PL Advies

Business architecture frameworks

When organisations grow, their structure changes. In small organisations, this change occurs naturally, because the communication lines are short. In larger organisations, there is more to it. Support is needed. A growing organisation would at best start to define a business architecture.

A business architecture or business architecture framework is a set of documentation with which one has a good overview of how the different parts of the organisation are related to each other. This is not just about reporting lines between departments and managers, it is also about a product catalogue, the IT infrastructure, contracts and much more.

Compare this to a house; it's a complex structure in which people need to live for many decades at least. It requires sound planning, durable materials, measurements to fit components down to the millimetre, and diagrams to make sure everything fits over multiple layers; building components, load balancing calculations, electrical system, plumbing, computer network structure. In modern office buildings, the requirements are even stricter. When an improvement needs to be made, the architectural design helps to identify how to go from the current situation ('as is') to the desired situation ('to be').

There are various models that help to bring structure to an organisation;

Zachman is the first widely spread framework, developed by John Zachman. It is simple and useful, though it does not provide a lot of depth. It can be augmented with detailed models per layer.

TOGAF is freely available, failry difficult to adopt, but very useful.

Novius has been developed by a Dutch company with the same name. It can be applied widely. It is not internationally known but easy to adapt and then adopt.

NORA has been specifically developed by and for the Dutch governmental institutions. It is accessible and applicable to governmental organisations. It has been extended with variants for different levels of government. It is not internationally known but easy to adapt and then adopt.

ArchiMate is a useful visual tool to investigate cross sections of an organisation to establish connections between different layers.

Within each architecture, multiple layers are identified, in the same way that the human body can also be seen in different layers; blood flow, muscular structure, the skeleton buildup.

Some layers are developed more than others. By using architectural models, it is possible to connect the layers to each other. This enhances synergy, lowers friction and increases revenue. Some of the more well known layers are;

Layers that are often not explicitly detailed are the product catalogue (a complete description of products, limitations, pricing structure, costs, ingredients, et cetera), a market overview (types of customers, competition, et cetera) and a contract inventory (relations with other organisations, obligations, and the relations with other parts of the organisation).

 Other areas that require detailing and linking depending on the size and type of organisation are;