=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-336/paper-9
|storemode=property
|title=A Method to Support the Alignment of Business Models and Goal Models
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-336/paper9.pdf
|volume=Vol-336
|authors=Halleux Pierre,Mathieu Ludovic and Birger Andersson
}}
==A Method to Support the Alignment of Business Models and Goal Models==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-336/paper9.pdf
A Method to Support the Alignment of Business
Models and Goal Models
1 1 2
Pierre Halleux , Ludovic Mathieu , and Birger Andersson
1
Faculty of Namur, Department of Computer Science,
rue Grandgagnage 21, 5000 Namur, Belgium
{phalleux, lmathieu}@info.fundp.ac.be
2
Royal Institute of Technology, Dept. of Computer and Systems Sciences,
SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden
ba@dsv.su.se
Abstract. This paper addresses one part of business and IT-alignment
by proposing a method to align goal models and business models. The
method takes as input a goal model and a business model, and outputs a
business model that is aligned with the explicit goals of a business actor.
The method builds on previous work with the same approach but extends
that work in at least two ways: the syntax of some method constituents
is altered and a way to combine them is introduced. The result is an
improved method that better support a modeller when designing business
models based on goal models.
1 Introduction
Generally, the raison-d'être of ICT in an organization is to support the organi-
zation's business goals and this is often materialized as IT-systems for support
of operational processes. The goals should therefore be made so explicit that
supporting IT-systems can be aligned with them. A problem then is how to
formulate business goals so that the alignment can be made. One solution ap-
proach is to utilize models that focus on dierent aspects of an organization and
its collaborations. Addressing the problem then amounts to aligning a chain of
models.
A common view is that goal models are used in the earliest phases of busi-
ness and information systems design, where they help in clarifying interests,
intentions, and strategies of dierent stakeholders answering to the why of the
business. Business models give a high level view of the activities taking place
in and between organizations by identifying agents, resources and the exchange
of resources between the agents. So, a business model focuses on the what of
a business. Process models focus on the how of a business, as they deal with
operational and procedural aspects of business communication, including control
ow, data ow and message passing.
The purpose of this paper is to present a method for addressing one part
of the problem of aligning the IT-resources with the goals of an organization
the alignment of goal models and business models. The method approach
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 121
is to use templates for formulating goals and apply rules for business model
transformations. The method builds on work presented in [1]. As that work
outlined the method on a high level a research question was how to make it
more formalised. This work extends previous work in several ways, most notably
in the amount of formalism used. In this paper we illustrate the extended method
in a case application making use of two well known modelling techniques; for goal
? 3
modeling we use i [2] and for business modelling we use e value [3].
The amount of research and literature pointing out the importance of busi-
ness and IT alignment is vast. Notable examples of approaches for alignment
through model use can be found in [4], [5], and [6].
This paper is structured as follows: the method is presented in section 2. An
illustration of the method by its application on a small case is in section 3. Fi-
nally, the concluding section 4 contains a discussion of the results and directions
for future research.
2 A Method for Goal and Business Model Alignment
A common problem in goal modelling is that goals are di cult to formulate, i.e.,
the formulations of goals often become loose, highly abstract and unfocused. In
[7], the authors argue that goal models become unfocused because goals range
from the value propositions of an enterprise to general goals of economic sus-
tainability. However, largely all means in goal models (a means is an action
carried out to attain a goal) relate to the acquisition, production, maintenance,
or provisioning of economic resources. As mentioned in section 1, business models
describe the use and exchange of resources that are of economic value for agents
participating in collaborations. We exploit this relation between means and busi-
ness model notions when formulating the following method for goal model and
business model alignment.
2.1 Method Overview
The method, originally introduced in [1] but here substantially extended, takes
as input an as-is business model and a to-be goal model and produces a new
to-be business model conforming to the goal model.
The method has two main steps, where the rst concerns goal modeling and
the second concerns business modeling. In the rst step, it is the responsibility
of a goal modeler to construct a goal model using business model notions; in
particular the means are formulated according to a template structure (see Sect.
2.2). In the second step, it is the responsibility of a business modeler to make
use of the means supplied by the goal modeler by applying transformation rules
to a business model. If the business modeller do not have required information
to apply a rule, then this information must be elicited in order to continue. The
method can be outlined as:
1. The goal modeler constructs a goal model using the means templates.
122 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
2. For each means template the business modeler:
(a) complements the means by lling in the required and optional parts when
needed.
(b) applies the relevant transformation rule.
For each means template, there will be exactly one transformation rule telling
how means of this template will in uence the to-be business model. The means
templates can be categorized into three main groups based on their eects on
the to-be model: templates leading to the introduction of new business model
components, templates leading to the deletion of certain business model compo-
nents, and templates requiring changes at the process level (see Sect. 1). While
the rst two groups have a visible eect on the to-be business model, the eects
of the means in the third group is not visible in this model but will only have
impact on a process model.
2.2 Grammar of Means Templates
A means template is formulated according to the following grammar:
MEANS_TEMPLATE ::= COMPULSORY_PART
| COMPULSORY_PART '[' OPTIONAL_PART
']'
COMPULSORY_PART ::= '< ' event ', ' resource ', ' DIRECTION ',' A_OR_CE
'> '
DIRECTION ::= 'from' | 'to' | 'in'
A_OR_CE ::= agent | value activity
OPTIONAL_PART ::= E
E ::= E 'AND ' T | T | COMPULSORY_PART
T ::= T 'XOR ' F | F | COMPULSORY_PART
F ::= other_event value_activity | other_event resource ','
DIRECTION ',' A_OR_CE | '( ' E ') ' | COMPULSORY_PART
The compulsory part of a template
3 is represented by a 4-tuple
. This part may be followed by an op-
tional part providing complementary information about the consequences of the
compulsory part. In the compulsory part, DIRECTION indicates the direction of
an event, thus enabling us to distinguish between dierent situations (e.g. a re-
source moving from or to an agent). Notice also that the COMPULSORY_PART
introduces the possibility to combine templates.
2.3 List of Means Templates
The following list of nine templates follows the list proposed in [1]. It covers goals
related to the acquisition, production, maintenance, or provisioning of resources
for a business actor.
3
In this paper the notation Ti is the abbreviation for Template number i
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 123
1. [(start using
existingvalue activityk XOR start producing resourcej in value activityk XOR start
procuring resourcel from providerp ) AND receive compensation from customeri ]
Template 1 is used to express an exchange of an economic resource between
agents. The main part represents the oering of the resource. There are three
possible consequences in this template and they appear before the exchange
showing the origin of the resource that is exchanged:
(1) The resource is converted thanks to an existing value activity in the agent,
(2) The resource is produced thanks to a new value activity in the agent,
(3) The resource is obtained by an exchange with another agent (intermediary).
After the exchange, the consequence is that a compensation is oered to the
main actor for the resource provided.
2.
[(stop procuring resourcel from providerp XOR stop producing resourcej in value
activityk )]
Template 2 is used when an agent desires to stop oering a resource to another
agent. The two possible (mutually exclusive) consequences are:
(1) The agent stops producing the resource,
(2) The agent stops procuring the resource from an intermediary.
3.
[((start resourcej in value activityk ) XOR (start oering resourcej to
using
customerc )) AND start providing compensation to providerp ]
Template 3 is to express how the main actor deals with the procurement of
a resource from an intermediary agent. The two possible (mutually exclusive)
consequences of the acquisition are:
(1) The agent transforms (or use) the resource in one of its value activities,
(2) The agent oers the resource to another agent (or to the customer of the
main actor, without changes).
After that, the main actor provides a compensation to that agent.
4.
[(stop oering resourcel to customeri ) XOR (start producing resourcej in value
activityk )]
Template 4 focuses on stopping the acquisition of a resource from an agent. There
are two possible consequences (mutually exclusive). The rst of is to consider
whether the agent stops procuring from all of its providers or not.
(1) To oer the resource to its customer(s), the agent must start the production,
(2) The agent do not want to continue the oering of the resource, so the oering
of the resource is stopped.
5.
[start oering resourcej , to, customeri ]
124 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
Template 5 shows the consequences of starting the production of a resource in a
value activity. The only eect is that the main actor must oer the resource to
other agent(s).
6.
[(start procuring resourcej from providerp ) XOR (stop oering resourcej to
customeri )]
Template 6 shows the consequences when an agent stops the production of a
resource in one of its value activities. There are two mutually exclusive conse-
quences:
(1) Keeping on going with the oering to other agent, the main actor starts
procuring the resource from another agent.
(2) The agent do not want to continue the oering.
7a.
7b.
Template 7 is to increase (7a) or decrease (7b) the capacity of the production
of a resource. According to [1], this template and template 8 has normally no
structural eects on the business model.
8.
[(start producing resourcej in value activityk XOR increase production of resourcej
in value activityk ) AND (stop procuring resourcej from outsourcero )]
Template 8 shows what is happening when the production of a resource from
a value activity is insourced. There are two possible consequences (mutually
exclusive):
(1) The production increase in an existing value activity,
(2) A new value activity is introduced to produce the resource.
9.
[(stop producing resourcej in value activityk XOR decrease fraction of production
of resourcej ) AND start procuring resourcej from outsourcero ]
Template 9 captures the consequence of an outsource of production. An out-
source is leading to:
(1) The stopping of the production of the resource (if the outsource represents
100% of the production),
(2) The decrease of the production of the resource.
In both cases, the main actor must start procuring the resource.
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 125
2.4 Transformation Rules
One transformation rule is associated with each template. A rule has two parts
called the primary and the secondary action. The primary action is related to the
compulsory part of the template. The secondary action is related to the optional
part of the template. When applied, both parts of the rule aect the design of
the business model.
The elements of the secondary action are either possible precursors of an event
(i.e., what is needed to enable the event in a compulsory part of a template),
or the possible consequences (i.e., what is done after a compulsary event). In
other words, elements of the secondary action can both trigger or be triggered
by events.
st
For space reasons we present here the rule that is associated with the 1
template and omit the rules associated with templates 29. Table 1 gives the
rule associated to the template 1:
1.
[(start using existing value activityk XOR start producing resourcej in value activityk
XOR start procuring resourcel from providerp ) AND receive compensation from
customeri ]
Primary action:
(a) IF actor customeri is not present THEN add the actor customeri .
(b) Add one value exchange for resourcej (in an existing or new interface)
from the principal actor to customeri .
Secondary action:
(c) Add a new value exchange from customeri to the principal actor
(as compensation for the resourcej oered by the principal actor).
Connect the new value exchanges to an existing or new value activity
of resourcej within the customeri .
(d) IF start using THEN connect to the existing value activityk
to the new value exchange.
(e) ELSE IF start producing THEN call T5 and apply associated rule.
σ = { T5.resourcej /T1.resourcej , T5.value activityk /T1.value activityk }
(f ) ELSE IF start procuring THEN
IF Prev(T5) THEN connect value activityk to the value exchange of resourcej .
Call T3 and apply associated rule.
σ ={T3.resourcej /T1.resourcel , T3.providerp /T1.providerp ,
T3.value activityk /T1.value activityk }
st
Table 1. Example of rule : rule associated to 1 template.
It is important to notice that templates may be combined with other tem-
plates. We also say that a template may call another template. For example,
the template matching with the oering of a resource is able to call the template
responsible for the production of the resource to oer. In the rules, a function
126 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
Prev(Pi ) has been introduced to avoid the possible issues of redundant changes.
For example, if a rule says that an actor should be introduced, then the function
Prev(Pi ) is used to ensure that, in case templates are combined, the actor is
not introduced twice.
Variables in templates are substituted before application analogously to how
substitutions are carried out in Prolog [8]. For a better readability, the method
distinguishes the initial substitution (γi ) from those done when an additional
template in a rule (σi ) is called.
The calls (or combinations) between the templates can be represented within
a tree for better visualization. While traversing the tree, the rules are modify-
ing the as-is business model. Arriving at the right-most leaf of the tree (the
nal node), the as-is business model will be completely transformed and will be
aligned with the goal model. Figure 1 shows an example of a substitution tree.
Fig. 1. Through the goal model to the templates with a substitution tree.
2.5 Relations Between Templates
Consistency checking of combinations of templates is important. In an auto-
mated process, the matching templates found by the goal modeler in the to-be
goal model have to be consistent. For instance, a business modeler must not de-
clare a without a previous .
In order to address consistency the notion of scheduling conditions is intro-
duced. A scheduling condition is an expression of a particular combination of
templates on which precondition must be checked to ensure its legality. A list of
such conditions is highly context dependent. For instance, one combination may
be allowed in one organization, while the same combination in another organi-
zation is forbidden. It is, however, interesting to sketch out and give an example
of how one such listing can be done.
A scheduling condition has two parts. The rst part is the combination part
represented by two template symbols together with an in x composition op-
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 127
erator ◦. This operator is used to express that a particular template can be
combined with another. The second part is the conditional which contains a
guard expression. Following is an example list of scheduling conditions. The rst
item, for example, express that template 2 can be combined with template 1
when the resource of T1 is equal to the resource of T2 and the agent of T1 is
equal to the agent of T2.
Ti ◦ Tj Precondition
T2 ◦ T1 T1.resource=T2.resource and T1.agent=T2.agent
T4 ◦ T3 T3.resource=T4.resource and T3.agent=T4.agent
T6 ◦ T5 T5.resource=T6.resource
and T5.value activity=T6.value activity
T7a production(T7a.resource)≤100%
T7b production(T7b.resource)≥0%
T8 ◦ T9 T9.resource=T8.resource and T5.value=T6.agent
The scheduling conditions may be organized and visualized in an implica-
tion array (Fig. 2). Template names are on the vertical and horizontal axes of
the array. Implication dependencies are indicated by putting a symbol in the
intersecting cell of a template column and row. Three symbols are used to in-
4
dicate the implication direction . A square indicate that the direction is from
vertical to horizontal, a diamond from horizontal to vertical, and a bullet for a
combination of both directions.
Fig. 2. Implication array for drawing global network
When drawing the array, two kinds of call between templates can be written:
the explicit or the implicit calls. The explicit calls are highlighted in grey scale
in the array. They regroup calls to some templates made from a rule associate
4
The implication symbols are chosen to allow for gray-scale printing: , ♦, •.
128 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
to another template. For instance, the rule associated to T4 can call T2 and T5.
For these explicit combinations, there is no need of scheduling rules because the
calls are made from inside the rule and ensure in this way, the satisfaction of
the precondition. For implicit calls, scheduling rules with preconditions need to
be considered. In the implication array three implicit calls has been added and
highlighted.
A link from the start to the stop (because it is only possible to stop something
that has been started before) ().
A link between increase from decrease (in both directions) (•).
A link from outsource to insource (because it is only possible to insource
something that has been outsourced before) (♦).
Notice that a,c,e, and f are not templates but other_events as mentioned in
the BNF grammar and that the implications between those events are informal.
We call those implications informal as they are merely for expressing implications
in a language more natural to use. An analysis of the links between the templates
is interesting because it makes it possible to avoid redundant changes on the to-
be business model within the templates, thanks to the Prev(Ti) function.
3 Case Study
In this section we illustrate the method by applying it in a small case study
(adapted from [1]). Due to space constraints it is not possible to show all models.
We will, however, detail four templates matched with the means of a to-be goal
model, one application of a rule associated with one of those templates, and the
nal output.
3.1 The Case
The case involves a Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) provider as
the main actor. In this kind of game, thousands of players can participate via In-
ternet and compete with each other. Two other actors interact with the MMOG
provider: an Internet Service Provider (ISP) playing the role of a business as-
sociate, and the players as its customers. The MMOG provider has mainly two
responsibilities: producing the game content by itself and distributing the game
client application on CDs. Thanks to the ISP, the MMOG provider can dis-
tribute the information needed to play via the Internet. The revenue model for
the MMOG company is based on fees collected to get access to the game server.
This payment gives the right to access to the game. Obviously, the players need
to be connected to the Internet in order to play.
For future development of its business the MMOG provider plans to change
its goals and add new activities to support them:
1. Easier distribution of CDs by outsourcing the production of CD delivery to
a shipper.
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 129
2. Reduction of its cost of content creation by outsourcing 50% of the game
content creation to users.
3. Reduction of story boarding cost by procuring game stories from customers.
4. Increase the number of users by oering free trial games.
3.2 Method Application
To apply the method the goal modeller rst has to draw the to-be goal model
by introducing the changes into an as-is goal model. In the new goal model,
new means are highlighted, matched, and formulated according to the means
templates. After that, the rules associated to these templates are applied on the
as-is business model to produce an aligned to-be business model as output.
Fig. 3. Main part of the to-be goal model
To-Be Goal Model Figure 3 represents the to-be goal model of the MMOG
company. This goal model was the as-is model that, when updated, became
the to-be goal model. Eight new elements have been highlighted by rectangles.
130 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
Four of them are means (hexagonal) and four are so called soft goals (rounded
rectangle).
New Means in the To-Be Goal Model From the MMOG provider's as-is
goal model complemented with new goals according to the listing in the case
description, we got the to-be goal model (Fig.3). Four new means are identi ed:
Means 1: Outsource 100% of CD delivery.
Means 2: Procure innovative game stories from customer.
Means 3: Outsource 50% of game content.
Means 4: Oer free trial games to customer.
Thanks to the usage of γ -substitutions, those means can match with some
templates. The substitutions will have as eect instantiation of the terms: value
activityk , resourcej , . . . . The means 1, 2, 3, and 4 are respectively matched with
the templates 9, 3, 9, and 1. The matching can be done thanks to substitutions
chosen by the business modeler:
γ 1={fraction/100%, resource /CD delivery, value activity /transport CD, outsourcer /shipper}
j k o
γ 2={resource /innovative game stories, provider /customer, value activity /create content, com-
j p k
pensation/payment}
γ 3={fraction/50%, resource /game content, value_activity /create content, outsourcer /Customer}
j k o
γ 4={resource /free trial game, customer /customer, value activity /distribute game, compensa-
j i k
tion/attention}
th st
Table 2 shows the 9 template and the substitution matching with the 1
means.
9.
[stop producing resourcej in value activityk AND start procuring resourcej from
outsourcero ]
γ ={fraction/100%, resourcej /CD delivery, value activityk /transport CD,
outsourcero /shipper }
Table 2. Matching means 1 with template 9.
Application of Rules Four rules associated with the means templates high-
lighted in the to-be goal model are used to transform the as-is business model
into an aligned business model. Due to space constraints, only the rule associated
th
the 9 template is presented here. Also, to save space, only the applied part of
the rule is included in the following listing. In reality more rules than this one
should be applied (one rule for each template).
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 131
Alignment of Means 1 (application of template 9 and its associated rule)
9.
[stop producing CD delivery in Transport CD AND start procuring CD de-
livery from Shipper ]
Primary action:
a. IF actor Shipper not present THEN create actor Shipper.
Secondary action:
b. IF ((stop production) AND (outsourcing = 100%))
THEN call T6 and apply part (a) and (b) of associated rule
σ = {T6.value activityk /Transport CD,T6.resourcej /CD delivery}
d. Call T3 and apply associated rule
σ = {T3.resourcej /CD delivery,T3.providerp /Shipper,
T3.value activityk /Distribute content}
Call of T6 and application of the associated rule:
6.
[(start procuring resourcej from providerp ) XOR (stop offering
resourcej to customeri )]
Primary action:
a. Delete the duality with the value exchange from the Transport CD concerning the
CD delivery within the principal actor.
b. IF CD delivery is the only value object produced in the Transport CD THEN delete
the Transport CD
Call of T3 and application of the associated rule:
3.
[(start using CD delivery in Distribute content ) AND (start providing
Payment to Shipper )]
Primary action:
a. IF actor Shipper is not present THEN add the actor Shipper.
b. Add a new value exchange for the CD delivery from Shipper to the principal actor.
Secondary action:
c. Add a new value exchange from the principal actor to the Shipper (as Payment for
the CD delivery oered by the Shipper ).
Connect the new value exchanges to an existing or new value activity of CD Delivery
within the Shipper
d. IF start using THEN connect the new value exchanges of CD delivery to the existing
Distribute content activity.
The chain of templates called for the transformation of the as-is business
model can be visualized as a tree. The rst level represents the templates related
to the new means templates indicated in the to-be goal model. The tree is then
traversed in a pre-order walk: rst the parent is visited and then the left child
before the right child. Figure 4 shows the tree with each template called.
132 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
Fig. 4. Templates and calls from rules
Output: The To-Be Business Model Figure 5 represents the business model
of the MMOG provider that is aligned with the to-be goal model. The gure
is the as-is business model
5 where some transformations have been done by
applying transformation rules. Newly added constructs in the model have been
highlighted in the gure. The detailed example of a rule application resulted in
the introduction of a new actor (Shipper) and constructs related to it.
5
Notice that the as-is business model is omitted due to space restriction.
Proceedings of BUSITAL'08 133
Fig. 5. Improved method : to-be business model
4 Conclusion and Future Research
In this paper we have addressed one part of the problem of business and IT align-
ment. We have done so by proposing a method that aims at aligning goal models
and business models. The method takes as input a goal model and a business
model, and outputs a business model that is aligned with the explicit goals of
a business actor. The method builds on previous work presented in [1] and the
bene ts of that method still applies; clear and uniform goal formulations, well-
founded business model design, and a high level of traceability. But this work
extends the previous method in at least two ways. First, the syntax of both
134 Proceedings of BUSITAL'08
the the means templates and the rules was clari ed resulting in better method-
ological support through reduced ambiguity. Second, combining templates to an
arbitrary level is now possible. This enables a modeller to express whole chains
of actions (or scenarios) that aect the design of business models.
Future research include investigations about the completeness of both the
set of templates and the set of rules. For instance, as presented one template
is always associated with one rule. This is very convenient as it constrains a
modeller to arrive at only a small number of end results. It may, however, be that
this is overly constraining and that more options should be open for the modeller.
Another direction for future research is the proposed implication array. This
array expresses the legal (or illegal) combinations of templates paving the way
for consistency checking in the method. In order to do this checking the nature
of the combinations must be understood. Some implications are always true, but
some are true only in special cases. For instance, for a particular organization
one combination of templates may be allowed while for another the combination
is forbidden.
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