Enterprise architecture is a methodology applied to a business process, typically as part of solution delivery. In layman's terms this means that one way to ensure that any project an organization undertakes is successful is to follow a tried and true process throughout the life of that project.

This process is often called a framework, and the individual deliverables within the framework as artefacts. As you might imagine a framework used to describe any or all of an organization’s projects would necessarily be very high-level and broad in scope. Thus what most organizations do is begin with a comprehensive industry-standard framework and then out of that develop their own focused one.