Resources

The Different Resources We Offer

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE – THE GATEWAY TO TRANSFORMING AN ORGANIZATION INTO AN AGILE ENTERPRISE

Business Architecture Associates | September 2018

Organizations struggle with realizing business strategies, particularly when they cross-business unit, products, and external business domain boundaries. The question is, why? Research shows that, more often than not, failure to realize business strategies is not because the strategies are ill-conceived. Instead, these failures often occur because the scope and impact of those strategies are vague or unknown.

Business architecture changes the game by enabling organizational agility through an effective, coordinated translation of business directives into targeted results from strategy formulation through strategy realization. Business architecture allows organizations to frame the scope of business strategies, programs and projects, and related investments from the start in clear, unambiguous terms. Download the complete white paper.

Business Architecture Quick Guide

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE QUICK GUIDE

Business Architecture Guild® | January 2018

The Business Architecture Quick Guide represents the collective experiences of a worldwide community of practice, courtesy of the Business Architecture Guild®. Co-authored by BAA partners and Guild co-founders William Ulrich and Whynde Kuehn, along with other Guild Editorial Board members, the Quick Guide covers the discipline of business architecture from end-to-end. This valuable book also contains a wealth of additional resources that will enable organizations to take the next steps and begin to reap the benefits that other organizations are already achieving.

The Quick Guide is available for order from Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Bulk orders may be placed at MK Press.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION SERIES

Cutter Consortium | August 23, 2017

Cutter Fellow and BAA Partner William Ulrich and Cutter Senior Consultant and BAA Partner Whynde Kuehn teamed up to create a four-part series highlighting business architecture's role as a critical enabler of organizations to operate, transform, and compete effectively.

The complete series of Executive Updates are below, available to Cutter members, and upon request.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE STRAIGHTTALK

S2E Transformation Inc. | August 23, 2017

StraightTalk is a professional business blog on a mission to explain business architecture, end-to-end, to help to advance the discipline globally through shared knowledge. It's like your personal guide through the world of business architecture – delivered twice monthly. Written by long-time business architecture practitioner, educator, and thought leader Whynde Kuehn, this blog combines the most recent evolution of the business architecture discipline today with years of experience gained at many different organizations. Sign up to receive the latest post.

BUSINESS-DRIVEN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Cutter Consortium | September 19, 2016

More than just a bullet point in a strategy session or the current buzzword, a digital transformation begins with big visions and strategies. Still, the organizations that can execute upon them in a coordinated way will win with agility. BAA Partner and Cutter Senior Consultant Whynde Kuehn, served as guest editor for the August/September double-issue of Cutter IT Journal, focused on business-driven digital transformation. Kuehn's introduction provides an overview of how to approach digital transformation from a truly top-down, business-driven perspective and sets the tone for the Journal. BAA Partner and Cutter Fellow William Ulrich contribute an essential article highlighting the critical role of business architecture in providing the holistic business perspective that serves as the foundation for continuous digital transformation across a business ecosystem. Download complimentary copy

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW

Business Architecture Guild | March 2016

A special free on-demand webinar for the Business Architecture Guild, presented by Guild Co-Founders and BAA Partners Whynde Kuehn and William Ulrich, entitled, The Business Architecture Overview. This presentation — designed for executives, business architecture practitioners, or anyone interested in the discipline — describes how business architecture moves strategy into actionable solutions. View presentation.

PUTTING BUSINESS INTO BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE

May 2016

One commonly asked question is, "how does business architecture align with enterprise architecture?" This CIO Solutions article, published by BAA Partner William Ulrich and Dr. Richard Solely, clarifies the sometimes confusing world of enterprise, business, and related IT architecture concepts in an easily understood way. Download article.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Revised January 2019

Individuals and organizations seeking a quick and easy read on business architecture can find it in this reprint from a book titled Business and Dynamic Change: The Arrival of Business Architecture, published by Future Strategies, Inc. In this chapter 2 reprint, BAA Partners William Ulrich and Whynde Kuehn provide an end-to-end overview of business architecture that is recommended reading for individuals in the field or those entering the field. This reprint also serves as a useful education vehicle for management and others who want to understand business architecture but have little time to go into depth on the topic. Download reprint of Chapter 2, Part 1 of the book, Copyright © 2015 William M. Ulrich and Whynde Kuehn.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE: DISPELLING TWELVE COMMON MYTHS

Revised January 2019

Business architecture is a maturing discipline and drawing significant interest from a variety of organizations worldwide. It serves as a bridge between strategy and execution, making activities such as business transformation, enterprise planning, portfolio management, and mergers and acquisitions more strategic and practical. Yet business architecture is often misperceived as to its uses, origins, and value proposition. In this white paper, BAA Partners William Ulrich and Whynde Kuehn provide a brief introduction to business architecture, describe and dispel twelve commonly held misconceptions or myths, and give a glimpse of the future. Download white paper.

THE BUSINESS CAPABILITY MAP: THE "ROSETTA STONE" OF BUSINESS/IT ALIGNMENT

Cutter Consortium | Spring 2011

A business capability is a fundamental abstraction used to describe "what" a business does at the very core. The business uses the concept of a capability to realign its thinking and address complex issues in highly targeted ways. Businesses then associate those capabilities to IT assets making the redundancies, inconsistencies, and related architectural challenges of the current state much more apparent while clarifying the transition to the future state architecture from a business-driven perspective. In this early stage report, BAA Partner and Cutter Fellow William Ulrich, along with Mike Rosen, laid the groundwork for what has become standard practice for business-driven, business / IT architecture transformation. Download article.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE: THE ART AND PRACTICE OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Meghan Kiffer Press | October 2010

Visualizing a business through architectural disciplines is not new. But creating a business-friendly framework that allows business professionals to visualize and transform organizations is, however, a groundbreaking achievement! The most critical aspect of business architecture is enabling business executives, managers, and professionals to take ownership and drive enterprise transformation, a role that is oftentimes delegated to IT. This groundbreaking book by BAA Partner William Ulrich and Neal McWhorter, published at the early stages of business architecture's lifecycle, puts the business back in the driver's seat when it comes to setting strategy, crystallizing a vision, and turning that vision into business value. Purchase book.