Why you decided to choose this resource?
I chose this resource because many people don’t fully appreciate the importance of the burgeoning new field of business architecture. Introduction to Business Architecture by Chris Reynolds, as the title rightfully suggests, acts as an easily digestible introduction into business architecture that even high school students can understand. The book contains a plethora of useful diagrams that help further illustrate the book’s many points.
What did you learn from it?
I learned that businesses architecture is not only a relatively new field, but also an increasingly vital and growing discipline.
I learned:
- The framework for business architecture work
- Case studies where aspects of business architecture have been successfully applied
- How to create my own business architecture
- Practical uses for business architecture
- Ties between business architecture and technology systems (including IT architecture)
Key points
A proper business architecture model includes five elements: facades, processes, communication, entities, goals.
- Goal hierarchy of the business are the departments that comprise the business and the respective goals that each department strives to achieve.
- Facades are the impressions that the business wishes to present to clients, suppliers, government and regulatory bodies, and competitors.
- Processes are the internal tasks of the business that support facades and business interactions.
- Communications covers intra- and inter- departmental communications as well as communications with external bodies.
- Entities are “things” that the business needs to understand, manipulate, or be aware of.
How are you using what you learned?
Introduction to Business Architecture has helped me gain a deeper appreciation of the intricacies that go into both the short and long term runnings of a business. Business architecture is an important process for all businesses to include in order to maintain current growth as well as plan for the future.
How can we as a company or individuals in the company use this?
As a company we can use the lessons of this book to better understand how as a company we depend on each department in unique and irreplaceable ways. While each responsibility area has its own processes and necessary actions, each area should have a clearly defined goal that is aligned with the ultimate goals of the company. As individuals we should take away an understanding of how much effort goes into creating and managing a business, as well as understand the importance of planning for the future. Whether its for businesses or for building houses, the art of architecture allows us to understand basic needs and make sure those needs are met by design.
Source
Title: Introduction to Business Architecture
Author: Chris Reynolds
Links: Summary Link
