How do you use agile tools to document business architecture?

1 Choose the right tool

When searching for an agile tool to document business architecture, it's important to consider the features and functionalities it offers. Look for a tool that allows you to create and manage different levels of abstraction, define and visualize the relationships and dependencies among the elements of your business architecture, collaborate and communicate with your team and stakeholders, as well as adapt and customize your documentation. Some examples of suitable tools are Jira Align, Enterprise Architect, and BizzDesign. These tools enable you to define strategic, tactical, and operational elements; visualize value streams, capabilities, stakeholders, and outcomes; use comments, notifications, feedback, and version control; as well as customize templates, styles, and formats.

3 Define your value streams and capabilities

The next step is to define your value streams and capabilities, which are the core elements of your business architecture. Value streams are the end-to-end processes that deliver value to customers and stakeholders, while capabilities are the abilities that enable your organization to perform those processes. To document and communicate your value streams and capabilities, you can use agile tools to create a value stream map, a capability map, and a capability assessment. The value stream map shows the sequence of activities, inputs, outputs, and value stages of each value stream. The capability map displays the hierarchy and structure of your capabilities, and how they support your value streams. Lastly, the capability assessment evaluates the maturity and performance of your capabilities, as well as identifies gaps and improvement opportunities.

4 Identify your stakeholders and outcomes

Identifying your stakeholders and outcomes is a key step in business architecture. Stakeholders are individuals or groups who have an interest or influence in your organization, such as customers, employees, partners, and regulators. Outcomes are the changes that your organization aims to achieve for your stakeholders, like customer satisfaction and revenue growth. Agile tools can be used to document and communicate your stakeholders and outcomes by creating a stakeholder map, stakeholder analysis, and outcome map. The stakeholder map shows the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of your stakeholders, their level of power and interest. The stakeholder analysis assesses the needs, expectations, and feedback of your stakeholders, and how to engage them. The outcome map shows the alignment and linkage of your outcomes with goals, value streams, capabilities, and how to measure them.