Two-thirds of companies surveyed reported increased investment over the last two years. At the same time, EA has an opportunity to increase business impact through better governance.
BONN/BOSTON, June 26, 2025 – SAP LeanIX, the leader in enterprise architecture management (EAM), today announced the findings of its EA Insights 2025 survey. Based on responses from 360 EAs at LeanIX customers around the world, the survey found that 64% of companies have seen increased investment over the last two years. At the same time, the survey found that EA is perceived primarily as an administrative and governing function. While that is accurate–the survey showed that the top two priorities for most EA teams involve inventorying applications and establishing a governance framework–the challenge is this: 51% of respondents report that, within their organization, the architecture decision process is a nuisance that takes too long. What’s more, only 14% of respondents said that EA is perceived as close partner with the business.
The good news is, the survey also revealed how EAs can improve their impact on the business and, at the same time, change their perception within the organization. Specifically, the survey shows that, on average, architecture decisions take a month or longer in 51% of organizations.
That number decreases dramatically, however, when companies implement governance best practices including: the documentation of the organization’s architecture principles, creating a transparent architecture decision process, maintaining a system of record for architecture decisions, and establishing an architecture review board with representation from across the business.
With all these practices in place, the percentage of decisions taking longer than a month drops to 39%. By contrast, that percentage increases to 72% at organizations with zero governance best practices in place.
Other significant findings from the survey:
A fragmented IT environment is the top challenge for 54% of EA teams:
91% see establishing a transparent architecture decision process as very important – and 81% see creating a single system of record for information on architecture decisions as very important.
Only 15% of organizations have representation from across the business on their architecture review boards:
68% believe Issues regarding bias, explainability, and data privacy set AI apart from other technologies and require special consideration:
While the survey does highlight some challenges for EA moving forward, the overall message of the survey is this: leaning into EA’s core administrative and governing functions can increase EA’s business impact. Leaning in means inviting the business to participate more directly in EA functions. It’s no accident that only 14% view EA as a close partner with the business when only 15% of EA teams involve the business in their architecture review boards. Addressing this dynamic is low-hanging fruit for EA teams seeking to make EA a core business capability, one that is key to developing a broader business transformation capability.
Free downloads: