The Enterprise Architecture Framework Management affects on productivity: An applied research in the banking sector

In today's world having increased competition with emerging technologies, organizations should have master and manage their technologies with particular, standardized, clear and agile methods and models. In this study, effects of Enterprise Architecture Framework Management (EAFM) on Turkish banking sector and expert opinions were analyzed. Enterprise architecture which has a growing area all around the World in recent years and whose utilization is also gained importance especially in information technology departments of banks is strategic managment approach. In our country, it also gained importance especially in information technology departments of banks. This relatively new framework management provides significant benefits and compititive advantage. It is a very crucial to manage business units and IT department of banks harmoniously, effectively and transparently to accomplish their business objectives, In Turkey, banking sector is one of the most competitive areas and thus IT units of banks have a vital importance to compete with others. In addition to acting in according with the business objectives of IT units, new product development and quick, quality and low-cost response to requests of them provide compititive advantages. IT units have a big responsibility in automating business processes. Apart from EAFM, ITIL, COBIT, CMMI and SDLC are commonly applied standards used in IT strategic management. The main role of EAFM is to ensure holistic viewpoint in accordance with organizational strategies by creating working environment in which IT and business units work harmonously. In this thesis, the impact of EAFM on efficiency in Turkish banking sector is researched by surveying 16 banks with higher than 50 branches. Efficiency factors viewed in five sub groups. Before generalization of the survey, pilot study on reliability and validity of survey items were conducted. During reasearch, 27 Enterprise Architecture Managers from 16 different banks were interviewed and only expert and upper title IT staff were invited to join the survey. Then, collected data were analysed by using statistical techniques. In Structural Equation Modeling worked on the last phase of the reasearch, Enterprise Architechture Maturity, Enterprise Architecture Effectiveness and Value, and Enterprise Architecture Completion factors have meaningful direct effect on efficiency. Key Words: Enterprise Architecture Framework, Productivity, Organizational Alignment, Information Technologies, Strategic Management, Business Architecture, Application Architecture, Data Architecture and Technology Architecture