Business Architecture is a holistic framework for aligning an organization with its goals, and in turn, also making it more competitive. for instance, It provides the necessary structure to create a digital transformation roadmap by defining how data, applications, and people interact. In this article, we’ll discuss what business architecture is.
Business architecture is the blueprint of a company. Does it also provide for clear strategic objectives by explaining how they can be translated into operations? It’s also an integral part of enterprise architecture because it gives vital business context to technological layers in order to operationalize strategy.
Definition of Business Architecture
BIZBOK® (Business Architecture Body of Knowledge) defines it as
A blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands.
from BIZBOK
Relationship with Strategy
Business Architecture connects Business strategy with the implementation/execution i.e. Business/IT change and thus enables an enterprise to handle multiple failure points that may occur between Strategy and Implementation.
Few failure points that may also occur between Strategy and Implementation are as follows –
- Strategy incorrectly/insufficiently linked to operations.
- Required capabilities not properly comprehended/calculated/estimated.
- Desired benefits are not quantified and traced back to original goals.
- People in charge of planning are not accountable for delivery.
It handles such failure points in the below manner
- Building a clear picture of the goals, value drivers and corresponding conditions/capabilities in order to drive the strategy.
- Clearly coupling the strategy with operations by means of capabilities in order to include people, process, information and technology.
- Determining the resources needed by the capabilities and also making sure that architecture provides oversight at the required levels.
In addition, the business architecture enables improved decision making by reducing risk, so to increase employee engagement by setting work boundaries, increases agility and efficiency in the execution of the initiative.
for instance, Below are some of the key initiatives by enterprises whose success or failure depends largely on devising required business architecture –
- Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint-ventures and Divestiture
- Opening/Closing/Merging of business unit(s) or restructuring of any kind
- New product/service offering (self-developed or partially/fully outsourced)
- Upgrading systems working on legacy technology in order to latest suitable technology
- Compliance with new regulatory laws/rules/guidelines
- Customer-centric initiatives
You can also read more about Business process re-engineering (BPR) in our blog. Our Business analyst interview questions and answers blog post has more such questions answered.
