Business Architecture Flashcards
What is Business Architecture ?
A blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organisation and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands
What are the objectives of Business Architecture ?
- Making changes to bring improvement
- Enhance the enterprises capacity to enact transformational change
What are the key artifacts commonly used in business architecture ?
Business model
Business motivation model
Capability map
Value stream map
Functional decomposition
Business Process model
What is a Business Motivation Model ?
The Business Motivation Model (BMM) is a framework developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) for structuring the elements of business plans and aligning them with business strategies. The BMM helps organizations to articulate their business plans and strategies, and to ensure that these are well-aligned with the actual business operations. It provides a structured approach for developing, communicating, and managing business plans in a systematic and coherent manner.
The key components of the Business Motivation Model include:
Ends: These are the desired outcomes or objectives that the organization aims to achieve. Ends are typically divided into two categories:
Vision: The ultimate goal or state that the organization aspires to achieve in the long term.
Goals: Specific targets or milestones that contribute to achieving the vision.
Means: These are the methods, techniques, or actions employed to achieve the desired ends. Means can include:
Mission: The core purpose or role of the organization, which guides its operations and strategy.
Strategies: Broad approaches or plans of action designed to achieve the goals and fulfill the mission.
Tactics: Specific actions or initiatives that are undertaken to implement strategies.
Directives: These are the guidelines, policies, and rules that govern the actions taken within the organization. Directives ensure that the means are applied in a way that is consistent with the organization’s principles and regulatory requirements.
Assessments: These involve evaluating the internal and external factors that could impact the organization’s ability to achieve its ends. Assessments typically include:
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): An evaluation of internal capabilities and external conditions that affect the organization’s performance.
Risk Analysis: Identifying and assessing potential risks that could hinder the achievement of goals.
The BMM helps organizations to ensure that their business strategies and plans are clearly defined, well-communicated, and effectively aligned with their operational activities. It also facilitates adaptability and responsiveness to changing business environments by providing a structured framework for reassessing and adjusting strategies and plans as needed.
What is a Business Capability map ?
A Business Capability Map is a visual representation of what a business does to achieve its objectives, rather than how it does it. Think of it as a blueprint of the organization’s skills and abilities, structured in a hierarchical manner. This map helps in understanding the core functions and processes of a business and how they interrelate, providing a clear, high-level view of the organization’s capabilities.
For a simplified example, consider a fictional online retail company. Its Business Capability Map might be organized into several high-level capabilities such as:
Customer Management
Customer Support
Loyalty Program Management
Customer Feedback Analysis
Product Management
Product Selection and Categorization
Inventory Management
Supplier Management
Order Fulfillment
Order Processing
Shipping and Delivery
Returns and Refunds
Marketing and Sales
Market Research
Advertising and Promotion
Sales Management
Finance and Administration
Financial Planning and Analysis
Human Resources Management
Compliance and Risk Management
Each of these high-level capabilities can be further broken down into more specific capabilities. For instance, “Customer Support” might include capabilities such as “Inquiry Handling,” “Complaint Resolution,” and “Technical Support.”
The map visually arranges these capabilities, often in a tree-like structure, to show how foundational capabilities support more complex ones. This helps stakeholders understand the business at a glance and identify areas for improvement, investment, or innovation.
What is a value stream map ?
A Value Stream Model maps out the key steps involved in delivering a product or service to a customer, highlighting the flow of value through an organization. It identifies the actions that add value, as well as those that do not, aiming to streamline processes, reduce waste, and improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
A value stream model can be used in various ways:
Identifying Waste: By mapping out each step, businesses can easily identify non-value-adding steps (waste) and work on eliminating or minimizing them.
Process Improvement: It helps in understanding the flow of value and can highlight bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the process, offering clear targets for improvement efforts.
Customer Focus: By concentrating on the value-added steps from the customer’s perspective, businesses can ensure they are meeting customer needs and expectations more effectively.
Strategic Planning: Organizations can use value stream models to plan new services or products by mapping out the required steps and resources, ensuring a smooth and efficient flow of value to the customer.
What is a Functional Decomposition Diagram ?
A Functional Decomposition Diagram (FDD) is a tool used to break down complex systems or processes into smaller, more manageable parts. It helps in understanding the system by identifying its constituent components and their relationships. This method is particularly useful in systems analysis, software engineering, and project planning, providing a hierarchical organization of functions that the system performs.
Example of a Functional Decomposition Diagram:
Imagine we’re looking at a simple online bookstore. The top level of the FDD might start with a single function, such as “Operate Online Bookstore.” This top-level function is then decomposed into several high-level functions:
- Customer Management
- Register New Customers
- Manage Customer Accounts
- Customer Support
- Inventory Management
- Catalog Books
- Manage Stock Levels
- Supplier Relations
- Order Processing
- Process Orders
- Payment Processing
- Shipping
- Marketing and Sales
- Promotions and Discounts
- Customer Recommendations
- Advertising
Each of these high-level functions can be further decomposed into more detailed functions. For example, “Process Orders” might include “Verify Stock Availability,” “Calculate Shipping Costs,” and “Generate Invoice.”
An FDD for this example would visually represent these functions in a tree structure, starting with “Operate Online Bookstore” at the top and branching out into the detailed functions at lower levels.
How it’s used:
- Understanding Complex Systems: By breaking down a system into smaller parts, stakeholders can better understand the functions of the system and how they interrelate.
- Identifying Key Functions: It helps in identifying which functions are necessary for the system to operate and can highlight areas that might require more detailed analysis or development.
- Facilitating Communication: An FDD provides a visual representation that can be used to communicate the structure and function of a system to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Guiding Development: In software development or systems engineering, an FDD can guide the development process by outlining the functional requirements and ensuring that all necessary functions are considered and developed.
Functional Decomposition Diagrams are a foundational tool in systems thinking and analysis, helping to clarify complex systems and guide the development and improvement of those systems.
What is a Business Process Model ?
A Business Process Model (BPM) visually represents the steps and activities involved in a business process, showing how tasks are connected and flow from one to the next to achieve a specific business objective. It provides a clear, structured overview of the sequence of actions, decision points, and the flow of information within a process, making it easier to understand, analyze, and improve business operations.
Describe the key activities undertaken by a business architect ?
- In the business change lifecycle
- Analysing a business
- Identifying the need for other architects and specialists
Discuss the business change life cycle in relation to business architecture
Business architects play a pivotal role in guiding and shaping the process of business change within an organization. Their involvement in each stage of the updated Business Change Life cycle is crucial for ensuring that changes are aligned with strategic goals, effectively designed, smoothly implemented, and successful in delivering value. Here’s how business architects contribute to each stage:
- Alignment:
- Strategic Integration:Business architects ensure that the proposed changes are in harmony with the organization’s strategic goals and vision. They help to articulate how the change supports the overall business strategy and contributes to long-term success.
- Stakeholder Engagement:They engage with key stakeholders to gather insights, secure buy-in, and ensure that the change is driven by a shared vision. This includes facilitating discussions to address concerns and align expectations.
- Definition:
- Scope and Objectives Clarification: Business architects work to define the precise scope and objectives of the change initiative. They help in setting clear, achievable goals and identifying the metrics that will be used to measure success.
- Needs Analysis: They conduct thorough analyses to understand the business needs and requirements that the change must address. This involves identifying the capabilities that need to be developed or enhanced and the challenges that must be overcome.
- Design:
- Solution Design: In this stage, business architects are responsible for designing the solutions that will bring about the desired change. This includes creating blueprints for new or improved business processes, organizational structures, and information systems.
- Blueprint Development: They develop comprehensive blueprints and models that detail the future state of the business and the steps required to achieve it. This involves using tools and methodologies like capability-based planning and value stream mapping.
- Implementation:
- Change Management:Business architects play a key role in managing the implementation of the change. They work closely with project managers and implementation teams to ensure that the designs are executed as planned.
- Adaptation and Support: They provide ongoing support and guidance during the implementation phase, helping to resolve issues and make necessary adjustments. This ensures that the change process remains aligned with the original objectives and business strategy.
- Realisation:
- Benefit Realisation: Business architects are involved in measuring the outcomes of the change against the defined metrics and KPIs. They assess whether the change has achieved its intended objectives and delivered the expected value.
- Continuous Improvement: They analyze the results and feedback from the implementation to identify areas for improvement. Business architects recommend adjustments and refinements to optimize the benefits of the change and ensure that it continues to align with evolving business needs.
Throughout the Business Change Lifecycle, business architects act as the bridge between strategy and execution. They ensure that changes are not only strategically aligned but also pragmatically designed and effectively implemented, leading to sustainable improvements and value creation for the organization.
What is a Business Architects role in Analysing a business
Business architects analyze an organization to understand its current state and identify areas for improvement. This involves:
Capability-Based Planning: Identifying and mapping the core business capabilities, which are the fundamental functions or processes that enable an organization to achieve its business objectives. This helps in understanding what the business does and where it can improve or needs to adapt.
Value Stream Mapping: Outlining the key activities, information flows, and material processes required to deliver value to customers. This helps in identifying inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and opportunities for optimization in the delivery of products or services.
What is a Business Architects role in Identifying the need for other architects and specialists
Identifying the Need for Other Architects and Specialists
Business architects often work in tandem with other specialists to address complex challenges that span multiple domains, such as technology, information, and security. Identifying the need for these specialists involves:
Assessment of Gaps: Recognizing areas within the business architecture that require specialized knowledge or skills, which the business architect may not possess.
Collaboration: Working closely with IT architects, data architects, security architects, and other specialists to ensure that all aspects of the business change are aligned and integrated.
Coordinated Planning: Ensuring that the contributions of different specialists are harmonized within the overall business strategy and change initiatives.
Describe the structure and behaviour of a business system.
A business system is a combination of people, processes, information, and technology that interacts to achieve a business objective or goal. It encompasses the organizational structure, operating practices, and the various ways in which information and data flow through the organization to support decision-making and business operations.
Structure of a Business System:
The structure of a business system refers to how it is organized and the relationships between its components. This includes the hierarchy of roles and responsibilities, the arrangement of business units or departments, and the infrastructure of information systems and technology that support business operations.
Behaviour of a Business System:
The behaviour of a business system encompasses the actions and interactions of its components as they work together to perform business functions and processes. This includes how data is processed and used, how decisions are made, and how activities are coordinated and executed to achieve business outcomes.
Components of a Business System:
Actors:
Actors are individuals or entities that interact with the business system. They can be internal (e.g., employees, managers) or external (e.g., customers, partners) to the organization. Actors are the users of the system who perform actions or operations within the system to achieve specific outcomes.
Roles:
Roles refer to the specific responsibilities or functions assigned to actors within the business system. A role defines the expected behavior and actions of an actor in a particular context, often associated with a set of tasks or activities that the actor is responsible for performing.
Functions:
Functions are high-level operations or sets of activities within the business system that are designed to achieve specific objectives or outcomes. Functions often represent major areas of work or responsibility within the organization, such as marketing, finance, or operations.
Processes:
Processes are sequences of activities or steps that are carried out to perform a specific function or achieve a particular result. Processes are more detailed than functions and include the specific tasks, decision points, inputs, and outputs that are involved in carrying out an operation.
Capabilities:
Capabilities are the abilities or capacities of the business system to achieve a desired outcome or perform a specific function. Capabilities are often tied to the combination of people, processes, technology, and information that the organization possesses. They represent what the organization can do to create value or meet its objectives.
Services:
Services are the offerings provided by the business system to its users or customers. Services are typically defined in terms of the value they provide or the needs they meet and can be delivered through a combination of processes, technology, and human interaction.
Information Concepts:
Information concepts refer to the ways in which data and information are structured, managed, and used within the business system. This includes the definition of data models, information flows, data governance practices, and the mechanisms for storing, processing, and accessing data.
Understanding these components and how they interact is crucial for analyzing, designing, and managing effective business systems that can adapt and respond to changing business needs and environments.
