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