---
title: "History of business architecture"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_business_architecture"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:15.010771+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Architecture Frameworks have been used in many industries, including the domains of industrial automation / manufacturing / production management, business information systems (of various kinds), telecommunications and defence. Part of the Enterprise Architecture practice is ‘enterprise engineering’ and the practice of ‘enterprise modelling’ (or just modelling) and complete AFs describe the scope of modelling (which later can be summaised as a Modelling Framework that is part of the AF).
One specific type of Framework is called the "Enterprise Reference Architecture." According to Bernus & Noran (2010):

Several proposals emerged in those two decades – e.g. PERA (Williams 1994), CIMOSA (CIMOSA Association 1996), ARIS (Scheer 1999), GRAI-GIM (Doumeingts, 1987), and the IFIP-IFAC Task Force, based on a thorough review of these as well as their proposed generalisation (Bernus and Nemes, 1994) developed GERAM (IFIP-IFAC Task Force, 1999) which then became the basis of ISO15704:2000 “Industrial automation systems – Requirements for enterprise-reference architectures and methodologies”...

=== Business Architecture Working Group ===

The Business Architecture Special Interest Group (BASIG) is a working group on business architecture of the Object Management Group (OMG). This working group was founded in 2007 as the Business Architecture Working Group (BAWG).

=== Business strategy ===
In the 2006 article "Business Architecture: A new paradigm to relate business strategy to ICT," Versteeg & Bouwman explained the relation between business architecture, business activities and business strategy. They wrote:

We use the concept of 'Business Architecture’ to structure the responsibility over business activities prior to any further effort to structure individual aspects (processes, data, functions, organization, etc.). The business architecture arranges the responsibilities around the most important business activities (for instance production, distribution, marketing, et cetera) and/or economic activities (for instance manufacturing, assembly, transport, wholesale, et cetera) into domains 
Versteeg & Bouwman also stipulated, that "the perspectives for subsequent design next to organization are more common: information architecture, technical architecture, process architecture. The various parts (functions, concepts and processes) of the business architecture act as a compulsory starting point for the different subsequent architectures. It pre-structures other architectures. Business architecture models shed light on the scantly elaborated relationships between business strategy and business design. We will illustrate the value of business architecture in a case study."

== 2010s ==

=== Handbooks ===
In the 2010 the first handbooks on Business architecture were published. In the US William M. Ulrich and Neal McWhorter of the OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group published the "Business Architecture: The Art and Practice of Business Transformation," in 2010.
In 2012 in Britain the business consultants Jonathan Whelan and Graham Meaden published their "Business Architecture: A Practical Guide."

=== Definition ===
In several sources in the exact definition of "business architecture" is under review. In 2008 Jeff Scott had commented in this matter: 

Interest in business architecture is growing dramatically. During the past two years both IT and business leaders have joined the discussion about the need for a well-defined business architecture. Though there is a great deal of discussion, there is little consensus about what business architecture is, how it should be pursued, and what value it delivers. Business architects in IT as well as in the business have started developing business-unit-wide and enterprise-wide business architectures, learning as they go. Their ultimate goals are to improve business decision-making and facilitate better alignment between IT and the business units it supports. Architecture teams that want to play a leading role in business architecture development must start soon or be left behind.
Other sources came to the same conclusion, that over the years many different definitions of business architecture have been proposed Some of the more notable definitions have described business architecture as: 

"A blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands" - OMG Business Architecture Working Group, 2008
"The business strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes information, as well as the interaction between these concepts." - TOGAF, 2009
"The formal representation and active management of business design." - SOA Consortium, EA2010 Working group on Business Architecture, 2010
The discussion kept going. John Zachman (2012) declared in this matter, that "a lot of people define business architecture differently (I know a lot of people who have a lot of different opinions and definitions for business architecture). Not too many people do business architecture, at least not in a comprehensive and definitive fashion (in my estimation)..." 

== Roots in various academic domains ==
Ideas and definitions about business architecture originate from different academic sub disciplines, where the concept of business architecture and methods and techniques are developing in numerous initiatives. A selection of related subfields:

Organizational theory inspired by systems thinking, cybernetics, complexity science, etc.
Systems analysis and design, system engineering, business engineering, business modeling, business process modeling, business process management, business process reengineering etc.
Software engineering, information engineering, information technology management, etc.
Enterprise architecture, enterprise engineering, enterprise modeling, enterprise ontology, enterprise resource planning, etc.

== Field of practice ==
Guitarte (2013) stipulated, that also different types of organizations have been active, and created a so-called "business architecture vortex.” He listed four types:

Influencers: Academe, Various authors, Cutter, Forrester, Media, Gartner, IIR
Third-party vendors: Metastorm, IBM, Sparx, Troux, Mega, BrainstormCentral, Pega, BAI, BPMI, Progress
Communities of practice: Business Architecture Guild, Business Architecture Society, BAA, BizArchCommunity, BAA, IIBA, PMI, AOGEA
Standards-setting bodies: ISO, BPMN, OMG, MDA, BASIG, The Open Group, TOGAF, BPM/SOA, BEI
Guitarte commented, that "influencers led followed by communities of practice and standards-setting bodies; vendors followed. Conflicting ideas provide opportunity to define the future of business architecture profession."

== Management interests ==
Surveys have reported a growing interest of management in business architecture, as well as on universities:

In 2004 Jaap Schekkerman already suggested that "Enterprise Architecture was ranked near the top of the list of most important issues considered by CEO’s and CIO’s."

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Gharajedaghi, Jamshid. Systems thinking: Managing chaos and complexity: A platform for designing business architecture. Elsevier, 1999; 2nd ed. 2005; 3rd ed. 2011
Susanne Glissman, and Jorge Sanz. "A comparative review of business architecture." IBM Research Report,2009.
William M. Ulrich, Neal McWhorter, Business Architecture: The Art and Practice of Business Transformation, Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2010;
Jonathan Whelan, Graham Meaden. Business Architecture: A Practical Guide. 2012.
Ralph Whittle, Conrad B. Myrick. Enterprise Business Architecture: The Formal Link between Strategy and Results, 2004

== External links ==
 Media related to Business architecture at Wikimedia Commons
 Quotations related to Enterprise architecture at Wikiquote