About Architecture Based Analysis [ABA]

Most complex organizations have trouble delivering effective change. Significant expenditures are made creating an enterprise architecture with the goal of truly understanding the capabilities of the organization so it is ready to address threats and seize opportunities. To be effective, the architecture must be current, comprehensive and correct. However, most organizations report that their architecture is neither current, comprehensive nor correct.

This is because organizations are continually changing. Business and technical projects of all sizes constantly alter the way the organization functions, making these architectural views unreliable and, ultimately, unusable.

The "change problem" is made worse due to the fact that most business projects fail to deliver effective outcomes, especially when they address large complex challenges. It is a vicious cycle that works against any hope for organizational agility.

With Architecture Based Analysis [ABA] a vicious cycle becomes a virtuous cycle. This is because architecture and business analysis work together to deliver effective, efficient business change. In fact, ABA considers architectural diagrams to be visual representations of requirements information.

This means:

Current architectural models are used as tools to elicit and verify requirements for a proposed change. If the architectural model is out of date or nonexistent, business stakeholders work with the business analyst to make sure it is absolutely right so they will get the outcomes they need.
Once in place, the architectural model contains all of the relevant requirements needed to manage and change the process. At any time, a requirements report can be created to support compliance, operations or training efforts. Reports can also be used when conducting impact analysis on innovative ideas or proposed business changes.

ABA has been used effectively for over 20 years. It combines the best of business analysis and architecture and can align with any architectural standard or project management framework. Because it is a methodology, it does not matter whether the organization uses waterfall, agile or some hybrid between the two. It can also be implemented at any point in the project life cycle, often being applied when a project is in trouble.

Perhaps best of all, ABA is less expensive to implement than traditional approaches. Why? Because instead of employing architects and business analysts on separate work efforts, the organization makes a single investment in a requirements architect, saving both time and money.

If you need to learn more about whether ABA can work for your organization, contact us. We can provide a cost justification showing hard cost savings for your project portfolio!