What is wrong with the concept "Business Architecture"?
Alcedo Coenen
maandag, 06 augustus 2007
There seems to be a insistent issue to get the "Business Architecture" concept clear, in particular to the "business" itself. Whenever I use the term or hear colleagues using it, the first reaction always contains something like "but it ís IT, isn't it?", even after repeated explanations that it is not IT but about the business. In some cases the explanation causes reactions like "Oh, but that is not architecture, we call that business strategy or organisational structure". In fact, when you listen to business managers talking about their strategies, that ís all "business architecture", except that it isn't written down on paper.
That leads me to the statement that the word 'Architecture' has a dangerous association that does not fit the core characteristics of "business". The core of business is negotiation, regardless whatever product the business is about; it is about adding value to the buyer, and receiving value in return, preferably a bit more value back than you give. Negotiation is a psychological play, with communicative tricks, in order to get this value difference big enough. Essential to this play is that you don't tell everything; you don't tell that the product is made very cheap, that you have a smart solution for cheap production, or you don't tell all details about the intellectual sophistication that is behind the product; what you do tell is how attractive it is for the buyer. Structuring this kind of activities is contradictory to this essential characteristic of the business, because structuring means you make things very explicit. Architecture is an instrument for engineers. Engineering is completely different from doing business, because it is about construction: making solid things that work. This kind of activity needs full explicit specifications, otherwise you may be unhappily surprised by the behaviour of your material. Business managers don't need specifications, they need instruments for influencing people. Business managers are never fully explicit, and therefore don't like the architecture concept: it makes things too explicit.
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