A systematic mapping study on Enterprise Architecture for the Education domain: Approaches and Challenges

Nowadays, education is called upon to fulfill its mission in complex and fast-changing environments. According to the OECD, globalization, democracy issues, security risks, ageing societies and modern cultures are the global mega-trends affecting the way education deploys its functions. Enterprise Architecture (EA), as a key enabler of strategy formulation and business-IT alignment, could play a central role in helping ministries and educational organizations develop their full IT strategy and gain a competitive advantage. In this perspective, a systematic EA mapping study was conducted on major research databases, academic journals and conference proceedings, in order to identify the major approaches and challenges of EA in the education domain. A total amount of 60 articles from the past 10 years were found and analyzed (e.g. the EA lifecycle phase of each initiative). Our analysis reveals that most research focuses on the development of EA for Higher Education Institutions, while the primary, secondary education and lifelong learning are almost ignored. A notable research gap is also uncovered, namely, the small number of articles focusing on EA implementation and assessment even in the educational systems of countries considered pioneers in the field.