Business architecture
Follow a business outcome through capabilities, processes and systems to make a portfolio decision.
Business architecture connects an outcome the organisation needs to the people, work, information and technology that deliver it. Use this guide when deciding what a change must preserve. To build the hierarchy or read a heatmap, go to Business capabilities.
Start with the outcome
Imagine replacing a warehouse application. The operations manager needs every order accepted in the webshop to reach the warehouse in time to ship. Order fulfilment is the business capability. Accepting the order, reserving stock and picking the goods are steps in one process. The capability can keep its name when the process or software changes.
Agree with the operations manager how to recognise success, for example that a test order appears on the warehouse picking list before the agreed cut-off. For a CRM replacement, the equivalent question might be whether a service agent can still see the latest customer details.
Pick the right view
| View | Question for the warehouse change |
|---|---|
| Capability map | Which applications support order fulfilment today, and which would support it after the change? |
| Processes | At which step does the warehouse receive an order, and who handles a failure? |
| Value streams | Which stage between order acceptance and delivery would be delayed? |
| Customer journeys | When would the customer first notice the delay? |
| Initiatives | Which effort will provide replacement coverage, and who can confirm it? |
In the pilot navigation, Business Capabilities takes you to the capability map. Business Contexts opens Value Streams. Use the Value Streams, Processes and Customer Journeys tabs to switch inventories; the current list is highlighted, and the links remain visible when a list is empty. Consult the other views available in your workspace as the decision requires. Open the linked applications and follow the order integration and its data object to identify the exact handover.
Compare current and target
- In As-is, identify the applications that support the capability today. Ask the process owner about manual work or local tools that the map may omit.
- In To-be, check which linked applications remain after those leaving are filtered out. Compare them with the maturity target. If the old application is due to leave, identify who owns the replacement and what must be demonstrated first.
- Follow the initiative and the relevant change request. Record the source for the cut-off time and the result of the handover test.
You can retire the old warehouse application once the new system receives an accepted order in time and the operations manager confirms the result.