Ed Bednar
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Ed Bednar
@edbednar.bsky.social
A look back at Enterprise Architecture work in 2025, including asset management, policy integration, frameworks, and the realities of turning strategy into execution. We'll examine themes from the year and how they shape what follows.

#EnterpriseArchitecture #TechStrategy
Enterprise Architecture in 2025: A Year in Review and What Comes Next
A reflective review of Enterprise Architecture in 2025, covering asset management, policy integration, architecture frameworks, and the ongoing work of translating strategy into technology execution.
edbednar.com
January 8, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Many conversations about Enterprise Architecture in large organizations begin with the assumption that establishing the discipline requires mastering TOGAF. This post explores where TOGAF helps, where it hinders, and how to stay pragmatic.

#EnterpriseArchitecture #TOGAF #ArchitectureGovernance
How to Use TOGAF Without Becoming the Archetype of Its Adherents
I recently came across a post on LinkedIn about Enterprise Architecture. It started by listing all the major frameworks just to posit that a real practitioner must master all of them. This résumé disguised as scholarship never mentioned outcomes, results, or delivering value. It presumed the frameworks’ intrinsic value was what mattered, along with knowing them as thoroughly as the author.
edbednar.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The Zachman Framework set out to organize the components of an enterprise into a structured model. It shaped EA as a discipline but mostly lives today just as a polite academic artifact. Here’s the story.

#EnterpriseArchitecture #ZachmanFramework #DigitalArchitecture
The Latin of Enterprise Architecture: The Zachman Framework Is Historically Significant but Rarely Used
There’s a faint echo of Max Horkheimer in the Zachman Framework: that if we categorize reality with enough intellectual discipline, the world will finally make sense. The Zachman Framework asserts that the totality of an enterprise can be rigorously divided and expressed through distinct architectural classifications. It asks you to take an unwise intellectual leap and is about as fun to read as a grand theorist’s 900-page dissertation that continually dares the reader to finish it.
edbednar.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Enterprise Architecture, like any maturing discipline, is the product of evolving ideas—each a step toward translating strategy into technology execution. Since it is still an evolving di…
A Brief History of Architecture Frameworks, Methods, and Methodologies
Enterprise Architecture, like any maturing discipline, is the product of evolving ideas—each a step toward translating strategy into technology execution. Since it is still an evolving discipline, it’s a good idea to know how we got to where we are. So before defining frameworks, methods, and methodologies in the next article, let’s look at their origins. We’ll explore the problems they addressed, how they evolved, and how they shape modern Enterprise Architecture.
edbednar.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I attended an EBC a few years ago at one of the big technology companies. After getting yelled at for an hour by a super-pumped guy, using his outside voice, about how the company works and its cult…
Calm Down and See the Bigger Picture—It’s Just Architecture
I attended an EBC a few years ago at one of the big technology companies. After getting yelled at for an hour by a super-pumped guy, using his outside voice, about how the company works and its culture, we moved on to a much calmer session with a senior engineering leader. We had just heard in the previous session that the company’s software teams famously work without any standards, which, of course, everyone in tech already knew.
edbednar.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:30 AM
In addition to rules—which we covered in the article How Rules Translate Architectural Intent into Action—I use measures to make architecture requirements concrete. While rules …
A No-Nonsense Approach to Measurement in Enterprise Architecture Programs
In addition to rules—which we covered in the article How Rules Translate Architectural Intent into Action—I use measures to make architecture requirements concrete. While rules state the specification, measures are used to determine effectiveness. By approaching architecture requirements this way, we gain structure with less rigidity. It gives us multiple ways to define and discuss what matters, and the linguistic flexibility to move between statements and questions to better articulate our intent.
edbednar.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:08 AM
In the article When Architecture Requirements Meet Organizational Politics, we discussed the need for architecture requirements and how they fit into the broader machinery of Enterprise Architecture. Now i…
How Rules Translate Architectural Intent into Action
In the article When Architecture Requirements Meet Organizational Politics, we discussed the need for architecture requirements and how they fit into the broader machinery of Enterprise Architecture. Now it’s time to work through what these requirements actually are and how to approach creating them. I recommend reading the article Effective Enterprise Architecture Principles—if you haven’t already—where we introduced the following structure:
edbednar.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:48 PM
We started with asset management and have now worked our way through principles and policies. All of this puts us on a trajectory that leads directly to establishing architecture requirements. I…
When Architecture Requirements Meet Organizational Politics
We started with asset management and have now worked our way through principles and policies. All of this puts us on a trajectory that leads directly to establishing architecture requirements. I prefer to structure architecture requirements as rules and measures, which we will cover in the next few articles. But there are, of course, other ways to structure and define requirements.
edbednar.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:31 PM
We covered policy integration in the post Unstoppable Enterprise Architecture. That part of our discussion was about how to structurally insert Enterprise Architecture into an organization’s policy machinery and drive v…
How Policies Shape Enterprise Architecture
We covered policy integration in the post Unstoppable Enterprise Architecture. That part of our discussion was about how to structurally insert Enterprise Architecture into an organization’s policy machinery and drive value through that intervention. But we still need to address policies specifically, and we will do that now. Again, let’s have a look at how a few of the major Enterprise Architecture approaches define and address policies:
edbednar.com
October 5, 2025 at 4:27 PM
In the post Key Steps for Effective Enterprise Architecture Programs we introduced the idea of a conventional structure for Enterprise Architecture methods, comprised of four parts within a hierarchy…
Effective Enterprise Architecture Principles
In the post Key Steps for Effective Enterprise Architecture Programs we introduced the idea of a conventional structure for Enterprise Architecture methods, comprised of four parts within a hierarchy: We then focused on policy integration in the post Unstoppable Enterprise Architecture, emphasizing the value that Enterprise Architecture can provide, in a way that’s likely not addressed very well in a lot of organizations.
edbednar.com
September 29, 2025 at 12:02 PM
In the post Defining Enterprise Architecture: A Practical Approach, we defined Enterprise Architecture as the discipline of aligning business strategy with the design and implementation of computer sys…
Key Steps for Effective Enterprise Architecture Programs
In the post Defining Enterprise Architecture: A Practical Approach, we defined Enterprise Architecture as the discipline of aligning business strategy with the design and implementation of computer systems. We’ll call this Alignment and Focus. We’ve also established that there are three things we need to do: Translate Strategy into Technology Execution Integrate Policies from Across the Organization Design Solutions…
edbednar.com
September 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Defining Enterprise Architecture: A Practical Approach

I recently reread a book on a popular Enterprise Architecture framework. I hadn’t finished it the first time because it read like watching a bad movie, in that you either leave or suffer through it, thinking it might get better. But this time…
Defining Enterprise Architecture: A Practical Approach
I recently reread a book on a popular Enterprise Architecture framework. I hadn’t finished it the first time because it read like watching a bad movie, in that you either leave or suffer through it, thinking it might get better. But this time I was determined to read it, and I had chosen the worst option. What Are We Supposed to Do, Exactly?
edbednar.com
September 10, 2025 at 4:04 PM