The new technologies are making life more comfortable but at the same time more difficult for companies who provide the product and services. These dangerous environments exist because customers have the chance to obtain goods from anywhere around the world. In consequence, the businesses are forcing to act and react more quickly to their markets to prevent from losing market share or in more extreme scenarios close the company.

Knowing this situation internationally different scientific groups coming from various industries presented the constitution of any enterprise. Let me clarify a little bit more. Defining the composition of the business means like defining the DNA of the company. Let me be more emphatic on this knowledge. It’s not the intention of this blog to present a unique methodology to tell you how to run your business but instead to describe you the composition and interconnections that happen in your company, so you can define precisely how to run the business.

The Enterprise DNA consists of all the elements that form the business and also identified how those elements interact with each other. An example I could mention the business process as well as the capability of the person, or maybe let us think about how the company’s mission connects with the most simple worker in the company.

This knowledge is composed of different perspectives: Terms and definitions, Structure, and Methodology. And They named this knowledge as “Enterprise Architecture and Methodology (EAM).” The use of the concept “Architecture” relies on its definition: “a unifying or coherent form or structure,” (This definition comes from Merriam-Webster Online) By this the EAM give all the foundation to present explicitly the constitution fo the enterprise and all its interconnections.

Constitution of any Enterprise ( Its Architecture )

Let us imagine the enterprise architecture as a living organism who has different living systems and its grouped based on its functionality. In the same way, the company has four groups:

The Function View; contains those elements that indicate how the business function, and I mention someones as business processes, enterprise activities, behavioral rules, functional operations, events, and some others.

The Information View; contains those elements that indicate the data used, and to mention some are enterprise data object, data object, product description, and some others.

The Organizational View; contains those elements that define the organization of everything in the company, and to mention some examples are the organizational cell, organizational unit, and some others. ( Geographical, Layout, Organizational Chart, etc. )

The Resource View; contains those elements that define the resources that make the execution possible to generate the outcome, and to mention some examples are human resources, physical resources, financial resources, capabilities, and some others.

Construction Methodology

The methodology explains the best way to implement any construction process in your business structure. Maybe you are familiar with the concept of continuous improvement that is widely used to have better results. Well, this methodology clarifies how this process is carried out through its different stages and what are the deliverables on each one. The name of the method is “Enterprise Life Cycle.”

The part of life cycle explains all about the intention of the methodology. So its first phase is related to the birth of the business or at least think in the born of the enterprise model, and throughout its entire life until die, this last phase is called “decommissioning.” Well, the phases are seven and are these: (ISO 19439:2006)

The Identification Phase; it shall identify the enterprise domain to be modeled in terms of its business objectives, its inputs and outputs, their respective origins and destinations and the domain’s basic functionalities and capabilities.

The Conceptualization Stage; it shall define the business concepts that facilitate the realization of the business objectives and the domain operations, including the domain mission, vision, values, strategies, operational concepts, policies, business plans, etc. necessary to achieve the basic functionalities and capabilities of the enterprise domain.

The Requirement Stage; it shall define the business functionality of an enterprise domain in terms of business processes, enterprise activities and their inputs and outputs.

The Design Stage; it shall specify the detailed manner in which the domain operations are performed.

The Implementation Stage; it shall describe the information needed for all of the tasks that are to be carried out by the domain operational system.

The Operations Stage; it constitutes the operational usage of the model that represents the operation of the enterprise domain.

The Decommission Stage; it shall define the final state of the operating system for a particular enterprise domain at the end of its useful life.

Level of Genericity

Now I need to mention the level of the enterprise model. This concept is also essential because touch one idea that tackles the old and archaic concept of “Detail.” How many time some expert on business processes tell you about the level of detail, maybe many but at the same time, he is not telling you anything substantial.

The level of genericity telling how specific the enterprise model is. And depends on your necessity is the level of genericity of your model. Three levels are: (ISO 19439:2006)

Generic level; it’s a model that applies to many domains. It´s a modeling language constructs that described at this level the most extensive application in the representation of enterprise domains.

Partial Level; it shall consist of typical structures for a variety of categories such as industry sector types (e.g., aerospace, automotive, electronics), company size, national variations, and it’s a particularization of a generic model. At this level should identify more specific applicability for the model.

Particular Level; it shall be concerned solely with one specific enterprise domain. It shall embody all necessary knowledge of that enterprise in a way that can be used directly on a specific enterprise and no other.

Implementing in your procedures or business model

Now let us translate this knowledge into your business model. Take each concept and verify if your procedures consider each one. In the case that you have or not your SOP´s (Standard Operating Procedures) in place, you could use the following implementation guideline. In this blog, I will explain in detail the implementation of the functional view because of its complexity.

At from always is the Functional View, then the Information View, continue with Information View, and finish with Resource View.

With the functional view, start with the Business processes and activities. Use the following checklist:

1. Did you have in place the hierarchy of processes and activities?
2. Did you identify the events or deliverables of every activity?
4. Did you develop an activities flow chart for every business process?
5. Did you establish the objectives and KPI for each business process and activities?
6. Did you put the policies that control the execution of your processes and activities?

With the Information view, you will look for the information used on every activity that controls its execution or the data generated inside of it. With the information, it’s preferable to see the means that utilize instead of the data itself. Use the following checklist:

1. Did you identify all the information means used in your business process? (e.g., documents, software modules, screens for your system, reports, and so on)
2. Did you know which ones are for control and which ones generate the activity?
3. Did you verify if the data managed inside the process is sufficient for the correct execution of the process?
4. Did you know precisely the information used on each activity?

With the organization view, you will now organize the model concerning the structure of your organization. On this step, you should consider not only the organizational chart or your departments, but also about the office or facility layout, and the geographical localization of your facilities. Use the following checklist:

1. Did have your organizational chart in place?
2. Did you structure your company in departments or business areas?
3. Did you have layouts for your company?
4. Did you link your organizational elements to each activity?

With the resource view, you will define the resources needed in every activity to execute its performance correctly. This section considers all type of resources; human, material, equipment, financial, technological, and any other applicable to your company. Always consider the capabilities provided by the resources, because are those capabilities that ensure the business results. Use the following checklist:

1. Did you list all the resources used in your business process?
2. Did you know the capabilities provided for each resource to the activity to generate its results?
3. Did you have the resources for each activity?
4. Did you verify if the capabilities provided by the resource ensure the requirements of the activity?
5. Did you define a plan to train your human resources to have the skills and competencies required by them?
6. Did you have a plan to execute a maintenance or update program to your mechanical resources?
7. Did your vendors provide their material with the quality in the capabilities required by your operation?
8. Did your technological resources are up to date to ensure providing their capabilities?

The other two dimensions

The constitution of your business structure is the complex one and requires your attention all the time. The other two dimensions are more conceptual. I will explain in more detail in another blog. But just keep in mind the methodology (read the blog: “7 steps to fast improve your business“) is a sequence of steps that ensure the utility of your enterprise model documentation. And the genericity explains to you that you can start your model as a general one and depends on your individual need, you will need to make them more particular to your own requirements.

Final Comments

If you look at the image of this blog on the operation phase row, the generic and partial level column have stripes, and the particular level doesn’t. This concept is critical because the EAM is telling you that never operate with incomplete documentation (model) of your business, go and describe your particular operation explicitly always. Also, another way to understand this concept is, do not copy other documentation and try to use it for your company exactly how you received.

Keep in mind that the generic model or partial model could be 99% of how you perform your business, but there are always some differences. Therefore look for those differences in your business processes and put them on your documentation.

The enterprise architecture and methodology describes all its constitution, so it is almost impossible to explain everything on this blog, but the intention is to let you know that this knowledge exists and it´s ready for you to use it. Read the other blogs to find out examples of some of the many possible benefits you can get by using the EAM.

All we do in our consulting practice since 1998 follows the Enterprise Architecture and Methodology. The level of expertise that I’m at this moment, allow me to give you the answer to whatever you may need. Contact us using your first free consulting and find out the potential improvements in your business that you could obtain by using EAM.