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Business architect

Find out what a business architect in government does and the skills you need to do the role at each level.

Published 28 November 2023

Contents

What a business architect does

A business architect develops an integrated view of an enterprise, such as a business area or organisation. They use this view to help their organisation put its strategy in place.

In this role, you will:

  • understand and apply business architectural principles, techniques, and tools to business challenges
  • ensure design work from projects and programmes aligns with strategy
  • ensure business change is implemented effectively to meet strategy
  • aggregate and disaggregate complex information from across your organisation
  • communicate complex information about the organisation to stakeholders

Business architect role levels

There are 4 business architect role levels, from trainee business architect to lead business architect.

The typical responsibilities and skills for each role level are described in the sections below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Trainee business architect

A trainee business architect supports the more senior business architect roles. They also receive training on the tasks they support so they can work on their own.

At this role level, you will:

  • develop your knowledge of the frameworks, practice, and principles of business architecture
  • work with other business architects to support the production of clear business architecture outputs
  • support during workshops and meetings with stakeholders in the organisation
Skill Description

Business architecture

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of business architecture frameworks, principles and techniques
  • support the application of frameworks to business change in an organisation, under guidance

Communicating information

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • listen to the needs of design and business stakeholders and interpret information
  • take part in discussions within a multidisciplinary team

Consultancy

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an understanding of the need for consulting in your role, and its purpose
  • work under guidance to identify what advice, guidance and recommendations might be appropriate, usually by referring to previous work by others
  • show an understanding of how to frame problems that need to be solved

Making and guiding decisions

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • recommend decisions and describe the reasoning behind them
  • identify and articulate technical disputes between direct peers and local stakeholders

Methods and tools

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • follow advice to apply the most appropriate tools and techniques to support the planning, analysis, development, testing, implementation and improvement of systems and services

Strategic thinking

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • explain the strategic context of your work and why it is important
  • support strategic planning in an administrative capacity

2. Associate business architect

An associate business architect uses their knowledge and experience to address business scenarios. They continue to get support and training for their role.

At this role level, you will:

  • apply architectural methods following direction and wider strategy to produce outputs
  • break down complexity and produce clear outputs
  • explain complex business problems using clear language and artefacts
  • bring together disconnected information to inform decision making
  • recognise issues that cut across different areas of the organisation and present opportunities for improvement
Skill Description

Business architecture

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • help support the adoption of business architecture
  • clearly communicate business architecture frameworks, principles, and techniques
  • support the production of a multidimensional view of your organisation
  • assess the impact of strategies on the organisation, highlighting risks and issues

Communicating information

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group and build relationships with others
  • identify issues through Agile 'health checks' and work with others to address them
  • manage stakeholder expectations
  • be flexible and capable of proactive and reactive communication
  • host or moderate difficult discussions within the team or with senior stakeholders

Consultancy

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • provide advice, guidance and recommendations based on your specialist knowledge and experience
  • propose methodologies to follow and approaches to implementation
  • frame problems so they can easily be understood, and troubleshoot where required, to support the business in operating more effectively

Making and guiding decisions

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • make decisions characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity, and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase
  • resolve technical disputes between wider peers and indirect stakeholders, considering all views and opinions

Methods and tools

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • select and use the most appropriate tools and techniques to support the planning, analysis, development, testing, implementation and improvement of systems and services within a project

Stakeholder relationship management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify important stakeholders and communicate with them clearly and regularly
  • tailor communication to stakeholders' needs and work with them to build relationships, while also meeting user needs
  • build and reach consensus
  • work to improve stakeholder relationships, using evidence to explain decisions made

Strategic thinking

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work within a strategic context and communicate how activities meet strategic goals
  • contribute to the development of strategy and policies

3. Business architect

A business architect uses their knowledge and experience to understand business scenarios, communicate the issues and recommend next steps. They support and guide other business architects.

At this role level, you will:

  • support executive level work and management of the business architecture practice
  • guide others in using appropriate business architectural tools and methods
  • understand and apply business architectural principles, techniques, and tools to business scenarios
  • create business architecture artefacts, including abstract representations of the organisation, knowing when to apply them
  • develop standard and scalable models to collect, aggregate, or disaggregate complex information
Skill Description

Business architecture

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • apply and develop business architecture frameworks, principles and techniques in your organisation
  • advise and guide the organisation to inform the implementation of its strategy
  • share the value of business architecture with the organisation
  • produce clear multidimensional views of your organisation to support decision making

Communicating information

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels
  • manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales
  • speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government

Consultancy

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • provide advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience
  • lead the definition of guidance and inform how the organisation approaches delivery

Making and guiding decisions

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity, and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase
  • build consensus between services or independent stakeholders

Methods and tools

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • build capability in methods and tools, ensuring they are adopted consistently and used effectively

Stakeholder relationship management

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively
  • build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders

Strategic design and business change

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate a good understanding of business issues, events and activities, and their short to long term impact
  • support defining principles, patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements
  • effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions
  • help to develop, maintain or update strategy in response to feedback and findings

Strategic thinking

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • define strategies and policies, providing guidance to others on working in the strategic context
  • evaluate current strategies to ensure business requirements are being met and exceeded where possible

4. Lead business architect

A lead business architect uses their expert knowledge and experience to direct the work addressing high level and complex business scenarios. They support and lead other business architects.

At this role level, you will:

  • be accountable for outputs produced by the business architecture team
  • lead and direct the application of architectural principles, methods, and tools to business scenarios
  • use architectural methods to form a view of the whole enterprise in a way that is easily understood by stakeholders
  • work with stakeholders at executive levels
  • provide overall direction, guidance, and definition of business architecture to support strategy
  • develop and maintain a strong business architecture capability through coaching, mentoring, and training
Skill Description

Business architecture

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • simplify complex business architecture frameworks into clear actions
  • develop business architecture maturity in your organisation, such as through a community of practice
  • lead or guide others in using best practice for business architecture, such as industry standards
  • identify strategic misalignment within the organisation and make recommendations for improvement

Communicating information

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels
  • manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales
  • speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government

Consultancy

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • provide advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience
  • lead the definition of guidance and inform how the organisation approaches delivery

Making and guiding decisions

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity, and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase
  • build consensus between services or independent stakeholders

Methods and tools

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • set direction and give others the means and authority to advise on the best methodologies and tools for the work, ensuring they are adopted consistently
  • assess the effectiveness of different approaches (such as Agile or plan-driven) and recommend tools to support organisational collaboration and build capability

Stakeholder relationship management

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships
  • set stakeholder objectives and recommend that they’re met
  • influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation

Strategic design and business change

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate a strong understanding of business issues, events and activities and their short to long term impact
  • define principles, patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements
  • effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities
  • develop, maintain or update strategy in response to feedback and findings

Strategic thinking

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met
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Updates

Published 28 November 2023

Last updated 28 November 2023

28 November 2023

  • First published