Slides from a presentation given by Paul Turner to meetings of IIBA UK on 16 July and 12 August 2014. Much has been written about technical and solution architectures, without due attention being given to how these work together with the Business Architecture. It is easy to believe that those who are involved in business analysis, requirements definition and systems modelling do not need to consider the Business Architecture at all. This could not be further from the truth. This talk explains the rationale behind Business Architecture, what its main components are and why Business Analysts should ensure that they understand it and the influence it is likely to have on their work.

1. Business Architecture
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Paul Turner
IIBA UK North
12th August 2014

2. The breadth of Business Analysis
Business analysis
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Business case
Requirements engineering
Solution development
Strategic analysis

3. The breadth of Business Analysis
Business analysis
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Business case
Business Architecture
Systems Modelling
Requirements engineering
Solution development
Strategic analysis
Systems Thinking
Agile development

4. The breadth of Business Analysis
Business analysis
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Business case
Business Architecture
Systems Modelling
Requirements engineering
Solution development
Strategic analysis
Systems Thinking
Agile development

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What is Architecture?

6. What is Business Architecture?
“The structure and behaviour of a business system . Covering business functions
or capabilities, business processes and the roles of the actors involved in these.
Business functions and business processes are mapped to the business goals
and business services they support, and the applications and data they need”
"A blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the
organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands."
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Business Architecture Guild

7. Uses of a Business Architecture
• Develop a perspective on an organisation’s strategic differentiators, and
fully understand what it is and what it is doing
• Understand the key value streams used to deliver its value propositions
• Provide a way to quickly and effectively implement strategy through
defined approaches and organisation wide frameworks
• Make better-informed and more comprehensive business decisions
• Solve complex enterprise business problems
• Define detailed business needs, to be used as input for business and IT
solutions
• Ensure the success of an overall Architecture by serving as the driving
force for the IT Architecture
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8. Business Architecture as part of enterprise architecture
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9. The existence of a robust Business Architecture supports:
Senior executives:
By assisting in the execution of
strategy and assessing the impact
of change
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IT:
By enabling enterprise level
requirements and promoting
governance
Projects:
By assisting in their discovery and
facilitating consistent delivery
3rd Parties:
By providing shared models
and collaboration

10. The impact of Business Architecture
Consider the relationship with:
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F
• Strategy
• Governance
• Innovation and Agility
• Business Change
• Business Analysis
Focuses on WHAT the
business needs to do
rather than HOW it
does it

11. Business Architecture fit within an organisation
Creates a direct, clear linkage between executive intent and organisational action
Strategy
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Business
Architecture
Execution
Strategy drives changes to
Architecture
Architecture informs and
refines Strategy
Architecture translates
Strategy for Execution
Execution enables and
generates improvements to
Architecture
Provides a structured approach to making strategic and operational investment decisions

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Systemic change
Systemic change is one where
the impact of any change is considered
in respect of the whole ,and the
relationships between the individual
parts to one another
i.e. see the bigger picture

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Cause and effect
The solution to one
problem may cause
another bigger
Problem
We may act to produce
short term benefits
leading to long term
costs

14. The role of the Business Architect
The Business Architect converts high-level
business strategy and business needs …….
……. into an integrated vision of the future
……. and then redesigns the business capabilities
necessary to deliver the goals of the vision.
This provides a holistic, complete and co-ordinated
set of business models the best of which become
blueprints for future profit and growth.
These roadmaps are then broken down into initiatives
for implementation
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15. Elements of a Business Architecture
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Organisation Information
Metrics &
Measures
Decisions
& Events
Capabilities
Value
Streams
Business Architecture
Policies,
Rules,
Regulations
Customers,
Partners &
Competitors
Vision,
Strategies &
Tactics
Products &
Services
Initiatives
& Projects

16. Elements of a Business Architecture
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Capabilities
Organisation Information
Value
Streams

17. POPIT™ – taking a holistic approach
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Organisation
Information
&
Technology
People Processes
Business
Motivations
Four views of a business system

18. POPIT™ – link to Business Architecture
Business Models
External Business Environment
Business Capabilities
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Organisation
Information
&
Technology
People Process
Value Propositions
Value Streams
Core Business Processes
Roles and Job Descriptions
Skills and Competencies
Culture
Information Concepts
Information Standards
Technical Architecture
Four views of a business system

19. Examples of Business Architecture documentation
• Business Context
• Business terminology and concepts
• Business capabilities (represented in a Business
Capability Model)
• Value streams
• Organisational business units and roles
• Information concepts
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20. The map is not the territory
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21. Business Architecture scenarios
Example business scenarios might include:
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Business unit consolidation
• New product deployment
• New line of business
• Outsourcing of business capability
• Change management
• Regulatory compliance
• Divesting a line of business
• Implementing a new way of working
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22. Business Architecture Framework
Business Architecture views
(Blueprints)
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Business
Architecture
Scenarios
Business
Motivations
Four views of a Business System
(POPIT)

23. So how does this affect Business Analysts?
• To contribute to the bottom up construction of the
Business Architecture
• Help evaluate business ideas and initiatives
• Assess impact of suggested changes
• Encourage re-use
• Model using architectural artefacts
• Understand knock-on effects
• Ensure changes are reflected back into the architecture
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24. Business Architecture
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Paul Turner
paul.turner@assistkd.com

25. The BA Community at AssistKD
• Read
www.assistkd.com
• Join our Linked group:
AssistKD – thought leaders in Business Analysis
• Follow us on Twitter:
twitter@assistkd
• Subscribe to Analysts Anonymous, the BA newsletter
• Business Analysis and Business Analysis Techniques books
• BA Europe conference – September 2014
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26. Business Architecture
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Strategy
Organisational
B
Capabilities
Vision/
Mission
Inputs Outcomes
Customers
Process People Technology
Culture
Value streams

27. Business Architecture
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Strategy
Organisational
B
Capabilities
Vision/
Mission
Inputs Outcomes
Customers
Process People Technology
Culture
Value streams

28. Contents of a Business Architecture
Motivation
Values & ethos
PESTLE
5 forces
VMOST
Balanced scorecard
- CSFs, KPIs
Organisation/
Capability
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Business
Models
Business
Canvas
Organisation
diagram
Business
Capabilities
Partners &
Channels
Cost Structures
Value Propositions
Value/
Process
Value expectations
Business Services
Value streams
Value networks
Core Business
Processes
Task definitions
Business events &
Business rules
Competency/
People
Roles & Job
descriptions
Skills/
Competencies
Management
Activities
Culture
Information
Information
Categories
Information
Concepts
Repositories

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Aspects of a Business
Capabilities
Organisation Information
Value
Streams
A Capability is WHAT a business
does that delivers value to a
customer (not HOW it does it).
Capabilities should be SUAVE:
• Represent Stable activities
• Identify Unique abilities
• Abstracted from existing models
• Add Value to the end customer
• Capture business Exec interest
A Value Stream is an end-to-end
collection of sequential activities
that create value for stakeholders
(external and internal)

30. Example of a Capability Model
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Business Planning
Business Planning
Policy management
Goals management
Financial
Management
Risk
Management
Procurement Management
Vendor mgt. Product acq. mgt.
Vendor info mgt.
Vendor contract mgt.
Product req mgt.
Fulfilment mgt.
Strategic:
Direction
setting
Primary:
Customer
facing
Support:

31. Example of a value stream
Con
Stakeholder
trigger
Value item
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Develop Product
Conceive
product
Design
product
Build
product
Value item
Release
product
Stakeholder
Value
item Customer
Stakeholder
Value stream: Linear model of a value proposition through a sequence
of the major stages which represent a series of interchanges with stakeholders as the
Value stream moves from left to right.