Establish the Practice Foundation

This double-installment StraightTalk validates the concept of business architecture as a real discipline and career path. It is based on the perspectives and visions from two worldwide authorities on the topic, Dr. Brian Cameron and Paul Preiss. We first explore the topic through an academic lens and then through the broader lens of architecture as a profession which includes all architects together, in business and technology.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we’re going to explore a sometimes overlooked but all-important domain for the business architecture baseline: stakeholders. Stakeholder mapping techniques came on the scene and matured a bit later than some of the others, so it’s a good time to revisit them and their valuable role in the business architecture.

As a newer role on the scene, working in a business world ubiquitous with design, digital, agile and other emerging concepts, the way we show up as business architects matters a lot. Because everything we do and say demonstrates to others what business architecture really is, and we need to be relevant and distinguish ourselves. The success of a business architect then is not just in what we know or what we do — but in our Ways of Working (WOWs), which this installment of StraightTalk explores.

This marks the 50th installment of StraightTalk, and we’re returning to our roots. Waaay back in Post No. 3, we introduced a new vision for strategy execution and explored how business architecture could help to enable it. We called it the Strategy Execution Metanoia, because a metanoia is a transformational moment – when you see the world in a different way and can’t go back.

The second and final in the series, this installment of StraightTalk further explores the big, scary and loaded concept of business architecture governance. It looks at how to implement the governance concepts we discussed previously.