How Do Business Architects Gain and Retain Management Support?

One of the questions we commonly hear from clients starting a business transformation effort is, “How do we garner and retain management support for a business architecture effort?”

The answer to this question is actually pretty straightforward, although the implementation depends on your organization’s business, people, cultural and process context.

The high level answer to this question is that business architects must focus on “doing/showing” (e.g., creating business value-driven deliverables to address the investment issues executives are grappling with), not on “telling” executives about the need and value of business architecture.

Your organization’s executives really don’t care about business architecture.

They do care about ensuring they are making effective and impactful investment decisions. To gain and retain their support and engagement, business architects must focus on their business and managements needs first and foremost.

We Have Executive Support and Engagement

Business architects with a high level of management support and engagement are clearly in the best position to start working on clarifying and detailing an actionable business strategy (See Aragon Research Business Architecture Framework).

However, business architects must always proactively communicate with executives, as well as their business and technology peers, to ensure they retain that support and engagement, particularly during organizational, market, economic and business changes. This communication must include value-driven deliverables as well as business value-driven metrics.

The best way to retain ongoing support of executives is to show quantifiable and qualitative metrics that demonstrate the impact of business architecture on achieving the business future-state.

We Have Executive Support, But Little Engagement

Business architects with management support, but little engagement must start by understanding and clarifying their business strategy and future-state capabilities.

It may be possible to begin engaging executives by asking for feedback on your understanding of the business strategy, future vision and future capabilities, as long as this engagement is presented as a valuable service.

Do not go and ask executives what the business strategy and future-state vision is. In most cases, they may not have this fully articulated in their own minds and your questioning will just make them defensive.

Start with a draft of what you think the strategy and future-state is, and ask them for feedback.

Then…..quickly begin to create deliverables that are focused on that future-state.

By creating value-driven deliverables, business architects can begin to get management interested in what they are doing and (hopefully) more engaged.

We Do Not Have Executive Support or Engagement.

Business architects that have no executive support should follow the same advice above. But, they may need to do so in stealth mode.

It is better to focus on creating some deliverables that guide investments and address management issues/questions than doing nothing. Then, try to keep bringing value-driven deliverables to executive leaders.

It may take a bit longer to get their attention. But, by focusing on guiding effective future-state focused investment decisions you can get their support over time, especially if you specifically focus on opportunities and challenges that directly affect their ability to execute.

Our Executives Actively Do Not Support Business Architecture or EA

This is actually a fairly common scenario, which is particularly challenging because organizations must support business architecture in order to deliver on business transformation.

In this case, people doing business architecture work should still focus on creating deliverables that guide and inform business investment decisions that support business transformation. HOWEVER, business architects should not try to push the discipline of EA or business architecture.

A high impact deliverable is worth a thousand words. Focus on “doing” business architecture not on the existence of a business architecture program.

At some time, an executive may say, “Hey, this work you are doing is valuable and helpful.” That is when you might introduce that what you have been doing is business architecture all along.

Let them see the value of what you are doing, regardless of what it is called.

Bottom Line

Business architecture deliverables are critical for enabling business transformation. However, not all executives or organizations are ready to support a business architecture discipline emotionally, or organizationally.

The key to gaining and retaining executive support for business architecture as part of business transformation is just….DO IT. Don’t ask for permission, or approval. Just do it with a focus on business value-driven deliverables and addressing the opportunities/challenges that executives are facing.