Enterprise Architecture and Business Analysis

Something I have struggled with in my first years of being an enterprise architect was how to align with the business analysts in our organization. I found it a lot easier to have a 30 minute meeting with the client to understand their needs than reading the entire business requirements document.

It was not until I became a business analyst myself that I realized by the time the enterprise architect gets involved in the project, the business analyst have prepared the business so that they can give you the understanding in 30 minutes. It takes weeks, if not months, of workshops with clients to get them to understand what they really need and to condense it down to a few pages of requirements. The time spent with clients during the business analysis phase of a project is never wasted time, as I always thought.

Enterprise architects should leverage, and appreciate, the business analysts in the organization. They have a specific skill in dealing with clients that most architects lack and does come in very handy during solution selection and detail design workshops. While the architect is busy positioning the solution with the architecture, the business analyst can assist with impact assessments, modelling and client relationship management.

Aligning yourself with a good business analyst makes an architect's life a lot easier.