Books Slideshow: Building Business Architecture: Sensible Steps for CIOs

In this era of globalization, merger/acquisitions and rapid market shifts, organizations are growing increasingly complex. A host of factors - multiple time zones, unique regional/office cultures, perceived differences in missions among departments - can create a corporate version of the Tower of Babel. As a result, executives and employees may have difficulty comprehending where and how all the various "parts" fit into a cohesive vision. In the book Business Architecture: The Art and Practice of Business Transformation (Meghan-Kiffer Press/available now), authors William Ulrich and Neal McWhorter explain how CIOs and other leaders can proactively launch a well-planned series of steps to provide greater clarity of their organizations' past and present to guide team members toward a unified future. The essential premise of a business-architecture initiative is that it does not fade away with the passage of time. Instead, companies must ensure that business-architecture practices remain constantly applied to emerge as a permanent, valued dynamic of the corporate culture. Ulrich is president of TSG Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in business and IT alignment. McWhorter is a principal with Enterprise Agility, a company that seeks to help organizations improve their abilities to deliver new business capabilities. They are also co-founders of the Business Architecture Guild and co-chair the OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group.