Kirjanduses leidub arvukalt, mõnevõrra erineva sõnastusega ettevõttearhitektuuri definitsioone, millega tutvumine süvendab teie teadmisi ettevõttearhitektuuri olemusest. Ettevõttearhitektuuri määratletakse nii nähtuse kui protsessina:


Ettevõttearhitektuur on äriprotsesside ja IT-infrastruktuuri korraldamise loogika, mis peegeldab ettevõtte strateegilise mudeli integreerimis- ja standardnõudeid.
                                                                                (Ross, Weill, Robertson 2006)

Ettevõttearhitektuur on strateegilise planeerimise protsess, mis integreerib äritegevust ja IT-strateegiat parandamaks nii ettevõtte finants- kui ettevõtlustõhusust.
                                                                                (Gartner. Enterprise Architecture)


Enterprise architecture is a process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the kay requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise`s future state and enable its evolution.                         (Garner IT Glossary)

Enterprise Architecture as a young and still evolving management discipline including all dimensions of an enterprise and uniquely able to serve as the meta approach for designing and re-designing enterprises to compete in highly dynamic public and private sector environments.
                                                                                (Doucet, Gøtze, Saha, Bernard 2008)

Enterprise Architecture represents the fundamental description of an organisation, its structure, the information that it requires, the business processes that use and produce the information, its software applications that provide the services the business processes depend on, the structure of the application components, products, their interrelationships to each other and the technical infrastructure and environment in which they operate, all driven by the strategy, which states the principles, standards, etc. that govern their design and evolution over time. It also covers the performance and measures necessary to track the enterprise.
                                                                            (EA Wiki - http://iea.wikidot.com/start)