Lead Business Architect

Summary

A lead business architect uses their expert knowledge and experience to direct the work addressing high level and complex business scenarios. They support and lead other business architects.

At this role level, you will:

be accountable for outputs produced by the business architecture team

lead and direct the application of architectural principles, methods, and tools to business scenarios

use architectural methods to form a view of the whole enterprise in a way that is easily understood by stakeholders

work with stakeholders at executive levels

provide overall direction, guidance, and definition of business architecture to support strategy

develop and maintain a strong business architecture capability through coaching, mentoring, and training

Work Activity Components

Title	Details
Environmental scanning (Level 6)	Taking account of the business objectives and culture of the employing organisation, evaluates major options for providing IT services effectively and efficiently and recommends solutions such as outsourcing, new approaches to recruitment and retention, and global supply contracts. Develops and presents business cases for high-level initiatives to executive management for approval, funding, and prioritisation.
Strategy formulation (Level 6)	Sets out the business architecture for the organisation aligning to business functions, the business strategy and the competitive landscape. Describes the architecture in different ways for different audiences by creating specific architecture views. Demonstrates stakeholder concerns are addressed and gains agreement for the proposed architecture.
Lead, manage and supervise(PEMT) (Level 4)	Supervises, supports and guides the work of individuals and/or small groups in line with organisational strategy.
Lead Business Architect

Behavioural Skills

Title	Details
Commercial Orientation	Understanding commercial considerations and ensuring alignment with them when making decisions or recommending actions.
Organisational Awareness	Understanding the hierarchy and culture of own, customer, supplier and partner organisations and being able to identify the decision makers and influencers.
Interacting with People	Establishing relationships, contributing to an open culture and maintaining contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Effective, approachable and sensitive communicator in different communities and cultures. Ability to adapt style and approach to meet the needs of different audiences.
Influence, Persuasion and Personal Impact	Conveying a level of confidence and professionalism when engaging with stakeholders, influencing positively and persuading others to take a specific course of action when not in a position of authority.
Leadership	Clearly articulating goals and objectives, and motivating and leading others towards their achievement.

Technical Skills

Title	Details	Depth
National/International Standards	Current and emerging standards associated with IT practice nationally and internationally, published by authorities such as IEEE, IEC, BSI, ISO.	Proficient in
Operational/Service Architecture	Knowledge of the IT/IS infrastructure and the IT applications and service processes used within own organisation, including those associated with sustainability and efficiency.	Familiar with
Big Data	The discipline associated with data sets so large and/or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. The data files may include structured, unstructured and/or semi-structured data, such as unstructured text, audio, video, etc. Challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, manipulation, analysis, visualization and information privacy.	Familiar with
Cloud/Virtualisation	The principles and application of cloud/ virtualisation (including ownership, responsibilities and security implications). Use of tools and systems to manage virtualised environments.	Proficient in

Other Skills

Title	Details	Depth
Process Improvement Techniques	Methods, tools and techniques to analyse and optimise processes in order to improve the quality of a product or service.	Proficient in
Presentation Techniques	Methods and techniques for delivering effective and accessible presentations, either face-to-face or online within various contexts and to a variety of audiences.	Proficient in
Business Proposals	Methods and techniques for preparing and presenting business cases, requests for proposal (RFP) invitations to tender (ITT) and statements of requirements/work both verbally and in writing.	Proficient in
Techniques for Effective Meetings	Methods and techniques for running effective meetings and for understanding and influencing the roles played by participants.	Proficient in
Coaching Techniques	Methods and techniques for coaching individuals or groups by a balanced combination of support and direction, which could include use of virtual learning environments plus add-ons to augment feedback specific to work items, workflow or career plans.	Proficient in

Training

Title	Details
Strategic Planning for Information and Communications Systems	The process of defining the ICT strategic plan of an organisation in a methodical way based on business aims and objectives thereby enabling the specification of options and associated action plans for the use of IT-enabled business processes.
Financial Planning and Budgeting	Principles, regulations, procedures and tools for the financial management of both ongoing activities (business as usual) and time-bounded (project) activities.
Enterprise Architecture	The discipline that: defines, organises, standardises, and documents the whole architecture and all important elements of the respective organisation. Enterprise architecture covers all relevant domains, such as business, digital, physical, or organisational; and the relations and interactions between elements that belong to those domains, such as processes, functions, applications, events, data, or technologies.
Coaching	Concepts, methods and techniques for providing coaching in subject specialisms to individuals or groups (e.g. GROW model).
Security Awareness	Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.

Professional Development Activity (PDA)

Title	Details	PDA Group
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments	Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures.	Broadening Activities
Mentoring	Acting as a mentor, advising those for whom there is no direct responsibility, on matters to do with their job role, career and professional development.	Broadening Activities
Gaining Knowledge of Broader IT Issues	Increasing and maintaining currency of knowledge of broader IT issues through reading, attending and participating in seminars or conferences, special studies, temporary assignments etc.	Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Strategic Knowledge of Employing Organisation	Developing a comprehensive understanding of the business environment in which the employing organisation operates and its position, policies and direction in relation to health and care, country and global issues.	Increasing Knowledge
Participation in Professional Body Affairs	Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level.	Participation in Professional Activities
Management Development	Undertaking learning and best practice of the skills appropriate to managing all or part of an organisation, including business and financial management, benefits management, people management, management of change and strategic planning. This will require both on and off the job learning and may include participation in an appropriate development programme such as MBA or DMS (Diploma in Management Studies).	Developing Professional Skills

Organisational Skill Name and Description

Framework	Skill	Level
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Business architecture Business analysis involves understanding the business needs and translating those requirements into solutions through detailed analysis and feedback.	Expert Business analysis You can: set the direction for business analysis within a programme of work, enterprise or wider sector guide tactical decision making and influence the formulation of longer-term strategic plans in an evolving, complex and unpredictable environment give colleagues the means and authority to make decisions about their approach to business analysis activities ensure that the proposed solutions align with the organisational strategy and vision
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Communicating information Communication involves conveying information using the most effective medium and language for the audience.	Expert Communicating information You can: mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Consultancy Collaboration in the DDaT Profession typically involves working in a multidisciplinary project team, and contributing to working groups and wider professional communities. It requires a broad understanding of the technologies, principles and perspectives of related professions.	Practitioner Consultancy You can: provide advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience lead the definition of guidance and inform how the organisation approaches delivery
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Making and guiding decisions Process optimisation involves ensuring your processes are accurately defined and capture the most efficient way to complete a task by monitoring modified procedures.	Practitioner Making and guiding decisions You can: make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity, and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase build consensus between services or independent stakeholders
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Methods and tools Metadata management involves establishing policies and processes that ensure data can be accessed across an organisation.	Expert Methods and tools You can: set direction and give others the means and authority to advise on the best methodologies and tools for the work, ensuring they are adopted consistently assess the effectiveness of different approaches (such as Agile or plan-driven) and recommend tools to support organisational collaboration and build capability
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Stakeholder relationship management Stakeholder relationship management involves managing stakeholder requirements and communications throughout a project, while remaining focused on the user needs.	Expert Stakeholder relationship management You can: direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships set stakeholder objectives and recommend that they’re met influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Strategic design and business change Applied mathematics and statistics involves applying analytical methods including exploratory data analysis, visualisation and statistical testing to help make accurate recommendations.	Expert Strategic design and business change You can: demonstrate a strong understanding of business issues, events and activities and their short to long term impact define principles, patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities develop, maintain or update strategy in response to feedback and findings
Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework	Strategic thinking Strategy involves creating a plan to achieve a team or organisation's objectives.	Expert Strategic thinking You can: lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

Framework

Skill

Level