Resources in Business Architecture (BA)

GR: Can you give our Members an example of an organization you worked with where the application of the Business Architecture practice made a difference for them?

SL: A few years ago, I worked as a Business Architecture consultant for a health insurance provider. The insurance business, and health insurance is no different, is driven by rules. For example, if you're in X insurance plan, then you have access to X benefits, you pay X amount in a premium, X amount is your copay, X amount is the maximum limit of what the insurer pays. And, under certain circumstances, you may also have these other benefits such as if you're a woman, then you may have maternity related benefits. And, we may cover X procedures, but only with pre-approval, and if your doctor is in our network then we may cover more, otherwise we cover less.

Gregg Rock interviews Ed Hunt in November 2021.

GR: How does business architecture improve business outcomes?

EH: That’s another very important question, Gregg. Business architecture doesn't define strategy, but it is often a key enabler to enhance and extend it.

In addition to closing gaps in the requirements by using models and to improve communication, business architecture practices enhance and enable the strategy by maximizing the investment in technology. Sometimes that's through establishing common services, understanding that these capabilities can be used and leveraged across the organization, but they also play a critical role in understanding how to apply the new technology in a way that's specific to the operational complexity of this business, in a way that increases operational efficiency, and in a way that drives customer satisfaction.

Gregg Rock interviews Ed Hunt in November 2021.

GR: The question I have for you is, why is business architecture so important to IT delivery?

EH: Well that is obviously an important question. Today's businesses are a collection of independent, complex operations organized to provide value to the customer. And, each business entity is competing within the larger business ecosystem in order to offer a unique value proposition and then remain relevant to the market.

No longer are we just audit using technology to automate existing process document and automate existing processing, we're using it to drive transformation. And, as I like to say the transformed organization, by definition, doesn't exist.

We have to convert from de-scribing to pre-scribing, and that’s the critical role of the business architect.

GR: What do you think the future holds for Business Architecture and what do we have to do to stay in lockstep with the future needs of the organization and the advances we're seeing in technology?

SL: In one of my articles published on the Business Architecture Institute's website, I was making the case that the traditional methods that make up the standard Business Architecture canon, they tend to assume a slow changing, relatively predictable, business environment. A business environment where you don't have major shocks to the system, major external or internal upheavals, essentially an environment that can wait for the business architect to do the architecting.