Chapter 8: Making it Real
The framework means nothing until you use it. This chapter is about what happens Monday morning: where to start, how to build the case without a methodology deck, who your first allies are, and why your first cycle should be small enough to finish in ninety days. You will not leave with a plan for transforming your organization. You will leave with something more useful: a blueprint for a single, contained experiment that earns you the right to do the next one.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to:
- Diagnose your organization's most pressing alignment gap and identify the right Design4 phase to start with
- Describe a practical approach to running a first Design4 cycle, starting small, prototyping, and building momentum
- Frame the case for Business Architecture in terms of specific organizational pain points and governance value
- Identify the roles and engagement patterns that sustain Business Architecture as an ongoing practice
- Chart your own learning pathway through the BA curriculum based on your role and organizational needs
Key Concepts
Self-Assessment
Before moving to the next chapter, ensure you can:
Reflection Questions
Apply these concepts to your own context:
1. Which of the four gaps is causing the most damage in your organization right now? What evidence supports your diagnosis? Which Design4 phase would you enter to address it?
2. If you had 30 seconds to explain the value of Business Architecture to your CEO, what would you say? (Hint: start with their problem, not the framework.)
3. Think about Marcus's reflection: "The framework didn't give Lakeshore the answers. It gave Lakeshore the capacity to find them." What would that capacity look like in your organization? What's the first conversation you would need to have?