As we continue the discussion on the business architecture perspective, let us look at how this perspective is related to the business analysis scope.
There are some stakeholders that are important to the success of the business architectural initiative and they include:
1 Change Sponsor: this is usually a senior executive or business owner within the organization. But based on the scope of the initiative they could also be a mid level manager.
2 Change Targets: The results of a business architectural initiative could lead to some changes in the organization. Some of those aspects affected by these changes might include the following:
- Business capabilities.
- Business value streams.
- Initiative plans.
- Investment decisions.
- Portfolio decisions.
Business architecture can be used by anybody in the organization but they are usually used by the following people:
- Senior management.
- Product owners.
- Operational units.
- Solution architects.
- Project managers.
- business analysts.
3 Business Analyst Position: The business analyst working in the business architecture environment has the following responsibilities:
- They should understand the enterprise,all its components and their relationships.
- They should provide a complete view of all the different units within the organization.
Business architecture provides a range of models of the organization. These models, or blueprints, provide a comprehensive view of the organization and they serve as an input into the strategic decisions made by the organization leaders.
To develop the business architecture, the business analyst must understand, and align a wide range of strategic needs.
To do the business analyst needs skills, and knowledge such as :
- Business strategy and goals.
- Conceptual business information.
- Enterprise IT architecture.
- Process architecture.
- Business performance and intelligence architecture.
4 Business Analysis Outcomes: the business architecture provides a comprehensive view which is used in the analysis of the organization.
The results of the business architecture include the following:
- Strategy alignment.
- Change planning in the execution of strategy.
- Implementing the change.
These outcomes are used for requirements planning, analysis, prioritization, estimation, and system design.
Architectural blueprints clarify information and eliminates the duplication of efforts which might otherwise occur in creating capabilities, systems, or information that might already exist in the enterprise.
The key deliverables of business architecture include, but are not limited to the following:
- Business capability maps.
- Value stream maps.
- Organization maps.
- Business concepts.
- High-level process architecture.
- business models.