The role of Enterprise Architecture in the strategic planning process

: An exploratory study in the preclinical domain

Abstract

Research and development of new drugs is a very challenging job in a highly changing environment where digital transformations are crucial to stay an innovative company. It is critical that all departments’ business processes and IT align on that strategy. However, it can be a lengthy process to align IT with Business goals if it is not happening on a strategic level. This research is investigating what EA artefacts that exist in literature are used in the preclinical area that can attribute to the strategic planning process. Findings show that from the 17 EA artefacts that Grave, van de Wetering, and Kusters (2021a, 2021b) published in literature, almost all of them were traced back, with the exception of guidelines & principles that aid in the decision making part of the strategic planning process. We see that both IT and Business stakeholders confirm that certain artefacts from the adjusting/creating strategy part of the strategic planning process are combined into one document, and both the business case and roadmap are considered as the most important ones, and other EA artefacts are considered as derivatives. This opens the question to research further on the effectiveness of EA artefacts.

Date of Award	7 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	Karel Lemmen (Supervisor) & Pien Walraven (Examiner)