Versatile business architect

This post focuses on how to become a versatile business architect and be a center of contribution in an enterprise. Business architect of the 2020s and beyond has to not only master the art and craft of business architecture but also be a versatile contributor. Call it a shapeshifter or a Swiss army knife; business architects must add value on multiple fronts and play a role beyond the functional definition. (Please go here to read about the roles and responsibilities of a business architect.)

Of course, some core deliverables, such as a capability model, value stream maps, and other templates, are essential.

To be versatile, business architects should not confine themselves to drawing boxes and arrows and developing models and artifacts. Instead, a strategic business architect leverages the foundational toolkit of business architecture and fashion outcomes to advantage the enterprise.

Versatile Business Architect: Why is there a need to evolve beyond the primary role?

  1. The pace and complexity of enterprise transformation are unprecedented.
  2. Let’s build it; they will come is not a winning strategy.
  3. The perceived value of enterprise and business architecture is trending down in many companies.
  4. The discipline of business architecture is abstract, and leaving the job of conveying value to the artifacts is not a prudent course of action.
  5. Rewards tend to flow to teams and individuals who move the needle, and to move the needle; business architecture has to be the glue that binds disparate parts of the enterprise.
  6. On a personal level, becoming valuable and indispensable is the only way to secure your current position and aspire for higher jobs.

How to Become a Versatile Business Architect?

The successful business architect in the 2020s corporate world will bring many facets of themselves. In particular:

  1. Strategy Whisperer:

Enterprise business strategy setting is a complicated endeavor, particularly in light of the rapid shifts in globalization, technology, competitive landscape, markets, and customer preferences. Even after the C-Suite creates the strategy, much clarification, elaboration, connections, and coherence are missing. This is the classic strategy for the execution gap.

A future-forward business architect will understand, clarify, elaborate, and connect strategy to execution. Using business capabilities and value streams along with concepts such as the business motivation model (BMM), business architects can structurally, visually, and cogently build the details of how the strategy will be executed.

This is not about developing initiative plans and programs but aligning strategy and execution at an elemental level to make sense from leaders to workers, from strategists to operators.

  1. Transformation Accelerator:

Today, companies are striving (or struggling) to compete with digital natives and are embarking on significant, mission-critical digital transformation endeavors.

Unlike past transformation programs, digital transformation combines a significant shift in strategy, operating model, culture, technology, and customer orientation.

Business architecture, spearheaded by the versatile business architects of tomorrow, can propel digital transformation by identifying the foundational building blocks and relating them together at capability, process, strategic, and operational levels.

Even in a transformation’s “Soft” components, a business architect can exert influence with thought leadership and collaborative skills.

  1. Business-Technology Bridge Builder:

One of the primary values of business architecture (and thus business architects) is to translate the business “What” for other teams to fathom and deliver. As experts have rightly pointed out, a capability model is the Rosetta Stone of business-technology alignment.

The clarity and coherence of business architecture artifacts help technology teams go beyond band-aid fixes and focus on evolving the capabilities to the next level and thus focus on long-term optimal solutions.

  1. Agile Modeler:

One of the relics of the past is the perception that business architecture takes too long and is also focused on building deliverables rather than focusing on outcomes. But, unfortunately, months and months spent creating artifacts are not the way of the future. 

Instead, a 2020s business architect must become an agile modeler, delivering incremental value and iterative deliverables that are purpose-fit for the evolving needs of an enterprise.

For example, if the firm is considering adding artificial intelligence capabilities, there is no point in waiting for a whole set of artifacts. Instead, think about the core capabilities subject to impact/change from cognitive technologies and then model the associated capabilities, the value streams, and the areas of impact and magnitude of change.

  1. The Go-To Wing Person:

In the 2020s, most enterprise programs and projects require multi-dimensional talent to solve problems. A business architect is in an ideal position to become the preferred go-to collaborator with the innate ability to translate, build bridges, clarify, and amplify the divergent aspects of the enterprise – Strategy, Operations, Technology, and People.

Collaborative co-creation will be a cornerstone competency of business architects of tomorrow.

  1. Impact Assessor:

A critical value a business architect can bring to the table is the ability to assess the impact of strategy on technology, people, and operations and vice versa.   As the bridge between these different yet interrelated components integral to a firm’s success, business architecture artifacts and analysis could become the critical ingredient for strategic decision-making.

For example, how does outsourcing a function impact the underlying capabilities, value streams, people, and technology? Or, for example, assessing the impact of introducing machine learning concepts in a particular area and its impact on capabilities, people, and operations?

  1. Enterprise Evolver:

Of course, the company vision and long-term positioning are the prerogatives of the CEO and the rest of the C-Suite in conjunction with the board. However, business architecture leaders can take the north star and identify a structured and incremental path to achieve long-term goals and get to the point of arrival.

For example, let us assume a company’s strategy is “product proliferation,” and the tactic is to create a portfolio of products to occupy every niche of a product spectrum. While the strategy is defined and a tactical plan is there, there are a lot of details that need to be filled in, such what are the gaps in current capabilities and future capabilities, what value streams need to be in perfect harmony to create a flow of products (example: Idea to Product, R&D to Manufacturing, etc.)

The ability to look at the current state analysis, identify gaps, and create a cross-functional platform to evolve the capabilities and processes to achieve future strategic goals is a compelling value add that a versatile business architect can provide.

 Please consider the Strategic Business Architect Handbook to learn more about becoming a versatile business architect.

If you have become a Versatile Business Architect, please share your journey.