This article is based on the workshop run by Victoria Banner and Jonathan Hunsley at the BA Manager Forum in June 2024.

In 2020 we held a workshop at the BA Manager Forum – Business Architecture and Business Analysis. This workshop addressed the lack of clarity regarding the Business Architect role and how this role should collaborate with the Business Analyst. The session included case study input from the Bank of England.

There was positive feedback from that session and feedback that delegates enjoyed the debate and took away a clearer understanding of the role and responsibilities. So, we decided to revisit the topic, with a focus on the Business Architecture career path, toolkit and services.

Business Architecture: The Data

A good starting point is to look at the Data. There are some fairly static data points over the past 10 years. For example: around 72% of Business Architects are male (a slight shift from 80% in 2010); over 60% of Business Architects are aged over 40; Business Architects usually work in large organisations with over 10,000 employees with a fairly even split between the private and public sector; and most have a degree. The Data is sourced from US recruitment experts Zippia.

This Data tells us that there’s a level of experience required and a history of people following different career paths to the Business Architect role. Some progress first as a Business Analyst, some follow a route from Developer Programmer through to Solution Architect, others come from Consultancy roles.

The Business Architect role is varied and interesting. The role offers a broad experience leading to many different opportunities – some Business Architects move on to leadership roles, or even into ‘multi-hat’ roles in Start-Ups. 
Business Architects are well paid. According to IT Jobs Watch the median UK salary in 2023   was £70,000 with the median London salary £90,000.
 

How are Business Architects Deployed? 

There are a variety of different ways in which Business Architects can be deployed. For example, they might sit alongside Service Designers and Business Analysts, sit within a team of Enterprise Architects or work independently. There are no rights or wrongs.  

Here are some of the comments from workshop delegates relative to the way that Business Architects are deployed in different ways within their organisations: 

No recognised Business Architecture Team

Pros

• Zero constraints on the way in which business architecture is practiced within the organisation
• Provides an opportunity for business analysts 
• Less bureaucracy than in comparison to heavily governed environments 

Cons

• Inconsistent approach towards business architecture practice
• Lack of awareness of the business architecture role and its potential value
• Limited alignment between business architecture and strategy
• Limited alignment between change delivery roadmap/initiatives and business architecture

Business Architecture Team embedded within a Business Analysis Team 

Pros

• Supports the provision of a consistent approach for business analysis and business architecture services
• Helps to increase the visibility of business analysts 
• Provides opportunities for business analysts to develop skill, knowledge and experience of business architecture
• Provides a foundation for increased collaboration between business architects and business analysts (including taking work from a strategic level down through to more detailed levels)  
• Enables both business architects and business analysts to become involved earlier in the change and investment decisioning lifecycles

Cons

• Some business analysts may struggle to conduct work at a strategic level 
• Stakeholders may be confused regarding the difference between business analysis and business architecture

Business Architecture Team embedded within an Enterprise Architecture (EA) Team within a wider IT Function

Pros

• Supports the provision of a consistent approach towards business architecture and other enterprise architecture services 
• Provides a foundation for increased collaboration between business architects and other enterprise architects (including data, applications and infrastructure architects)  
• Enables business architects and other enterprise architects to become involved earlier in the change lifecycle

Cons

• Leads to a perception that Business Architects are IT focussed (as opposed to holistic) 
• Stakeholders may be confused regarding the difference between business architecture and other domains of enterprise architecture

Independent Business Architecture Team

Pros

• Provides a consistent approach towards the delivery of business architecture services 
• Enables objective oversight of change and investment decisions 
• Enables the creation of specialist business architecture skill and knowledge 
• Provides a potential foundation for strategic alignment

Cons

• Leads to role ambiguity and potential friction between business analysts, service designers, enterprise architects and business architects 
• Limited communication and collaboration between business architects and other roles

Department or Function Aligned Business Architecture Team

Pros

• Supports the development of department aligned business architecture skill, knowledge and experience 
• Enables greater collaboration and communication between business architects and department aligned stakeholders  

Cons

• Leads to a departmental view of business architecture (as opposed to a holistic view) 
• Limited communication and collaboration between business architects aligned with other departments

Workshop delegates discussed openly how they felt that the Business Architect role is behind the BA role in terms of maturity, of business understanding and of appreciation of the role.

Business Skills and Job Descriptions 

SFIA (The Skills Framework for the Information Age) has become the globally accepted common language for skills and competencies. It is worth using the SFIA framework for the Business Architect role.

Business Architecture Services  

The Business Analysis Service Framework (from Debra Paul’s Doctoral research and in the book ‘Delivering Business Analysis’ by Debra Paul and Christina Lovelock) is the start point for the definition of the BA role. The BA role can take many forms, but the framework is a basis for services offered by a BA team.

You can use the same logic to look at the services offered by Business Architects. 

The Business Architecture Service Framework provides a foundation from which to discuss and obtain common understanding of the Business Architecture role.  The framework is the result of years of research, it has evolved from in depth discussions from seasoned Business Architects.  

The new Business Architecture Service Framework is a base framework to start a discussion about what Business Architects are doing and not doing. Some Business Architects will offer all the identified services, others will offer different services. 

Comparing the Business Analyst and Business Architect roles

The purpose of this visual is to help you think about the differences and overlaps between the Business Analyst and Business Architect roles. This provides a way to start to frame who is doing what – it provides a basis for clarity and collaboration so that we can focus on getting on with the important task of creating and delivering change.  
The framework can be used as a starting point to discuss the strategy, standards and best practices for each service delivered.  

Example Business Architecture Techniques

This is just a snapshot of Business Architecture techniques, there are many more. Some of the techniques are Business Analysis techniques. 

Business Architecture Services Used 

Workshop delegates were asked ‘Which Business Architecture services are used in your organisation?’ Here are some of the responses:

“We felt that the areas where Business Architecture services overlap with BA services are highly matured. Strategic Roadmap development was not always a mature service. The least mature Business Architecture services in our organisation are Governance and Blueprint, these skills should be more central. In general our Business Architects leave the BAs to provide the services where they overlap.” 

“For my company we try to make use of Business Architects and their skills be we do not make use of all of the services well, there are different levels. There is no Situation Investigation carried out by Business Architects, the BAs do that. In some areas there is no Roadmap and no co-creation of value. Sometimes Business Architects create a Roadmap but nobody does anything with it.  

“The POPIT technique is big for Business Architects and for BAs too. We have a lot of Customer Journey work going on, more of a logical process. The problem is when Customer Journeys are not linked back to the capability model. So we can have a Roadmap and a Capability Model but they are not looked at together so we can’t see if there is a gap, everyone is doing own thing.” 

We are looking for case studies on the adoption of Business Architecture in different organisations, for inclusion in a forthcoming BCS publication ‘Business Architecture’. If you think that you could contribute, please contact Jonathan.hunsley@assistkd.com.