It’s extremely hard to discern a correlation between I.T. Architecture investment and the bottom line on an Enterprise’s Income Statement. Also, it takes some time for architecture investments to “bear fruit” and have an impact on I.T. activities. Because of factors like these, there is a temptation to reduce I.T. Architecture investment during economic slowdowns or uncertainty.

Certainly, it make’s sense to cut discretionary spending when a company is struggling for survival.

For companies that are in good financial shape, this can be an opportunity to “get the house in order”, by revising existing artifacts and processes while taking advantage of attractive contract and consulting rates in the market. A slowdown in development can be a good time to allocate resources to application inventories and revised standards and practices.