Todd Biske: Outside the Box

In this panel discussion, a question I submitted was lucky enough to be directed to the panelists. It was whether or not they had a Business Architecture practice, and if so, was it part of the IT (or EA) organization or part of the business organization. Only one of the panelists, Buck Stuart of Great American Insurance, said that he had an actual Business Architecture practice, the other two, Randy Lakner of Sysco and Gouri Das of McGraw-Hill Education, both said they don’t have a practice per se, but are taking steps to ensure appropriate business input into EA practices, especially as it applies to SOA. All of the panelists agreed that the practice belongs within the business and not within IT. Randy pointed out that he had hired someone to be a Business Architect, but the effort didn’t succeed, not because it was coming out of IT, but rather because the business wasn’t ready for it. The panelists also indicated a strong relationship between Business Process Improvement initiatives and Business Architecture. Based upon those comments and my own thoughts, I would expect that increased adoption of BPM suites are likely to highlight the need and hopefully establish a business architecture practice in the organization.