This blog entry roughly outlines the status of EA in the Danish public sector based on a framework I developed with Marijn Janssen in 2005. Other researchers have used our framework to compare national EA programs – you can download the original article here.
Policies, actors, and structures:
The main vision for Denmark’s EA efforts was formulated in a white paper published by the National IT and Telecom Agency in 2003. Today, the IT and Telecom Agency heads the cross-public sector IT-architecture committee where most nationwide technical standards and IT-architecture principles are coined.
Local Government Denmark (the municipal cooperation) participates in the IT-architecture committee and (by and large) endorses the decisions made here.
The Digital Taskforce in the Ministry of Finance also participates in the IT-architecture committee and work with reference models, mandatory business cases, and IT-investment principles in general.
Governance:
The EA governance setup in Denmark is largely driven by incentives, i.e. there is no legislation or regulations governing standards and principles for EA development in the Danish government. Thus, the adoption of EA is largely based on voluntarism and it is up to each public organization to assess their need for an EA and decisions related to it.
At the state level a business case model for large IT-projects was made mandatory by the Ministry of Finance in 2008. Reference models are included here.
Architecture frameworks and methodologies:
Since the publication of the EA white paper in 2003, a handbook on EA implementation has been published by the National IT and Telecom Agency. The handbook defines a generic architectural process for EA development similar to e.g. the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework. The handbook also includes an EA framework based on the Zachman Framework.
A business reference model was developed in 2007 for the entire public sector (see more details here). A service and technology reference model is under development.
Architecture principles and standards:
The EA process model deals with non-mandatory principles and the selection of standards. In the white paper published in 2003 five categories of principles were suggested: interoperability, security, openness, flexibility and scalability. A new set of IT-architecture principles are under development.
The National IT and Telecom Agency is also responsible for national technical standards and data-standards.
Implementation:
As the Danish EA governance model is based on incentives rather than laws and regulations, the implementation of EA in Denmark’s public agencies is still rather fragmented. My prediction is that this will change in 2009 
“five categories of principles were suggested: interoperability, security, openness, flexibility and scalability”
Kristian
WHICH of the above would you say is achieved in the Danish setup – and why would you claim so?