Business architecture as part of Enterprise Architecture

I saw this and thought some of the quotes interesting
http://jccavalcanti.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/defining-business-architecture/

"...BA is an intrinsic component of EA, but what most people really perform in most organizations that I see is IT architecture."

"... enterprise business architecture is a set of artifacts and methods that helps business leaders make decisions about direction and communicate the changes that are required in order to achieve that vision."

"... It's our excuse sometimes that it's too complex to change quickly."

"... We really need to focus the conversation on capabilities..."

"... BA is a means by which we can engage as IT professionals with the business leadership, the business decision-makers ...

"... By having that meaningful dialogue on an ongoing basis, not just as a result of the big implementation ..."

"... understanding your audience is a big part of doing this.

"... That's why there's no, "This is the artifact to create." ..."

"... there's a missing linkage between that vision, that strategy, that direction, and the actual activities that are going on ...

"... jump from high-level strategy down to tactical daily decision-making and activities is too broad of a gap. .."

To me this supports my view that:

1. The BA is intrinsic to EA (though EA function focus on technology).
2. EA needs to support decision making and communicate what needs to be done to achieve a vision (goals, strategies, plans and down to requirements)
3. The excuse made that it is too complex to change quickly indicates a failure of EA.
4. BA needs to focus on capabilities and allow us to engage with the business leaderships (so we need to use the right language)
5. Waiting till a big project to justify the dialogue is like waiting until you are attacked to learn how to defend yourself i.e. it is just dumb
6. Understanding the audience is critical and what and how you communicate varies based on the audience.
7. There is a missing linkage between that vision and plans that live in PPT decks on the shelves and what happends on a day to day basis.

Communicating with people in languages they understand

For many years I have run foul of SW developers how have migrated into Architectural roles - but want to continue to use the techniques and languages suited to the role of OO SW development.

Open Group advocates are often some of worst as many are committed to UML - a language manifestly unsuited to communicating with most business people most of the time.

I recently read this: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/?p=3450. And saw these comments:

"To achieve business-IT alignment, architects need some way of understanding what the business is really about. ...

We need to talk to business people to understand what the business architecture is, but the business people don’t want to talk tech-speak. ...

We need to be able to talk to them in their language, but addressing an architectural end. "

And I wonder when the penny will drop that this language isn't UML.