The Evolution From EA Tools To EA Management Suites

The EA tools market is transitioning to offer a new generation of products. As EA teams extend their scope, they are looking for tools that help them with their strategic objectives and engage a broader set of stakeholders outside of the EA team. Second-generation EA tools did not achieve widespread use because organizations did not perceive that they offered a high effort-to-value relationship. Consequently, a third generation of EA tools is emerging, not to replace the previous generation but to more directly address pragmatic EA objectives such as IT planning, road-mapping, and managing IT risks. This new generation of tools, which we call EA management suites (EAMS), should be deployed carefully — not as a "tool" but more like a packaged application that requires change management techniques for the IT organization to get the full value vendors promise.