Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Soapbox/~3/Q0pWawzPf64/the-purpose-of-business-architecture.html
From Richard Veryard on Architecture
What is business architecture good for? Here are some suggestions.
Designing Organization Structure. Restructuring the organization and reassigning responsibilities are commonly seen as ways of dealing with poor performance, poor governance and other system-wide difficulties. But if the business requirements are not properly understood first, then it can produce massive disruption and distraction with little prospect of any real benefit. This is where a clear business architecture is important. (Advice: Don’t try to produce a new Responsibility structure without first understanding Activity, Capability and Motivation.) See my post on Organizational Integration.
Designing Reward Systems. An enterprise has many goals and subgoals. Some individuals and groups and subcontractors may be given incentives to deliver against particular targets. However, poorly chosen incentives can result in dysfunctional behaviour – local success but global failure. The relationship between local performance and global performance is another area where the business architecture
Management Accounting. Distribution of costs, benefits and risks depends on the dependencies between activities, capabilities, resources and other things. See my post On Business Architecture and Management Accounting.
Outsourcing and Procurement. Designing clean, robust and governable boundaries between the company and its suppliers.
Systems Architecture. Design of sociotechnical systems, including information and communication systems.
In many organizations, the most obvious purpose of business architecture is to drive systems architecture. However, this is not the only way that business architects can deliver value.
Historically, a number of functional specialisms, including accounting, contract management and human resources, developed in an era when business structure was a lot simpler, so functional specialists didn’t need to worry about architectural complexity. However, these specialisms may continue to make simplistic assumptions about business structure, and this can result in strategic error and dysfunctional organizations. Business architecture needs to engage actively with all these functional specialisms, to help align their efforts with the real and often complex requirements of the business.
Places are still available on my Business Architecture Bootcamp (November 20th-21st)
