The task of a Business Architect is a very comprehensive one. Along with his team members that make up a company’s Business Architecture Group, he has several goals to bring about the most effective business solution for the company to achieve its goals and objectives with considerations to all departments that make up an entire organization. How do Business Architects work? Below is a step-by-step process describing how they operate.
They first work by assessing the marketplace in which the company competes, to identify the opportunities and threats looking out five years into the future. “Without a clear idea of what the company is up against, it is impossible to properly validate the corporate strategy and make the appropriate design changes necessary to enable to company compete successfully in that marketplace,” says Paul Arthur Bodine, founder of the Business Architects Association and professor in DePaul University’s high-ranking MBA department in Chicago, Illinois USA.
Secondly, they assess how the business functions and the skillsets it has available. They look into the many aspects of the organization’s daily operations and culture, requiring they have discussions with each department head and subject matter expert. This provides them with the artist’s palette and toolkit they will use to design the business so it can dominate its marketplace.
Thirdly, the Business Architect identifies the gaps in the organization between how they work today and how they need to work tomorrow to be successful.
Fourthly, they create a design for morphing the company from the old design to the new one using an iterative process, evaluating each iteration based on the organization’s expected sustainable profitability and market share.
Fifthly, when relevant changes and strategies are designed and approved by executive management, assignment of duties to each department will then be discussed. Here, how those changes and strategies will be executed will need a single vision and the cooperation of every employee and department in the organization.
Sixthly, the management team is advised by its Business Architecture Group as to whether its current workforce is capable of being successful, or whether additional or different personnel are needed, or whether certain activities are better outsourced. This will include some analysis on the advantages and disadvantages on proceeding with either method.
Seventhly, all the strategies, systems, processes and changes that resulted from the comprehensive analysis of the company are issued to the departments for incorporation into the department’s structure and activities to avoid duplication of tasks and clear out gaps or discrepancies.
Lastly, management is assisted in the construction of key result areas or performance metrics that will help the entire organization see how they are doing and where they are going. In this phase, incentivizing employees potentially becomes a topic for discussion as well for high performing organizations.
A Guide to the Roles of Business Architects in High Performing Business Organizations
Posted by Theo Williams in Business
The task of a Business Architect is a very comprehensive one. Along with his team members that make up a company’s Business Architecture Group, he has several goals to bring about the most effective business solution for the company to achieve its goals and objectives with considerations to all departments that make up an entire organization. How do Business Architects work? Below is a step-by-step process describing how they operate.
They first work by assessing the marketplace in which the company competes, to identify the opportunities and threats looking out five years into the future. “Without a clear idea of what the company is up against, it is impossible to properly validate the corporate strategy and make the appropriate design changes necessary to enable to company compete successfully in that marketplace,” says Paul Arthur Bodine, founder of the Business Architects Association and professor in DePaul University’s high-ranking MBA department in Chicago, Illinois USA.
Secondly, they assess how the business functions and the skillsets it has available. They look into the many aspects of the organization’s daily operations and culture, requiring they have discussions with each department head and subject matter expert. This provides them with the artist’s palette and toolkit they will use to design the business so it can dominate its marketplace.
Thirdly, the Business Architect identifies the gaps in the organization between how they work today and how they need to work tomorrow to be successful.
Fourthly, they create a design for morphing the company from the old design to the new one using an iterative process, evaluating each iteration based on the organization’s expected sustainable profitability and market share.
Fifthly, when relevant changes and strategies are designed and approved by executive management, assignment of duties to each department will then be discussed. Here, how those changes and strategies will be executed will need a single vision and the cooperation of every employee and department in the organization.
Sixthly, the management team is advised by its Business Architecture Group as to whether its current workforce is capable of being successful, or whether additional or different personnel are needed, or whether certain activities are better outsourced. This will include some analysis on the advantages and disadvantages on proceeding with either method.
Seventhly, all the strategies, systems, processes and changes that resulted from the comprehensive analysis of the company are issued to the departments for incorporation into the department’s structure and activities to avoid duplication of tasks and clear out gaps or discrepancies.
Lastly, management is assisted in the construction of key result areas or performance metrics that will help the entire organization see how they are doing and where they are going. In this phase, incentivizing employees potentially becomes a topic for discussion as well for high performing organizations.