Digital transformation (Dx) is more than a buzzword. New technologies from artificial intelligence and machine learning to mobile and cloud are changing the way society approaches problems and creating demand for new services at a rapid pace. But Dx is not about technology alone—it is a series of "cultural, workforce, and technological shifts"1 informed by customer-centric design. Higher education institutions are at the crossroads of Dx, both leading the charge through research and innovation and experiencing the resulting shifts in application and expectations. The IT organization is in the challenging position of supporting the institution as it takes advantage of myriad new possibilities while ensuring that the enterprise is sufficiently prepared to manage those possibilities. Given this, it is critical that the services IT provides are aligned with the goals of the institution. Melding the necessary agility and stability requires attention to the fundamental practices of information technology.

To help their institutions adapt, IT organizations are pursuing growth in three fundamental practice areas: enterprise architecture (EA), IT governance, and IT service management (ITSM). These practice areas enable the institution's administration, academic leaders, and IT management to direct the development and delivery of IT services that maximize value to the institution and ensure alignment with its goals. These distinct, related, and possibly overlapping practice areas have gained traction, as evidenced by the existence of engaged EDUCAUSE Community Groups: IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (IT-GRC); Information Technology Service Management (ITSM); and ITANA—Enterprise, Business, and Technical Architecture (EA). Members of these three communities came together in recognition of a need to better understand the connections between these areas, resulting in this paper.

Since each institution is unique, these practice areas often develop independently and organically, starting in different departments, and positioned within different organizational structures. As a result, the processes in these areas are frequently at different levels of maturity, and the relationships between them may be absent, poorly defined, or awkwardly managed. The diversity of these practice areas across higher education and within the complex organizational structure of each institution is generating considerable confusion in many institutions.

As these practice areas grow at their own pace in your organization, they are likely to eventually overlap in scope, resulting in redundancy or even conflict. In addition, over the past fifteen years the goals of each practice area have evolved in higher education. The background and framework in this paper will help

1. senior leaders overseeing multiple practice areas consider how to set goals and scope of their practice areas (for your particular organization) and avoid redundancy or conflict;
2. leaders potentially adding one of these practice areas to their organization consider how to set it up for success in context with other practices; and
3. practitioners understand potential overlap with other practice areas and consider how to work together.

In this time of change, we felt a need to convey how institutions are re-architecting their IT management approach. As a starting point, that understanding requires some foundational work to better explain each area on its own, to learn where connections are and should be made, what steps to take, and what a future state might look like. This paper is intended to provide a greater understanding of these concepts to help begin conversations locally.

Citation for this work
Carraway, Debbie, Piet Niederhausen, and Beth Schaefer. Architecting the IT Organization: Clarifying the Contributions of Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance, and ITSM to the IT Value Chain. EDUCAUSE working group paper. Louisville, CO: ECAR, October 2019.