Business Architecture Clarifies The Scope Of Business Change Programs

Most IT organizations have experienced projects where, despite good project management and delivery to business requirements, the project failed to deliver the desired business benefits and was deemed a failure. The root cause of these failures is that the value of these projects is based on business outcomes requiring change beyond the scope of the IT project — which calls for a larger business change program to address the people and process changes as well as the technology ones that IT owns. In cases like these, defining the scope of this program and helping business sponsors understand this larger scope so that appropriate program management can be put in place are critical to project success. The business architecture efforts that many EA programs are spearheading can provide the means to define the larger scope of projects, communicate their business implications, and facilitate the appropriate program governance.