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This paper is concerned with an application of the GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) method in the Dutch public sector, in particular at the Custodial Institutions Agency (Dienst Justitieele Inrichtingen, DJI), an agency of the Ministry of Security and Justice. The DJI is, on behalf of the Minister of Security and Justice, responsible for the enforcement of fines and custodial measures, following the decision imposed by a judge. The case study itself concerns the assessment of the impact of the introduction of a new law (the law on 'conditional realease') on the DJI. The discussed DJI case is one of several cases that have been used to iteratively evaluate and improve the GEA method. This paper therefore also reports on the evaluation of the GEA method that was conducted after applying to the DJI case.

This paper is concerned with the research methodology that was used in the GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) research programme. The goal of this programme was the development of a new approach for doing enterprise architecture. We discuss the motivations for starting the GEA programme, its focus, as well as its objectives. Based on this, the research methodology as it was used by the GEA programme is discussed and motivated. This involves a combination of design science and case study based research. The paper also discusses the way the GEA programme went about to actually implement the research methodology in a real-world situation, while also highlighting its results.

In this paper we are not so much concerned with enterprise architecture as a product or process, but rather with the competencies of the professionals who are responsible for the creation of an enterprise architecture, i.e. the enterprise architects themselves. We present the integrated result of three surveys held in the Netherlands, on the competencies required from enterprise architects. The surveys were also used to clarify the distinction between the competencies needed from enterprise architects, and the ones needed from information architects. The surveys indeed indicated there to be a fundamental difference in the competencies required from these two roles. The reported research is part of the larger research programme General Enterprise Architecting (GEA) on the governance of coherence in enterprises by means of enterprise architecture.

This paper is concerned with an application of the GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) method at the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SAE). It concerns the introduction of a new system for the digitization of the dossier flow within the Ministry. The introduction of this system was triggered by a decision from the Dutch government to largely automate such document flows by 2015. The specific business issues addressed in the case are: (1) What are the necessary change initiatives of the introduction of this new system? (2) What are the best choices in terms of solution direction and approach?

In this paper, the authors discuss an instrument for the assessment of enterprise coherence (Enterprise Coherence Assessment, ECA). The term ‘coherence’ is used rather than the more common term ‘alignment’, since the latter is generally associated with bringing two concepts in line (typically ‘Business’ and ‘IT’). The word coherence, however, stresses the need to go beyond this. Coherence involves connections and synchronisation between all important aspects of an enterprise. ‘IT’ and ‘Business’ just being two of these aspects.