The Value of Business Architecture for Solution Delivery
Enterprise and solutions architects must often guide initiatives that the organizations they serve have already defined as IT solution delivery projects. There is often little thought given to business architecture; stakeholders see that the enterprise has gotten to where it is today without embracing this discipline, and no one sees the need for it now. Certainly, there are many projects that do not need explicit business architecture, e.g., when there is a clear—and well-founded—consensus on how the structure and function of the business must change, or when applications or infrastructure are being modernized without changes in business strategy or operations.
On the other hand, many IT solution delivery projects involve the convergence of multiple domains of knowledge and operation, e.g., when systems and processes are integrated with each other or consolidated across lines of business, partnerships, or mergers and acquisitions. Here, architects should consider whether an investment in business architecture would benefit the initiative by providing a common language and conceptual framework for all stakeholders to understand the status quo and how it must change to implement business strategy. The shared understanding and language that business architecture can provide can therefore align and accelerate all solutions delivery activities from requirements analysis to rollout.
Three Straightforward Artifacts
Architects can collaboratively develop and evolve three types of business architecture artifacts with little or no impact on project schedules and resource environments. Even in an organization with no appreciation for business architecture, it is easy to convince stakeholders of the value of a business glossary, information map, and value stream map. A business glossary defines the terms that are important to the project. These terms may be discipline-specific and therefore unfamiliar to some stakeholders, or they may have definitions specific to the project. An information map defines the project’s key concepts and their relationships with each other. A value stream map defines sequences of activities that produce value for customers, stakeholders, or end users. All three of these deliverables should be consistent with each other. The business glossary, for example, should include the definition of the non-obvious terms used in the information map and the value stream map.
Note that many practitioners consider capability-based planning fundamental to any business architecture activity. Capabilities are explicitly defined abilities to perform behavior. While it is true that enterprises and their initiatives can get significant value from hierarchies of capabilities, especially those requiring new investment, standalone capability-based mapping can be a harder sell in a project environment where stakeholders and experts have a clear idea of the necessary high-level capabilities, and expect business analysts and product owners to add detail – sometimes called capabilities – as the product is defined.
Case Study: Direct Marketing for Home Mortgage Refinancing
Here we illustrate the development of basic business architecture artifacts with a case study. Consider a bank that plans to build its home mortgage refinancing business through direct marketing. The bank plans to acquire data about consumers and their mortgages, analyze it to identify consumers who would benefit from refinancing and present acceptable credit risks, present them with refinancing offers, evaluate their applications, and refinance the mortgages of successful applicants.
Table 1 contains a partial business glossary for the refinancing initiative. Actual glossaries may contain additional information, such as aliases, references, and contact information for each term defined.
Table 1. Example partial business glossary for the mortgage refinancing initiative.
Figure 1 contains a partial an information map for the mortgage refinancing initiative.
Figure 1. Partial information map for mortgage refinancing initiative.
Figure 2 contains a value stream map for the mortgage refinancing initiative. The orange chevrons represent value stream stages, and the purple ovals represent the value produced and consumed by successive stages.
Figure 2. Value stream map for the mortgage financing initiative.
Conclusion: The Business Architecture Opportunity
Enterprise and solutions architects can introduce basic business architecture artifacts into projects that could benefit from shared understanding across stakeholders, business domains, or disciplines. Such understanding can align and accelerate solution planning and delivery,
Applying the TOGAF Standard
The TOGAF standard provides detailed guidance on the value and production of the artifacts described here and on business architecture in general. Since TOGAF is an enterprise architecture standard, though, architects should use their judgements in limiting the scope of artifacts to what is required for solution delivery. Once their value is demonstrated, though, project artifacts can serve as a foundation for enterprise guidance per the TOGAF standard.
TOGAF References
- Business Architecture: https://pubs.opengroup.org/togaf-standard/adm/chap04.html
- Business Glossary: https://pubs.opengroup.org/togaf-standard/architecture-content/chap03.html#tag_03_06_03_11
- Information Mapping: https://pubs.opengroup.org/togaf-standard/business-architecture/information-mapping.html
- Value Streams: https://pubs.opengroup.org/togaf-standard/business-architecture/value-streams.html
Authored by Iver Band, EA Principals Senior Instructor and ArchiMate Expert