This survey, conducted by Biz Arch Mastery between March and April 2022, reveals that over half (57.7%) of the respondents reported business architecture teams that are between 1 and 3 business architects within their organization. The next two most common responses were organizations having between 4 and 10 business architects (19.2%) and between 11 and 20 business architects (11.5%). In summary, this means that about 88% of the business architecture teams that responded have 20 architects or fewer within their entire organization. This gives us a directional pulse on the stage of growth and maturity of business architecture within organizations presently.
There were some exceptions though, with some organizations having bigger business architecture teams that fell within the ranges of 21 and 30, 31 and 50, 76 and 100, 101 and 150, and even 201 to 250.
Below are the comments provided, which provide valuable context for interpreting the results.
- For 1 to 3 business architect teams
- “We are in the startup phase and will soon grow to 4 people.”
- “Start up phase.”
- “For additional context, my organization has about 250 employees.”
- “We have a small number of individuals who are using business architecture techniques within their divisional work, but there is not a formal business architecture practice within the organization.”
- “1,300 person state government agency with a 5 person EA team: Enterprise Architect, Business Architect, Apps/Solutions Architect, Data Architect, and EA analyst.”
- “We have a relative new team under the heading of Enterprise Architecture with one business architect, one data architect, and one technical architect. Hoping to see that grow later this year or next.”
- “1 business architect on a Enterprise Architecture team of 5.”
- “1 single business architect reporting to the EA director.”
- “The one, full time Business Architect is still a Business Analyst while awaiting a new role creation. Might take 2 years!”
- “The organization doesn't believe in business architecture, especially not at enterprise level. They have accommodated it from a project or single department perspective.”
- “Small consulting firm, all report to central and provide services to our clients.”
- For 4 to 10 business architect teams
- “One team centrally located.”
- “2 report to a central authority, 3 are buried in a Line of Business.”
- “Within the past year we've added a full time practice manager and another practicing Business Architect Prior to 2022, we had 1-3 architects for 6 years prior to that, we had 3-5 at any given time.”
- “1 enterprise business architect in IT Division and 3 in one of the business lines.”
- For 11 to 20 business architect teams
- “We have a team of 7 within a Centre of Excellence and are building the role across the organisation within different business areas.”
- “Business Architecture sits in IT and is not consistently applied because there is not a single lead control and quality component. Lack of governance and comprehension has led to resources in business architecture roles without a deep understanding of the actual practice.”
- For 21 to 30 business architect teams
- “Highly decentralized organization, total headcount of 57,000.”
- For 76 to 100 business architect teams
- “The answer depends on the real question: How many REAL business arch do your organization have? (21-30) vs How many people have the job title of business architect? (76-100).”
- “The architects are spread out in the organization.”
