One of the most important phases in describing a business architecture environment is defining and understanding of the enterprise functional architecture.

The functional architecture enables the organization to understand, independently of its physical structure, which capabilities and skills it includes, those it needs, and how these contribute to its processes.

The description of the functional architecture also enables identification of areas of the organization where skills and processes are duplicated and where synergies exist. These areas are not necessarily visible from the organizational structure.

The following points are covered here: