Resource Library

This installment of StraightTalk is the first in a series that focuses on how business architecture can be used to catalyze, embed and enforce key sustainability, legal and ethical considerations into an organization’s DNA. Using business architecture in this way truly unlocks its value and power. First up in our series: how business architecture can enable organizational sustainability, so here goes.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we will focus on one of those burning questions: how do we calculate the return on investment (ROI) of a business architecture practice within an organization? We will explore a method for determining the ROI of a business architecture practice that you can put into use ASAP. The intention here is to provide a place to start and give you some ideas, but hopefully, inspire many more of your own.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we will explore some ways that you can start putting business architecture into use ASAP to provide business value — while you continue to build up your knowledgebase and pursue more complex usage scenarios over time. The intention here is to give you some starter ideas that inspire you to create many more of your own.

In this installment of StraightTalk, we’ll take another look at business architecture in action. This time, we’ll focus on how it can be used as a framework for better decision-making. The intention here is to give you some examples of how you can use business architecture to support different types of decision-making within your organization. We’re confident these will inspire many more ideas of your own.

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.