Enterprise architecture is described as a means to cope with the ever-increasing complexity of organisations by ensuring that they appropriately use and optimise their technical resources.

As one of the activities of the enterprise architecture initiative within the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria, John Zachman – an American business and IT consultant, and early pioneer of enterprise architecture – visited the University in August 2016 to present a certification workshop and a guest lecture. The certification workshop was presented in collaboration with his colleague Cort Coghill and was co-sponsored by industry partner Moyo. This visit resulted from Zachman’s collaboration with Profs Alta van der Merwe and Aurona Gerber which has been ongoing for more than ten years. During this time, Zachman presented several lectures and workshops and in his unique approach convinced audiences of the importance of enterprise architecture and engineering. 

The enterprise architecture activities within the Department have included the founding of the International Technical Committee of the IEEE SMC on Enterprise Architecture and Engineering (EAE TC), which is also responsible for the annual IEEE conference on enterprise systems. Future research will focus specifically on how enterprise architecture and engineering enable organisations to manage and align technological disruptions such as big data.