The Enterprise Architect is most commonly characterized as the business-technology strategist and the "big picture" architect. The enterprise architect often has significant influence with upper-management and is concerned with long-term issues and multi-project, multi-system design. The enterprise architect is often challenged with the integration of massive numbers of deployed systems and maximizing business value across the entire IT space. In one EA's words, "The system that I deal with is the entire enterprise system as evidenced by every single piece of software and hardware that my company owns. That is the system I try to improve every day."

In the press and vendor PR, enterprise architecture is saluted as one of today's most valuable careers. From Software Engineering Institute to the job-boards on monster.com, EAs are a sought after commodity in short supply. CIO magazine, The Open Group, and others strive to show the value and power of the enterprise architect. Surprisingly, however, in many environments the enterprise architect role has been vilified as "thinking big thoughts with no dicernable output" . Sometimes they are considered "suits" or people who keep their jobs by working only with the CIO or other executives.

Before taking either stance, you must consider both the source and our overall knowledge of the field. The Open Group and others often make their money on aggrandizing the role. The person espousing the negativity may have been burned. Like any other role, there are good enterprise architects and bad ones but the role itself is not to blame. At the IASA we have met EAs that hold their organization together with sheer strength of talent and EAs who simply play a part. However, what we must first recognize is that they are architects and subject to a body of knowledge and individual capabilities just like others.

Enterprise architects have most often reached a significant level in their organization. Most enterprise arechitects interact regularly with high-level management, often c-level. Although many organizations make enterprise architecture a speciality and will serve only them; at the IASA we believe that a professional association should not only serve the top of the profession, but should provide for the professional throughout their career.