Business Architecture At 50,000 Feet
posted by John Spacey, February 12, 2011Business architecture sounds like a simple enough term — but ask someone to define it and they usually come up at a loss.
The Definition
Business architecture is a set of tools for aligning a business model with business operations.
Relationship to Enterprise Architecture
Business architecture is part of enterprise architecture (EA). The four domains of EA are business, application, data and technical architecture.
The Five Views of Business Architecture
Business architecture provides a comprehensive blueprint of an organization or business unit. Typically, five different views of the organization are developed.
Strategy view
Tactical approaches for achieving business goals and metrics that can be used to track progress.
Capabilities view
Describes enterprise business services including core business, business management, customer-facing and partner relationship functions.
Knowledge view
Organizational vocabulary and relationships between key concepts such as customer, supplier etc...
Process view
Core processes that transcend organizational boundaries. Describes roles, resources and controls involved in each process.
Organizational view
Maps capabilities to roles, groups and business units.
Current vs Target Business Architecture
Business architecture documents both the current (as-is) and the target architecture (based on business goals). It is a common pitfall to spend too much energy documenting the current state. The current state has little value on its own — it is only required in order to identify gaps. Gaps in capabilities such as services, processes, people, business integration and tools and identified and ranked.Value of Business Architecture
You might be wondering — what is the value of all this?Business architecture is a foundation used to enhance accountability and improve decision-making. This happens as part of IT governance. The end result:
- better value for IT investment
- improved business operations
- legal compliance
This translates to business benefits such as higher sales, reduced costs, reduced risk, increased customer satisfaction, enhanced brand and reputation and better relationships with partners and suppliers.
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