The Enterprise Architect as a Crisis Manager

Abstract

In this paper we argue that the Enterprise Architect (EA) should be considered as a crisis manager. In times of a crisis organizations must create a holistic view on the situation and evaluate the proposed measures. Evaluation will be based on experience, data, upfront-created scenarios and assessments of risks, cost and benefits. The EA is already engaged in processes such as Continuity Management, Risk Management, IT Security, Business Process Management, IT Strategy, and others. Therefore, we propose that the EA is one good candidate (not the only one) for handling organizational crises. This paper presents a model of overall crisis management that incorporates an enterprise architecture view as well as related dimensions of crisis management: the ability to control a crisis, the level of communication during and after a crisis, the type of change brought by a crisis, the crisis' outcomes, its distribution within an enterprise, and an organization's criticality of business functions. Finally, we highlight how the EA role supports crisis management at Lufthansa, a top German aviation company.