  Various claims have been made regarding the benefits that Enterprise
Architecture (EA) delivers for both individual systems development projects and
the organization as a whole. This paper presents the statistical findings of a
survey study (n=293) carried out to empirically test these claims. First, we
investigated which techniques are used in practice to stimulate conformance to
EA. Secondly, we studied which benefits are actually gained. Thirdly, we
verified whether EA creators (e.g. enterprise architects) and EA users (e.g.
project members) differ in their perceptions regarding EA. Finally, we
investigated which of the applied techniques most effectively increase project
conformance to and effectiveness of EA. A multivariate regression analysis
demonstrates that three techniques have a major impact on conformance: carrying
out compliance assessments, management propagation of EA and providing
assistance to projects. Although project conformance plays a central role in
reaping various benefits at both the organizational and the project level, it
is shown that a number of important benefits have not yet been fully achieved.
