How do you transform a Business Strategy to an IT implementation artefact?, part II

This post took more time than I had planned. As most of the last week was spent traveling and attending tutorials with John Zachman.
It’s always enjoyable and great learning associated with such travels. We just covered four cities in India within five days. Not to mention CXO dinner meets in Mumbai & Bangalore, which went up to late nights.

In the first part of this series, I deliberated on how to define strategy models and the key factors to consider, transformation from strategy models to business models and then transformation from business to system models consisting of application architecture, network distribution, logical data model, business rule designs, user interface models, etc. In this post, let’s look at how we go about further transformation.

Before we start with the step 4, let’s quickly recollect the step 3 of the transformation i.e. transformation of business models to system models.

As depicted in the picture above, there are set of business processes, which required to be automated. Such processes need to be modeled accurately for realization by the systems. The system models should include the elements related to storage, network distribution, business rules organizational workflow and the people (& roles). Of course, it makes sense to incorporate the system events as well such as how much time does it take to execute a task, which task in which order, how long the rule is valid, etc.

Step 4 : Transformation of System models to Technology models

Time and again, there is a confusion with this step of transformation. The term “systems” and “technology” is often being used interchangeably even though are different. Let’s understand it from IT perspective.

For example, an organization needs CRM (Customer Relationship Management) “system”. Typically, a CRM system automates the processes such as how to manage leads, opportunities, partners, email exchange with the prospects, etc. This CRM system can be implemented using technologies like programming languages (C++, Java, C#), middleware, network infrastructure ( router, switches, servers, LAN, WAN, Wireless), messaging (MOM, Notification), middleware (J2EE, CORBA, . NET), storage, etc. The challenge is separating the growing dependency of the organization on CRM (system) vs. organization’s dependency on technology (. NET, middleware, brand and version of the router, etc.) or any other implementation technology.

As the dependency on the system will continue to increase, it’s important to create the system models which are independent of underlying implementation technology. This helps in two major ways. It ensures the longevity of the system as well as adoption to changes is quick and easy. If system models are technology specific, the systems tend to become obsolete as the technology becomes out of date. Yes, there is a short-term benefit wherein the systems were optimized for the specific implementation environment.

It’s the time to translate the business logic, which could be implemented by one or more technology environments. Furthermore, it’s important to understand the relationship between the business logic wrt network, distribution, access channels, logical data model, etc.

In addition, we need the mapping and the transformation across the models such as transformation of business logic to software component (definition includes interface and method specifications), distribution of the components and interfaces on the local or remote runtime environments, etc..

Network & distribution -Technical models Connections

Access ChannelsConnections

Step 5 : Transformation of Technology models to implementation information
This is a critical step in transformation as we approach the implementation phase. Here, a “class” definition has to be precise, and complete so that it can be compiled by a compiler to generate the binary or else go through the endless cycle of debugging.

Figure: 6

As in fig 6, the software program (written in programming languages like java or c++) will have necessary specifications and the language constructs to ensure that business logic is implemented. It will also have reference to certain data elements, which are called from database table (Oracle or Sybase, etc.) and then store back in the database after the requisite processing. Furthermore, there is programming code to display the view on mobile phone or web browser. The team must take care what’s the run time environment wherein the software binary needs to be deployed.
Software programsConnections

Technical Model Software componentsSoftware programsNew subscription Logi

Enterprise structure with models – mapping the above to the Zachman framework

By now, you would have appreciated that one can apply this transformation pattern for problems in any business vertical such as finance, telecom or manufacturing, etc. Also, above transformation uses the “perspectives” and “abstractions” as described in the Zachman framework. You will agree that the classification schema of Zachman framework is very helpful in defining the structure as well as transformation rules. So, let me impose the figure of transformation on the Zachman framework and see if could fit?

Figure:7

Actually, Zachman Framework is practical in carrying out such transformation as the stakeholder’s perspective and abstractions are clearly defined.>
In the beginning, one might feel the absence of relationship between a business objective and an IT implementation artifact. However, as we traverse the journey of transformation from strategy to business, business to systems, systems to technology, technology to implementation, etc., it brings out a very clear and obvious dependency across them. Such transformations are easy, but it seems difficult in the first go as each set of models need varied skills. We need experts with insight into these models as they represent the concerns and visualization of distinct stakeholders and not just 1 or 2 stakeholders. Also, formal representations of the artifacts are critical. Of course, you need at least one person who has good knowledge of all the models under transformation.
Hope the steps help you to understand how one can easily bridge the gap between the business objectives and the software programs. I have also created a video with the brief about the translation steps. In the coming weeks, will look into sample models for each of the stakeholder and the inter-dependency.

Related articles

• How do you transform a Business Strategy to an IT implementation artefact?, part 1 (sunilduttjha.wordpress.com)
• Sample Process Models which needs to be submitted as part of nomination – part III (sunilduttjha.wordpress.com)