Business Architecture – Your Ticket to Valued ‘Fast-Track’ Delivery
No doubt there are some of you, who having read the words value-led ‘fast-track’ delivery in the title, are thinking……what? Going down a route involving business Cream Chargers Delivery architecture and business blueprinting sounds like a recipe for the exact opposite result!
We would like to take this opportunity to convince you that it can be otherwise. We certainly will be the first to admit that getting involved with one of the well known business architecture frameworks (not mentioning any names), either proprietary or public, can sometimes result in overbearing bureaucracy, analysis-paralysis and interminable delays in getting to delivery of anything (apart from paperwork of course) never mind benefits.
However, the operative word here is ‘can’. It does not have to be this way, and although we too are leery of using the well known frameworks (which is why we have created our own), it is not because they don’t have their merits and can’t be powerful and useful in the ‘right’ hands.
Ahhhh…….now we are getting to the crux of this point……useful in the ‘right’ hands. It is probably obvious that many things that are useful in the ‘right’ hands can be much less so in the ‘wrong’ ones. This is certainly VERY true of business architecture frameworks.
We would define the ‘right’ hands as being people who are clear that the end-game is about improved business results as measured by customer satisfaction, revenue, etc. Importantly, this needs further qualification by saying that they also need to understand that this must be delivered in the nearer-term as well as in the medium to longer-term. And that a solution that will serve a business well is not necessarily always going to be the most elegant, complete or thorough one!
Very commonly time-to-market is more important than building an ‘ideal’ solution! We would define the ‘wrong’ hands as anyone who does not really ‘get’ or practice in accordance with the above definition of the ‘right’ hands. And there are many of them out there. This can be due to a number of different reasons, including:
They are young and inexperienced and don’t critically question methodologies.