Link: https://www.eatransformation.com/p/one-year-of-enterprise-architecture-transformation
From Enterprise Architecture Transformation: A Practical Guide
A year ago, on November 15th, 2024, I launched this Substack with one simple goal:
to make enterprise architecture (EA) a little more human, a little more practical.
Back then, I wasn’t sure who would read it or whether anyone really wanted to talk about architecture beyond frameworks and diagrams. But here we are, one year later, with tens of thousands of reads, lively discussions on Linkedin, and a community that keeps growing.
It’s been one of the most rewarding writing projects I’ve ever done. Thank you for being part of it!
Why I Started
When I looked around the web a year ago, there was already a lot of content about EA. It fell into three familiar buckets:
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Modeling and frameworks. There was no shortage of posts on ArchiMate, TOGAF, and tools.
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High-level benefits and use contexts. Many talked about how EA “aligns business and IT”, but without showing what that actually means day to day.
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EA in name only. Plenty of pieces had “EA” in the title, but turned out to be about AI agents, cloud governance, IT strategy, or something else entirely.
What I felt was missing was something in between: the practice of EA and the people behind it. How EA is actually done. How it feels to do it. What kind of people work on it. And how we can make it useful, visible, and human. That became the focus of this Substack.
What I’ve Learned Along the Way
Three things stand out from this first year:
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There’s a real hunger for clarity. Readers care less about theory and more about making EA work. The most-read pieces have been those that turn ideas into action, often with a human twist: exploring the role and career of the enterprise architect, lightweight EA, and ArchiMate modeling. Practicality wins every time, but it also reveals something deeper: people want to see how architecture connects to real decisions, not just diagrams.
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The conversation matters as much as the writing. I’ve read and listened to more EA content than I can count: blogs, podcasts, books, whitepapers. To be honest, I did not expect much dialogue here either; EA content rarely sparks discussion and often stays abstract or technical. But I was wrong. The discussions that emerged on LinkedIn have been the best part of the year—thoughtful, sometimes challenging, often funny. They remind me that architecture is a people discipline as much as a structural one.
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There’s a growing need to formalize the practice. Not with more bureaucracy, but with more professionalism. Enterprise architects deserve clearer career paths, shared standards, and communities that make the work visible. That theme has surfaced again and again and it will almost certainly shape what comes next for this newsletter and for me.
A few readers have even opted for a paid subscription, though I’m not planning to make it a paid newsletter anytime soon. Maybe that says something about the appetite for practical, human-centered EA.
What Would You Like to Read Next?
As this Substack turns one year old, I’d love to hear from you, the readers who make this community so valuable.
This newsletter started as an experiment to make EA more human and practical. But what should we explore together next? Here are a few directions I’ve been considering, most of what I have already covered. Choose the one that most interest you, or suggest something entirely new in the comments.
I’ll keep writing in the same spirit—practical, human, and open to dialogue—but I also want to evolve based on your feedback.
So, for this anniversary, I’d love to hear from you:
Thank You
Last week, the newsletter passed 600 subscribers, a milestone I didn’t quite expect when I started a year ago. Thank you for being part of this journey—for reading, commenting, and sharing your perspectives. It’s a small but vibrant community of people who care about improving the practice of EA.
Here’s to more clarity, curiosity, and collaboration in the year ahead.
— Eetu
On a personal note: I’ll soon finish the manuscript for my first novel (yes, fiction)—and after that, I’ll have time to start planning the next major writing project. Ideas welcome!
🎥 Enterprise Architecture Book Unboxing
For those who enjoy a bit of behind-the-scenes content: I recently recorded a short unboxing video of my new book, Enterprise Architecture – Your Guide to Organizational Transformation.
It’s a small moment, but a meaningful one, the first time seeing the finished book “in the wild.” If you’re curious, you can watch the unboxing and get a quick glimpse of what the physical book looks like.
Watch the video on YouTube.
🎤 My Appearance on the What’s Your Baseline? Podcast
I also had the opportunity to join the What’s Your Baseline? podcast for a conversation about what lightweight enterprise architecture looks like in real organizations. We talked about how to make architecture genuinely useful with minimal complexity and resource use.
The episode is now live, and it dives into many of the practical ideas I cover in the book. You can listen to it here or on your favorite podcast platform.
✨ Kokonaisarkkitehtuurin tietopaketti (For Finnish Readers)
As part of this anniversary, I’ve also released a new Finnish-language info package on enterprise architecture at kokonaisarkkitehtuuri.org. It builds on ideas from the book and includes a comprehensive Q&A section—all designed to make enterprise architecture understandable and actionable in Finnish organizations.
📬 Want More Practical Enterprise Architecture Content?
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