The Business Architect: What HR and Hiring Managers Need to Know

Prior episodes of The North Star identified business architecture as a positive factor in successful strategy execution. It should come as little surprise then that, as business architecture has gained traction, the demand for skilled practitioners has grown. One association’s career center that specializes in job opportunities for business architects has scores of job openings. In addition to the fact that there is an actual shortage of skilled practitioners, the lack of well-formed job descriptions makes it difficult to attract talent. Many open requisitions expect every business architect to be a polymath, skilled in everything except those skills desired in a business architect. Misleading, unrealistic job descriptions not only undermine an organization’s ability to attract talent, but also to retain talent. When skilled business architects are placed into jobs that have little to do with business architecture and fail to leverage their unique skills, they will leave. The inability to clearly articulate the skills required in a business architect and leverage those skills as part of a viable practice undermine an organization’s ability to maximize the value of the discipline. On this episode of The North Star, William Ulrich welcomes back popular guests Kelley Eckmayer and Teresa Garcia-Holm, senior business professionals with extensive experience in maximizing the value of business architecture. They will discuss the role of the business architect and skills an organization should look for during the hiring process and when establishing job performance standards and titles. If you are looking to build and staff a business architecture team, or seeking to ensure that your skilled business architects do not walk out the door, tune in to this discussion and learn what every human resource and hiring manager should know.