Various groups and framework have developed approaches and knowledge regarding Business Architecture as pointed out by Wikipedia. They include the following:

The Business Architecture Guild

Founded in late 2010, the Business Architecture Guild opened up membership in the fall of 2011 based on the initial release of the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge Handbook (BIZBOK™). BIZBOK™ 1.0, delivered in skeletal form on August 21, 2011, has garnered significant industry attention. With the release of version 2.0 of the BIZBOK™ on January 27, 2012 the Business Architecture Guild delivered the first complete set of writings covering the outline delivered as part of the organization’s initial vision. Publication of BIZBOK™ 3.0 is tentatively scheduled for November, 2012. A preliminary outline of the contents has been publicly posted.

The primary purpose of the Business Architecture Guild is “to promote best practices and expand the knowledgebase of the business architecture discipline.” The Guild is a not for profit, international membership organization for practitioners and others interested in the developing the field of business architecture. With members on six continents, a strong Advisory Board and a growing number of business partners, the Guild will continue to serve as a focal point for the evolving practices and disciplines of business architecture.

The Object Management Group

The Object Management Group (OMG) established the Business Architecture Working Group (BAWG) in December 2007 to pursue the development of standards to support the Business Architecture community. The group has begun an effort to catalog business scenarios and to capture a library of business techniques that will be used to isolate and prioritize areas of work. This initiative has as a key part of its mission the interlinking and unification of existing standards to accommodate the demands for integrated end-to-end business analytic.

The BAWG conducts periodic Business Architecture Information Days at the OMG’s quarterly Technical Meeting as part of an outreach effort to bring interested practitioner and vendor organizations into the standards process.

The BAWG Modeling Workgroup is currently working to develop a standard framework for business architecture that is aligned with the Business Architecture Guild Business Architecture Body of Knowledge Handbook.

The Zachman Framework

Rows 1 & 2 of the Zachman Framework deal with Business Architecture discipline.

The Open Group

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) of The Open Group is a community-based standards effort for describing methods and tools used by architecture. It is being developed and continuously improved by the Open Group, a consortium of interested individuals and companies involved in information technology.

The TOGAF framework includes “Business Architecture” as one of the four “domains” of architecture. The other 3 domains are Application Architecture, Data Architecture and Technology Architecture. TOGAF describes business architecture as follows: “Business Architecture describes the product and/or service strategy, and the organizational, functional, process, information, and geographic aspects of the business environment.”

TOGAF describes a nine-step process in the Business Architecture phase as followed:

  1. Select Reference Models, Viewpoints, and Tools
  2. Develop Baseline Business Architecture Description
  3. Develop Target Business Architecture Description
  4. Perform Gap Analysis
  5. Define Candidate Roadmap Components
  6. Resolve Impacts Across the Architecture Landscape
  7. Conduct Formal Stakeholder Review
  8. Finalize the Business Architecture
  9. Create Architecture Definition Document