Course Description
Add
visibility into your enterprise for better decision making by building a
business architecture framework and applying more strategic business analysis
techniques.
First of all, why should my company or those companies I
support apply an enterprise business architecture?
This three-day workshop offers a breadth of topics covering enterprise-wide
analysis while drilling down into the business architecture. There are many key
benefits for focusing on the business architecture, it:
·
Decreases costs of business analysis activities for
projects
·
Decreases scope gaps and portfolio management conflicts
·
Improves business decision making and the visibility of
business process opportunities
·
Assures alignment of technology to business valued
processes
·
Improves communications
·
Shortens time for business transformations
·
Reduces technology investment risks
·
Assists in requirements tracking
·
Increases reusability of assets
Alright then, how might this workshop help me if I don't
have a company that is implementing an enterprise business architecture?
The business architecture has many components and artifacts. They might not all
be applicable to every enterprise. The techniques and tools that you will apply
in the workshop can be tailored to your specific company's environment. The key
is to gain a "good enough" understanding so that you can communicate
the benefits of relevant business architecture components and artifacts and
know which will provide the biggest business value.
Many of these initiatives will take years to implement
while changing the enterprise paradigm to effectively utilize the result. Managers
tend to be assigned to these initiatives without the knowledge or skills to
make them successful. Be ready for these enterprise initiatives! Assure
business value when transitioning from strategy to tactical. Participants will
learn to identify the best approach to use based on initiative characteristics
and business strategies.
You will learn how to:
·
Be a strategic advisor for both business and technology
organizations
·
Leverage architectural models to bridge business units
and technology organizations
·
Work with product owners to identify gaps between
business capabilities and product roadmaps
·
Build a business architecture that meets the needs of
your enterprise
·
Use techniques and tools to build business architecture
components and artifacts
·
Define scope of initiatives through the reuse of
architectural components
·
Identify problems and opportunities using the business
architecture
·
Justify opportunities and assess feasibility of proposed
solutions
·
Apply architectural principles to business opportunities
·
Capture stakeholder views and business requirements
·
Assess solution alternatives
·
Assess and present alternative solutions for decision
making, buy-in and approval
·
Assist in portfolio management prioritization
·
Assure alignment by tracking the opportunity's business
value and vision from strategy to implementation
·
Communicate the business architecture and present
solutions to management
Business
Architecture Course Outline
I. Architecture Key Concepts
Workshop participants will be introduced to some key terms and the value
proposition for building a business architecture. Industry best practices are
introduced.
·
Workshop Glossary
·
Why Business Architecture
·
Value of Key Components
·
Business Need for Subsets and Stakeholder Views
·
Business Architecture in Context with other Enterprise
Architectures
·
Industry Best Practice Frameworks and Methodologies
·
Reusing Organizational Assets
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Terminology and asset gap
assessment
2. Which components would
you use and why
3. Which framework would you
use and why
II. Prepare to Build a Business Architecture
There is a general approach to creating any architecture. We will step through
the approach needed to build a business architecture, but before we do there is
a few steps of preparation! Do we know if we have the competencies to perform
in this role? Is our organization ready to support the effort?
·
Business Architecture Maturity Model and Governance
Processes
·
Needed Individual and Organizational Competencies
·
Review or Assist in Creation of Inputs
·
Business and Operating Models, Balanced Score Card and
Strategies
·
Identify Artifacts (Static or Dynamic and Granularity
Level)
·
Identify Applicable Techniques, Tools and Notations
·
Architecture Development and Transition Roadmap (High
Level Plan with Iterations to Future State)
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Current state competency
assessment
2. Facilitate creation of a
business model based on scenario
III. Build a Business Architecture – Models and Maps
The business architecture artifacts must contain graphics, matrices, maps or
any visuals that can assist in stakeholder communications and in uncovering
improvement opportunities. These are just a few that have been integrated in
the workshop. Others may be discussed by the facilitator depending on workshop
participant interest.
·
Business Process Models
·
Capability and Services Map
·
Organizational Model
·
Value Streams
·
Alignment Maps (e.g. Alignment to information or
technology architectural components)
·
Ownership Matrices
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Build a Current State
Model
2. Build a Business
Capability Map
IV. Build a Business Architecture – Techniques, Tools and
Methods
There are many techniques and tools that can assist us in building a business
architecture. Typically only a few of these are used. Which techniques and
tools will depend on the maturity of the enterprise, governance processes and
availability of organizational assets. Others may be discussed by the
facilitator depending on workshop participant interest.
·
Document Analysis
·
Benchmarks and Surveys
·
SWOT Analysis and Other Business Decision Making Tools
·
Business Event Analysis
·
Business Policy Identification
·
Measures and Metrics
·
Review and Obtain Approvals
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Identify the Domain under
Discussion
2. Build a Future State
Model
V. Analyze at the Enterprise Level
The business architectures gives you the information needed to look for areas
of improvement; whether it is reducing redundancy of processes across business
units, reducing cycle times, or responding to competition with new products and
services. We start with eliciting high level requirements for the solution by
facilitating the future state and uncovering the solution scope boundaries.
Further high level solution idea generation and solution assessment will help
us to provide an initial estimate to justify recommendations.
·
Applying Root Cause Analysis and Questioning Techniques
·
Identify Problems and Clarify Vision Statements
·
Uncover Business Requirements
·
Defining Scope and Applying Stakeholder Views for
Analysis
·
Generate and Assess Solution Alternatives
·
Estimate and Document Assumptions (Delphi Technique)
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Create a problem or
vision statement
2. Identify the domain under
discussion and generate solution ideas
3. Estimate and document
assumptions for a solution alternative
VI. Justify and Communicate
At the enterprise level, some justification is necessary to obtain funding and
resources in addition to providing a method to equally compare and prioritize
the businesses portfolios. The opportunity assessments and analysis conducted
in the previous workshop session will provide the necessary information to
justify moving forward. But it doesn't end there. The business architecture
assets must be revisited and kept up-to-date. The enterprise must be able to
trust the information for future use.
·
Moving from Strategy to Tactical
·
Creating a Business Case and Feasibility Study
·
Tracking Business Value
·
Assisting in Prioritization Efforts
·
Hints and Tips for Presenting Solutions to Management
Teams
·
Keeping the Business Architecture Dynamic
·
Other Industry "Hot Topics" and its Influence
on the Business Architecture (AGILE, SOA, ITIL, ICLOUD, etc.)
Hands-On Exercises:
1. Present a solution to an
executive committee
2. Identify impacts to the
business architecture based on a scenario
3. Optional depending on available
time: Identify any technique or tool for more practice
Substitution & Cancellation Policy:
You may cancel or reschedule up to 21 days prior to the start date of the class at no penalty. For any cancellation or reschedule requests within 21 days, the full course tuition is still due and not eligible for refund. Any paid tuition will be credited towards a future class and must be used within 12 months.
*Partner delivered courses may be subject to different cancellation terms