Title: The business architect role is vital to business process transformation
Headings: The business architect role is vital to business process transformation
The business architect role is vital to business process transformation
If you have not yet heard the term "business architect", you soon will, write John Rymer and Alexander Peters of Forrester Research. Whether business architects report into the business or IT, this emerging role will help usher in organisations' transition from IT to business technology (BT).
Recognising the need for a business architect
Independent role for business architects
Previous Forrester articles in the series:

Content: Working with the firm's most senior business process executive - the change agent - and senior business stakeholders, the business architect plays a key part in shaping and fostering continuous improvement and business transformation initiatives. No matter what the industry, business process professionals need an effective architecture for the business process management (BPM) projects that make up the business change programme. Working as the right hand of the business process change agent, the business architect takes the lead in developing that architecture. The business architect fleshes out the business model - often referred to as the target operating model - describing the need for business technology (BT) across the organisation and the role that process plays. Business architects typically have deep business knowledge, essential for today's BPM transformation initiatives. Specifically, they must have comprehensive knowledge of large-scale, cross-functional processes - such as supply chain management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), finance, or customer resource management (CRM) - or extensive experience with core, strategic line-of-business processes. Business architects must not only see the big picture when looking across multiple process improvement initiatives, they must also have business strategy talents, wide-ranging process discipline skills in methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma, and technology know-how. Business architects have a rare combination of business domain knowledge, process experience, transformation talents, methodology skills, and a winning personality that helps with communication and business change management. Sign up to Computer Weekly to download more research and reports on business analysts and enterprise architecture: Business analyst skillset well-suited to change management
Boost business analyst performance with eight key competencies
World-class enterprise architecture
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF™ 9) and the US Department of Defense Architecture Framework
Supporting requirements management in TOGAF
Governance in IT and architecture - TOGAF
Forrester believes that the business architect role is vital to organisations pursuing BPM programmes.