Gregg Rock interviews Ed Hunt in November 2021.

GR: How does business architecture assist organizations from strategy to execution?

Gregg Rock interviews Ed Hunt in November 2021.

GR: ED, you brought up a great topic the other day when we were speaking and I thought we’d circle back to share that information with our community. We were talking about the essential elements to enable execution, and you described it as three legs of a stool—can you explain that concept to our members?

EH: If you look at what it what it takes to execute a complex digital transformation, organizations understand and appreciate the need for technical architects. We’re using new tools, and we need experts in those technologies—that’s been the case for 40+ years now. And, organizations have deep capability in program management—they understand that resources have to be managed, schedules have to be aligned, risks have to be managed—but in too many organizations, the focus on business architecture is the gap, which is the third leg of the stool.

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.

Gregg Rock interviews Ed Hunt in November 2021.

GR: Ed, how would you explain business architecture to somebody that’s just coming, brand new, to the space?

EH: That’s a great question. The BA Institute defines business architecture in a very important way: It’s a holistic view of the enterprise, it’s not just the one part, but the whole thing. And that view integrates and aligns capabilities and the BA Institute’s defines capabilities as people, process, tools, and information.

What’s important about business architecture is that it uses models and blueprints of the business to facilitate decision making and help an organization take their strategy from vision, all the way through to execution.

Business architecture also enables the key stakeholders across the organization, at all levels, to align the purpose, mission, vision, strategy, and execution and the models are the tools that make that happen.