EA Tools Adoption

Research from 50+ years ago grouped adopted of new technologies into five categories:

• Innovators (about 2% of the population) or enthusiasts, will use a technology based on its features and do not require financial analyses before adopting a new technology.
• Early Adopters (about 13% of the population) or visionaries wait until Innovators have shown a technology has merits but still are not driven by financial analysis.
• Early Majority (about 33% of the population) or pragmatists need to see clear ROI analysis or ROI-based testimonials from others in a similar industry.
• Late Majority (about 33% of the population) needs concrete objective ROI analysis supported by multiple sources.
• Laggards (the remaining 16%) or skeptics will only use advanced technology if they have no other choice. Often new technology must be embedded in a total solution for a laggard to adopt a new technology.

I believe the EA tools adoption is now moving from the 2nd to the 3rd of these groups.

If you encounter an organization where innovation is the rule, you can promote the idea of EA tools based on their technical merits (and allow the innovators and early adopters to map the features to organization advantages and benefits)

If you find early adopters and early majority users you will need to focus on the ROI and carefully map the features of into specific advantages and benefits within your organization.
Promoting to late majority and laggards may require you to bundle EA tools into a larger package and sell that package as an organizational solution e.g. suggesting a complete IRM for the industry (e.g. insurance, health etc.)