Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
Strategy execution remains a challenging task for many organizations. The ‘Digital Enterprise’ requires major business transformations, delivered at speed. Most organizations are in a constant state of change. The ‘unfreeze-change-freeze’ model, reasoning from the current to a desired future state, no longer applies; the current state is always in flux and the future state is a moving target.
In the process of evolving a business the question of scope arises in my mind often. If I don’t have a boundary to work within, I can get distracted and the project can go sideways. With business design projects that leverage enterprise architecture (EA) the frameworks often supply a metamodel. I believe it is a […]
This post is about two related things: modelling actual detailed architectures of large homogenous landscapes and the class versus instance issue in ArchiMate. Both are closely related. But before I start out, for those unacquainted with Object-Orientation, or Classes and … Continue reading →
Troux’s CTO, Bill Cason, hosted a webinar that looked at capability-based investment planning. The 20-minute session reviewed how decision makers use capability modeling to better integrate business and strategic IT planning for improved operations, competitiveness and value.
The webinar and its takeaway, 6 Capability Maps Your Business Will Love, garnered a great deal of interest, so we thought we’d begin to discuss the topic on the Troux blog.
What is capability-based investment planning?
Today, business leaders are stuck in a spin cycle of change driven by market, technology and regulatory shifts, which demand continuous planning. Capability planning supports this by delivering business leaders the enterprise intelligence they need to see the big picture and better understand where to invest in their business. Think of it as a resource management exercise – one that lets you anticipate opportunities, ensure balanced budgets and invest dollars in the right places on an ongoing basis. That might come in handy, right?
Getting Started
Use Business Capabilities to Synchronize IT with the Rest of the Business
Business capabilities can be the best starting point for your business architecture program. In the report “Business Capabilities provide the Rosetta Stone of Business-IT Alignment”, Forrester dubs business capabilities as the map to business and IT translation. Getting business and IT on the same page by adopting a common business capabilities nomenclature enables fact-based conversations about the portfolios and their alignment to the business roadmap.
Use Business Capabilities to Understand Your Critical Business Issues:
The adoption of a common language supports the use of business capability maps across the enterprise. These tools facilitate transformational technology change and business change, empowering decision-making related to how the IT portfolio is deployed for the business. This means that the IT pros in the room aren’t the only ones who understand the implications of technology decisions on the business. This helps everyone see the impact and alignment of proposed IT investments or divestments on business capabilities.
Taking it to the next level
A capability-based view of the business offers valuable insights to inform the strategic planning process. This level of enterprise intelligence assists decision-makers and strategic planners in answering critical investment planning questions such as:
1. Where is the business over-invested?
2. Where is the business under-invested?
3. Where is the business at-risk?
4. What business capabilities support corporate goals and strategies?
5. What applications, technology and information support critical business capabilities?
A clear understanding of these questions enables the IT team to be proactive and focus their efforts on providing support for the applications and technology that have the most impact on the business.
Are you ready to assess your place in the capability planning continuum? Download 6 Capability Maps Your Business Will Love to review six typical strategic planning questions and how Troux answers them.
Very few organizations have a systematic and reliable way of translating a business strategy into action across all relevant elements of the organization. Implementing a long-term plan by successive decomposition, design and realization steps is only …
On 23rd September 2014 I had the pleasure of speaking at the IRM UK / IIBA Business Analysis Conference on the topic of Business Architecture. In particular I chose to touch on how we use practical […]
The post A Practical Application of Business Architecture appeared first on Enterprise Architects.
I had an opportunity to attend the Business Architecture Innovation Workshop on 16-17 September 2014 in Austin, TX. Co-sponsored by the Object Management Group (OMG). This was a 2+ day interactive workshop and, yes, recruiting exercise to contribute to the cause. I was not taken back by the second item as this is how we all advance […]
How do we do roadmapping in enterprise-architecture – developing the plan for change, and keeping to that change? How do we adjust to changes in the change itself? A great session on this last week at Vlerick Business School, in…
Recently while hosting one of our Business Architecture Information Sessions I found myself reflecting on how far Business Architecture has come as a profession. I pondered an episode from our past which many would now […]
The post Business Architecture – A Coming Of Age As IIBA Endorses Training appeared first on Enterprise Architects.
Business transformation involves significant changes to all areas of an enterprise. It focuses on the future strategies. These includes strategies, business models, operating models, business processes, information & data, systems, products, business services and channels. These are exactly the deliverables developed by enterprise architecture to understand the current state of an enterprise, to envision and […]
Starting a business architecture practice is definitely hard work, but building a sustainable practice is even harder. The data I am seeing is that 60% of business architecture initiatives are failing. The biggest challenge in moving from startup to sustainable practice is that the enablers for starting and propelling a startup forward are not the […]
Last week I talked about how to get the business to care about Enterprise Architecture. This week I would like to discuss the untold benefits of an Enterprise Data Model as a Reference Architecture for the Connected Enterprise.
What is an Enterprise Da…