Enterprise Architecture Matters

Every Enterprise improvement ultimately translates into profit or cost saving for the business. For top management and external stakeholders that is what principally matters, after all. Nonetheless, to assess the effect of an EA action directly at these financial indicators level is impossible.  A benefit tree would show though, how an improvement is cascaded to a profit or saving. One should record, at the top of the tree first, the EA basic deliveries and observe how  they generate down the tree the benefits for the Enterprise.What an architecture typically enables:

Then the EA maturity should be estimated since the above benefits may be lost in translation because the architecture may not be properly communicated and as such used, or its deliveries may not be fit for purpose:

At some level of the tree, compound measures for assessment of the simplification realised (-duplication + reuse+ reduced connections...), reduction in time to market (faster processes + automation + improved productivity...), cost saving (from duplication + re-use + ...) can be estimated for overall business value assessment. 

And once we have these we can estimate the profit and cost saving generated by the EA.

The EA architect could specify measures for EA progress, maturity and quality of EA deliveries. The overall EA benefits can be assessed though at the EA program level where every stakeholder adds  the benefits enabled by EA in own department.