By Serge Thorn, Architecting the Enterprise
This is the third and final post in a three-part series by Serge Thorn. For more in this series, please see Part One and Part Two.
Value Management uses a combination of concepts and methods to create sustainable value for both organizations and their stakeholders. Some tools and techniques are specific to Value Management and others are generic tools that many organizations and individuals use. There exist many Value Management techniques such as cost-benefits analysis, SWOT analysis, value analysis, Pareto analysis, objectives hierarchy, function analysis system technique (FAST), and more…
The one I suggest to illustrate is close to the objectives hierarchy technique, which is a diagrammatic process for identifying objectives in a hierarchical manner and often used in conjunction with business functions. Close, because I will use a combination of the TOGAF® 9.1 metamodel with the ArchiMate® 2.0 Business Layer, Application Layer and Motivation Extensions Metamodels, consider core entities such as value, business goals, objectives, business processes and functions, business and application services, application functions and components. This approach was inspired by the presentation by Michael van den Dungen and Arjan Visser at The Open Group Conference in Amsterdam 2010, and here I’m also adding some ArchiMate 2.0 concepts.
First, the entities from the TOGAF 9.1 metamodel:
Then I will consider the entities from ArchiMate 2.0. Some may be identical to TOGAF 9.1. In the Business Layer, one key concept will obviously be the value. In this case I will consider the product (“A coherent collection of services, accompanied by a contract/set of agreements, which is offered as a whole to (internal or external) customers” according to ArchiMate 2.0), as the Enterprise Architecture program. In addition to that, I would refer to business services, functions, and processes.
In the Motivation Extension Metamodel, the goals. The objective entity in TOGAF 9.1 can also be represented using the concept of “goal.”
And in the Application Layer Metamodel, application services, functions, and components.
It is important to mention that when we deliver a value proposition, we must demonstrate to the business where the benefits will be with concrete examples. For example: the business sees Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy as key drivers, and soon you will realize that BPM suites or CRM could support the business goals. These are the reasons why we consider the Application Layer Metamodel.
We could then use a combination of the ArchiMate 2.0 viewpoints such as: Stakeholder Viewpoint, Goal Realization Viewpoint, Motivation Viewpoint, or some other viewpoints to demonstrate the value of Enterprise Architecture for a specific business transformation program (or any other strategic initiative).
To be mentioned that the concept of benefit does not exist in any of the metamodels.
I have added the concept as an extension to ArchiMate in the following diagram which is the mapping of the value to a program related to the “improvement of customers’ relationships.” I also have intentionally limited the number of concepts or entities, such as processes, application services or measures.
Using these ArchiMate 2.0 modelling techniques can demonstrate to your stakeholders the value proposition for a business program, supported by an Enterprise Architecture initiative.
As a real example, if the expected key business benefit is operational excellence through process controls, which would represent a goal, you could present such a high level diagram to explain why application components like a BPM Suite could help (detecting fraud and errors, embedding preventive controls, continuously auditing and monitoring processes, and more).
There is definitely not a single way of demonstrating the value of Enterprise Architecture and you probably will have to adapt the process and the way you will present that value to all companies you will be working with. Without a doubt Enterprise Architecture contributes to the success of an organization and brings numerous benefits, but very often it needs to be able to demonstrate that value. Using some techniques as described previously will help to justify such an initiative.
The next steps will be the development of measures, metrics and KPIs to continuously monitor that value proposition.
Serge Thorn is CIO of Architecting the Enterprise. He has worked in the IT Industry for over 25 years, in a variety of roles, which include; Development and Systems Design, Project Management, Business Analysis, IT Operations, IT Management, IT Strategy, Research and Innovation, IT Governance, Architecture and Service Management (ITIL). He is the Chairman of the itSMF (IT Service Management forum) Swiss chapter and is based in Geneva, Switzerland.