Phase B: Business Architecture — The Foundation Everything Else Rests On

Phase: Phase B — Business Architecture Perspective: Enterprise Architect

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Every failed IT project has the same root cause: someone designed a solution before understanding the business. Phase B forces the discipline of understanding how the organisation actually works — and where it needs to go.

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Key Inputs

• Architecture Vision from Phase A
• Business strategy and operating model
• Existing business architecture (if documented)
• Industry reference models
• Business capability assessments
• Process maps and organisational structures

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The Process

1. Develop baseline business architecture (as-is)
2. Define target business architecture (to-be)
3. Perform gap analysis
4. Map business capabilities to strategic goals
5. Identify business transformation roadmap items
6. Validate with business stakeholders

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Deliverables

• Baseline Business Architecture
• Target Business Architecture
• Business Capability Map
• Business Process Models
• Gap Analysis Report
• Architecture Requirements Specification (business)

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Practitioner Perspective

This phase is where most architects struggle — because it demands deep business acumen, not technical expertise. Use business capability mapping as your primary anchor: it lets you have structured conversations with executives without drowning in process detail.

The gap analysis is the most valuable output of Phase B. It transforms two architecture states (baseline and target) into a concrete list of business problems that require solving. Every gap is a potential workstream in your roadmap. Name them plainly: "Customer onboarding takes 12 days due to manual verification — target is 24 hours via automated identity checking."

The most common mistake: Treating Phase B as a documentation exercise. Business Architecture is a thinking exercise. The diagrams are evidence of thinking, not a substitute for it.

Practical tips:

• Use a Business Capability Heat Map to visualise where the business is strong, weak, or investing — it is the most powerful one-page communication tool in the EA toolkit
• Interview front-line staff, not just managers — the gap between documented processes and real processes is almost always significant
• Reference industry capability models (e.g. APQC, eTOM, BIAN) to accelerate baseline definition and benchmark against peers
• Do not proceed to Phase C until at least three senior business stakeholders have reviewed and validated the target architecture

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Part of a series: TOGAF from an Enterprise Architect's Perspective