Contributed on December 8, 2015

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What is Business Architecture – Roger Burlton discusses BA as a prelude for his London Seminar

Roger Burlton discusses Business Architecture as a prelude to his upcoming seminar: Business Architecture: Building Alignment for Rapid Change taking place in London 16-18 March and 19-21 October 2015
Seminar Information is available at: http://www.irmuk.co.uk/events/126.cfm

A lot of buzz about Business Architecture recently sounds suspiciously familiar but some of it sounds like a breath of fresh air. Ultimately it is about the business itself with many perspectives converging; being able to clearly articulate what we strive to accomplish (the ends) and what we have to build, connect and do (the means). Alignment among many moving parts characterizes this emerging and converging practice. To attain unification of all capabilities Business Processes will play a key role. Alignment of a value added, practical and implementable Business Architecture and Business Change Portfolio will be our payoff but without process coordination nothing will change much.

A useful Business Architecture will understand all the external pressures on the organization, know what is needed by external stakeholders, will derive strategic goals from external stakeholder expectations. All capability requirements will be tied to the processes that create or update data to ensure alignment to business objectives. The human requirements of roles, competencies, incentives, motivation and culture will optimize process outcomes. With all of these components defined and aligned, we will have a Business Architecture that works for business people.

Business Process and Capability Improvement initiatives should re-use the content of the Business Architecture to select, scope, and execute business process change projects. Stakeholder analysis and performance metrics as well as cultural assessment results will drive business analysis using process and related models decomposed from the architecture. Analysis of measurement data traceable to the top of the business performance scorecard will help to find symptoms and causes of poor performance critical to realizing the business intent and the processes and capabilities needed. Aligned implementation and change management plans can now be established and a cultural change program launched to ensure the business changes will stick. This highly participative workshop will delve into all aspects of Business Architecture, Business Processes and Business Capabilities from top to bottom.