EnterpriseArchitecture (EA) has received much attention among information technology (IT) practitioners as one of the best practices in IT governance. It is relied on for ensuring that IT development projects are aligned with organisation's IT needs and strategies, i.e., as a reference to which projects are verified for compliance. The sources ofEA benefits are the principles of lower IT complexity, more integrated application systems, and more flexible IT infrastructure-due to EA's holistic approach whose view spans across organization units and application systems boundaries. The result is higher IT efficiency and higher IT Values for business. However, achieving such benefits is not automatic. There are certain situations related to the target organisation's characteristics that favor certain architecture principles and not the others. This research attempts to map out such relationship by comparing EA design development by groups of graduate students for a number of organisations with varying characteristics. The result indicates that organisation's level of IT maturity affects the decision on which EA principles are considered relevant.