Enterprise Architecture management challenges in the Norwegian health sector

Abstract

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is instrumental to align ICT and business strategy, and many organizations carry out substantial efforts to implement EA. It is therefore seen as imperative to drive the digital strategy, identifying innovative new business models and technologies, and realizing more business value of technology investments. However, recent work suggest that it is a challenging task to implement enterprise architecture in an organization. This study explores the implementation of enterprise architecture (EA) in the Norwegian health sector. We found a number of challenges that impeded the process toward a common EA: unclear enterprise architecture roles, ineffective communication, low EA maturity and commitment, and complicated EA tools. These challenges were traced to three root causes: the ambiguity of the EA concept, difficult EA terminology and the complexity of EA frameworks.