Who is a business architect?

Eswar,

> But, what is then the role of business architect - if his role is to
> just help by creating or understanding 'business' information, does
> he/she really involved in business decision making?

I think you query is relevant to all disciplines of Architecture and not just Business Architects. Everywhere I have been and seen, the Architects are not usually the decision makers, although they get deeply involved in the decision making process. The final decision (and responsibility) lies with the domain owners. If you are talking business, the business owners *are* the decision makers. Same applies to technology and other domains. The architect might make decisions, but that would always be on behalf of the domain owners. The architect recommends, along with his justifications based on their understanding. Note that the architect's understanding might not be complete, and they might not be privy to everything.

Also, the architect is not responsible for creating (or implementing) the organisation or any of its systems, and as such is further removed from the responsibility of ownership.

Best regards,
Joseph

On 17 June, 10:44, Eswar Ganesan wrote:

> The reason I have asked this question has an direct impact on the
> 'role of business architect'. The answer seems to be that all these
> combinations of roles I have provided are kind of 'yes' for the role
> of business architect.

> But, what is then the role of business architect - if his role is to
> just help by creating or understanding 'business' information, does
> he/she really involved in business decision making?

> If one is to be involved in business decision making, then there is a
> need to appreciate the business motivation - the row 1 of Zachmann.
> How can a business architect be able to model or identify business
> strategy has he not participated in strategy formulation or corporate
> planning and be able to drive business needs?

> Is business architect, just a consultant who cannot make decisions and
> is there only to provide the information the business management and
> operating team would like to have leading them to create informed
> decision making? This question might answer who can be a good business
> architect.

> Regards,
> Eswar

> On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 7:39 AM, Douglas Erickson wrote:
> > Wrong! Enterprise Architecture is the discipline of defining, designing,
> > and constructing the infrastructure for an enterprise. This includes the
> > the data, business processes to be performed, the geographic and
> > organizational structure of the enterprise, etc. An Enterprise Architect is
> > a person who is knowledgeable, skilled, and has expertise indefining,
> > designing, and developing and Enterprise. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE HAS NEVER
> > BEEN ABOUT JUST THE TECHNOLOGY INFRASTUCTURE OF AN ENTERPRISE. That would
> > be, at best, an Information Technology Architect, or just a Technology
> > Architect which would only deal with Rows 3-5, of Column 3 of the Zachman
> > Enterprise Framework.

> > A Business Architect, if there is such a thing is the operating management
> > of the enterprise, the decision-makers, planners, etc.

> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Steve Cohen
> > To: the-enterprise-architecture-network@googlegroups.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 7:15 PM
> > Subject: Re: Who is a business architect?
> > In my opinion a Business Architect is someone who helps structure the
> > business (operating model, organizational structure, sizing, etc) to best
> > meet the already defined corporate / SBU / BU strategy - including making
> > best use of the software tools available.

> > An Enterprise Architect structures the technology to best enable the
> > business architecture.

> > Their background can come from multiple places

> > Eswar Ganesan said the following on 6/16/2009 9:08 AM:

> > Hi,
> > I have the following questions:
> > 1) Is BA is a person who has considerable amount of experience (more
> > than 10 years) in business decision making - have been part of
> > strategy development and corporate planning and finally turned out to
> > be architect advising/consulting EA initiatives of organizations?
> > 2) Is BA is Business Analyst turned Architect (more like technical
> > analyst/system analyst turned IT Architect) over a standard amount of
> > experience (5 + years) in business analysis, requirements engineering
> > and process modeling?
> > 3) Is BA is a "management consultant" who has knowledge/capabilities
> > on helping organizations/business units decide their strategic
> > objectives; a person with considerable amount (5+ years) of experience
> > in appreciating business motivation (goal/objective/strategy/tactics),
> > business situation (market trends, economic conditions etc) and
> > business project management?
> > 4) Is he a IT project manager turned BA over a considerable amount of
> > experience (12+years) in handling multiple IT projects/application
> > releases? A person who can appreciate business needs and IT delivery?
> > 5) An EA who has performed business architecture, application
> > architecture, information architecture and technology architecture for
> > a considerable amount of time (10 + years) and currently consults for
> > BA?
> > 6) Or simply a BA is an internal resource of the organization who is
> > groomed by the EA program or participated heavily on business decision
> > making and corporate planning as well financial planning functions?
> > Who is Business Architect..........
> > Regards,
> > Eswar

Response: Culture Board paper

Culture Board paper, Ian Marchant blog post dt 09/06/2009
...



Feedback in response to Ian's Blog

Post Title - Culture Board paper
Date Posted - 09/06/2009
Name: Joseph George
Department: Technical Solutions
Location: Havant
Comments:

Ian,

"This paper seeks to update the Board... and provide some answers"

Undoubtedly, this is a step in the right direction. You say, this is what we want to project to the Board or (perhaps, more importantly) to our customers. But, I feel that would be an end result of proper implementation of what our company projects to our own employees and how we seek to ingrain the right values and culture within our company. Your statement, "This represents if you like, a view from the top...", tells me that this is probably what you are being told. I appreciate you being frank, but I have come to the sad conclusion that this view is not completely true! I hear many conflicting and very opposing views.

How do we truly find out for ourselves what our key employees (ones that are our hands and feet) feel of our company walking this talk? If you, sitting at the very top, ask someone, how would you know that you are not being fed with spin? Being surrounded with "yes" men (almost inevitable) is the beginning of the end for most great leaders.

May I refer you to a blog (not mine) post below:

<snip>

Leadership as ‘Intentional Influence’
by George Ambler on Monday, June 15, 2009

The article “Leadership: Intentional Influence” from BusinessWeek provide an interesting discussion on the topic of leadership. Research by the company VitalSmarts uncovered the following key insights that help to understand why few leaders are able to exert influence.

1. Leaders act as if it’s not their job to address entrenched habits.
“Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products, and engaging with analysts, shareholders, and major customers. But few realize the success or failure of their grand schemes lies in influencing the behavior of the hundreds or thousands of people who will have to execute the big ideas — their employees.

2. Leaders lack a theory of influence.
“Very few leaders can even answer the question, "How do you change the
behavior of a large group of people?" And yet, this is what they’re
ultimately paid to do. It isn’t just about making a decision; it’s about
getting people aligned to execute the decision. And this means
influence….”

3. Leaders confuse talking with influencing.
“Many leaders think influence consists of little more than talking people into doing things… Anyone who’s ever tried to talk a smoker into quitting knows there’s a lot more to behavior change than words…”

4. Leaders believe in silver bullets.
“When leaders actually attempt to influence new behavior, it’s common for them to look for quick fixes—to fall into the trap of thinking that deeply ingrained bad habits can be changed with a single technique. The failure mode is to rely on any single approach…”

</snip>

PS: I sincerely hope that I come across as sounding positively hopeful, rather than negatively critical. We have managers at all rungs across our corporate hierarchy, and my comments are not a reflection of my perception of you. Personally, I find you to be one of the most open and receptive CEOs that I have worked with, which encourages me to continue posting my challenging thoughts to you.

Kind regards,
Joseph

Response: What's your policy idea?

What's your policy idea?, Ian Marchant blog post dt 15/06/2009
...

Feedback in response to Ian's Blog

Post Title - What's your policy idea?
Date Posted - 15/06/2009
Name: Joseph George
Department: Technical Solutions
Location: Havant
Comments:

Ian,

I would propose a tiered tariff, much like the tax bands, but more. The lowest band would have the least cost per unit, and the upper bands would have progressively higher unit costs. This would mean that someone would pay much more for the 1000th unit than what he would pay for the 1st unit.

Currently, we (the industry) penalise low users with a standing charge load.

Kind regards,
Joseph

From: Ian Marchant
To: Joseph George
Date: 25/06/2009 16:50
Subject: Re: What's your policy idea?
Sent by: Eilidh Marshall

Joseph

We have been discussing this concept - so called rising block tariff with Ofgem and Government for some time now and one day I expect we will be successful.

Ian

Response: Why SSE exists

Why SSE exists, Ian Marchant blog post dt 09/06/2009
...

Feedback in response to Ian's Blog

Post Title - Why SSE exists
Date Posted - 30/04/2009
Name: Joseph George
Department: Technical Solutions
Location: Havant
Comments:

Ian,

Thank you so much for letting us have your speech. Your 10 Commandments (sorry Recommendations) touched a chord, particularly the (1st Commandment) statement: "We are not interested in getting people to use more of our product. It’s about selling them what they need – not what they can be persuaded they want." This reminded me of one of my enterprise architecture (internet peer group) forum conversations in Jan this year. I will reproduce some snippets of my comments from that conversation below:

<snip>

I don't agree that "business is about making money" only. A few months ago, I would have been hard pressed to explain this. Look at the financial hotch-potch around you. If making money is the sole reason for a business, that will eventually destroy the economy.

Business is about providing a service and realising a value for it, not all in monetary terms either, but much of it so. Making money is tangential. A business justifies its existence in the Food-Chain by value-adding, and not by removing some existing ones. I would challenge even those people who say that their only reason for living is to make money. They perhaps do not realise that they might want to be happy too, as also to want to safely spend that money they have made not by losing it on some other greedy (criminal?) money making business, destroying the economy, society and associated eco-systems.

</snip>

<snip>

I do stand by my previous statement, as I have explained, and will happily explain again. However, I was not talking about a "green" company or a charity or some sort of voluntary organisation. If we look at the values or the mission statement of any commercial company worth its salt, we might notice that none of them put making money at the top of their list.
I would be happy to be proven wrong. Please don't get me wrong... I am not against making money, or have that as an objective. Money is important!
What am against is making money the sole objective or mission, as that leads to overiding any values or morals, which would otherwise be a decision making factor. It is not sustainable...

For this reason, I don't consider working for some industries... Perhaps that is my wishful thinking. But I don't wish to contribute to any nefarious business actively (overtly or covertly) going about destroying what people live for.

</snip>

I believe your speech should be released to all our employees via their manager's team-brief, and let everyone digest these. I don't think every employee is able to read your blog.

Kind regards,
Joseph

Response: Green tea flavoured kit kats...

Green tea flavoured kit kats..., Ian Marchant blog post dt 08/04/2009
...

Feedback in response to Ian's Blog

Post Title - Green tea flavoured kit kats...
Date Posted - 08/04/2009
Name: Joseph George
Department: Technical Solutions
Location: Havant
Comments:

Ian,

Interesting to hear you talk about Japan just been 'open' and its global phenomenal brands. Most large Japanese brands are loosely defined group holding concerns, something probably like our SSE, with many independent businesses in their fold. About 7 years ago, I used to work for NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone), which was 'the largest company' in the world in early 90s. NTT is still the largest telecoms company in the world. Many of its clients were (most still are) some of the largest companies in their industry. And Japan being one of the smallest countries in the world, totally destroyed after the War, says something...

Bowing is culturally akin to our shaking hands, and they do it so much, that I was almost doing the same, with friends and family when I would come back home. Did you happen to see the food-range served by McDonalds? :-)

Thanks for keeping us updated with your experiences.

Kind regards,
Joseph

From: Ian Marchant
To: Joseph George
Date: 15/04/2009 15:05
Subject: Re: Green tea flavoured kit kats...
Sent by: Moira Kerr

Joseph

I'm afraid I dined in Macdonalds which was largely traditional Mac fare.

Ian

From: Joseph George
To: Ian Marchant
Date: 15/04/2009 15:53
Subject: Re: Green tea flavoured kit kats...

Ian,

McDonald's Japan (a few years ago at least) also served Mega Teriyaki, an extra large (four beef!) Big Mac, Mega Tomato Mac, McPork, Ebi Filet-O (shrimp burgers), Koroke Burger (mashed potato, cabbage and katsu sauce, all in a sandwich), Ebi-Chiki (shrimp nuggets) and (your favourite) Green Tea-flavored milkshake! :-)

Kind regards,
Joseph