Enterprise architects are losing ground. Once seen as stewards of long-term direction, they now risk irrelevance as organizations shift to agile, product-led, and platform-based models. Business units move fast, buying or building their own solutions, often operating independently and without architectural oversight.

This decentralization of architectural decision making can improve speed and give teams more ownership, but it also fragments the technical landscape. Without architectural coordination, important trade-offs get missed, systems stop talking to each other, and data ends up in silos. What starts as agility and empowerment can quickly turn into confusion, technical debt, security issues, and solutions that are difficult to change or scale at a later date.

The irony is that in a world demanding more speed and agility, the absence of enterprise-level architectural guidance often slows things down in the long run. Strategic progress stalls when foundational decisions are made in isolation and revisited later at higher cost.

This is not a call for a rigid, top-down architectural control regime. Instead, it is a call to rethink how enterprise architects work by embedding themselves in fast-moving environments while keeping sight of the bigger picture that makes lasting transformation possible.

Why digital transformation demands a new kind of enterprise architecture

In the early stages of transformation, clear end goals are often out of reach from both a business and a technical perspective. The priority is to keep moving forward while making choices that leave room to change direction if needed. Here, the enterprise architect plays a critical role: ensuring that early decisions enable change rather than block it.

Architectural flexibility is not new. Modularity, scalability, and interoperability have been around for years, but they require early investment with benefits that may not be visible for a long time. In a world focused on quick wins, that is a hard case to make. Architects need to work with uncertainty: guiding progress instead of chasing perfect designs that will likely change anyway.

Rather than waiting for fully defined business input – or becoming frustrated when it never comes – enterprise architects should help shape it. That means stepping in early, turning vague ideas into workable solutions, and making the trade-offs clear. Every choice has consequences: some make things simpler short term but less flexible, others create dependencies that are hard to undo. The architect’s value lies in raising these questions so decision-makers understand not just what is possible, but what a given decision might cost later.

Four guiding principles for staying relevant

1.   Do not wait for perfect business input – it rarely arrives

Step in early to shape emerging ideas and guide the conversation toward actionable decisions. One effective way to do this is to sketch scenarios that explore possible directions without getting lost in the details. This keeps the focus on framing choices, not predicting outcomes. As a friend and senior program manager once told me: “Roughly right is better than precisely wrong. Unfortunately, many of us have been in the boardroom where the only discussion was about terminology or some random detail, while the real decision slipped away.

2.    Prioritize movement over architectural perfection

In transformation work, momentum matters more than flawless designs. Therefore, be pragmatic and focus on enabling progress by offering clear alternatives rather than policing principles. This requires both effort and deep contextual understanding, and it works best when enterprise and solution architects collaborate closely.

3.    Frame the trade-offs instead of justifying solutions

Most designs are technically sound; however, the real question is whether they serve the right purpose. This is why it is essential to make the trade-offs visible: what is being gained, what is being given up, and what might become a problem later. By framing these in business terms, stakeholders can engage with the choice rather than simply signing off on it.

4.     Spot and grow good practices 

Transformation sticks when new ways of working take hold. They often start as practical solutions to real problems and spread in pockets across teams. Enterprise architects are well placed to spot early signals, link related efforts, and give promising practices the framing they need to grow. Enterprise architects must set direction, but real traction comes when methods resonate with those closest to the work. The task is to balance guiding change with nurturing what emerges. That’s how capabilities mature and collaboration scales.

Architects must step in to prove their worth

Enterprise architects have a unique vantage point: they see connections others miss and can help organizations learn from their own successes. But that perspective only matters if it is put to use where decisions are made and change is happening.

Staying relevant means showing up early, asking the questions no one else is asking, and making trade-offs clear before they turn into roadblocks. It means amplifying what works – especially when it comes from the people closest to the problem – and ensuring those practices spread.

In the end, architecture is not about enforcing principles from the sidelines. It is about being part of the play, guiding progress, protecting flexibility, and making the organization faster, stronger, and more adaptable. If enterprise architects do not step in to play that role, they risk being left behind while transformation happens without them.