Definitions

EA is the process of aligning a business’s strategic vision with its information technology. In my view this process is never-ending, because the strategy of a business will continually change for the sake of survival, and because IT is forever changing. Alignment between Business and IT is twofold: IT must adapt to support changing Business objectives, and the Business must leverage changing technology to its benefit.
The activities associated with EA are therefore about creating and maintaining the views that illustrate what the enterprise’s business looks like, what its IT landscape looks like, and how these will be aligned at some point in the future. The remainder of EA activities are about addressing any gaps between Business and IT as time goes on.