Last Updated on Monday, 07 February 2011 00:14

Business Architecture has been there for a long time. In the ’80, James Martin was describing something called Business Area Analysis (part of Information Engineering) where Activity Hierarchy Diagram (AHD) and Activity Dependency Diagram (ADD) where defined to describe Business Functions and Business Processes. These models where defined along with Data Models and were synchronized with something called Interaction Analysis (which was defining how activities where interacting with entities/subject areas).

Now, lets fast forward to today, when I take a look at eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operations Map) I see an AHD with horizontal and vertical groupings. The hierarchy is still present and it also covers most functions (activities) for the Telecom industry. Click here for an overview of eTOM. In short the Vertical groupings describe the Lifecycle:

  • Strategy and Commitment
  • Infrastructure Lifecycle Management
  • Product Lifecycle Management
  • Operations Support and Readiness
  • Fulfillment
  • Assurance
  • Billing

And the Horizontal Groupings describe from a Customer Facing Services viewpoint down to the Supply-Chain and Enterprise Management viewpoint, it covers:

  • Marketing and Offer Management + Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Service Development and Mgt + Service Mgt and Operations
  • Resources Development and Mgt + Resource Mgt and Operations
  • Supply-Chain Development and Mgt + Supply/Partner Relationship Management  (S/P RM)
  • Enterprise Management. This process area includes those processes that manage enterprise-wide activities and needs, or have application within the enterprise as a whole. They encompass all business management processes that are:
    • Necessary to support the whole of the enterprise, including processes for financial management, legal management, regulatory management, process, cost and quality management, etc.
    • Responsible for setting corporate policies, strategies and directions and for providing guidelines and targets for the whole of the business, including strategy development and planning, for areas such as Enterprise Architecture, that are integral to the direction and development of the business
    • That occur throughout the enterprise, including processes for project management, performance assessments, cost assessments, etc.

Like in Information Engineering, eTOM has interactions with a Data Model (called the SID for Shared Information Data model), these interactions are kept in CRUD matrices (like in IE). Other aspects (Applications and Technology) are also covered by the TAM and the TNA but you can read about all of this in the TM Forum site.

When I look at ITIL, I see the same approach, but the processes are centered on IT services, which should be provided in a focused, client-friendly and cost-optimized manner. In ITIL Version 3 you find the following High-Level Processes:

  • ITIL Process: Service Strategy
    Process Objective: To provide guidance on how to design, develop and implement Service Management. It is about ensuring that IT organizations are in position to achieve operational effectiveness and to offer distinctive services to their customers. Its ultimate goal is to make the IT organization think and act in a strategic manner
  • ITIL Process: Service Design
    Process Objective: To design and develop IT services. Its scope includes the design of new services, as well as changes and improvements to existing ones
  • ITIL Process: Service Transition
    Process Objective: To build and deploy IT services. It also makes sure that changes to services and Service Management processes are carried out in a coordinated way
  • ITIL Process: Service Operation
    Process Objective: To make sure that IT services are delivered effectively and efficiently. This includes fulfilling user requests, resolving service failures, fixing problems, as well as carrying out routine operational tasks
  • ITIL Process: Continual Service Improvement
    Process Objective: The Continual Service Improvement process uses methods from quality management in order to learn from past successes and failures. It implements a closed-loop feedback system as specified in ISO 20000 as a means to continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of IT services and processes.

When I look at BPM (Business Process Management) I see the same need to describe business processes (being hierarchies and/or workflows) from a business angle disassociated from the implementation. What is new in BPM includes:

  • The BPMN notation and support
  • The BPMS (BPM System) which typically include:
    • Business Process Modeling (not really new)
    • BRMS (Business Rules Management System)
    • Simulation
    • BAM (Business Activity Monitoring)
  • The fact that BPMS efforts are combined with SOA initiatives to have a better return on investments

Conclusion, Business Process Architecture describes the activities performed by an enterprise to render services and/or offer products to customers, it often follows a lifecycle approach. The automation of these processes by BPMS and SOA architectures & technologies allow improving these processes since they are monitored in real-time and could be adjusted as needed. Good SOA architecture covers the transport (ESB), the processes and the data (via a Common Information Model)… no need to bring XML, WSDL, UDDI, SOAP, J2EE as this point!