Friday, April 10, 2020

Apply Business Architecture to Solve Wild Problems

Organizations need to assign their resources and time carefully and solve problems that really matter. 

As we learn and understand more about this interdependent and hyper-connected digital world, which is a lot more complex than we realize, there’s an imperative need for systematic problem-solving.

Fundamentally, running a business is an iterative problem-solving continuum. Problem-solving has a very wide scope today, digital leaders and professionals can leverage Business Architecture (BA) as a problem-solving framework and practical tool for taking multifaceted disciplines to solve problems effectively.

The BA works at a fine level of detail to fully understand the current situation and problem to be solved: With “VUCA” new normal, problem-solving thought-processes and practices will not be simple for many vexing problems. The more complex the situation is, the more different approaches and role gaming is needed to reach for in-depth understanding. Business Architecture is a useful tool to gather inter-related data and facts, analyze and frame the right problems, if needed, break down the large problem to smaller pieces, in order to solve problems effectively.

Many of today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions." Until the underlying problem is addressed, the symptom or result will continue to return. Every situation has choices, every situation has unknown unknowns, the only way we get to understand these is by not giving up and using a higher level of thinking and practical tools such as BA to fully understand the current situation. It’s always critical to gain empathy, capture insight and come up with a fresh perspective on getting to the heart of issues before putting effort to solve it smoothly.

Business Architecture needs to focus on reality, leverages tools and methods to untangle current business puzzles: Business Architecture aims to give visibility to and increase shared understanding of problems and proposed changes; leverage diversified viewpoints to view problems from a different perspective, unfold systemic relationships, and to tame seemingly-wild issues. There is no definitive formulation of a wild problem, in fact, defining wild problems is itself a wild problem. Every wild problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem. Multi-dimension and complexity are two key factors in wildness.

A problem is a difference between an expectation (intention, vision) and the actual situation (current reality) Business Architecture has the tools and methodologies to deal with multi-dimensional complex issues and untangle current business puzzles. Some architects do have the skills to find the right balance between these tools and methods, apply their "natural" skills, excellent communication and soft skills together with good tactics and the ability to handle problems smoothly.

Business Architecture helps to "dispassionately" examine the alternative for solving problems effectively: In the digital era, you will be confronting a number of high-complex problems in the hyper-connected world. The border of knowledge domains is blurred and the scope of knowledge is expanded in the continual base. It’s important to apply BA as a practical tool to solve problems strategically via multi-dimensional thinking and multiple choices of solutions.

There are three possible strategies to "solve" a wild problem: authoritative, competitive and collaborative. Wild problems need innovative and alternative solutions. A business architecture would look for leverage within the ecosystems, industries, and domain knowledge that defines the business interactions and interrelationships, reference and intelligence, etc. It helps to dispassionately examine the alternatives and come up with the premium business solutions which often require an integration of different sets of knowledge and digital fluency across multiple disciplines.

Organizations need to assign their resources and time carefully and solve problems that really matter. They don’t set priorities in a vacuum. Rather. they'll apply the enterprise's strategy and business architecture to determine which problems are critical to solving and leverage multidimensional competencies to formulate creative or unconventional solutions to resolve problems systematically.






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