How can you prioritize opportunities in your business architecture?

1 Assess your business architecture maturity

Before you start looking for opportunities, you need to understand how mature your business architecture is. A mature business architecture is one that is well-defined, documented, communicated, and governed. It also supports decision-making, performance measurement, and change management. You can use a maturity model, such as the Business Architecture Maturity Model (BAMM), to assess your current state and identify gaps and areas for improvement. A maturity assessment can help you prioritize opportunities that align with your desired level of maturity and address your most critical challenges.

2 Define your criteria and metrics

Once you have a clear picture of your business architecture maturity, you need to define your criteria and metrics for evaluating and prioritizing opportunities. Criteria are the factors that influence your decision, such as strategic alignment, feasibility, risk, impact, urgency, and stakeholder support. Metrics are the measures that quantify your criteria, such as return on investment, customer satisfaction, cost reduction, or revenue growth. You can use a scoring system, such as the weighted scoring model, to assign weights and scores to each criterion and metric and rank your opportunities accordingly.

3 Use a prioritization matrix

A prioritization matrix is a tool that helps you visualize and compare your opportunities based on two dimensions, such as importance and urgency, or effort and impact. You can use a prioritization matrix to group your opportunities into four categories, such as high priority, low priority, quick wins, or long-term projects. A prioritization matrix can help you focus on the most valuable and feasible opportunities and avoid wasting time and resources on low-value or low-impact ones.

4 Validate and communicate your priorities

After you have ranked and categorized your opportunities, you need to validate and communicate your priorities with your stakeholders. Validation involves checking the accuracy and relevance of your data, assumptions, and analysis. You can use techniques such as peer review, expert opinion, or feedback surveys to validate your priorities. Communication involves sharing your rationale, criteria, metrics, and results with your stakeholders. You can use techniques such as presentations, reports, or dashboards to communicate your priorities. Validation and communication can help you gain buy-in, alignment, and support from your stakeholders and ensure that your priorities are aligned with your business architecture vision and goals.

5 Review and adjust your priorities

Prioritizing opportunities in your business architecture is not a one-time activity. It is a continuous process that requires regular review and adjustment. You need to monitor the progress and performance of your opportunities and evaluate their outcomes and impacts. You also need to scan the internal and external environment for changes and new opportunities. You can use techniques such as feedback loops, lessons learned, or environmental scanning to review and adjust your priorities. Review and adjustment can help you keep your priorities relevant, realistic, and responsive to your business architecture needs and expectations.

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?