CEA Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CEA facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which communication artifact BEST conveys the current-state vs. future-state gap to non-technical business stakeholders? → Architecture roadmap with milestone timelines
2. Which of the following is used to ensure conformance during a project lifecycle? → Architecture compliance review
3. An enterprise architect is presenting an architecture roadmap to business executives. Which communication approach is MOST effective? → Translate architecture outcomes into business value and cost impacts
4. What is the purpose of a Business Transformation Readiness Assessment in EA transition planning? → To assess the organization's ability to successfully execute the planned transformation
5. How should an enterprise architect prioritize migration activities when multiple architecture domains require change simultaneously? → Prioritize based on business impact, risk levels, and architectural dependencies
6. How does governance influence architecture maturity? → Supports continuous improvement
7. Which of the following best describes the purpose of the baseline architecture in transition planning? → To document the current state of the enterprise architecture
8. What is a principle of effective architecture governance? → Clear roles and accountability
9. An enterprise architect needs to gain approval from a skeptical CFO for a major platform investment. Which approach is MOST persuasive? → Present a business case with ROI, payback period, and risk-adjusted financials
10. Which of these roles is primarily responsible for maintaining the enterprise architecture? → Enterprise architect
11. What is one benefit of strong architecture governance? → Better compliance and reduced risk
12. How are work packages typically organized when creating an EA Implementation and Migration Plan? → As prioritized projects and programs linked to the Architecture Roadmap
13. What role does the enterprise architect play in alignment? → Ensure business-IT strategy alignment
14. What is a key principle of architectural governance? → Enforcing compliance and oversight
15. Which ADM phase ensures stakeholder concerns are addressed from the start? → Phase A: Architecture Vision
16. A key business stakeholder consistently rejects architecture proposals. What should the enterprise architect do FIRST? → Conduct a stakeholder interview to understand their concerns and priorities
17. Who is typically responsible for enforcing architecture governance? → Enterprise architect
18. Which NIST framework is MOST commonly referenced when building a security architecture in US federal or enterprise environments? → NIST SP 800-53 (Security and Privacy Controls)
19. What is a key output of Phase E in ADM? → Architecture roadmap
20. Which enterprise architecture layer is PRIMARILY responsible for defining security policies, access controls, and identity management requirements? → Security Architecture within the Technology Architecture domain
21. What is the primary purpose of an enterprise architecture framework? → To guide alignment of business and IT
22. Which ADM phase focuses on defining baseline and target architectures for data and applications? → Phase C: Data and Application Architecture
23. Which of the following is a primary principle of effective EA Governance? → Prioritizing business value in all architectural decisions.
24. Which stakeholder is MOST likely to champion enterprise architecture within executive leadership? → Chief Enterprise Architect or CTO acting as EA sponsor
25. Why is Phase H important in ADM? → It manages ongoing changes and updates
26. What is the main purpose of enterprise architecture governance? → To enforce alignment with business and IT
27. What is 'architecture debt' in the context of EA transition planning? → The accumulated backlog of architecture decisions deferred or compromised over time
28. In TOGAF, which artifact is used to record stakeholder concerns and the architecture views that address them? → Stakeholder Map and Architecture Requirements Specification
29. What is the Architecture Development Method (ADM)? → A step-by-step approach to architecture development
30. Who are key stakeholders in achieving alignment? → Business and IT leadership