After establishing a clear and approved vision in Phase A, the ADM cycle continues with Phase B – Business Architecture. This is the first stage of the core design process, where the high-level vision is transformed into a detailed blueprint of how the organization operates.
The primary role of Phase B is to develop a comprehensive business model that provides a solid foundation for guiding decisions on data, application, and technology architecture in subsequent phases.
Key Inputs of Phase B
To begin the work in Phase B, the most important inputs are the approved outputs from Phase A:
- Architecture Vision Statement: The core guiding document that provides the overall business goals and benefits.
- Statement of Architecture Work: The document that defines the project’s scope and detailed plan.
- Architecture Principles: The principles that were defined in the Preliminary Phase and apply to the entire project.
Core Activities and Steps of Phase B
The activities in Phase B focus on modeling to understand and describe the organization in detail.
- Develop a Baseline Business Architecture: Analyze and describe the organization’s current structure. This includes documenting existing business processes, functions, and the organizational structure.
- Develop a Target Business Architecture: Based on the established vision, develop a detailed model of the desired future state. This model answers the question: “What should the organization look like to achieve its business goals?” Common modeling techniques include:
- Value Stream Modeling: Analysis of the sequences of activities that create value for the customer.
- Business Capability Maps: Identification of the core capabilities the enterprise needs to have.
- Process and Function Diagrams: Descriptions of business activities and the units that perform them.
- Organizational Charts: Outlines of the structure and relationships of organizational units.
- Perform Gap Analysis: This is a crucial step. A detailed comparison of the Baseline and Target Business Architectures is performed to identify gaps (e.g., missing processes, non-existent capabilities). This analysis forms the basis for identifying requirements and solutions in later phases.
- Build a Roadmap: Begin building a preliminary roadmap, identifying the necessary transition steps to move from the current to the target state.
Key Outputs of Phase B
The completion of Phase B produces several core outputs that are used as inputs for the next design phases.
- Baseline & Target Business Architectures: The detailed descriptions of both states.
- Gap Analysis Matrix: The formal document that identifies the gaps found.
- Requirements Report: A refined list of business requirements that will serve as the basis for designing the IT architecture.
- Preliminary Architecture Roadmap: An initial roadmap outlining the major transition steps.
Conclusion
Phase B – Business Architecture is the pivotal stage that ensures all subsequent architecture efforts remain on track. By taking the time to deeply understand how the business operates, architects can build a solid foundation to ensure that future technology solutions will directly support business objectives.
In the next article, we will move on to Phase C – Information Systems Architecture, where we will design the Data and Application solutions to meet the business requirements defined in Phase B.
