You Know You're an Enterprise Architect When...
A Practical Bucket List for Aspiring and Accidental EAs
Many people don’t start their careers intending to become Enterprise Architects. They land there through curiosity, influence, and impact. This isn’t a formal checklist. It’s a bucket list of meaningful experiences and accomplishments that signal you’re practising EA—whether you wear the title or not.
1. You’ve Aligned a Technology Decision to a Business Outcome
You didn’t just choose a tool—you helped your team or company understand why it mattered. You made a connection between a feature and a customer need or a strategic goal.
2. You’ve Facilitated a Conversation Between Two Business Units That Never Talked
Silos are everywhere. You broke one down. You got finance and product talking about shared data, or operations and marketing aligned on a platform decision.
3. You’ve Built or Contributed to a Capability Map
You’ve helped define what your organisation can do in terms that resonate with leadership, not just IT. Whether you used a tool or a whiteboard, you’ve made value visible.
4. You’ve Defined a Reference Architecture That’s Actually Been Used
Not shelf-ware. Not just diagrams. A reference model or architecture standard that helped others move faster, with more clarity.
5. You’ve Been Asked to Present to Leadership on Architecture (and Made It Make Sense)
You’ve explained an architectural concept, roadmap, or decision to executives in plain terms. And they thanked you—not just for the diagram, but for the insight.
6. You’ve Mentored Someone From a Delivery Role Into Strategic Thinking
Helping a developer, tester, or BA think bigger is a strong sign you’re growing into—or already are—an EA. You’ve brought someone else up the maturity curve.
7. You’ve Created or Contributed to a Technology Roadmap Spanning More Than 3 Years
You’ve plotted a path from current state to future capability across time—with enough altitude to show multi-year strategy, not just annual planning. Whether in a small domain or across the enterprise, you’ve used roadmaps to drive alignment.
8. You’ve Standardised Something That Was a Mess
Whether it was APIs, data domains, integration patterns, or documentation practices—you’ve brought order to chaos in a way that scaled beyond a single project.
9. You’ve Advised on a Major Platform or Vendor Decision
You were pulled into a CRM selection, cloud migration, or ERP debate—not just for your opinion, but because you had the context to guide the decision.
10. You’ve Connected the Dots Others Didn’t See
You spotted duplication, dependency, or opportunity that wasn’t visible until you zoomed out. And then you did something with that insight.
11. You’ve Run a Design Authority or Architecture Forum
You didn’t just attend a governance forum—you facilitated it. You helped others navigate decisions, exceptions, and trade-offs collaboratively.
12. You’ve Been Asked to Explain “What EA Does” More Than Once
And each time, your answer got clearer. You’re shaping how your organisation understands architecture—not just what it builds.
13. You’ve Made a Trade-off Decision That Balanced Today and Tomorrow
You’ve chosen a less elegant solution because it delivered business value faster—or postponed a shiny object in favour of a stable foundation.
14. You’ve Helped Shift a Team’s Thinking from Project to Product
You’ve encouraged longer-term ownership, not just short-term delivery. You’ve nudged teams to think about outcomes, not just timelines.
15. You’ve Built a Repeatable Framework, Checklist, or Playbook
Not documentation for documentation’s sake—but something that helps others make decisions faster and with more alignment.
16. You’ve Informed the Board or Executive Leadership on a Strategic Investment or Key Decision
You’ve directly influenced decision-makers at the highest level—with architectural insight that changed or confirmed a significant business direction.
Conclusion: Enterprise Architecture is About Elevating the System
If you’ve ticked even a few of these, you’re practising EA. It’s not about the title—it’s about your impact. The more of these experiences you accumulate, the more strategic your influence becomes. Keep climbing. The system needs you.