In many businesses, the transition to a technical solution that makes the business more effective happens quite fast. Can we use the Application X in the Process Y?
Common traps are:
- to evaluate the appplication based on its current process
- to set requirement by forming a new process which leads to fewer standard systems corresponding to the requirement
- to evaluate wrong application due to lack of a clear understanding about which functionality is needed
In Prime Arch we use 4 different levels for answering the question.
- Process
- Capability
- Logical Application
- Physical Application
The Process describes WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHO and WHICH. Many hard questions which lead to the risk of getting stuck in the current situation or describing a target situation which is overly specific for a standard system to suits the situation.
The Business Function and the capability flow only focus on WHAT - what do you need for the functionality and what type of information should be processed?
The logical application is a mirror for the business function aiming to set requirement for the functionality and information in a IT-context.
Physical Applications are applications (Standard systems) which exist in the market, either already purchased or potentially a purchase alternative.
We use four different flow descriptions for showing how the different dimensions are connected together:
Links to view types:
- Process Flow Description (PFD-1)
- Capability Flow Description 1 (CFD-1)
- Capability Flow Description 2 (CFD-2)
- Application Flow Description 1 (AFD-1) (Information)
- Application Flow Description 2 (AFD-2) (Data)
The different dimensions are connected to each other as follows:
Processes (with HOW, WHO etc) realizes the Business Function (WHAT is it that needs to be done). The business function constitutes the basis for the scope and boundaries of the application which is considered to be needed and we match the physical applications to the logical application, both from a functional perspective and information perspective.