EA is about enterprise evolution and, as such, it has been often compared with
the evolution of a city. This is quite appropriate as-similarly to enterprises-cities are
complex and dynamic organizations that need to respond to a changing environment.
In this chapter we provide an analogy for an enterprise architecture exercise by way of
planning the future of a city, introducing, through this setting, some key concepts that
we elaborate upon later, for instance the levels of detail relevant to each stage of the
planning process. We draw upon the learnings from this example to propose a 3-stage
approach to conduct an EA exercise: Align, Elaborate and Govern.
Keywords: EA and the evolution of a city, EA drivers, EA imperatives, EA
objectives.
