAPO also recognizes that the variation in
architect roles could cause confusion. They also recognized the overlapping architect roles (Business +
Application + Information + Technology + Security) and how architects transition from Solution Architect
to EA as the responsibility transitions from tactical to strategic, Figure 1. However, FEAPO also
distinguishes that in order to be an effective EA, one has to have the general notion of each architecture
type but specialize on one, Figure 2 V-Shaped Architect.
Organizations find it difficult to recruit team members as there are challenges in assessing
internally available EA skills against what is available in the industry. In addition, there is a lack of a
commonly accepted career path for enterprise architecture. Less than 3 out of 100 respondents across
multiple industries have a career path for their EA teams. This results in a challenge in retaining
Enterprise Architecture professionals.

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 1. OVERLAPPING ARCHITECT ROLES (SOURCE: FEAFO) FIGURE 2. V SHAPED ARCHITECT (SOURCE: FEAFO)
In order to resolve this issue, FEAPO developed a framework that can be used for identifying
competencies and critical skills required in an Enterprise Architecture team. Using FEAPO’s framework,
organizations can base their internal career structure for EA by assigning competency levels to the
defined grades and roles. In addition, training in key competencies to support career progression must
also be included in the internal career structure.
THE FEAPO COMPETENCY MODEL AND SURVEY RESULTS
So, what is the FEAPO Enterprise Architecture Competency Model? It describes the
qualifications and characteristics an Enterprise Architect should possess, refer to Figure 3 Competency
Model. Integration of the Competency Levels in Table 1 and the Competency Model determines the EA
Role, Tables 2 and 3.

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 3. FEAPO COMPETENCY MODEL
TABLE 1. FEAPO COMPETENCY LEVELS

CAREERS IN EA
TABLE 2. COMPETENCY AND ABILITY LEVELS FOR EA (SOURCE: FEAFO)

CAREERS IN EA
TABLE 3. COMPETENCY AND ABILITY LEVELS FOR EA, CONTINUED (SOURCE: FEAFO)

CAREERS IN EA
Another way of viewing the Competency and Ability Levels for EA Roles is depicted in Figure 4. As the
Ability Levels increase for each of the competency, the more senior the EA Roles become.
FIGURE 4. RELATIONSHIP OF EA ROLES, COMPETENCY AND ABILITY LEVELS
When asked to rank Enterprise Architecture skills from most important to least important, 21
students of Penn State University’s EA 871 course responded as shown in Table 4. A tie in the top skill
exists between Analytical Thinking and Communication. And the lowest skill is Finance. This suggests
that most of the 21 respondents of the survey are non-Chief Architect/VP since according to Figure 4,
once you are at that position, Finance is the top skill needed.
TABLE 4. SURVEY RESULTS - EA SKILLS IMPORTANCE

CAREERS IN EA
Furthermore, when asked to rank the competency they possess, Table 5, EA 871 students identified
competencies in Analytical Thinking, Communication and Leadership in an Initiate and Influence role.
This validates the initial assessment that most of EA 871 respondents are non-Chief Architect/VP.
TABLE 5. SURVEY RESULTS - COMPETENCY LEVEL OF EA 871 SECTION 002
CAREER AND TEAM STRUCTURE
Originating from the concept of BAIT+S, Figure 2, FEAPO concluded that a better Enterprise
Architect is one who ‘must be able to perform in each of these roles at a surface level, AND with depth
in at least one.’ This role/title has been called a variety of things by experts in the industry but they all
pretty much say the same thing:
• Scott Ambler in his book AGILE MODELING referred to it as a GENERALIST SPECIALIST
• The Open Group referred to it as a T-shaped or V-shaped Architect, Figure 2. So in the image
depicted, skills go deeper than each other. The deep skill can be any of the architecture roles in
the BAIT+S model.

CAREERS IN EA
Like any other concept, the BAIT+S concept is not free of challenges. One that hits home is it is
focused heavily on technology-relevant skills, perhaps with the exception of BUSINESS ARCHITECT. But
all these skills are necessary to cope with change, which is a constant in a flourishing organization. And
it just so happen, that these changes happen faster and more frequently in IT perhaps because it is far
from maturation or its end. But the one things constant about change, it is bound to affect all the
different business areas … understanding:
• why a change is needed  Business Architecture
• how information moves  Information Architecture
• how system delivers services  Application Services Architecture
• how technologies support them all  Tech Architecture
• management of secure data – Security Architecture
In a Gartner publication entitled ‘Make Enterprise Architect a Career, Not Just a Job Title’ they
compared two different thoughts: (1) An Enterprise Architect is a higher-level role and not just a
maturing role of another expertise/competency, Figure 5 Problematic Approach. (2) Gartner's belief
that business, information, technology and solution architect roles have specific expertise that is
measurable. Hence, each architect role must think of them as an EA with specialization in one major
branch, Figure 5 Preferred Approach.

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 5. PROBLEMATIC APPROACH VS BETTER APPROACH (SOURCE: GARTNER)
EA Teams can be structured in different patterns, Figure 6. Smaller companies those with
limited appetite for change may have a single architect, an architect who wears multiple hats (strategy,
chief, generalist). Others may go deeper and hire, or position a group of architects to perform these
functions. So depending on the companies needs, the structure will be different. And based on the
team structure, there will be different demands imposed upon people, their abilities and competencies.
Everything has to be tailored or matched based on the needs. Similar to the EA Role, the way a team is
structured varies by organization and need.
FIGURE 6. TEAM STRUCTURE PATTERNS (SOURCE: FEAFO)

CAREERS IN EA
As illustrated in Figure 6, there are 4 patterns: BY PROJECT, BY DOMAIN, BY STRATEGY and BY
SEGMENT.
• By Project – small team, architects assigned to various managers, only together to complete the
assigned project, deals mostly with coordination of effort.
• By Domain – composed of domain architects (information, solution, business, technology).
Normally present in large corporations where each domain is a unique team
• By Strategy – supports a high-level business strategy … HR Transformation for instance
• By Segment – larger than a domain, value chain related
Each of these patterns is compared based on 5 criteria:
• Breadth – illustrates the likelihood that the EA will be effective at performing a broad EA Role.
Low = will likely do what they know and little else / High = will likely do more than what they
know
• Alignment – the team will deliver on the promise of alignment. High = empower the architects
to guide programs towards strategic alignment / Low = architects are less empowered to guide
programs towards strategic alignment
• Depth – emphasis on ‘growing deep skills’ by placing people together with similar skills. Intent is
for cross-training to happen / balance the load
• Collaboration – emphasis in negotiation and politicking. High = architects must be both
collaborative and provide guidance to others – cross business barriers / Low = being
collaborative is not a big deal to succeed
• Repetition – likelihood at being able to repeat success once you’ve proven to be effective. Low
= test an architect to be highly flexible and adaptable

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 7. IMPACT ON THE ROLE OF THE EA
EAs will perform their role based on the particular team structure pattern, Figure 7. In essence,
different patterns require a different mix of competencies required for an architect to fill that role.
Project Architects are senior member of delivery team; expected to be deeply skilled in one or
more architectural domains as well as delivery lifecycle of projects. Most of the times these projects are
IT focused because it is hard to find EA who have the breadth of skills required.
Domain Architects are more than likely be very well-versed in that domain and have carried the
title pertaining to that domain. Expected to be deeply skilled in their area and may not be required to
have any other skills in other domains. Like Project Architect, it takes a specialized skill to execute this
role. The only issue is Domain Architects are sometimes ‘stuck’ to that particular domain as their roles
do not encourage them to build skills outside of their domain.
Strategy Architects are more than likely someone who is assigned to a corporate or divisional
strategy team … requires broad collaboration skills, excellence communication and knows how to talk
the talk and walk the walk of leaders. This is necessary because Strategy Architects will mostly be
required to communicate with leaders. Since they can be assigned to various areas in a company,
especially in large organizations, they must have a broad range of skills, in depth knowledge in business
architecture, strategy alignment, and innovative out of the box thinking.

CAREERS IN EA
Segment Architects are focused to a specific set of capabilities for the enterprise. It ties in
closely with the notion of capability modeling; this can sometimes be a specific business unit or function
rather than related group of capabilities. Like Strategy Architects, they will have the opportunity to
apply a broad range of business, technical and leadership skills.
Knowing the different team patterns will be a good guide for organizations to make a
determination as to how they should move forward with their EA Teams.
CONCLUSION AND FINDINGS
Learning variation in organization needs affect the EA Team Structure and EA Role, the EA
Journey offers a bit of variability as well. Figure 8 shows an example of what this journey can be. Per
FEAPO, it takes about 2 – 5 years to progress from one architect role to another to build proficiency.
EAs with technical backgrounds need to develop interpersonal and leadership skills in order to advance
in their careers. EAs with non-technical backgrounds need to develop understanding of technical
concepts such as integration and software lifecycle. Lastly, most EAs come from technical backgrounds;
however, their technical skills become less relevant at the end.

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 8. AN IT FOCUSED CAREER PATH FOR EA (SOURCE: FEAFO)
“People don’t change much; don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out; try to draw out
what was left in; that is hard enough.” First Break All the Rules Promote Effectiveness: put people in role
that maximizes their talents. Find a way to reward them without promoting them arbitrarily into roles
where they will fail.

CAREERS IN EA
FIGURE 9. AVAILABLE EA EDUCATION OPTIONS
Since EA education is still in its infancy, one must explore what the available EA education
options are as well as where to participate it. Figure 9 shows you the different education choices that
EAs face.
• Competency Based Certifications - “I’m an architect.” Allows one to have a formal and
industry acceptable credential as an EA.
• Industry/Specialized Certifications – Awareness of the variety of EA framework allows one
to specialized their training based on ones industry. An example of which is FEAF. It is very
useful to anyone in the federal government, but do not transfer well across industries
• Foundational Certifications – similar to the certification offered by Penn State University,
World Class campus.
• Applied Certifications – highly tailored competency certifications
• Supporting Certificates – the elusive masters in EA.

CAREERS IN EA
Enterprise Architect is getting popular as a result of the current mantra of most organizations to
operate efficiently, provide value to the stakeholders, minimize cost, increase productivity, and have a
competitive advantage. It has been established that it is difficult to develop or hire EA architects
because there are no standards of knowledge and no one career path. FEAFO has since established
guidance that will help the individuals pursuing and organizations establishing career in Enterprise
Architecture. The Competency Model and Ability Levels for various EA roles is part of the guidance
released by FEAFO. These competencies are: Analytical Thinking, Architecture, Finance, Management,
Communication, Interpersonal Skills, and Leadership. One should focus on the big picture for their skill
set in order to hone ones competitive edge. From a hiring vantage point, these are the standards
candidates will likely be measured against. EA started with IT but it doesn’t have to stay in that realm. It
affects all business areas. Teams are usually formed by project, domain, strategy, or segment.
To summarize, there certainly are guidelines that one can adhere to when embarking into
and/or establishing and progressing an EA career path. As an individual one has to be prepared
pursuing any career, EA including. The proper training, experience, and credentials are necessary to
succeed as an EA. At the same token, organizations need to have a development plan for employees, an
EA career structure and progression that is in line with industry standards and practices, and have the
appropriate sponsorship from executive management. EAs will play a key role in ensuring organizations
are operating efficiently, producing value to stakeholders, and achieving competitive advantage.

CAREERS IN EA
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Developing Enterprise Architects.

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/saturn/2009/images/Developing_Enterprise_Architects.pdf
How does one become an Enterprise Architect. https://www.quora.com/How-does-one-become-an-

enterprise-architect
How to Become an Enterprise Architect (UK). http://www.computerworlduk.com/tutorial/careers/how-

to-become-an-enterprise-architect-3247006/
A Day in the Life of an Enterprise Architect. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb945098.aspx
REFERENCES
Anderson, Charles & Johnson (2003). The impressive psychology paper. Chicago: Lucerne Publishing.
Barling, J. (n.d.). The science of leadership: Lessons from research for organizational leaders.
Bernard, S. (2006). Building a Winning Enterprise Architecture Team. Presentation, EAC Conference, San
Diego.
Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (1999). First, Break All the Rules. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Burk, Brian., Cearley, David W. , Walker, Mike J., Burton, Betsy., Bradley, Anthony J., Scheibenreif, Don.,
Brand, Saul., Allega, Philip. & Blosch, Marcus. (2015) Predicts 2016: Five Key Trends Driving
Enterprise Architecture into the Future. Gartner. December
Colquitt, J., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2011). Organizational behavior: Improving performance and
commitment in the workplace. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
DeGennaro, T. (2013, January 23). Tim DeGennaro's Blog. Retrieved February 23, 2016, from
http://blogs.forrester.com/tim_degennaro/13-01-23-
lack_of_ea_career_path_hinders_hiring_certification_and_development_choices
Evans, S. C. (2010). Zoom factor for the enterprise architect: How to focus and accelerate your career.
Winnipeg: Firefli Media.
Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations. (2015). The Guide to Careers in

Enterprise Architecture
Lapkin, Anne, & Young, Colleen M. (2011). The Management Nexus: Closing the Gap between Strategy
and Execution. Gartner.
Schneider, B. (2006). First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently.
Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 125-129.

CAREERS IN EA
Walker, M. (2011, December 11). Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled. Retrieved February 29,
2016, from http://www.mikethearchitect.com/2011/12/enterprise-architecture-certifications-
distilled.html
Wilson, Chris. (2014). Make Enterprise Architecture a Career, Not a Job Title. Gartner. August
Wilson, Chris, Burk, Brian & Allega, Philip. (2011). Guide to the Care and Feeding of Enterprise
Architects: Recruiting, Training, Managing and Retaining. Gartner. February

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C A R E E R S IN E N T E P R I S E A R C H I T E C T U R E

Solafa Ali | Daniel Krieg | Pinky Lao | Halle Shirk

what it takes to be one.

• No standardized description of what an EA should know

• Formal education for EA in infancy

• Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) defined EA roles

• Role of EA depends on the Team Structure

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 1

• As an individual interested in becoming or progressing as an EA:

• As an organization establishing an EA team or progressing EAs:

o Develop Career structure to enable career progression.

o Understand the competency levels in order to position architects as the desired

o Do not assign your Enterprise Architects short-term technical solution design

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 2

THE NEED FOR A COMPETENCY MODEL

type but specialize on one, Figure 2 V-Shaped Architect.

Enterprise Architecture professionals.

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 3

also be included in the internal career structure.

THE FEAPO COMPETENCY MODEL AND SURVEY RESULTS

Role, Tables 2 and 3.

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 4

FIGURE 3. FEAPO COMPETENCY MODEL

TABLE 1. FEAPO COMPETENCY LEVELS

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 5

TABLE 2. COMPETENCY AND ABILITY LEVELS FOR EA (SOURCE: FEAFO)

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 6

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 7

FIGURE 4. RELATIONSHIP OF EA ROLES, COMPETENCY AND ABILITY LEVELS

TABLE 4. SURVEY RESULTS - EA SKILLS IMPORTANCE

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 8

TABLE 5. SURVEY RESULTS - COMPETENCY LEVEL OF EA 871 SECTION 002

CAREER AND TEAM STRUCTURE

pretty much say the same thing:

• Scott Ambler in his book AGILE MODELING referred to it as a GENERALIST SPECIALIST

the BAIT+S model.

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 9

different business areas … understanding:

• why a change is needed  Business Architecture

• how information moves  Information Architecture

• how system delivers services  Application Services Architecture

• how technologies support them all  Tech Architecture

• management of secure data – Security Architecture

branch, Figure 5 Preferred Approach.

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 10

FIGURE 5. PROBLEMATIC APPROACH VS BETTER APPROACH (SOURCE: GARTNER)

structured varies by organization and need.

FIGURE 6. TEAM STRUCTURE PATTERNS (SOURCE: FEAFO)

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 11

As illustrated in Figure 6, there are 4 patterns: BY PROJECT, BY DOMAIN, BY STRATEGY and BY

assigned project, deals mostly with coordination of effort.

• By Domain – composed of domain architects (information, solution, business, technology).

Normally present in large corporations where each domain is a unique team

• By Strategy – supports a high-level business strategy … HR Transformation for instance

• By Segment – larger than a domain, value chain related

Each of these patterns is compared based on 5 criteria:

programs towards strategic alignment

for cross-training to happen / balance the load

• Collaboration – emphasis in negotiation and politicking. High = architects must be both

collaborative is not a big deal to succeed

= test an architect to be highly flexible and adaptable

EA 871 Section 2 Enterprise Architecture Foundation | OCKER | Spring 2016 Page 12

FIGURE 7. IMPACT ON THE ROLE OF THE EA

do not encourage them to build skills outside of their domain.