--- title: What is a process-based business architecture? description: Designing your process-based business architecture is fundamentally and truly a business exercise, as important as doing your strategic plan. image: https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/Images/LC_Blog/16_Business_Architecture.jpg --- [![LeonardoUST_CMYK-1](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/LeonardoUST_CMYK-1.svg "LeonardoUST_CMYK-1")](https://www.leonardo.com.au/) [![Talk to Us](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/430417/7eb77b0e-c703-49d8-930c-a6d73a5e986f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/430417/7eb77b0e-c703-49d8-930c-a6d73a5e986f) ![cross-icon](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/cross-icon.svg?t=1536031936288 "cross-icon") ![business-design](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/business-design.svg "business-design") ###### [Business Design](https://www.leonardo.com.au/business-design-consulting-advisory) ![process-automation](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/process-automation.svg "process-automation") ###### [Process Automation](https://www.leonardo.com.au/process-automation) ![data-integration](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/data-integration.svg "data-integration") ###### [Integration & API](https://www.leonardo.com.au/integration) ![platform-engineering](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/platform-engineering.svg "platform-engineering") ###### [Platform Engineering](https://www.leonardo.com.au/platform-engineering) ![Event_bg](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/3842749/hubfs/Backgrounds%20/Event_bg.jpg?width=2000&name=Event_bg.jpg "Event_bg") # The Leonardo Blog ## [What is a process-based business architecture?](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/what-is-a-process-based-business-architecture) Written by [Gilles Morin](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/gilles-morin) On June 20, 2016 [** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillesmorin/fr) - [Automation (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/automation) - [bpm (3)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm) - [BPM - Business Process Management (111)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm-business-process-management) - [BPM/EA Technology (25)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpmea-technology) - [Business Innovation (5)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/business-innovation) - [CXM (1)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/cxm) - [EA - Enterprise Architecture (7)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/ea-enterprise-architecture) - [Intergration (12)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/intergration) - [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.leonardo.com.au%2Fwhat-is-a-process-based-business-architecture) - [**](https://www.twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.leonardo.com.au%2Fwhat-is-a-process-based-business-architecture) - [**](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.leonardo.com.au/what-is-a-process-based-business-architecture) [All Posts](https://blog.leonardo.com.au) # What is a process-based business architecture? - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ![16_Business_Architecture.jpg](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Images/LC_Blog/16_Business_Architecture.jpg?width=700&height=233&name=16_Business_Architecture.jpg)Have you ever tried to build a house without blueprints, or even hoped to get the costs right without any plans? There is a single master blueprint for the general contractor, and different views for the electrician, the plumber, the foundation specialist, etc. The architect works with you trying to capture your needs, dreams, big projects, intents – in short, to really understand your overall context. They suggest that you look at different ‘dream house/cottage’ reviews and bring them some examples of what best captures your vision. The idea is simple – to help you make your vision concrete and actionable with reduced construction risks, while also helping you to make optimal choices and accelerating your decision process. Process-based process architectures are essentially the same: critical business blueprints. ## The process-based business architecture – a critical governance tool! A process-driven business architecture is a key executive team business blueprint, as well as a key governance and management tool for decision makers. It is an agreed business model showing how your organisation is, and will be, creating value. It does this by illustrating its prime value chain, value streams and processes, as well as reflecting its strategic intents, key stakeholders’ needs, and performance logic. More than that, it helps the executive or management team to agree on investment priorities with required traceability to the organisation’s top strategic priorities. You might have a big IT investment coming in. Have you checked to see that you have the right scope from a process and capability perspectives. Are you missing anything? Do you really have a realistic view of this project? This is an example of a situation where executives would like to have their organisation’s blueprint handy and valid. Your transformation program requires that you start by creating new and stronger operational and business synergies – where do you start? How can you hope to do this without some baseline model that reflects your organisation’s capabilities? Hope, surely, is not a strategy; and guts may work, but you might not want to rely only on your guts. The stakes are too high, and instincts may, in some cases, be your worst enemy. ## Why not just use existing industry-specific models and just copy them? There is a number of industry-specific process model out there: SCOR, APQC, Panorama 360, just to name a few. Why not save yourself time and just copy them. This may well be a good idea for non-strategic processes – but it is not recommended for your core processes. You may use these models to help kick-start the designing exercise, but will rapidly discover that they have limitations for your core processes, especially when they come to reflect your core processes model – your actual and targeted competitive distinctiveness. How you deliver value, which are your core value streams and processes, is unique and a matter of strategic choices. ## Designing your process-based business architecture is fundamentally and truly a business exercise, as important as doing your strategic plan. The [design of a business architecture](https://www.leonardo.com.au/bptrends-associates-bpm-business-architecture-certificate) is done with and by the business and thought leaders of your organisation. Process-based business architecture isn’t about IT – it is  about your business - your view about the present and the future, and your key capabilities (capacity to act). It’s about how key works get done in your organisation from customer to customer, and end to end. It’s about agreeing on meanings, views, visions, internal and external readings, key performance gaps, key capability gaps, etc. [![New call-to-action](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/430417/4e96b88d-a7b9-442c-81ad-5833991f3c3d.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/430417/4e96b88d-a7b9-442c-81ad-5833991f3c3d) ![Gilles Morin](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/gilles_morin-1.jpg) ###### Gilles Morin - Recent - Popular - Categories ### Lists by Topic - [BPM - Business Process Management (111)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm-business-process-management) - [BPM/EA Technology (25)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpmea-technology) - [The Process Session (23)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/the-process-session) - [Process Modelling (18)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/process-modelling) - [News (14)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/news) - [Intergration (12)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/intergration) - [EA - Enterprise Architecture (7)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/ea-enterprise-architecture) - [Platform (6)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/platform) - [Business Innovation (5)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/business-innovation) - [Red Hat (4)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/red-hat) - [bpm (3)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm) - [Automation (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/automation) - [Process Automation (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/process-automation) - [Process Mining (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/process-mining) - [Regulatory Optimisation (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/regulatory-optimisation) - [Video (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/video) - [process (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/process) - [redhat (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/redhat) - [CXM (1)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/cxm) - [RPA (1)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/rpa) [see all](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/what-is-a-process-based-business-architecture#) ## Subscribe and Get The Latest News ## Related Posts ## [UST Acquires Leading Australian Process Transformation Company Leonardo](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/ust-acquires-leonardo) UST Acquires Leading Australian Process Transformation Company Leonardo - Strategic acquisition further strengthens UST’s position in the dynamic ANZ market Melbourne, Australia, 21 February 2024:UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, has announced the strategic acquisition of Leonardo, a leading provider of business process improvement, automation, and integration services in the ANZ region. The acquisition by UST will empower Leonardo to expand its market reach and enhance its service offerings for clients, combining Leonardo's in-depth process expertise with UST's technology leadership, digital transformation capabilities, and global credentials, and strengthening UST's position in the Australian market. - [Daniel Weatherhead](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/daniel-weatherhead) - 5 min read - Feb 21, 2024 9:00:00 AM ## [How to Present Business Process Models to Stakeholders](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/presenting-business-process-models-to-stakeholders) Has an audience member ever interrupted in the middle of a presentation about process analysis to ask, “Can you show us the process models in a simple PowerPoint slide?” – or, ”I don’t want to look at the green and purple boxes, just show me the flow!” Perhaps you then felt that you had wasted some of your efforts in modelling the process with too much detail or in the wrong way. Embarrassed and demoralised, you must have wondered how else could these models be presented. Well, you are not alone! This is a common dilemma when there is a need to present process models to a variety of audiences. There is both art and science in presenting the right level of process detail to the right group of stakeholders, especially if they are not familiar with the process modelling language. Effective presentation is even more critical in larger and complex end-to-end process improvement work and in new automated business model implementations. You may need to use multiple model types to describe the same business processes to various audiences. Hence, it is very important to understand who the stakeholders are and what they would like to see before your audience with them. This article proposes an approach to the effective presentation of business process models based on three key elements: understand, organise, and communicate. - [Daniel Weatherhead](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/daniel-weatherhead) - 7 min read - Oct 10, 2023 10:00:00 AM ## [What Are The Most Important Questions In Business Process Management?](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/what-are-the-most-important-questions-in-business-process-management) She who dies with the most answers wins. We seek the truth. We want to know the answers. Paul Harmon started me thinking recently when he invited members of the BPTrends Discussion group on LinkedIn to “describe the purpose of Business Process Management in 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation.” Not easy to do – have a go at it yourself. It felt like I was crafting The Ultimate BPM Answer, which, of course, begged The Ultimate BPM Question. That got me thinking that The Ultimate BPM Problem is that we have plenty of answers and not enough questions. So put all the answers aside for a moment and help me to work out what are the most important questions in Business Process Management? - [Roger Tregear](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/roger-tregear) - 6 min read - Jul 30, 2023 10:30:00 AM ### Subscribe to Email Updates [![LeonardoUST_CMYK](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/LeonardoUST_CMYK.png?width=791&name=LeonardoUST_CMYK.png "LeonardoUST_CMYK")](https://www.leonardo.com.au) Leonardo drives continuous process improvement through technology and has worked with many leading enterprises in APAC to enhance the performance of their business processes through architecture and automation as well as integrating their applications, platforms and data to enable disruptive technologies. **What We Do** **Resources** ##### Company 2022 ©Incotrade Australia Pty Ltd trading as Leonardo Consulting  |  All rights reserved   |   ACN 066 273 256. |  [Privacy Statement](https://www.leonardo.com.au/privacy)  [**](http://www.facebook.com/leonardoconsultingAU) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/leonardo-consulting/) [**](http://www.twitter.com/leonardoBPM) [**](http://www.youtube.com/leonardoconsulting)