Applying Enterprise Business Architecture

The business architecture has many components and artifacts. They might not all be applicable to every enterprise. The techniques and tools that you will apply in the workshop can be tailored to your specific company's environment. The key is to gain a "good enough" understanding so that you can communicate the benefits of relevant business architecture components and artifacts and know which will provide the biggest business value.

Many of these initiatives will take years to implement while changing the enterprise paradigm to effectively utilize the result. Managers tend to be assigned to these initiatives without the knowledge or skills to make them successful. Be ready for these enterprise initiatives! Assure business value when transitioning from strategy to tactical. Participants will learn to identify the best approach to use based on initiative characteristics and business strategies.

This workshop offers a breadth of topics covering enterprise-wide analysis while drilling down into the business architecture.

• Be a strategic advisor for both business and technology organizations
• Leverage architectural models to bridge business units and technology organizations
• Work with product owners to identify gaps between business capabilities and product roadmaps
• Build a business architecture that meets the needs of your enterprise
• Use techniques and tools to build business architecture components and artifacts
• Define scope of initiatives through the reuse of architectural components
• Identify problems and opportunities using the business architecture
• Justify opportunities and assess feasibility of proposed solutions
• Apply architectural principles to business opportunities
• Capture stakeholder views and business requirements

Course Outline:

I. Business Architecture Organizational Maturity & Roles

Organizational and individual expectations will be set for the workshop. The roles and competencies relevant to the business architecture activities will be discussed. Is your organization ready to support the effort?

• What to expect
• Enterprise support
• Business Architecture Maturity Levels
• Business Architecture Capabilities
• Business Analyst and Architect Synergy
• What Do Architects Do
• More Advanced Competencies
• Activity: Competency Assessment

II. Understand the Enterprise & Business Architecture Key Concepts

The value proposition for building a business architecture and industry best practices will be introduced. This information can also be used to sell the business architecture concept to the enterprise.

• The Shift: Strategic to Tactical
• Part of the Enterprise Architecture
• Benefits of Aligning Architectures
• What is Business Architecture
• Capture the Knowledge in Blueprints
• Build Relationship Maps for Decision Making
• Outcome Driven Business Architecture
• Why Have a Business Architecture?
• Activities: Tactical or Strategic, Selling the Business Architecture

III. Bodies of Knowledge and Frameworks

There are many frameworks that exist that can provide guidance for building the business architecture. But what is out there, what are the benefits and challenges of each and how do I know which combination is right for me? We will provide you with guidance to help you make that decision.

• Frameworks Overview
• Zachman Framework
• TOGAF®
• DODAF
• FEA
• Relevant Bodies of Knowledge
• BABOK®
• BIZBOK®
• Activity: Which Framework to Apply

IV. Common Architectural Building Blocks

There are some common elements to business architectures regardless of the framework that should be considered. We will step through those elements or building blocks.

• Architecture Requirements
• Architecture Boundaries
• Applying the Context Diagram and Solution Views
• Architecture Structure
• Which Components, Relationships and Views
• Modeling Hints and Tips
• Notations and Modeling Languages
• BIZBOK®
• Activities: Stakeholder Views, Building Blocks Reality Check, Name Two Quiz

V. Set the Stage: Understand the Business

Understanding the business is critical to the business architecture’s success. This needed business information can be presented in different ways. We will look at a few of the most common ways this information is or can be captured and used to build your business architecture.

• Needed Inputs to the Business Architecture
• Business Model Canvas and Benefits of Asking Business Model Questions
• Strategy and Benefits of Asking Strategy Questions
• Balanced Scorecard
• Business Operating Model
• Identifying Business Scenarios
• Assess Maturity and Capabilities
• Activities: Applying Business Model & Business Operating Model, True or False Quiz

VI. Create a Roadmap

There is a general approach to creating a business architecture that we will logically step through, but many elements should still be considered to tailor the approach. We will look at both so you can develop your own roadmap to success.

• Architecture Development
• Define Boundaries and Analyze Stakeholders
• Select Components, Frameworks and Notations
• Identify Elicitation, Analysis Techniques and Tools
• Why Approaches Vary
• Create a Business Case
• Present to Management
• Presenting Complex Content
• Activities: Agenda for Future State Model, Challenge Scenario, Prepare for Building

VII. Build the Knowledgebase

• Leverage What You Have – Existing Assets
• Adding More Models and Maps
• Organizational Model
• Functional Decomposition Model
• Swim Lane and Value Streams
• Business Capabilities and Services
• Relationship and Alignment Maps
• Activities: List Business Capabilities, Which Maps, Pick One Quiz

VIII. Use the Business Architecture

• Business Architecture Engagement Model
• Sell to the Enterprise
• Adoption Assessment and Organizational Acceptance
• Get Others to Leverage the Business Architecture
• Quickly Build Trust with Stakeholders
• Be an Advisor, Find Opportunities
• Connect to Tactical Projects
• Reusing Organizational Assets
• Activities: Reuse Examples, Lessons Learned

Who should attend:

Regardless of whether you reside in the business domain or technology domain, if you need an enterprise view of the business and want to assure business' strategies are realized, you need to be in this workshop. Your current role may be a:

• Business Analyst – participates in pre-project initiatives, cross-functional projects, and large complex initiatives.
• Business or Functional Managers - those assigned to take on cross-functional initiatives as a subject matter expert, project manager, or business analyst.
• Product and Process Owners – those who manage the enterprise's products and product lifecycles and want to better understand how business and technology must work together to support those products.
• Program Managers or Project Managers – those who need to drive solutions and assure success for an initiative, especially for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) initiatives.
• Solution Architects – those who look for solutions to resolve enterprise problems.
• Technical Architects (Application, Infrastructure or Information) – those who need the big picture of the enterprise in order to align with the business and be able to clearly communicate associated technology risks and constraints.

You will gain significant skills, techniques and knowledge at the enterprise level that will not only provide value to your company but also improve your own future career opportunities.