What can Business Architects Do for an Organization?
Some business leaders may come up with some brilliant ideas but often times, they lack the ability to successfully implement those ideas. They are not able to think beyond the initial idea and understand how to turn that idea into reality.
Does the idea conflict with established business rules? Will the idea impact existing processes? Did the idea actually produce the expected results? Which product offering will need to be changed? An idea is only as a good as its implementation.
The Business Architect view
Business Architects see the whole picture from the mile-high view down to the minute details. They know how all the pieces of the company fit together. They understand the relationships and expectations between processes, policies, business rules, resources, data, departments and systems. They can identify the impacts and risks of changes. They can apply and align the business goals and strategy across every area of an organization.
Business Architect Interacts with Business Teams
While the Strategist applies the key strategic drivers and creates the action plan, the Business Architect incorporates the strategic plan into the organization. The technology team can deliver the technical side of the solution but it is the Business Architect who defined the solution.
The project lead holds the responsibility to deliver a project effort but it is the Business Architect who defined the project’s vision and scope. The marketing department may build the marketing campaign but after the Business Architect identifies the marketing need.
When Do You Need a Business Architect
When a company consolidates departments or integrates a newly-purchased competitor’s products and systems into the existing infrastructure, the Business Architect is called upon to identify the redundancies, impacts, risks, gaps, inconsistencies and overlaps. When a company is trying to establish a core business framework and vision roadmap, the Business Architect steps in.
When a company needs to coordinate and integrate a strategic approach throughout the entire company, the Business Architect can identify all the impacted areas and expected changes. When a company needs to analyze complex or conflicting company information, the assignment falls onto the desk of the Business Architect.
So what can Business Architects do for your business? A whole lot!
I did not really know much about this as a professional field until now. but now I realize how badly they are needed. Every business owner can benefit from having a business architect in their company.
@ Jerry
Thanks for the vote of support for the profession. Yes, this field and its concepts developed mostly from the need. There are huge benefits to any company that recognizes the value of such a role or department to focus on architecting the business with key strategic drivers in place.