“Make it easy to change business or process rules to cater for new situations, or to support needs that weren’t thought of at the time of the initial requirements.” – Roger Evernden
The idea of developing a theory presents a consistent, intellect-driven technique that promotes exploration, ideation, experimentation, and new lines of thought in contemporary endeavors. Such an idea may often precede the creation of new methods of conducting business in competitive markets; a theory can also reinforce human faith in the power of ideation. When extended into practice, a theory can develop into complex scaffolding that helps construct original (and in certain cases derivative) instances of mechanisms, constructs, methods, and paradigms – and their constituent stances, processes, systems, and techniques.
In this wide-ranging backdrop, business architecture is a contemporary, ongoing (technical and strategic) endeavor that spotlights a multi-faceted transition from theory to practice; this concept may represent a fluid mechanism tethered to certain constructs. Business architecture is an expansive idea architected to elevate the quality of design (and performance) underlying business systems and paradigms. Hence, business architecture describes “how an organization is structured and demonstrates how elements such as capabilities, processes, organization, and information fit together.”
- Focus on Clarity
An organization’s business model and business rules may gain deeper expression (or visual rendering) through use of various versions of connected diagrams. The idea of deploying flowcharts in business architecture enables organizations to gain clarity in various levels of operations, define and execute the multiple tiers of strategy, and assess outcomes of business performance in successive quarters. Alternatively, flowcharts may prove instrumental when organizations seek to simplify or refurbish legacy versions of architecture in response to changes in contemporary business/operating environments. Architects of process, and the owners and operators of business systems, on their part could develop flowcharts in business architecture in consultation with stakeholders; this stance could be powered by a view to refine the contours and mechanisms underlying processes.
- The Importance of Stakeholders
Stakeholder communities retain an abiding interest in the competent execution of various aspects of business strategy. In tune with this, stakeholders may design/develop flowcharts in business architecture; specifically, they may develop tiers inside flowcharts that spotlight the innate value of stakeholder participation in the evolution of business architecture endorsed by organizations. These tiers would be avenues of value addition to diagrams, as elements that promote higher functionality (and synergies) in business architecture, and as a stream of inputs that qualitatively boosts the efficiency metrics inside organizational processes. Further, stakeholders may utilize flowcharts to review the composition and velocity of current architecture, and undertake reviews that may burnish the competitive edge of modern organizations.
- Expanding the Role of the Periphery
Suppliers and contractors represent vital components that can power performance in modern business ecosystems. Hence, businesses must work to include these parties when constructing, developing, and ideating on business architecture. Suppliers and contractors as providers of material input would be participants in the success of modern enterprise, as enablers, and also as components of variable method that underlines business performance. In line with this, hence it makes sense to position suppliers and contractors as functional elements within flowcharts in business architecture. This stance enables organizations to expand the definition of participation of these elements in enterprise; it also empowers firms to raise the levels of their interaction with peripheral operators, and subsequently incorporate their agency to drive business success.
- Operational Metrics
Business decisions would thus be considered outcomes of surveying operational metrics; business leaders may arrive at decisions through the agency of flowcharts in business architecture. For instance, the escalating costs of operating different parts of an enterprise may trigger corrective actions in the form of devising/implementing measures and methods designed to reduce expenditure. The contours of such method could emerge in subsidiary sections of flowcharts; the impact of such methods may also undergo periodic assessments within diagrams prior to implementation in business/commercial processes. Therefore, it would help to view connected diagrams as a utility-driven construct that generates a direct footprint on business decisions. In addition, the use of flowcharts in business architecture gains the spotlight when leaders compare metrics embedded in diagrams as a prelude to decisions and renewals/revisions in stances.
- Value Streams: A New Perspective
The development of value streams remains an ongoing project undertaken by organizations of every hue. Pursuant to this, deploying flowcharts in business architecture as part of efforts to locate potential sites that can generate sustained value streams would be beneficial. This initiative would be an integral set of actions that provides motive force to, for instance, business re-engineering initiatives. On their part, analysts may connect value streams to profitability, thereby justifying the harnessing of organizational resources to enrich said initiative. Business operators may undertake to develop value streams as part of actions that raise the functional quotient of business architecture. In this context, value streams gain multiple nuances and diversity in meaning, allowing an enhanced interpretation of deploying flowcharts in business architecture.
- Evaluating Maturity
Organizations may wish to assess the maturity of various models of modern business architecture prior to executing implementation. This is necessary because an exacting fit with grand objectives is mandatory in the journey toward unqualified success. In such instance, flowcharts in business architecture may assist the test of maturity and empower organizations to effect course corrections as required. Various editions of diagram can enhance outcomes of testing procedures; these diagrams also offer scope for experimentation and goal setting as part of the bigger project. Further, organizations may design a variety of test scenarios (or simulations) as part of assessing the maturity of architecture models. Therefore, it would help to view flowcharts as instruments and constructs that enable a variety of relevant outcomes; an intelligent use of diagrams can also allow organizations to register progress toward optimized models of modern business architecture.
- Mapping Capabilities
It would make sense to consider mapping the current/emerging capabilities of an organization as part of developing flowcharts in business architecture. Such initiative bears potential to expand the scope of strategies endorsed by the top tiers of an organization; such initiative may also reveal the competitive strengths that could emerge from various versions of business architecture. Further, deploying connected diagrams as part of method that seeks to elevate the quality/expanse of business architecture explored in a range of relevant contexts would be beneficial. The mapping initiative gains steam when businesses and organizations value objective viewpoints such as those emanating from specialists and independent consultants. Additionally, a series of diagrams could help promote mapping exercises undertaken at various points of an organization’s journey.
- To Conclude
A considered engagement with these texts illuminates the various avenues of using flowcharts in business architecture. These diagrams would be flexible representations of blueprints, a canvas that helps project the many lines of intertwined thought processes. Flow-based diagrams also enable a consistent approach to the idea of experimenting with various techniques with a view to uplift the contours of architecture. Deploying diagrams to envisage the concept of business architecture in new light, is also a terrific idea. Different streams of business operation could find avenues of merger within the spaces of connected diagrams. This may act as a force multiplier that expands the idea of interoperability between different segments of a modern enterprise. Business operators could consider evolving the connections that animate various editions of business architecture. Such evolution could presage new versions of functionality built into said concept. Evolution may also spur interesting new synergies between various functions encased in architecture.
