What size of enterprise architecture team do we need?

As a working rule: fractional support below roughly 250 staff, one to three architects up to 1,000 staff, three to eight up to 5,000, and a domain structured team beyond that. Project volume moves the number more than headcount does.

Free tools/Enterprise architecture maturity

Assess your enterprise architecture maturity

Q: How accurate is a self assessment?

Directionally accurate and optimistic. In practice an independent review lands about one level below the self view, because inventories are staler and governance leakier than they appear from inside. Treat the result as an upper bound.

Score 12 operating capabilities and see where weak governance is slowing decisions, raising cost or creating risk.

Start the assessment See a sample result

Overall score—

Current level—

1Reactive

2Repeatable

3Defined

4Measured

5Adaptive

12 operating capabilities

Honest self assessment

Answers stay in this browser

About six minutes

The scorecard

Rate the statement that sounds most like your organisation

Pick one statement in each area. Be honest rather than kind, because the plan at the end is only as good as the answers. Your score updates as you go and the full report unlocks when all twelve areas are answered.

Assess your current practice

About your organisation

How many people work in your organisation?

Under 250 250 to 1,000 1,000 to 5,000 Over 5,000

How many technology projects run in a typical year?

Under 5 5 to 15 16 to 40 Over 40

Foundations

Risk and assurance

How is technology risk found and checked?

1Risk is discovered when something breaks2Projects raise risks their own way and most stay local3A shared risk register exists and audits happen when required4Architecture reviews check risk before decisions are made5Assurance runs continuously and feeds the technology plan

Strategy alignment

How does architecture work relate to business strategy?

1There is no link. Technology decisions happen project by project2Strategy is referenced in documents but does not change any decision3Major technology choices are checked against strategy when someone remembers4Architecture priorities are set from the business strategy each year5Strategy changes flow into architecture decisions as a matter of routine

Decision rights

Who does architecture work day to day?

1Nobody. It happens by accident inside projects2A few people do it informally on top of other jobs3Responsibilities exist but overlap, and the gaps cause friction4Roles are defined, understood and mostly respected5Responsibilities are clear, staffed and reviewed as the estate changes

Governance forums

How are significant technology decisions controlled?

1Anyone with a budget can buy or build anything2A review exists but is easy to bypass, and often is3A governance forum meets but decisions arrive too late to change much4Decisions above a clear threshold go through governance that works at pace5Governance is lightweight, respected and catches decisions early

Visibility and control

Data and integration

How well do you know the applications, data and technology you run?

1No inventory exists anywhere2Partial lists live in spreadsheets that disagree with each other3A reasonable inventory exists but goes stale between updates4A maintained inventory covers applications, data and infrastructure5The inventory is current, trusted and used to make decisions

Architecture standards

What guides technology choices?

1Every team picks its own tools2Standards exist but nobody can find or enforce them3Standards cover the basics and are followed when convenient4Standards are current, published and applied with sensible exceptions5Standards are part of buying and building, and reviewed on a cycle

Delivery support

When does architecture input reach projects?

1It never does2After decisions are made, when problems surface3On the big programmes, if someone asks4At the start of most significant projects5Built into how every project is shaped, sized and approved

Portfolio control

How is the application estate managed?

1Nobody looks at the portfolio as a whole2Duplicates and dead applications are known about but nothing happens3Occasional cleanups remove the worst offenders4The portfolio is reviewed on a cycle with a rationalisation plan5Every application has an owner, a cost and a lifecycle decision

Delivery and value

Technology lifecycle

What does your technology roadmap look like?

1There is no roadmap2A slide exists that nobody updates or believes3A roadmap covers the next year with reasonable accuracy4A funded roadmap links business outcomes to technology change5The roadmap drives budgets and is replanned as strategy moves

Measurement

How is the value of architecture work measured?

1It is not measured at all2Benefits are claimed in business cases and never checked3Some savings are tracked when they are easy to count4Benefits are measured against a baseline for major decisions5Value is reported to the executive on a regular cycle and believed

Skills and capacity

What skills and capacity exist?

1No architecture skills exist in house2One person carries it all and is a single point of failure3Skills exist but are thin in key areas like data or security4A capable team covers the main domains with some stretch5Skills and capacity match the estate, with succession and development

Continuous improvement

How does the practice itself improve?

1Nothing changes unless something fails2Improvements happen when someone pushes for them3Lessons are collected but rarely change the standard4The practice is reviewed on a cycle and standards move5Improvement is measured and part of normal work

Your maturity map

—

Strategy alignment— / 5

Decision rights— / 5

Governance forums— / 5

Portfolio control— / 5

Architecture standards— / 5

Technology lifecycle— / 5

Data and integration— / 5

Delivery support— / 5

Risk and assurance— / 5

Measurement— / 5

Skills and capacity— / 5

Continuous improvement— / 5

1Reactive

2Repeatable

3Defined

4Measured

5Adaptive

Review the gaps

Your readiness score

0of 12 answered

Your score, maturity level and 90 day plan appear when all twelve areas are answered.

Progress0 of 12 answered

Average score by group

Foundations

–

Visibility and control

–

Delivery and value

–

Book an Intelance review This is a self assessment. In our experience an independent review lands about one level below the self view, so treat your result as an upper bound before you fund a plan.

What the score means

Your level across 12 operating capabilities.

How to move up

A focused route to stronger decisions.

Speak to an enterprise architect

Test the result with an experienced adviser.

Your report

What your answers say

The full report unlocks when all twelve areas are answered.

Answer all twelve areas above and this section builds your report: scores by area, your five most serious weaknesses, a 90 day improvement plan, and a suggested operating model and team size.

Scores by area

Risk and assurance–

Strategy alignment–

Decision rights–

Governance forums–

Data and integration–

Architecture standards–

Delivery support–

Portfolio control–

Technology lifecycle–

Measurement–

Skills and capacity–

Continuous improvement–

The most serious weaknesses

Ranked by score, then by how foundational the area is. Fix these in order.

Your 90 day improvement plan

Built from your weakest areas. Each phase is deliberately small: three moves done properly beat ten started.

Days 1 to 30

Stabilise

Days 31 to 60

Build

Days 61 to 90

Prove

Suggested operating model

–

How EA operating models work

Suggested team size

–

What a fractional team costs

Recommended next step

Get the independent version of this score

Self assessment is a starting point. An independent review tests it against the estate, prices the gaps and gives the board a roadmap it can fund. The EA QuickScan does exactly that, from £18,000 + VAT.

Book an Intelance review or call +44 20 3985 5809

Want these results checked? A senior adviser reviews your answers, corrects the optimism and gives you an independent two page verdict within five working days. From £750 + VAT, deducted from any full engagement within three months. How the expert review works

Method

How the scorecard works

Each area is scored against five plain statements with no jargon and no hidden weighting. The full method is set out below so you can challenge it or rerun it as a workshop with your own team.

Enterprise architecture maturity is scored across twelve areas covering sponsorship, strategy, governance, visibility, standards, delivery involvement, portfolio management, roadmaps, benefits, skills and trust. Each area is rated 1 to 5 against plain statements, giving a score out of 100 and a maturity level from 1, where architecture is absent, to 5, where it is embedded in how the business runs. Most organisations that have never invested deliberately in EA score between 25 and 45.

The five maturity levels

Level

Name

What it looks like

1 · 0 to 19

Absent

Architecture happens by accident inside projects. Nobody owns decisions and nobody can list what the organisation runs.

2 · 20 to 39

Emerging

Pockets of good practice exist, usually held together by one or two people. Decisions still escape governance and rework is common.

3 · 40 to 59

Defined

Roles, standards and a forum exist and mostly work. The gap is consistency: projects still move faster than the architecture function.

4 · 60 to 79

Managed

Architecture shapes decisions early, the portfolio is actively managed and a funded roadmap connects strategy to change.

5 · 80 to 100

Embedded

Architecture is simply how the organisation makes technology decisions. Value is measured, reported and believed.

Where this sits against other models

Gartner assesses EA maturity through its IT Score diagnostic, which is thorough and available to Gartner clients. Recognised public models such as the NASCIO and US GAO frameworks cover similar ground with more paperwork. This scorecard uses the same underlying dimensions, takes four minutes, costs nothing and produces a plan rather than a benchmark chart. The honest trade off is depth: a self assessment cannot inspect your estate, which is why the result comes with a health warning and the recommended next step is an independent review.

Method last reviewed 17 July 2026. Scores are calculated in your browser and never leave this page.

Questions

Questions about the EA scorecard

Plain answers on maturity levels, scoring and team size. If the question is specific to your organisation, ask an architect.

What is an enterprise architecture maturity assessment?

A structured way of scoring how well an organisation makes technology decisions: who sponsors them, how they are governed, how visible the estate is, and whether anyone measures the value. This scorecard rates twelve areas from 1 to 5 and turns the result into a score out of 100, a maturity level and a 90 day improvement plan.

What are the five levels of EA maturity?

In this model: absent, emerging, defined, managed and embedded. At level 1 architecture happens by accident inside projects. At level 5 it is simply how the organisation makes technology decisions, with measured value. Most organisations that have never invested deliberately in EA sit between levels 2 and 3.

What is a good EA maturity score?

Above 60 means architecture is genuinely shaping decisions, which puts an organisation ahead of most. Between 40 and 59 is typical for organisations with some capability that projects regularly outrun. Below 40, poor technology decisions are almost certainly costing more than a capability would, and the earliest fixes are usually sponsorship and governance rather than tools.

How is this different from Gartner IT Score for enterprise architecture?

Gartner IT Score is a thorough diagnostic available to Gartner clients through subscription. This scorecard covers the same underlying dimensions in four minutes, free and without sign up, and produces a prioritised 90 day plan rather than a benchmark position. It trades depth for speed, which is why the recommended follow up is an independent review of the actual estate.

How accurate is a self assessment?

Directionally accurate and optimistic. In our experience an independent review lands about one level below the self view, because inventories are staler and governance leakier than they appear from inside. Treat your result as an upper bound.

We scored badly. Where do we start?

Start with sponsorship and governance, in that order. Without a named executive who funds the capability and a decision gate that cannot be bypassed, every other improvement erodes. The 90 day plan in your report sequences this for your specific answers.

What size of architecture team do we need?

As a working rule: fractional support below roughly 250 staff, one to three architects up to 1,000, three to eight up to 5,000, and a domain structured team beyond that. Project volume moves the number more than headcount does, which is why the scorecard asks about both.

Is this scorecard a substitute for a proper review?

No. It is a fast starting point built from your own view of the organisation. A proper review inspects the estate, tests the answers and prices the gaps. That is what the EA QuickScan does, from £18,000 + VAT.

Get the independent version of this score

Thirty minutes with a senior architect on your answers, your estate and whether the plan holds up. If the self assessment flattered you, better to find out now than in month six of a funded programme.

Book a strategy call or call +44 20 3985 5809 · info@intelance.co.uk

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Written and maintained by the Intelance architecture team. Method last reviewed 17 July 2026. Intelance provides independent enterprise architecture advisory and assessment to UK organisations.