Title: Defining the term "Business Architecture" | BAInstitute.org
Headings: Defining the term "Business Architecture"
Defining the term "Business Architecture"
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Content: Value streams are also commonly used and well understood, for example, in Six Sigma initiatives. Considering the previously parsed terms of architecture and business, choosing value streams as the internal structure and organizing principal, and keeping in mind the context of a Business Architecture in an EA framework, one can develop a BA definition and subject it for review and analysis: The Business Architecture defines the enterprise value streams and their relationships to all external entities, other enterprise value streams, and the events that trigger instantiation. It is a definition of what the enterprise must produce to satisfy its customers, compete in a market, deal with its suppliers, sustain operations, and care for its employees. Using this definition of Business Architecture, the enterprise may now create a strategic initiative to build and use the BA to improve corporate performance. The formality of the Business Architecture may overwhelm some and others may feel it unnecessary. Besides, we have survived so far without one, so why do we need it. After all, an architecture including one of a business seems “too disciplined, too engineering like and too technical” for a business person! Many still prefer the informality of loosely defined diagrams and business models presented in colorful and creative presentations. However, these are mostly useless during the life cycle of a strategic initiative as they provide little “substance beyond the show.”