Organizations today face relentless pressure to move faster, innovate, and scale transformation – yet many struggle to turn strategy into meaningful results. Without a clear view of how value is delivered across the organization, decision-making is little more than guesswork. Business architecture is the map that connects strategy with execution. This blueprint takes a practical, accessible approach to building a business capability map, linking it to value streams, and prioritizing the right initiatives to deliver results.
As organizations seek meaningful results in today’s exponential world, many struggle with enterprise-level blind spots when it comes to how they create and deliver value. This makes it difficult to prioritize initiatives, optimize cross-functional performance, or align investments with the outcomes that matter most. Business architecture provides a holistic view of the organization’s activities and the resources that support them and how they can be aligned to better connect strategy with action.
1. Business architecture is for everyone.
You don’t need a dedicated practice to start benefitting from business architecture. Start with a business capability map to expose how your organization creates value. This will reduce the guesswork, improve alignment between the business and IT, and connect what needs to get done with how value is actually delivered.
2. Speaking of value …
In business architecture, value streams visually define and show how the organization delivers outcomes, not just how work flows. Value streams are foundational to identifying which capabilities matter most and where to prioritize improvements for impact.
3. Zoom out for the full picture.
Enterprise and business architecture aren’t just about IT. Business capabilities and governance approaches need to fully reflect corporate strategy and governance. If they take place in isolation, planning becomes myopic and disconnected from its purpose.
Use this step-by-step blueprint to begin your business architecture journey
Use this comprehensive framework with practical tools and templates to help you build a capability map, model value streams, and focus on the initiatives that will have the greatest strategic impact. Follow a three-phase process that walks you through how to:
- Engage your stakeholders. Recognize the opportunity for mapping work and identify and engage the right stakeholders.
- Define your value streams. Articulate how your organization delivers value to your customers.
- Drive business architecture forward. Assess your current projects to determine if you are investing in the right capabilities. Conduct business capability assessments to identify opportunities and prioritize projects.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.3/10
Overall Impact
$43,661
Average $ Saved
27
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Consumers Energy
Workshop
9/10
$68,000
20
Great experience coordinating with Howard on the workshop, especially around preparing our to-be processes and items our team will be responsible f... Read More
Paychex
Workshop
8/10
N/A
N/A
Ivan was a great facilitator: knowledgeable and approachable. He stayed curious throughout and asked meaningful questions of the audience to tease ... Read More
Consumers Energy
Workshop
10/10
$136K
44
Best: I deeply appreciate the iterative and highly collaborative approach to ensuring the workshop scope, delivery, and outcomes were aligned to o... Read More
Consumers Energy
Workshop
8/10
$68,000
20
Great engagement from Howard during the delivery of the workshop. The team learned some valuable practices and insight from the Business Architectu... Read More
New Zealand Treasury
Guided Implementation
10/10
$13,534
10
Cameron was very knowledgeable on the topic and provided some valuable insights and suggestions on how to right-size for our organization.
DKV Euro Service GmbH + Co. KG
Guided Implementation
9/10
$39,749
5
Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services
Workshop
10/10
$34,000
20
Having everyone in a room for 4 days, the exchange of ideas and issues were great. This built the foundation to carry the project forward.
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Guided Implementation
10/10
$5,000
5
NZ Department of Corrections
Guided Implementation
7/10
$34,250
10
Collateral and analyst session was very interesting and informative, we were looking for an accelerator for general business capabilities and recei... Read More
California Health and Human Services Agency
Guided Implementation
10/10
$28,085
N/A
Best part is having access to speak with a knowledgeable person in the space. Worst part is that I don't have access to her every minute of every day.
NASA
Workshop
10/10
N/A
120
Best parts: great knowledgeable and highly skilled team. High level of engagement by all participants. Flexibility in adjusting agenda items based ... Read More
Centennial College
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,000
16
Best: Great insight into the discipline and practical blueprints that once can actually use and refine Thanks Claude
USAble Mutual Insurance Co. dba Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Workshop
9/10
$1.23M
N/A
Andy drove the Value stream mapping exercise by establishing capability model for Group line of business for Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. Andy... Read More
Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services - Office of Information Services
Workshop
7/10
N/A
20
Driving alignment amongst my team and giving them tools they need to be successful is a great benefit. Getting that alignment was difficult...given... Read More
Hydro-Quebec
Workshop
9/10
$50,000
50
Best parts: - New concepts learned - Workshops to apply concretely the concepts - Knowledge and expertise of Infotech staff. Worst part... Read More