Popular Enterprise Architecture methods position Enterprise Architecture, including Business Architecture, within I.T. and reporting to the CIO or CTO. This reflects the history of how EA methods have arisen: initially addressing Technology, then Applications and Data. As I.T. became more strategic and vital to business and businesses realised they needed alignment with I.T., management of costs and risks, the Business Architecture domain was added or expanded.
For most current EA methods, this is very much I.T. looking at the business to understand the organisation structure, processes and (maybe) value chains and capabilities which I.T. should enable and support. This may be OK for Enterprise I.T. Architecture, but is not true Business Architecture. The latter should be architecting the business and its future within the context where it operates. Given this perspective, Business Architecture should be outside of I.T., possibly in a Strategy or Business Change area. It should report to the Chief Strategy/Change/Executive/Operations Officer. Some advanced organisations now have a Chief Architect at ExCo level, responsible for all aspects of change and future planning.
The danger if Business Architecture reports to I.T. is that the agenda and priorities will be driven from this perspective. We watched this happen in a client organisation. They had a fairly new but competent Business Architecture function which was working well and initiating and guiding strategic change. The I.T. function was not performing as well and they hired a new high powered CIO to take that over. He lobbied hard and was successful in bringing the Business Architecture function under his control. Within two years it had lost all effectiveness as an agent of strategic business change.
By contrast we assisted another client to establish an EA function, and a Business Architecture competency from scratch. The Business Architecture function reported directly to the Office of the CEO, who was also its sponsor. A PMO was set up to drive the change projects, and the triumvirate of Business Architecture, PMO and IT (Including Enterprise I.T. Architecture) proved highly effective in driving a major strategic transformation programme including many non-I.T. aspects over a period of three years (and ongoing).
The diagram indicates how pivotal a good Business Architecture function can be. It informs the other architectures below it to ensure alignment. It drives business initiatives, which deliver competencies to operate the business.
The picture, of a lookout post in Israel, is a bit more tongue in cheek. It illustrates the current position of many Business Architecture functions - high up, but precarious!