The Business Architects’ Profession^[i]

A Growing Profession

While the work of the Business Architect has been performed for as long as businesses have existed, the profession of Business Architecture is very new.  It was born in response to the need for a new set of tools and skills to meet the increasing challenges presented by today’s speed, complexity, sophistication, competition and low tolerance for error.

The profession formally began in 2003 with the launch of the Business Architects Association® (BAA™), the first professional association recognizing Business Architects. It presented a working definition of a Business Architect, defined a Body of Knowledge, which every professional Business Architect should know and set the qualifications for a Business Architect by launching its Certified Business Architect (CBA)® certification conferred on individuals who have completed an accredited university-level Business Architecture program. (See Appendix 2 for more information about the Business Architects Association®.)

Additional professional organizations have since entered the space including the BPMI Brainstorm™ conference and the bizarchcommunity.com™ forum.

Governing Bodies

The current governing bodies include:

Professional Body: The Business Architects Association® is a professional body serving the Business Architecture community. It promotes the profession, encourages employment of Business Architects and, through its Institute, is working to advance the profession by stimulating and publishing research. It is working to protect the public by increasing the academic rigor necessary to achieve certification and pursuing breaches of professional practice and ethics.

Regulatory Body: The Business Architects Association™ sets the qualifications for its membership and certification, and verifies compliance.  It accredits the educational institution’s upon whose graduates the Certified Business Architect (CBA)® certificate is conferred. The BAA™’s Institute determines the Body of Knowledge required for courses accredited for the BAA™’s certification.

Learned Body: DePaul University is the first MBA-level Business Architecture program; others are expected to follow soon.

Standards Bodies: There are three types of standards bodies for the Business Architecture profession.

Standards of Professional Practice: The Business Architects Association® has issued a comprehensive set of Standards of Professional Practice intended to act as guidelines governing how practitioners conduct their work and to set the expectations of their customers and employers.

Reference Standards: Business Architects access a very broad set of reference standards depending on the issue being addressed. These standards range from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).

Tool Standards: The Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPMP) has issued its Guide to the Business Process Management Common Body of Knowledge (BPM CBOK™) establishes standards for Business Process Management. The Object Modeling Group (OMG™) has formed a working group to explore whether it makes sense for OMG™ to establish a Business Architecture standards development group within their organization.

Body of Knowledge

Specified Bodies of Knowledge for the profession are contained in the content of the coursework required for certification.

Code of Ethics

Each professional association carries its own Code of Ethics, adherence to which is a condition of continuing membership.

Professional Certification

To-date, the BAA™’s certification remains the only university-level program for Business Architects, though others are expected very soon.