Organizations have grown so complex in recent years
that it is difficult to visualize or understand how all of the parts fit together.
 

At the same time, executives want to reshape and transform
their organizations to be more competitive and more customer centric.
 

This requires that executives across business units
view issues and solutions from a shared, enterprise-wide perspective.

Business Architecture maps and documents
the essence of the enterprise.

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Visualizing a business through architectural disciplines is not entirely new. Creating a business-friendly framework that allows business professionals to visualize and transform organizations, however, is a groundbreaking achievement!

 

Business architecture is a blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands.

The most important aspect of business architecture is enabling business executives, managers and professionals to take ownership and drive enterprise transformation, a role that has oftentimes been delegated by default to IT. Historically, the term “enterprise architecture” has a tendency to turn off business professionals because they immediately assume that the concept is an IT focused creation. This is not an indictment of IT but rather a call to action for business executives to take ownership of business architecture and related business transformation strategies. The decisions that are made today can make or break organizations going forward into a complex, uncertain future.

Make no mistake. This is not a book about IT, but a book for business professionals who want to address difficult challenges across enterprises that have become bewildering monoliths of complexity. If business executives did not understand the value of business architecture before, they will be skeptics no more. This book puts the business back in the driver’s seat when it comes to setting strategy, crystallizing a vision and turning that vision into bottom line business value.
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Business architecture is changing how we transform organizations and Ulrich and McWhorter’s new book will change how you think about business architecture. As businesses continue to apply business architecture to a wide variety of business challenges, this powerful discipline is gaining traction in executive suites across a variety of industries.

In Business Architecture: The Art and Practice of Business Transformation, Ulrich and McWhorter introduce powerful transformation concepts in business-friendly terms. Drawing from a wealth of practical experience, the authors provide a practical, soup-to-nuts guide for executives and practitioners as well as novices and experts. Organizations just getting introduced to business architecture will find this work invaluable. Organizations with business architecture programs already in place can use this book to take their work to the next level.

Focusing on business value, Ulrich and McWhorter weave together a compelling case for business architecture as a must-have for executives and managers. They also provide a practical guide to practitioners that includes new and unique ways to visualize your business, practical transformation concepts, powerful new business engagement models and scenario-based deployment approaches. Whether you are actively engaged in business architecture or just getting started, this book will allow you to take your efforts to the next level. Either way, the 21st century enterprise is about to take a new turn and this book leads the way.
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Table of Contents

YOUR PLAN OF ACTION

INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 19

ONE
WHY BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE MATTERS ............................ 25

AN EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: THE TITANIC STORY ................................ 27

A PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVE:
MAN THE LIFEBOATS OR REARRANGE THE DECK CHAIRS................... 31

SORTING THROUGH THE MAZE OF REDUNDANT, FRAGMENTED
BUSINESS INFRASTRUCTURES ..................................................................... 33

ENDING THE CYCLE OF FAILED MULTI-YEAR INITIATIVES .................... 37

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE HELPS REFOCUS STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS ... 39

STOP RECREATING THE WHEEL ON EVERY INITIATIVE.......................... 42

PRIMITIVE DEPLOYMENTS OF BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE........................ 44

CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THE BUSINESS
IN BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE...................................................................... 45

VISUALIZING THE BUSINESS THROUGH BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE........ 49

MAPPING THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE.......................................................... 53

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE, IT ARCHITECTURE AND
ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE ..................................................................... 55

CURRENT STATE VS. FUTURE STATE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE............. 56

A FRAMEWORK FOR BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE......................................... 57

WHAT’S NEXT?................................................................................................ 58

TWO
THE TRANSPARENT ENTERPRISE............................................. 61

THE NEED FOR VISIBILITY............................................................................ 63

WHEN VISIBILITY BREAKS DOWN:
THE HYATT REGENCY CROWN CENTER DISASTER .............................. 65

EXISTING LEVELS OF TRANSPARENCY ARE NOT ENOUGH .................... 67

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRANSPARENCY.................................................... 70

THE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE DASHBOARD............................................. 73

BEHIND THE DASHBOARD:
THE BUSINESS ARTIFACT KNOWLEDGEBASE.......................................... 76

PURSUING BUSINESS AIMS: APPLYING THE KNOWLEDGEBASE .............. 78

EXERCISING THE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE DASHBOARD ...................... 81

BEYOND THE DASHBOARD:
COMMON BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE VISUALIZATIONS ..........................83

SHIFTING FROM OPERATIONAL TO STRATEGIC DASHBOARDS................87

THREE
BUILDING THE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE TEAM...............89

THE BUSINESS ARCHITECT.............................................................................91

THE BUSINESS ARCHITECT VS. THE BUSINESS ANALYST ...........................95

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE................................96

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE COE ACCOUNTABILITY & OWNERSHIP ........97

COMMONLY APPLIED BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
ORGANIZING CONCEPTS............................................................................. 100

IDEAL BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE....... 104

THE AGILE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE ENGAGEMENT MODEL............ 107

THE MULTI-DIVISIONAL COE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE........... 109

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE:
TEAMING WITH BUSINESS UNITS, IT & EXTERNAL ENTITIES............ 114

FOUR
BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE AND
IT ARCHITECTURE ALIGNMENT..............................................121

A BUSINESS-DRIVEN APPROACH TO IT ARCHITECTURE STRATEGY.... 123

ALIGNING BUSINESS AND IT STRATEGY
VIA BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE ................................................................. 124

THE BUSINESS - IT COMMUNICATION & LANGUAGE GAP.................... 127

REFOCUSING THE ENTERPRISE ON BUSINESS-DRIVEN IT STRATEGY...... 128

ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY ... 131

A QUICK PRIMER ON IT ARCHITECTURE.................................................. 133

VISUALIZING IT ARCHITECTURE FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE ...... 136

SYNCHRONIZED, BUSINESS-DRIVEN BUSINESS AND IT ALIGNMENT.. 144

ARCHITECTURE-DRIVEN MODERNIZATION &
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION................................................................... 154

BUSINESS AND IT ARCHITECTURE ALIGNMENT SUMMARIZATION ...... 159

FIVE
BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE IN PRACTICE ...............................161

A PARABLE..................................................................................................... 163

WHAT MAKES A PROBLEM PROBLEMATIC? .............................................. 164

ASPECTS OF A BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE.................................................. 165

CAPABILITY-BASED ANALYSIS & INVESTMENT ....................................... 166

MERGER & ACQUISITION PLANNING & DEPLOYMENT ......................... 168

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ANALYSIS............................................... 174

SHIFT TO CUSTOMER CENTRICITY ............................................................. 180

NEW PRODUCT AND SERVICE ROLLOUT .................................................. 181

NEW BUSINESS LINE INTRODUCTION....................................................... 182

STREAMLINING THE SUPPLY CHAIN .......................................................... 184

OUTSOURCING A BUSINESS CAPABILITY................................................... 185

DIVESTING A LINE OF BUSINESS................................................................ 186

CHANGE MANAGEMENT ............................................................................. 187

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE ....................................................................... 188

OPERATIONAL COST REDUCTION ............................................................. 189

GLOBALIZATION........................................................................................... 191

ADDRESSING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION ............................................. 191

SIX
GETTING STARTED WITH BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE.......193

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE VALUE PROPOSITION .................................... 195

ENGAGEMENT MODELS AND DEPLOYMENT TEAMS.............................. 199

ROADMAP DEPLOYMENT ............................................................................ 203

CARE AND FEEDING OF
THE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE KNOWLEDGEBASE .............................. 210

TECHNOLOGY TOOL GUIDELINES FOR BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE...... 213

SEVEN BUILDING BLOCKS OF BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE ...................... 216

INDEX ................................................................................................221

ABOUT THE AUTHORS................................................................. 226

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WILLIAM ULRICH is President of TSG, Inc. and management consultant specializing in business architecture and business and IT alignment. Ulrich has worked with hundreds of large corporations and government agencies over his 30 plus year career. This is his fifth book with his last publication being Information Systems Transformation (2010). Ulrich is Co-founder of the Business Architecture Guild, Co-chair of the OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group and OMG Architecture-Driven Modernization Task Force, Editorial Director of the Business Architecture Institute and member of the Penn State Enterprise Architecture Advisory Group. Ulrich is also a Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant. He travels, publishes and speaks extensively and is based in Northern California.

NEAL MCWHORTER is a Principal with Enterprise Agility and helps organizations improve their ability to deliver new business capabilities and business applications through the use of Business Architecture, Business Process and Business Rules techniques. As a frequent presenter at industry conferences, he has authored numerous white papers and articles in the areas of business architecture, business process analysis and business rules management. He provides mentoring and leadership services to Fortune 1000 clients in the areas of requirements analysis, rules-driven business process management and business process transformation. McWhorter is Co-founder of the Business Architecture Guild and co-chairs the OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group.