Often confused with business analysis and process work, and often missing altogether. Here is what each business architecture role does, what to look for in a CV, and where organisations get them wrong when they hire.
Business Architecture should not be confused with Business Analysis, or even with Process Architecture, though it often is. It is an area that can sit inside or outside Enterprise Architecture, and even outside IT altogether.
If an organisation is not doing true Business Architecture, it is only doing IT Enterprise Architecture.
Business Architecture is the one discipline where many of the best people do not come from technology at all. Some come from strategy and management consulting, some from operations, and some from business analysis. More and more, the role sits outside IT altogether, reporting into a transformation or strategy function.
It is also one area where companies like business domain knowledge. That knowledge is beneficial, but it is not the only factor to consider. A good Business Architect will help set the strategic investment for IT in that domain, and that takes more than knowing how the domain works.
Also seen as: Business Architect, Head of Business Architecture, Strategy Architect
The Enterprise Business Architect translates business strategy into a clear picture of what the organisation needs to be able to do, and how it needs to change. They work with capabilities, value streams, the operating model and the organisation structure, and they help leadership decide where to invest and what to stop.
Look for business capability maps and value streams, target operating models, and investment prioritisation linked to strategy. You should also see them working directly with executives and heads of function, not only with IT. Frameworks such as BIZBOK or the business layer of TOGAF are common, but the evidence that matters is a capability map someone actually used to make a decision.
Enterprise Business Architects are easily confused with senior Business Analysts and management consultants. A Business Analyst works on the requirements for a change. A management consultant often recommends the change and leaves. The Enterprise Business Architect builds the models that the organisation keeps using to decide what changes next. If the capability map in the CV was produced once and never used again, it was a deliverable, not business architecture.
Also seen as: Process Architect, Business Process Lead, Process Excellence Architect
The Business Process Architect designs how the work gets done across the organisation. They build and maintain the process architecture, the hierarchy of end to end processes from the top level down to the detail. They also redesign processes so they work across departmental boundaries rather than stopping at them.
Look for process architectures and process hierarchies, and BPMN modelling in tools such as ARIS, SAP Signavio or Bizagi. You should also see process mining with Celonis or Signavio, and Lean or Six Sigma improvement. Much of the work is tied to operating model change, shared services or large ERP programmes. Increasingly, you will also see automation and AI opportunities identified from the process work.
Mapping a process is not the same as architecting one. Plenty of Process Analysts can draw a very accurate diagram of how a process works today. The Business Process Architect decides how the organisation’s processes should fit together as a whole, and can tell you what changes upstream and downstream when one of them is redesigned. Ask them to explain a process they changed and what else it affected.
If you are hiring for a business architecture role and are not sure which of these you actually need, please get in touch. It is surprisingly common for the job description to describe one of these roles while the job title asks for another.
Ben Clark
bclark@konvergent.co.uk
