Perhaps a question i need to answer first is, why should an Enterprise Architect conduct research? And the simplest response is that they need to carry out research to find answers to problems, find answers to build strategies and to examine critically the challenges and changes they are faced with. They need the answers and the evidence to build better, more efficient and more effective organisations for the future.

As a skill, research should be a an important part of an Enterprise Architect’s way of working. It is a way of thinking, observing and examine things critically and using the evidence to be sure that the designs and decisions made are  valid. Research can take many forms and in this case I  am not talking about the kind of research on a specific topic in academia that may take many years to evolve. I am talking about taking the fundamentals of research and applying them to work within the key constraints of most organisations, time, resource  and money, to be as effectual and beneficial as possible. This means seeing part of the development of an architecture for an enterprise as perhaps a research project itself.