Business Architecture

As the pace and competitive nature of the business environment intensifies there is an increased need to for a common view of business function and process across which the business and prioritize, streamline and integrate. Changes in markets, competitors, products and customer needs means that the businesses are going to experience an ever increasing need to react to and manage the change that is required to meet these needs to compete and grow. These changes may be changes to and better integration of existing business process and systems, consolidation of information through Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives, implementation of new (or changes to existing) business process brought about by acquisition or changing customer needs. How do we retool ourselves to better service these needs? One of the ways is to create a view of the enterprise through Enterprise Architecture and, more specifically, through the business blueprint (business architectural aspect) of the enterprise. Business Architecture is a key enabler for Governance, Portfolio Management, BI and Services (SOA) corporate initiatives.

 

 

RCG’s experience is that business seldom, if ever, has a good “view” of the business functions and processes (all that it does). When these views do exist, the processes are often incomplete and at a very granular level and are focused on technical systems. They are not easily used for process improvement or governance as they are not integrated and do not cut across the organization. The ‘mile wide, inch deep’ view is seldom available. RCG believes that a business architecture should give you a window into the: Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why of the business.

 

 

  • WHO – how the company is organized around the people and departments enabling who does what
  • WHAT – the information, business rules, Key Performance Indicators – data used to measure the business functions
  • WHEN – specific timing aspects
  • WHERE – the geographical/location impacts to process and people
  • HOW – both the context and content of the business functions and processes and how they interact (inputs/outputs/who does them/ what systems they are linked to / what metrics are used for each function)
  • WHY – the strategy and what projects are approved to achieve it

This window enables you to get a complete picture of the business to better understand/visualize the impact and overlapping of the changes (projects) being requested and, as such, assist with the prioritization of those initiatives. This blueprint will support the alignment of business initiatives focused on achieving the given strategy, while describing how the IT systems are aligned with the business functions they support.
 

Unfortunately, as with many of the terms we use today, the definition of Enterprise Architecture and its components can be confusing. What is important is that you define these terms within your organization and ensure that the resulting architectures are practical and useful. RCG believes that our proven, four layer, Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) and model driven approach to Business Architecture can act as a good starting point for organizations. Our EAF is practical and supported by techniques that can be integrated into both business and systems improvement. Organizations should be evaluating and challenging the architectural level and supporting skills required to position themselves in the future, and reviewing how to implement and support these going forward. These are all areas that RCG can be of assistance.
 

There are many benefits to a well defined and executed Business Architecture:
  • Framework for Change:
    • Ability to map changes to a known structure
    • Quickly identify scope/impact of change
    • Map business changes to systems
    • Propose innovation based on visual models
  • Roadmaps for Aligning Strategy
    • Between Business and IT
    • Enable IT to work strategically for and with the business
  • Capture "tribal" knowledge
  • Utilize information to educate new employees
  • Support a path to operational excellence
  • Accurately communicate requirements
  • Create a common business language for the enterprise
  • Identify application redundancy and retirement strategy
  • Provide a framework to view the company’s direction and strategy
  • Foundation of Enterprise Architecture
    • Business architecture linked to other EA layers
    • Support SOA & BI/DW development
    • Provide a framework to both identify and discuss opportunities to improve
    • Support governance & project portfolio assessment
    • Establish a single source of the "business truth"
    • Engage both business & IT through facilitated alignment
    • Reduce SDLC cycle times
    • Increase reusability

 Read more on our Business Architecture Services.