What Is Business Architecture? Comparing BIZBOK, TOGAF, and OMG BACM's Core Domains

Introduction

The article begins by framing the fundamental question: what is business architecture and what does it contain? Only after clarifying the boundaries and main components of business architecture can one understand the positions and relationships of concepts like business capabilities, business processes, and value streams.

BIZBOK: Business Architecture as Holistic, Multidimensional Business Views

BIZBOK (Business Architecture Guild) defines business architecture as "holistic, multidimensional business views of: capabilities, end-to-end value delivery, information, and organizational structure." The latest BIZBOK Guide Version 15.0 (2026) identifies four core domains and six extended domains:

Four core domains: Business Capabilities, Value Streams, Information, Organization.

Six extended domains: Strategies, Stakeholders, Products, Policies, Initiatives, Metrics.

BIZBOK emphasizes that business architecture is not a single diagram but a blueprint composed of multiple business perspectives. Notably, BIZBOK does not list "business processes" as a core domain; instead, it discusses the relationship between business architecture and business process management in a separate chapter.

TOGAF: Business Architecture as a Set of Key Business Perspectives

TOGAF (The Open Group) approaches business architecture through a series of guides and certifications. The current Business Architecture category includes Business Capabilities, Value Streams, Information Mapping, Organization Mapping, Business Models, Business Scenarios, and Business Capability Planning. The TOGAF Business Architecture Foundation certification requires mastery of:

Business Modeling

Business Capabilities

Value Streams

Information Mapping

Organization Mapping

Business Scenarios

TOGAF's perspectives are not isolated; they are connected via various mappings to form an overall understanding of enterprise business structure. TOGAF and BIZBOK share the view that business architecture is a multi-view structural model, not merely a process or capability model.

OMG BACM: Explicitly Including Business Process in the Core Metamodel

OMG's Business Architecture Core Metamodel (BACM) 1.0 (2024) states its scope covers "value and its delivery to stakeholders of a business, capability, abstract organization, process, product and strategy." This explicitly adds Process (business process) as a formal object in the core metamodel. BACM's metamodel is organized into six packages:

Capability

Customer (including value proposition, value streams, value stream stages)

Organization

Process

Product

Strategy

Thus, in OMG's metamodel, strategy, value delivery, business capabilities, business processes, organization, and products together constitute a structured expression of enterprise business.

Common Ground Across the Three Frameworks

A comparison table summarizes the differences:

BIZBOK: Core domains – Value Streams, Business Capabilities, Organization, Information; extended domains – Strategy, Products, Policies, Stakeholders, Metrics, Initiatives.

TOGAF: Focus on Business Models, Business Capabilities, Value Streams, Organization, Information, Business Scenarios.

OMG BACM: Core metamodel packages – Value Delivery, Business Capabilities, Business Processes, Organization, Products, Strategy.

Despite differing categorizations, all three convey the same essential message: business architecture is not a single model but a multi-perspective structural representation of the enterprise. BIZBOK explicitly uses the phrase "holistic, multidimensional business views."

Author's Synthesis: Three Core Business Perspectives

The author argues that standards do not mandate identical building blocks for every enterprise. Drawing on BIZBOK, TOGAF, OMG BACM, and Chinese enterprise architecture practice, the author identifies three perspectives as the primary body of business architecture:

Value Streams – answer "What value does the enterprise create and deliver?"

Business Capabilities – answer "What business abilities must the enterprise possess?"

Business Processes – answer "How does the enterprise's business actually operate?"

In short: Value streams view value, capabilities view abilities, processes view operations. Each has its own model (value stream stages, capability map decomposition, process classification and hierarchy). The author defines business architecture as:

Business architecture is a holistic, structured expression of the enterprise business model, centered on the three primary perspectives of value streams, business capabilities, and business processes, and further linked to strategy, organization, information, products, rules, metrics, and other business elements.

The article includes a diagram illustrating this synthesis.

The author clarifies that business architecture is neither process architecture nor capability architecture; both are integral parts. Value streams enable anchoring internal capabilities and operations to business goals and stakeholder value. This sets the stage for the next article, which will explore the relationships among value streams, business capabilities, and business processes.

References

[1] Business Architecture Guild BIZBOK Guide v15.0

[2] The Open Group TOGAF Series Guides

[3] The Open Group TOGAF Business Architecture Foundation Certification

[4] Object Management Group Business Architecture Core Metamodel (BACM)