Glossary

Business structure

The component of the business model describing how the enterprise organizes itself to produce the value it offers: units, roles and accountabilities.

The component of the business model describing how the enterprise organizes itself to produce the value it offers: units, roles and accountabilities. It answers how it organizes, while the portfolio answers what it does and the ontological model with which concepts.

It is the part of the architecture that changes most and should drag the least along with it. When processes are modelled against the org chart rather than against capabilities, every reorganization forces a redesign — and that is the usual reason documentation is out of date within a year.

Related terms

Business capability

What an organization must know how to do, expressed independently of who does it or which system supports it.

Business model

The starting point of the architecture: it describes how the organization creates, transforms, delivers and transfers value.

Operating model

An explicit decision about which processes are standardized and which data are integrated across business units.

Organizational white space

The space between the boxes of the org chart, where work crosses boundaries and delays, rework and lost accountability tend to appear.