Activities similar to EA and Business-IT alignment and ways to make EA more economical

After several analysis and research, I found that Business Process Modeling is somewhat similar to enterprise architecture. Business Process Modeling is a subject help people to understand the business process model both business and information technology perspectives. It provides a quite comprehensive way to analyze the process how the company producing and delivering products and services to satisfy customers and remain competitive. With the analysis, the company will have a more integrated business process which could integrate information technology and architectures together. That means, we could use Business Process Modeling to detect existing gaps and flaws and fix them.

Also, with the help of Business Process Modeling, the company could have a better way to handle upgrading. Since technology itself keeps updating, the company also needs to update its IT department to satisfy the requirements. Business Process Modeling could ensure the updating is integrated for the whole company.

However, Business Process Modeling only provide analysis in the perspective of business process. It's not as comprehensive as EA. But, still can be helpful.

Concerning the ways to make EA more economical I have the following ideas:

• First and foremost, ensure it's useful. If it doesn't help, even a small amount of money is a waste.
• Consider using alternative (cheaper) ways to achieve EA like Business Process Modeling.
• Build an inner EA department instead of using the service from other consulting companies.
• Always try to keep a "good" architecture within the company, which means build a monitoring mechanism to ensure the company in the right track.
• Apply EA don't until everything within the company is totally a mass.
• Plan before apply.