Business architecture

A structured, coherent representation of how an organization creates, delivers and captures value. It is neither an org chart nor a systems inventory: it maps the mechanism that turns strategic intent into operations, information, measurement and learning.

The practical test of whether an organization has business architecture or merely documentation is simple: ask which capability any given process supports and watch whether the answer is looked up or argued about. If it takes a committee to settle, what exists is a folder of diagrams.