Theoretical Analysis of Strategic Implementation of Enterprise Architecture FINDINGS Many organisations face complex and unwield- ing challenges in assessing and articulating the components required in the implementation of EA in their organisations. The aim of this paper has been to contribute towards understanding of how EA is implemented in the organisations that deploy it. This section presents a combined result of the two case studies. As shown in Figure 1, five components were revealed to be most critical in the successful implementation of EA. These compo- nents are regarded as the key strategic components by the organisations. The components include Guiding Principles, Policy, Strategic Relationship and Ownership, Performance Measurement, and Conformance. GUIDING PRINCIPLES In the context of this study, Principles is defined as guiding statements of positions that communicate fundamentals, vision and mission that must be exhibited by the organisation during implemen- tation of EA. The purpose of principles was to enable the organisation to take an incremental and iterative approach to transitioning to formal modelling, while allowing it to execute allocated and influence decision making immediately and consistently in the implementation of EA. To successfully implement and maintain the EA in the organisations, principles were needed. EA contains principles, which reflected the col- lective and common will of the entire organisa- tion as positioned by the business strategy. These Figure 1. EA implementation components