Books Slideshow: Building Business Architecture: Sensible Steps for CIOs

Four benefits of business architecture

1. Allows organizations to sort through the maze of redundant, fragmented business infrastructures. Distant "pieces" moving in the same direction without knowledge of each other are eliminated.

Four benefits of business architecture

2. Reduces the potential for failed multi-year initiatives. Increased transparency allows CIOs and other leaders to detect projects with elongated delivery timeframes and questionable business value.

Four benefits of business architecture

3. Eliminates the need to "recreate the wheel" all the time. Awareness of blueprints/templates allows organization-wide deployment of proven best practices for new projects.

Four benefits of business architecture

4. Positions a company for optimal change-management execution. When market forces shift, executives can effectively "drill down" for resources/strategies that can adapt to new demands.

Essentials of a winning business architecture include

the translation of business abstractions into readily understood realities for all departments. CIOs must "demystify" the IT structure that runs the enterprise, for example.

Essentials of a winning business architecture include

an open environment where anyone can obtain views of organizational activity to further the goals of business.

Essentials of a winning business architecture include

a "living source" of business knowledge that evolves from past/current discoveries to serve a variety of sources/projects organization-wide.

Social media tools

These should be strongly considered in pursuing a business-architecture plan. They allow increased visibility into an organization's assets/history, as well as enhanced collaboration.

Have a business-architecture building team

Members must understand the requirements of all departments, and map out which existing resources&#151IT and otherwise&#151will best serve which purposes.

Capture knowledge

Without documentation of successes and failures, the processes behind a project serve as only a one-time application of effort and resources.