Stop Making Decisions in the Dark
The real cost of Siloed Decisions
I had the opportunity to interview Eric Jager —author, speaker, and thought leader in Enterprise Architecture.
To frame our conversation, we focused on three core topics:
Enterprise Architecture as a Strategic Competence
The EA Implementation Wheel, a framework created by Eric
How to explain the value of EA to top executives
Let’s start off…
Eric is the author of two books —Getting Started with Enterprise Architecture and Mastering the TOGAF Standard—. He has more than 20 years of experience working across large organizations, from government agencies to healthcare institutions. He also lectures on Architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology and regularly speaks at international events.
Becoming an Architect is a natural process that unfolds over time, absorbing knowledge and experience from different roles throughout a professional career.
His approach to Enterprise Architecture is practical and pragmatic.
We both agreed there is a clear gap between theory and practice —especially when it comes to truly connecting business operations with strategy—.
EA Implementation Wheel
Eric introduced the EA Implementation Wheel, a practical approach inspired by the TOGAF standard but adapted to real organizational contexts.
The framework is structured around four stages:
Document
Define
Execute
Control
Each stage is supported by specific steps and focus areas, allowing organizations to build scalable foundations as they mature —particularly useful for organizations that are new to the EA practice—.
Explaining EA benefits to top level management
Doing Enterprise Architecture often sounds abstract.
But in reality, “doing EA” is about what you move or shift on the ground level.
How the organization operates, decides, and changes.
Through co-creation and alignment with other leaders, EA gradually changes how the organization moves.
Decisions stop being guesswork, and business leaders gain a clear picture of:
Capabilities
Value streams
Processes
Applications and data
This visibility helps business leaders understand:
Which changes may break things
Which changes simplify the landscape
Which changes will actually pay off
As a result, change becomes less painful, major initiatives start with clarity:
Dependencies are known
Integrations are understood
Data flows are visible
Technology risks are lower because surprises are reduced.
The narrative of change becomes shared between business and technology teams. Together, they define:
What needs to change next
Where information lives
How systems interact
How to respond to audits, regulatory changes, or security gaps
Work becomes more coherent and structured, when EA is in place, decisions stop being guesswork.
Clarity in decision-making. No more guessing in the dark. Decisions based on solid information.
EA is not a profession measured by artifacts. It is measured by influence.
Value proposition of EA
EA helps organizations understand the long-term strategy and the technology investments required the strategy defined. By providing a unified view of the organization —across capabilities, processes, data, applications, and technology—, EA helps leaders stop taking decisions in isolation.
This leads to:
Reduced duplication
Lower operating costs
Increased agility in delivery teams
Clear visibility of dependencies when evolving platforms
Stop taking decisions in isolation.
EA also plays a critical role in risk management, highlighting security gaps and technical debt before they grow into costly failures.
The result is increased agility and more predictable project outcomes.
There is a global outline on how to approach EA, but execution always depends on context, constraints, strategy, and culture or the organization.
The goal is to move away from theory and help organizations realize design outcomes based on the defined strategy.
This is the promise of Enterprise Architecture and it leads to the real challenge.
Create the narrative and communicate the value of EA
EA work can easily appear abstract, quick wins take time, and many leaders struggle to see the connection between architecture models and financial performance.
There is often skepticism:
EA is seen as slowing things down
Benefits are long-term and enterprise-wide
Outcomes are difficult to quantify in short-term business metrics
Executives tend to prioritize outcomes, not frameworks. EA must prioritize business outcomes and metrics to resonate.
Architecture insights must be translated into the language of:
Risk
Cost
Growth
Speed
Less focus on diagrams, more focus on removing obstacles, building trust with executives takes time and effort. Value must be delivered gradually —and every win must be celebrated to create momentum—.
EA supporting different levels of the organization
The main goal of EA is to provide clear alignment between:
Business goals on one side
Technology investments on the other side
This alignment materializes through:
Operational performance
Strategic execution
Real technology value
By reducing duplication, consolidating platforms, rationalizing applications, and standardizing technologies, organizations:
Lower maintenance costs
Simplify operations
Invest in the right capabilities
This ensures money is spent on what truly matters, rather than on redundant initiatives across the organization.
Business leaders naturally focus on:
Revenue
Cost & Risk
Operational performance
The EA narrative must directly support these priorities by connecting Architecture to strategy, portfolio management, project delivery, and solution design.
EA improves strategic agility by clarifying portfolio investments by exposing dependencies and redundancies.
Project delivery accelerates because guidance reduces rework and improves solution coherence.
Move from gatekeeper or document producer to a business partner —one that reduces uncertainty and provides decision-ready insights at portfolio and project levels—. to change the way the organization works.
EA acts as the integrator between strategy and execution, ensuring every initiative contributes to building the capabilities required for the future.
EA is not about documents. Its all about making better decisions, enabling better visibility.
Knowing the theory is one thing but knowing how to apply practical and pragmatical is another thing. Being seen as Enablers, that is the real challenge.