Gartner describes composition as a collaboration-driven effort that involves business subject matter experts, modelers, analysts, developers and architects. But how are these roles defined and how would the roles interact?

In our view, the act of composition must not be regarded as an isolated activity, but as part of an engineering process that we term the "Knowledge-Driven Enterprise Engineering" process. Knowledge-Driven Enterprise Engineering is very different from traditional software engineering in many respects.

Here, we confine ourselves to outlining how an Integrated Composition and Execution Environment (ICEE) should look like in the context of the role types that are supposed to use it. Subject matter experts and business analysts typically do not have expert IT knowledge, while developers and IT architects are definitely IT experts.

Who would be expected to work with the ICEE? If it is non-IT experts, the ICEE must be designed and function in a way that suits non-IT experts. As a consequence, the ICEE must be model-driven and meta data-driven.

Who would work the most with the ICEE? We think that the role of the business analyst forms the reference point for the design of the ICEE. But what is a business analyst? According to the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) published by The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), "business analysts must analyze and synthesize information provided by a large number of people who interact with the business, such as customers, staff, IT professionals, and executives. … In particular, business analysts often play a central role in aligning the needs of business units with the capabilities delivered by information technology, and may serve as a “translator” between those groups."

There is reason to believe that business analysts will represent the next generation of business process professionals. As information synthesis is regarded as a core skill for business analysts, it seems not far-fetched to think of business analysts evolving into business process experts. Given that business analysts are used to using diverse tools, such as tools for requirements capturing, the step to defining business processes, business information entities and services would be a small one.

We may argue that business analyst is not the proper term for what the act of composition involves. The term “business architect” may in fact be a better fit. However, regardless of the role title, the following high-level characteristics apply:

• The person reports to (senior) business managers, not IT managers.

• The person has the ability to think in both a strategic and tactical manner.

• The person has an understanding of the high-level strategy and business needs of the organization or a business unit.