More and more organizations are looking for ways to expedite capability mapping efforts – with limited success. Seeking shortcuts to establishing a robust baseline upon which to build business strategies and priorities, drive initiatives, target funding and drive IT architecture has delivered suboptimal results. With so much at stake and so many organizations seeking answers, I would like to say that there is a quick and easy approach to establishing capability maps and other foundational aspects of business architecture.

The title of this article may cause one to think about the “edge” in a “bleeding edge” context in that the Business Architecture (BA) represents a new high risk initiative that will most likely consume vast amounts of corporate resources in order to succeed.  One might consider other similar contexts such as “cutting edge” or “leading edge,” but there is another context to consider as well.  In the 21st Century we live in the Information Age which is sometimes referred to as the Computer Age or Digital Age.  Apart from how one refers to

For a number of years business architecture was considered an art form, the domain of a handful of practitioners and consultants. Debates raged across standards groups and discussion boards over the use of capabilities versus value streams, the role of processes, governance and ownership, and where business architecture ended and IT architecture began. Endless discussion threads pitted one individual’s view against another, often ending in stalemate.