In another moment of (over) thinking enterprise architecture, I was comparing the surgical suite to a project team. I'll define a team as a committee, or other ad-hoc group of individuals engaged in a particular task. While the surgical team has many members, they all play a specific role. And some, such as medical students, may be spectators viewing from above. In the surgical suite, folks know their roles. Students in the gallery know they are to take notes and not scrub in. Those perform procedures are not scribbling in their notebooks either. Everyone knows their part - before going into the surgery.
A common tool used within organizations to delineate roles and responsibilities is the RACI matrix. It simply describes the subject area along with levels of responsibility for the particular subject mapped to an organization unit, committee, or individual. While individuals may agree or disagree with the contents of the RACI matrix, at least its explicit and people can collaborate around it.
Like RACI matrices, EA charters provide a level of clarity for EA programs in terms of the services they provide and what they don't provide. Composing a RACI matrix helps identify the various roles interacting with an EA program and who weighs in at what level for a particular concern.
For your EA program, do you have a formal charter? Does it include a RACI matrix? How do you delineate responsibilities in a centralized or federated EA environment?