Organizations that lack a coherent strategy for managing and evolving their IT platform and resources end up with fragmentation within the organization. Because the need for data sharing and systems integration is not always limited to the internal organization, the boundaries between the organization and its customers, vendors, suppliers, and partners are often blurred. It appears to be evident that organizations must have a clear idea of where they stand in regards to their own Information Technology Architecture (ITA) before preparing to adopt a new, shared ITA. This paper applies the reach and range concept and theory associated with strategic information systems planning to conceptually position ITA as a concept that provides convergence of a variety of frameworks related to IT and business alignment.
TopLiterature Review
Prior research related to organizational architectures focused on subject areas closely related to ITA (i.e. IT infrastructure, information architecture, and information systems architecture) but very little on the subject itself. For instance, a review of the academic literature indicates that a considerable amount of research exists in the subject areas of IT infrastructure (Broadbent, 1999; Byrd, Lewis, & Bradley, 2006; Byrd & Turner, 2000; Duncan, 1995), information architecture (IA) (Allen & Boynton, 1991; Evernden & Evernden, 2003; Farnum, 2002; Niederman, Brancheau, & Wetherbe, 1991; Periasamy & Feeny, 1997; Pervan, 1998), and information systems architecture (ISA) (Brown et al., 2000; Gifford, 1992; Hackathorn & Karimi, 1988; Sowa & Zachman, 1992), whereas only Curle (1993), Gibson (1994), and more recently Ross (2003), Ross, Weill, & Robertson (2006), and Bradley & Byrd (2007) focus primarily on ITA.