Business Architecture for Banking as Described by Four Scenarios

Despite the existence of numerous Business Architecture frameworks developed by standard bodies and related practices emerging in Financial Services organizations, broad adoption of Business Architecture modeling has not yet occurred. This paper presents scenarios that make business architecture valuable for the Banking Industry.

Specifically, we focus on one of the main hurdles for Business Architecture adoption, i.e., the present lack of understanding of the value for companies in developing a Business Architecture model. We present a series of useful scenarios illustrating how Banking organizations could definitely benefit from Business Architecture models to address some of their most challenging priorities. In fact we argue that some of the most prevalent industry challenges will be difficult to meet without a Business Architecture model.

We believe that it is necessary to provide detailed business insight when presenting business value scenarios for Business Architecture to mature. Standard bodies such as OMG or TOG have made an important initial contribution focused on their Information Technology-centric communities but more business depth is needed for Financial Services organizations such as banks to fully adopt Business Architecture models and related practices beyond the IT function.