Business Capabilities
This section explores the variety of business capabilities underlying successful architectures.
Architecture for an enterprise requires a thorough understanding of that enterprise and familiarity with the context the enterprise operates in: the market forces, trends (local and global), politics, competition, etc. Not only do architects need to truly understand how business works in general and the business they serve in particular, they must also be able to interact effectively with the different business cultures, levels of management and a variety of stakeholders (internal and external).
For many aspiring Enterprise Architects, acquiring these business capabilities can be a real challenge. Whereas most managers and executives grow into their roles through daily supervised experience with the many business issues they deal with and the business responsibilities they carry, most Enterprise Architects reach their position through a succession of mainly technical roles. While this may be necessary for their professional/technical development, it leaves them without the learning that comes through hands-on experience and directed application in the field.
Beyond general business knowledge, one area of business thinking that is gaining recognition in modern business is that of
Systems Dynamics and its less formal cousin Systems Thinking.
These approaches aim to map and understand the dynamics of a business and the (often counter-intuitive) effects of (local)
changes on the total system by modeling and analysing the many variables and feedback and feed-forward loops in the business
as a whole.
Since Enterprise Architecture by definition requires a view of the enterprise as a whole – both as a system in its own right
and in its (increasingly complex) context – there is no way to create effective architectures without a systemic view of the
enterprise.
The world is becoming an increasingly complex place: the technology enabled globalisation, connectivity,
and increase in scale and scope of information flow and of business activities have been pushing human endeavours into
the realm of complexity.
It is important to realise that complexity is not just a higher level of complication. When systems move from (merely)
complicated into the complex realm their very nature and behaviour change; predictability and controllability rapidly
diminish and traditional decision-making and management models can no longer be relied upon.
The realisation that complexity requires a different approach to management, problem solving,
planning and development is gradually pervading the corporate world. In order to produce relevant architectures,
Enterprise Architects have to be able to recognize complexity and know how to respond appropriately to complex problems and domains.
