Resource Library

Having a clear vision of what we are working towards is essential to guide and inspire any journey, so in this installment of StraightTalk, we explore a concept for what it means to be a mature business architecture practice, and how to get there. In other words, if we climb this business architecture mountain, what’s at the top and what are we to expect along the way?

Once business architecture starts getting traction within an organization, there often comes a question: “Does IT have a business architecture?” This installment of StraightTalk explores this concept of “the business architecture of IT.”

In this StraightTalk installment, we will explore how business architecture can help to architect ecosystems. The idea of business ecosystems is a huge topic unto itself, so we’ll highlight a few key ideas here in our usual StraightTalk style and then let you dream big.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we return to the idea of business objects, and the important role they play throughout an organization’s business architecture – and why it matters. We will do some serious condensing here of the BIZBOK® Guide to help you put the pieces together and understand how it all works. Why? Well, not for the sake of theory. That’s not what StraightTalk is about. We’re about helping to build a common understanding so that we can all move forward in unison. And architect great things for our organizations and societies, which is the point.

This StraightTalk installment shines a light on the realities of capability mapping and helps us to interpret some key concepts in the BIZBOK® Guide in an effort to move us forward in unison and architect great things for our organizations and societies.

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.

This installment gives you the straight talk on some serious dos and don’ts for establishing a business architecture practice within an organization. We’ll ground our conversation by reflecting on a fundamental concept of the business architecture discipline — often misunderstood — that will assist in guiding you and help you to stay on the right path.

Welcome to the third and last installment of our epic visual and storytelling StraightTalk series, in which we explore the power of story. We know that in order to succeed as business architects, it’s not just about creating architectures and ideas for the future – we also need to convey those ideas, influence others, and incite action. Enter storytelling.

Welcome to Part 2 of 3 within our visual and storytelling StraightTalk series. This is the second installment in the series where we explore how we can leverage two highly engaging, visual techniques – graphic recording and graphic facilitation – as part of our business architecture practice. What we can achieve with business architecture is only as good as our ability to communicate, influence, and connect with other people. The two powerful illustrative techniques allow us to do so on a human level that raises our collective understanding.

Welcome to Part 1 of 3 within our visual and storytelling StraightTalk series. When we think about our business architecture practices, or even our competencies as business architects, we often focus on developing and using business architecture. While that is indeed the heart of what we do, to be successful, there are many other things we need to be good at—like presenting information both visually and verbally. This is our first installment in the series and we will explore presentation design.

StraightTalk focuses on business architecture, but we know that our discipline is part of a larger entity — the enterprise architecture (EA) umbrella. As a result, a strong partnership among every one of the architecture disciplines is critical for all of our success — and for the success of our organizations. This installment highlights the notable progress made so far by the Business Architecture Workstream, within the Open Group Architecture Forum, to align the TOGAF® enterprise architecture framework with the BIZBOK® Guide.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we explore another topic relevant to our digital future: blockchain and distributed ledger technology. We explore how business architecture can help organizations to leverage blockchain and distributed ledger technology for value.