Architecting Government: Understanding Enterprise Architecture Adoption in the Public Sector

This research examines why and how a new approach to IT planning is adopted in the public sector – the use of enterprise architecture (EA). Around the world, EA has been promoted as a key tool for transformation and modernization of government. By following ‘best practices’ from the private sector, the claim is that the adoption of EA will ensure that IT resources and business processes are planned, leveraged, and coordinated better in government. In four major qualitative case studies in Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States these promotional claims were investigated by applying an interpretive perspective. Data was collected semi-structured, and grounded theory techniques were used to analyze the data inductively using existing theory only as prior constructs. The theoretical abstractions and generalizations generated in the research process have been published at three peer-reviewed academic conferences (Publication I, III, and V) and in two scientific journals (Publication II and IV). Across these publications, five contributions to research are summarized: First, public organizations will resist the potential for dramatic efficiency gains from introducing new IT planning initiatives such as EA if they fear the loss of resources (budget and personnel). Second, new IT planning initiatives like EA will tend to appear alike across public organizations when adopted in the same national context because of pressure from the ‘organizational field’ and the need for legitimacy. Third, the adopted focus in EA programs will be shaped by culture, history, and standard practices in individual public agencies and national governments. Fourth, new IT planning initiatives such as EA will constrain the routines of organizational actors, social structures, norms, and values in public organizations. Finally, the EA adoption process in government must be understood as a social production because cultural and structural institutional forces shape new IT planning initiatives just as much as do rational technical and economic forces. The findings alert researchers and practitioners that EA adoption most often will reinforce existing administrative and political arrangements – and will not automatically lead to transformation and modernization of government. The rhetoric of public sector reform driven by EA adoption seems to ignore the social and technical commitments and social patterns that exist in the public sector. To be more than just another fashion fad, future EA programs in the public sector must understand the politics of government and provide a comprehensive and coherent view across business, information, and technology; this is not just to guide the design of IT systems, but to deliver incremental business change supported and enabled by IT.