the variety of ways that organizations "apply" Enterprise Architecture

This frustration is very common - many clients I talk to - CIOs and/or enterprise architects are equally confused. I think this related to two issues 1) no one really understands EA well and 2) we have a culture of tactical organisations where strategy is what we are doing in the next 12 months. EA at Gartner is defined as … the process (it's a process AND a thing)…of translating business vision and strategy… into effective enterprise change (if no change is needed, then no EA is needed)…by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models
that describe the enterprise's future state and that enable its evolution (EA produces the creative constraints that bound implementation decisions). The scope of the enterprise architecture includes…the people, processes, information and technology of the enterprise, (architecture is NOT just about technology)… and their relationships to one another and to the external environment.
Enterprise architects should compose holistic solutions that address the business challenges of the enterprise and support the governance needed to implement them BUT in most cases we create paper architecture – masses of paper that does not drive change, execute strategy let alone address business challenges.
One of the thing I like about AgileEA are the sprints – rapid cycles that address real challenges, use architectural skills in analysis/modeling/planning and identify the change required to solve probelms rather than the legacy approach to EA “build it and they will come”.
Start to think how you change your thinking – develop rapid iterations that address challenges and solve problems by identifying change rather that creating documents and models that are architecturally sound but of no use. Identify your customers and what they need to do their jobs better. The biggest challenge will be getting your organisation to think beyond the next budget cycle (strategic thinking) – developing roadmaps (the Albright Strategy Group has some interesting roadmap information) can help.