How can you use business architecture artifacts to align stakeholder expectations?

1 Vision and Strategy

The vision and strategy artifact defines the desired future state and direction of the organization, as well as the key objectives, initiatives, and measures that will guide its transformation. This artifact is essential for aligning stakeholder expectations at the executive level, as it provides a clear and compelling picture of what the organization wants to achieve and why. It also helps to align the expectations of other stakeholders, such as customers, partners, regulators, and employees, by showing how the organization intends to create and deliver value for them.

2 Capability Map

The capability map artifact describes the core abilities and functions that the organization needs to perform to deliver its value proposition and achieve its strategic goals. It also shows the relationships and dependencies among the capabilities, as well as their maturity and performance levels. This artifact is useful for aligning stakeholder expectations at the business level, as it provides a common language and framework for understanding and prioritizing the capabilities that matter most for the organization. It also helps to align the expectations of other stakeholders, such as IT, finance, and operations, by showing how the capabilities support and enable the business outcomes.

3 Value Stream

The value stream artifact depicts the end-to-end flow of activities, resources, and information that deliver value to a specific customer segment or stakeholder group. It also identifies the pain points, opportunities, and improvement areas along the value stream. This artifact is valuable for aligning stakeholder expectations at the customer level, as it provides a customer-centric and holistic view of how the organization creates and delivers value for its target segments. It also helps to align the expectations of other stakeholders, such as process owners, service providers, and product managers, by showing how the value stream impacts and influences their roles and responsibilities.

4 Information Model

The information model artifact defines the key data entities, attributes, and relationships that are relevant for the organization and its stakeholders. It also establishes the rules, standards, and policies for managing and using the data. This artifact is important for aligning stakeholder expectations at the data level, as it provides a consistent and coherent representation of the data that the organization needs and uses. It also helps to align the expectations of other stakeholders, such as analysts, developers, and auditors, by showing how the data supports and informs the decision making and actions of the organization.

5 Governance Model

The governance model artifact defines the roles, responsibilities, authorities, and accountabilities of the stakeholders involved in the business architecture practice and its outcomes. It also specifies the processes, methods, tools, and metrics for planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling the business architecture activities and deliverables. This artifact is critical for aligning stakeholder expectations at the governance level, as it provides a clear and transparent structure and mechanism for ensuring the quality, effectiveness, and alignment of the business architecture work. It also helps to align the expectations of other stakeholders, such as sponsors, owners, and users, by showing how the governance model enables and supports their participation and feedback in the business architecture process.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?