There's a natural [[Hierarchy]] of communication types that occur to bring about [[IT-Business Alignment]]. There are roughly 5 types of conversations that need to happen. They range from very abstract and long term ([[Company Operating Model]]) to very detailed and very short term (business requirements). These cover the [[Six Horizons of Focus]], more or less. | Abstraction | Discussion | Scope | Horizon | Example | | :-----------: | --------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Most abstract | [[Company Operating Model]] | Whole business | >3-5 years | Should we be highly integrated and highly standardized, or not? | | Abstract | Business Capabilities | ~Organization | 3-5 years | What do we need to be able to do, in the broadest sense? e.g. track shipments | | Middle | Specific Business Needs | ~Departmental | 2-3 years | We need to be able to conduct this type of operations quicker. | | Detailed | Business Process | ~Groups of IT Projects | 1-2 years | What types of IT changes are necessary to make this business process change | | Very Detailed | Business Requirements | Specific IT Project | <1 year | We need to add a button to an application to shortcut some common process. | These types of conversations should be facilitated by your [[IT Engagement Model]]. As with many things in [[The Practice of Enterprise Architecture]], it's interesting to consider these _types_ of things, however in practice I'm not sure it particularly matters what "type" of thing you're doing right now. So long as you're not bringing a rubber band gun to a gun fight. **** # More ## Source - [[The Practice of Enterprise Architecture]] ## Related