The Gateway to Transforming an Organization
Into an Agile Enterprise
2019
William Ulrich
Business Architecture Associates, Inc.
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
The Challenge of Realizing & Sustaining
Enterprise Agility





Failure to realize business strategies is rarely because they are ill-conceived
Failure to achieve business strategies is often due to ineffective interpretation and translation, where
scope and impacts are vague or unknown
Challenges are magnified when a strategic directive extends beyond a planning team’s line of sight
and requires cross-business coordination and collaboration
Failures result from doing the right things in the wrong places and the wrong things in the right places
– turning good ideas into failed projects, lost opportunities and wasted investments
Strategic execution failure is all too common


Two percent of leaders are confident that they will achieve 80-100% of their strategy’s objectives.*
Ten percent of organizations achieve at least two-thirds of their strategy objectives, with 36% achieving between 50%-67%
and 54% achieving less than 50%*
*Strategy Implementation Survey Findings, 2012, https://www.slideshare.net/SpeculandRobin/strategy-implementation-survey-results-2012
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
2
Three Great Myths of Achieving Enterprise Agility
Myth 1: Everyone shares a common mental model of a business
Myth 2: Architecture impedes an organization’s ability to achieve
enterprise agility
Myth 3: Agile development practices alone will allow a business
to realize successful business strategies
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
3
Efforts to Execute Faster Often Lead to Longer
Deployment Timelines & Challenged Projects
Stage 1
Establish
Business
Strategy
Stage 2
Assess
Stage 3
Business
Impact
Architect
Business
Solution
Stage 4
Establish
Initiative
Plans
Stage 5
Deploy
Solution
Business Architecture
Source: Business Architecture Guild, BIZBOK® Guide, Part 1



Strategy execution stages 2 and 3 are often skipped when organizations want to “execute faster” –
going from idea to project initiation
What appears to be a decision to expedite delivery timelines actually requires larger investments of
time, money and effort to keep or get the organization back on track
Lack of an impact analysis and solution framing, based on a common mental model of the organization
leads to misaligned solutions, increased complexity, elongated delivery timelines and outright failures
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
4
Business Architecture’s Role in Achieving Enterprise
Agility Through Successful Strategy Execution
Business architecture increases the speed and effectiveness with which strategies become translated
into initiatives, and with which initiatives introduce working changes to the business environment
Stage 1
Establish
Business
Strategy
Stage 2
Assess
Stage 3
Business
Impact
Architect
Business
Solution
Stage 4
Establish
Initiative
Plans
Stage 5
Deploy
Solution
Business Architecture
Source: Business Architecture Guild, BIZBOK® Guide, Part 1
Where things typically go wrong:
•
Stage 2: Scope is oftentimes too narrow, too broad or overlapping with other work.
•
Stage 3: Poor scope leads to inadequate solution designs.
•
•
Stage 4: Budgets are locked in on poorly scoped initiatives – at larger organizations, this is often irreversible and
leads to high degree of failures.
Stage 5: Deployment overruns, endless testing and ineffective solutions result from ineffective scope setting.
“It’s not scope creep when the scope was never right in the first place.” Anonymous Program Manager
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
5
Business Architecture Provides a Common ‘
Vocabulary and Mental Model
• Most people in most organizations lack vertical and horizontal transparency, viewing the business in
silos or at a too detailed or too superficial level of understanding
• The lack of transparency often derails every aspect of strategy execution
• Expediting strategy execution requires a common, rationalized set of business terms across all
business units and external stakeholders targeted by or involved in proposed solutions
• Business architecture provides a 360-degree view of customer and other stakeholder value delivery
and engagement touchpoints while exposing what a business does to deliver value using a common
business vocabulary
“The first task of any theory is to clarify terms and concepts that are confused…Only after agreement has
been reached regarding terms and concepts can we hope to consider the issues easily and clearly, and
expect others to share the same viewpoint…”
Carl von Clausewitz in his 1833 book On War
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
6
Case Study: Framing Program and Project
Priorities and Scope Using Business Architecture



Federal government agency responsibility for intellectual property registrations defined a multiyear business
transformation program using business architecture as a foundational frame of reference
Each project under the transformation program was formally framed by value stream, capability and stakeholder
impact points to ensure that the right focal points were targeted by each team
Clear separation of concerns, framed by value stream, capability, stakeholder and related cross-mappings,
provided a basis for the program to scale up to multiple projects running in parallel with different teams where:



Business objectives targeted specific value streams, related stages, capabilities and stakeholders
Value streams, enabling capabilities and participating stakeholders framed the scope and work breakdown structure for
each project team
Capabilities framed the scope of deployed software services, providing insights into service reuse across projects
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
7
Business-Driven Transformation Trademark Next Generation:
Business Architecture-Based Release Prioritization
Source: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?basig/2015-03-06
© 2019 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
8
Business-Driven Transformation Trademark Next
Generation: Business Architecture Requirements Framing
Business
Priorities
List
Defines what the UXD, BA’s
and PO’s need to focus on
when conducting interviews
and drafting user stories
For each priority, the
Value Streams, Stages
and Capabilities in
scope are defined
Value
Stream
EPMS
Stage
Stage
Routing
Maps
&
Worksheets
Capability
Priorities are used to
identify and scope
projects
User stories are refined
to include Business
rules based on the
Routing Map
worksheets
Capability
Epics are a collection of
capabilities that provide
functionality for a
stakeholder that can be
delivered in a Release;
They make up the
product backlog
Capability
Epic
BA’s create routing
maps with the SME’s to
understand the
workflow
Capability
Many capabilities are
repeated in each Stage;
utilizing the BizArch
prevents duplication
and promotes reuse of
code and services
User
Story
Task
Source: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?basig/2015-03-06
© 2019 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
9
Lesson Learned: What Happens When Projects
Leverage vs. Ignore Business Architecture





Multiple project teams were rapidly launched and made productive under the value stream-framed program
A routine program management review found that one project team chartered to transform international
registration of intellectual property had ignored the directive in favor of a “blank page” approach
As a result of ignoring the business architecture, the team invested nearly three months of time on petition
processing, an entirely different value stream that was assigned to a different project team
Where teams adhered to clearly articulated project guardrails, successes ensued; where they guardrails were
ignored, the team that ignored them floundered
Project was restarted with a new team, focused on correct value stream, scaling quickly and demonstrating how
business architecture increases business agility while improving overall productivity
Value Streams: Clearly Articulated
Separation of Concerns
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
Register Trademark
Decide Petition
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
10
Business Architecture Frames Analysis
and Investment: The Right Way to Go
Business Strategies End-to-End Value Perspectives
Value Propositions
Business investments targeted
through business architecture
Enabling Capabilities
Business Strategies, Framed by Stakeholder Value Delivery, Enables
Capability-based Planning & Optimized Program Investment Focus
IP case study laid out a 5-year
roadmap depicting progress against
strategic business priorities through
a business architecture lens
Program, Projects & Related Investments Target Well-Articulated Stakeholder, Value
Proposition, Capability, Information, Business Unit & Product Perspectives
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
11
Business Architecture Helps With Strategy
and Initiative Alignment and Prioritization
Strategies delivered through business architecture framed, clearly delineated projects
Business
Strategies
Multiyear Program, Framed by Prioritized Business Objectives
Individual Projects Targeting Value Stream Stages, Stakeholders,
Capabilities, Information & Business Units
Concurrently running projects scaled up over time based on reuse of deployed software services and
requirements and clear separation of business concerns, all framed by the business architecture
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
12
Business Architecture Scopes Initiatives
and Provides a Deployment Framework
Program decomposed into projects, phases and two-week sprints, providing an unambiguous
frame of reference for analyst and development teams
Business
Strategies
Projects Comprising a Program, Framed by
Value & Capability Perspectives
Individual Project, Decomposed into Four Phases
One Phase, Decomposed into Six, Two-week Sprints
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
Each Sprint Delivers Increasingly Advanced
Capabilities for a Stakeholder
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
13
Business Architecture Connects the Dots Across
Strategies, Architectures, Initiatives & Requirements


The ecosystem-wide business perspective provided by business architecture, with a focus on value
streams and capabilities, serves as the basis for cataloging changes being made as a result of any
strategy, target architecture or initiative
This formal framing of strategy execution makes it possible to definitely identify when changes are
being made to the same area of the business, thereby uncovering opportunities for:

New collaborations

Shared solutions

Coordinated decision-making

Integrated business and IT architecture perspective based on a common mental model
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
14
Business Architecture & Business
Requirements Analysis End-to-End Traceability





Business requirements specification efforts are plagued by
ambiguities
Every requirement can be linked to a capability by definition that
capability is what a business does
Linking requirements to value stream, capability and stakeholder
removes ambiguities, frames context and provides framework for
reuse
Business architecture provides the “what” context, associated
with value delivery, for a given participating stakeholder
Value streams, capabilities frame scope and provide traceability
back to strategic objectives, initiatives
Source: Leveraging Business Architecture to Improve Business Requirements Analysis - Business Architecture Guild, 2014, www.businessarchitectureguild.org
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
15
Introducing Business Architecture
Into Agile Approaches


Ensure availability of a robust business architecture foundation (capabilities, value streams,
stakeholder, information and other mappings based on the scenario)
Integrate business architecture into the agile execution approach; for example:

Program management leverages business architecture to scale and align scope

Project team owners learn how to use the business architecture to inform prioritization



Project teams learn how to frame and interpret business architecture defined scope for their
projects and sprints
Business analysts become fluent in understanding and using the business architecture
Solution, data and other IT architects leverage business architecture to scope IT architecture
impacts and solutions

Reuse should be adopted as a principle across all architecture teams
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
16
Business Requirements, Capabilities
& Value Delivery Relationship
Value Context – Value Item, Proposition Focus
Capability Context – What Will Improve
Acquire Loan
Agreement Management
Agreement Structuring
Agreement Eligibility Determination
Agreement Definition
Receive
Application
Process Fee
Payment
Validate
Application
Approve Loan
Issue Second
Approval
Submission
Management
Payment
Management
Agreement
Structuring
Agreement
Structuring
Agreement
Structuring
Customer
Information
Management
Agreement
Definition
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Agreement/
Payment
Matching
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Work Queue
Management
Work Queue
Management
Work Queue
Management
Work Item
Routing
Work Item
Routing
Work Item
Routing
Work Queue
Management
Work Item
Routing
Issue Loan
Background Eligibility Determination
Geographic Eligibility Determination
Financial Eligibility Determination
Agreement Terms Management
Agreement Terms Definition
Agreement Terms/Policy Matching
Agreement Needs Determination
Agreement Needs Quantification
Agreement Price Determination
Standard Pricing Determination
Agreement Needs Viability Determination
Agreement Risk Determination
Agreement/Stakeholder Risk Rating
Agreement/Customer Risk Determination
Agreement/Partner Risk Determination
Agreement/Location Risk Determination
Agreement Structure Risk Determination
Custom Pricing Determination
Agreement Finalization
Agreement Offer Structuring
Agreement Offer Creation
Loan Officer
Agreement Offer Validation
Agreement Offer Issuance
Agreement Default Risk Determination
Agreement Default Recourse Risk Determination
Aggregated Agreement Risk Determination
Agreement Activation
Agreement Deactivation
Work Queue
Management
Agreement
Information
Management
Message
Management
Work Queue
Management
Work Item
Routing
Work Item
Routing
Value Stream Stage Stakeholder Context

Requirement: “As a Loan Officer, I want to set the terms of the agreement to reduce the monthly minimal payments, to
reconcile newly instituted business rule”

Capability Focus: Agreement Structuring -> Agreement Terms Management

Value Stream, Stage Focus: Approve Loan

Stakeholder Focus: Loan Officer

Enables reuse of requirements anywhere they link to Agreement Structuring -> Agreement Terms Management
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
17
Leveraging Business Architecture and Dynamic
Rules-Based Routing Maps to Frame Requirements

Agile requirements incorporate:

Unassigned
Work Queue
1
Loan
Administrator
Work Queue
Loan Officer
Work Queue
101
Validate
Application Stage
Decomposition
4
9
Loan Supervisor
Work Queue
10
2
Credit
Bureau
7
Approve Loan
Stage Decomposition
Contract
Officer Work
Queue

Issue Second Approval
Stage Decomposition

© 2018 Business Architecture Associates


Reject a Loan Request
Single user story based on specific objective:

Outbound
Transition
Individual Risk
Rating
Determination
Agile Epic: Group of related user stories with shared goal – for
example:

3
6
8

Loan
Applicant
5
User stories at differing levels
“As a Loan Officer I want to “determine risk rating of individual seeking
a loan”
User story ties back to a capability mapped to value stream stage
User story impacts Loan Officer interface and underlying service
implementing risk rating capability
Approach ensures that user story is not overly focused on a single
aspect
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
18
Breaking Down Dynamic Rules-Based Routing Maps
into Event Models to Articulate Requirements
Value Stream, Stage,
Work Queue
Event
Action (rules)
Initial Stakeholder
Targeted Stakeholder
States (object-based)
Requirement
Detailed event, state and action item
mapping leverages formal architecture
to frame workflow and requirements
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
Event Information
Work Transition Sending Source
Work Queue
Value Stream Stage
or Source
Work Transition Receiving Source
State Transition
Work Queue
Work Queue Work Queue Current
or Target
Filter View
Value Stream Stage
Filter View
State
Next State
Application
Validate
Loan
Approve
Awaiting
under
Application
Acquire Loan Application Administrator Under Review Acquire Loan Loan
Unassigned Assignment review
validated
Event # Triggering Event Action to be Taken
Move request to
Application
Unassigned loan
validated
1
queue
Superior assigns Assign loan to loan
loan to loan
officer, Move to Work
2a officer
in Progress queue
Acquire Loan
Loan officer
Assign loan to loan
pulls loan to
officer, Move to Work
2b
work on
in Progress queue
Acquire Loan
5
Loan officer
requests
contract review
Loan officer
sends applicant
request for
information
Loan applicant
replies to
request
6
Loan officer
requests credit
verification
Send loan and request
to contract officer
Generate notice to
applicant, Move loan
to Awaiting Response
queue
Post response, Move
case to Work in
Progress queue
Send credit check to
credit bureau, Move
loan to Awaiting
Credit Check queue
Contract officer
approves
contract
Credit bureau
responds to
request
Move loan to Loan
Officer Work in
Progress queue
Post response, Move
case to Work in
Progress queue
3
4
7
8
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Loan
Loan
unassigned assigned
Application
validated
Loan assigned
to loan officer
1011
Approve
Loan
Unassigned
Awaiting
Assignment
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Loan
Loan
unassigned assigned
Application
validated
Loan assigned
to loan officer
1012
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Contract
Officer
Review
Request
Contract
Loan under review
review
pending
Loan officer Contract officer
reviewed
has pending
application loan agreement 1013
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Awaiting
Applicant
Response
Loan under Awaiting
review
response
Loan under
review
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Awaiting
response
Loan Officer
Awaiting
Loan under Awaiting
Credit Check review
response
Loan Officer
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Contract
Officer
Review
Request
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Awaiting
Credit Check
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan Officer
Work in
Progress
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Issue
Second
Acquire Loan Approval
Loan application Move case to loan
accepted
supervisor
1010
Awaiting
Assignment
Work in
Progress
Awaiting
Applicant
Request
10
Application
validated
Unassigned
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
9b
9a
Application
reviewed
Approve
Loan
Approve
Acquire Loan Loan
Loan officer
completes credit Update credit risk
review
rating
Acquire Loan
Reject loan, terminate
Loan application review, move to
rejected
rejected state
Acquire Loan
Pre- and Post-Conditions
PreRequireCondition
Post-Condition ment #
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
Loan Officer
Loan
Supervisor
Loan under Response
review
requested
Request sent to
applicant
1014
Response
received
1015
Loan under
review
Credit check
request sent to
credit bureau 1016
Loan sent to
contract
officer
Request sent
to credit
bureau
Contract officer
completes
review
1017
Response
received from
credit bureau 1018
Credit
information
in hand
Loan officer
Loan under Loan
review
Rejected Loan review
rejected
pending
Loan officer
Work in
Loan review Loan review review
Progress
pending
completed pending
Credit check
completed, Risk
rating updated 1019
Loan rejected,
value stream
terminated
1020
Loan moved to
supervisor for
review
1021
Contract
review
pending
Awaiting
credit
response
Contract
review
complete
Credit
response
received
Credit
review
pending
Credit
review
completed
6/14/2019
19
Traceability of Scope: Where to Start






Strategic objectives should always drive the analysis starting point
Objectives may target a stakeholder, product, information or policy
focus
Information, product and policy are readily traced back to
capability, which can be traced to value stream
Stakeholder is traceable to value stream, which is traceable to
capability
Any given starting point, can lead back to value stream, capability
and organization impacts, assuming a robust business architecture
knowledgebase
Business Architecture Knowledgebase
(Business Architecture Guild metamodel based)
Ability to assess scope with business architecture is a skill that
evolves over time
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
20
Moving Through Strategy Execution Path with Agility



Establish a business architecture baseline: value streams, level 1-2-3 capabilities and information map
When strategy execution scenarios kick off, use objective statements to key in on capabilities, information,
stakeholders and value streams
Where a business architecture has gaps, build it out in “rapid response” fashion to expedite assessment




Engage IT architecture teams as required at state two impact analysis
Define initiative scope based on impacted value stream, capabilities, information and related business and IT
architecture domains
At deployment stage, frame requirements and deployable software solutions using business architecture:

Map every requirement and software service to a capability

Capture relationships in the knowledgebase
Every strategy execution journey that follows this path will enrich the knowledgebase, expediting the next pass
through
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
21
Summary of Business Architecture’s Role in
Achieving Enterprise Agility & Agile Execution

Business Architecture:

Provides a common vocabulary and mental model

Frames analysis and investment perspectives

Helps with strategy and initiative alignment and prioritization

Scopes initiatives and provides an end-to-end deployment framework

Institutionalizes alignment between business architecture and agile requirements and
deployed software solutions as a basis for sustaining enterprise agility long-term
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
22
The Key to Becoming an Agile Enterprise
When business architecture is in place, adopted and leveraged
ubiquitously, the gateway for an organization to transform into an agile
enterprise is in place.
White Paper:
“Business Architecture – The Gateway to Transforming an Organization into an Agile Enterprise”
Whynde Kuehn and William Ulrich
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/public_resources/gateway_to_agile._pdf.pdf
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019
23
The Gateway to Transforming an Organization
Into an Agile Enterprise
2019
William Ulrich
Business Architecture Associates, Inc.
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
© 2018 Business Architecture Associates
www.businessarchitectureassociates.com
6/14/2019