Start With Why

Why should we do business architecture?

Good one. That’s the million-dollar question.

Simon Sinek says, “Start With Why.”

A big part of the answer is not just why business architecture is so important, but why it is so important now, so we’ll start there. A lot of people wonder how business architecture can be so great yet they haven’t heard of it until now, not to mention the fact that their organizations have been successful without it for decades. So here’s the “why now” explained in pictures.

Complex Environments Meet a World of Constant Change

The bottom line is that we work in complex organizations that are colliding with a world where constant change is the new normal. Organizations have finite resources, including time, people and funding, and the key is to focus those resources on the most important things in the most effective way. We need a new mindset for new results in order to survive and thrive. Enter business architecture as an important part of that shift.

 

Got it. But again, why should we do this?

Here’s one way to look at it. Let’s sum it up in three quick points, since we’re StraightTalkin’ here.

Number 1: Business Architecture Bridges Strategy and Execution

This is the big one. Probably the most important value business architecture provides is to facilitate change, especially because of that whole “why now” topic that we just covered. With business architecture (and IT architecture), we have an opportunity to shift the mindset by working top-down, with true enterprise collaboration—instead of in business unit silos. Using business architecture’s blueprint (and the talents of brilliant business architects) we can assess and catalog the impact all potential changes on the business and IT environment (from strategies, transformations, regulatory changes, etc.), and then collectively architect those changes and scope initiatives in the most effective way across business units. We can also make sure that the initiatives actually deliver on the objectives they were supposed to.

Number 2: Business Architecture Helps Simplify a Complex Environment

Remember how we talked about those complex environments? Business architecture helps identify opportunities for simplification in the business and IT environment using an enterprise business lens. Reducing complexity has its own benefits (e.g. cost savings), but idt also speeds up the pace at which an organization can implement change.

Number 3: Business Architecture Creates a Shared Language and Visibility

Numbers 1 and 2 are the biggies, so this one is a bonus. You know those conversations we all keep having in our organizations like about the definitions of “customer” and “product?” Business architecture can help. As you build and use your business architecture you create a common vocabulary and “mental model.” This makes conversations more effective and provides a bird’s eye view of what you do without all of the details.

So, if business architecture had a Six-Word Memoir, it might be something like:

Bridges strategy and execution; facilitates change.

Makes sense. So why is this so hard to explain to others?

Here’s the part where I tell you that you’re not crazy (or alone) for thinking that. There are a few reasons and knowing them helps.

  • Business architecture is relatively “new” compared to functions and disciplines that have been around for decades. More time is required for education and adoption.
  • Business architecture is not standalone; it makes other functions and disciplines more effective. It is never overlapping or competing when implemented properly.
  • Business architecture introduces an enterprise mindset that challenges culture and behavior. Not everyone is a fan of collaborating across business units.

Give me some good news.

As the business architecture discipline continues to be practiced and as targeted industry efforts continue to permeate executive suites and the academic community, this will get easier. As understanding and acceptance grows, business architecture will eventually reach the level of recognition that other disciplines like project management and business analysis have now. And it will become just part of how we work, embedded into the fabric of our organizations.

In the meantime, think of yourself as part of a really cool movement.

Got it now.

Make 1-million dollar checks out to: s-t-r-a-i-g-h-t t-a-l-k.

For further reading —

The Value of Business Architecture (S2E White Paper, premium download): A longer and more formal version of this story on why business architecture is needed now as well as its value and usage.

Start With Why

Why should we do business architecture?

Good one. That’s the million-dollar question.

Simon Sinek says, “Start With Why.”

A big part of the answer is not just why business architecture is so important, but why it is so important now, so we’ll start there. A lot of people wonder how business architecture can be so great yet they haven’t heard of it until now, not to mention the fact that their organizations have been successful without it for decades. So here’s the “why now” explained in pictures.

Complex Environments Meet a World of Constant Change

The bottom line is that we work in complex organizations that are colliding with a world where constant change is the new normal. Organizations have finite resources, including time, people and funding, and the key is to focus those resources on the most important things in the most effective way. We need a new mindset for new results in order to survive and thrive. Enter business architecture as an important part of that shift.

 

Got it. But again, why should we do this?

Here’s one way to look at it. Let’s sum it up in three quick points, since we’re StraightTalkin’ here.

Number 1: Business Architecture Bridges Strategy and Execution

This is the big one. Probably the most important value business architecture provides is to facilitate change, especially because of that whole “why now” topic that we just covered. With business architecture (and IT architecture), we have an opportunity to shift the mindset by working top-down, with true enterprise collaboration—instead of in business unit silos. Using business architecture’s blueprint (and the talents of brilliant business architects) we can assess and catalog the impact all potential changes on the business and IT environment (from strategies, transformations, regulatory changes, etc.), and then collectively architect those changes and scope initiatives in the most effective way across business units. We can also make sure that the initiatives actually deliver on the objectives they were supposed to.

Number 2: Business Architecture Helps Simplify a Complex Environment

Remember how we talked about those complex environments? Business architecture helps identify opportunities for simplification in the business and IT environment using an enterprise business lens. Reducing complexity has its own benefits (e.g. cost savings), but idt also speeds up the pace at which an organization can implement change.

Number 3: Business Architecture Creates a Shared Language and Visibility

Numbers 1 and 2 are the biggies, so this one is a bonus. You know those conversations we all keep having in our organizations like about the definitions of “customer” and “product?” Business architecture can help. As you build and use your business architecture you create a common vocabulary and “mental model.” This makes conversations more effective and provides a bird’s eye view of what you do without all of the details.

So, if business architecture had a Six-Word Memoir, it might be something like:

Bridges strategy and execution; facilitates change.

Makes sense. So why is this so hard to explain to others?

Here’s the part where I tell you that you’re not crazy (or alone) for thinking that. There are a few reasons and knowing them helps.

  • Business architecture is relatively “new” compared to functions and disciplines that have been around for decades. More time is required for education and adoption.
  • Business architecture is not standalone; it makes other functions and disciplines more effective. It is never overlapping or competing when implemented properly.
  • Business architecture introduces an enterprise mindset that challenges culture and behavior. Not everyone is a fan of collaborating across business units.

Give me some good news.

As the business architecture discipline continues to be practiced and as targeted industry efforts continue to permeate executive suites and the academic community, this will get easier. As understanding and acceptance grows, business architecture will eventually reach the level of recognition that other disciplines like project management and business analysis have now. And it will become just part of how we work, embedded into the fabric of our organizations.

In the meantime, think of yourself as part of a really cool movement.

Got it now.

Make 1-million dollar checks out to: s-t-r-a-i-g-h-t t-a-l-k.

For further reading —

The Value of Business Architecture (S2E White Paper): A longer and more formal version of this story on why business architecture is needed now as well as its value and usage.

The Unexplained Mystery of Business Architecture

The Unexplained Mystery of Business ArchitectureStart from the beginning, what is business architecture?

According to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), Business Architecture is this:

“Business Architecture represents holistic, multidimensional business views of: capabilities, end-to-end value delivery, information, and organizational structure; and the relationships among these business views and strategies, products, policies, initiatives, and stakeholders.”

If this definition is new to you, it’s because it was just ratified in January 2017 by a lot of enterprise architecture organizations (including the Business Architecture Guild®). P.S. That’s a big deal.

Sounds important…but explain.

I don’t mean to make it sound less romantic, but business architecture is documentation of your organization at a high level. We like to call it a “blueprint” (just like you have for your house, except made up of different stuff).

What makes it special?

Business architecture gives us a bird’s eye view of a whole organization—and the ecosystem in which it operates (a.k.a. big fancy word for the other organizations you work with)—at a high level. Finally, we can see the forest for the trees. We’re used to thinking about our organizations from the detailed tree view, in our business unit “silos.”

Business architecture is unique compared to other techniques in that it:

  • Encompasses the whole scope of an organization’s ecosystem
  • Represents that ecosystem at a high level of detail
  • Is reusable (i.e. no more archeology digs to remember what your organization does)

So business architecture is a thing?

Yep, but how we use it is where it gets really, really interesting. The “why” of business architecture is a separate topic. We’ll StraightTalk on that in Post No. 2.

How does it work?

  1. You document your organization’s business architecture in a knowledgebase (ideally in an automated tool).
  2. Now that you have lots of info in there, you create any type of blueprint (diagram) or report you want.
  3. You apply those blueprints and reports to various scenarios. (This is the most important part.)

Who uses it?

Business architecture helps any type of organization, including corporations, non-profits and government. Of any size, from very large organizations to a sole entrepreneur. In any industry.

Got it. What makes up business architecture then?

Below are the perspectives that are included within the scope of business architecture. Each box is officially called a “domain.” If it’s not in this picture, then it’s not business architecture.

Business Architecture Diagram

 

Where’s process?

Not business architecture. But we can connect business processes to the business architecture. LOTS of collaborative work has been done by the business architecture and business process communities to come to this conclusion. More in future posts.

What about requirements?

Nope, not business architecture either. Same story as above: communities came together and determined that we connect.

And applications?

Applications are part of the application architecture. But we connect them to the business architecture!

Well, what about strategy and business models then?

Business architecture (and brilliant business architects) inform and translate strategies and business model changes into the set of coordinated actions needed to make them real. Business architects may also help to document these things (because we’re good at stuff like that).

If you are a business architect and you formulate strategy and business models, that might be more related to your personal skills and experience versus the intention of the role, which is one of translation.

Okay, how about customer experience design?

Not business architecture, but a complementary discipline. Business architecture translates customer experience designs into action, too.

Hmmm.

Don’t hate me. Lots of great minds have been working to untangle this thing for years now. Business architecture works with lots of teams across the strategy execution lifecycle (i.e. we have a lot of friends). While some debate and differing opinions currently exist related to what is right and wrong, there is what works—and the delineations described above are very clean and have stood the test of time in practice.

Where does business architecture fit in the scheme of things?

Business architecture has a very special role right between strategy and execution. It’s not a project thing—it happens upstream from projects and defines their priorities and scopes. More StraightTalk on this later and how business architecture “bridges strategy and execution” as we say.

What about Enterprise Architecture?

We look at enterprise architecture as a collection of disciplines and business architecture is one of them.Enterprise Architecture = Business Architecture + Application Architecture + Data Architecture + Technical Architecture. One happy family.

I think I’ve got it.

The journey has begun.

More good stuff.

  • What is Business Architecture? (S2E Premium White Paper): A longer and more formal version of this story on what business architecture is and is not, and where it fits in the scheme of things.
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