Aligning Architecture with Business Strategy

Over time, I have come to realize that architecture is not purely Information Technology (IT) functionality, in the traditional sense of viewing IT. It is strategic in intent; hence it needs to draw directly from business strategy. The other thing that I have realized is that architecture ends up lasting longer than business strategy. The fact that decades old legacy systems like Mainframe/COBOL, etc are still deeply entrenched within organizations supports that claim.

Business strategy, on the other hand, continually evolves over time, in response to the changing competitive landscape. If architectural efforts are not properly tuned with the business strategy, architecture ends up constraining instead of enabling the achievement of business strategy. Once again, taking the example of Mainframe/COBOL, such systems are geared towards batch processing of information. Going forward, if the organization wants to start monitoring its activities in real to near-real time, it will be constrained by the capabilities of its existing Mainframe/COBOL systems.

My understanding is that the following should occur, to ensure the proper alignment of architectural efforts with business strategy.

1. Architects should participate in the business strategy process
2. Architects should have their interpretation of business strategy, validated by business strategists
   
3. Architects should focus on tackling only those challenges that directly affect the implementation of the business strategy
4. Architects should continually assess the relevance of their initiatives against the business strategy