This paper presents the Analysis of Networked Links (AnnL) tool that supports the principles and practices for the planning for viable enterprises, through such disciplines as Enterprise Engineering (including Enterprise Architecture, Governance, and Service Management). It shows how the software can be used throughout the lifecycle of Enterprise Engineering, providing synchronized reports not readily available in other tools.
This paper describes the use of a tool that can be used to plan an enterprise so that it is viable. This tool – Analysis of networked Links (AnnL) – can be used from strategic through to tactical planning; from enterprise-wide portfolio management to detailed service design. The design of the tool is based upon the experience of using it for over 15 years in preparing more than 50 strategic plans, Business Cases, tender evaluations, architecture risk analyses, and policy developments.
Every enterprise consists of a set of processes that convert inputs into outputs as
products or services. These processes require people using resources to do their job
within socio-technical systems, which we will call ‘work systems’ [
We will consider how the AnnL tool supports general managers (as they are
designers too [
There are five risks in the existing techniques and tools for Enterprise Engineering:
• Incomplete consideration of all resources – Until recently the most important
resources, Who and Whom, were overlooked in the commonly used Enterprise
Architecture frameworks. Recently, we have seen the emergence of Human Views,
thankfully [
AnnL is designed to remedy all of these risks. 2
All that is necessary to use AnnL is to list items (resources) then link them. AnnL uses the categories of the items, the initial estimates of their parameters, and the nature of the links between the items to prepare graphical, numerical, or verbal reports to decision makers so they can judge best what should be done.
These items and the nature of their links come from the data model in Figure 1. The data model is derived from the need for AnnL to support the planning practices and the Principles of Planning that are given on the Systems Planning Mentor website at www.layrib.com, from where the software and its manual also can be downloaded.
Through this data model, AnnL enables a planner to consider the consequence of pressures that are of concern to the various key points-of-view; who are then willing to pay to have resources with requisite value (capability, capacity, constraints) to use to avoid the negative consequences and enhance the positive; to measure the risks of the options that have been generated from combinations of alternative resources thought to have the requisite capability; to determine the price risk of the options through a cost model of the resources needed to carry out the tasks that implement the options; and to describe the Action Plan for carrying out the tasks using these resources, according to blueprints (‘viewpoints’) that guide those people who are implementing that option with the least price and performance risk.
It is this list-link operation that is the key difference between AnnL and other
Enterprise Architecture or data modeling tools. AnnL involves building a database (a
linked list, of course) from which the diagrams or tables are generated rather than
starting with a diagram and then building an ‘encyclopedia’. This approach was also
advocated by [
Abacus from Avolution [
List Items. So, the first action in AnnL is to list the items to be linked. Figure 2 shows an extract from the Input sheet. The planners describe each resource or action or stakeholder in the left most column. They classify each item, according to the type of resource or action, in the middle columns. Then they give initial estimates (using low-likely-high values, if necessary) in the right most columns.
Item Description
Item Type Grow business Increase cash flow for BUP Win new business
Values: capable Values: capable Values: capable
Way
Business service
Resource Way Worth
Sub-resource Business service Income - Earnings
Low 1000 500
Likely 1500 700
High 2500
In order to ensure semantic consistency, the planner classifies each item by using a pick list that draws upon the checklist of resources in the data model. The pick list in the successive columns alters according to what has been picked for the higher classification. For example, if ‘Way’ has been chosen as the relevant resource for a value then the sub-resources in the next column are only those part of the ‘Way’ checklist.
Of course, this step is easier said than done. There are many planning practices, described on the Systems Planning Mentor website, that need to be used by planners to make sure this list is correct.
Link Items. The other main action in building AnnL is to link the items. These links show the nature and extent of the relationship between the different items.
The links are made through pick lists, as shown in Figure 2. The resource at the head of the link is picked; then the resource forming the tail is picked from a list tailored to the head. AnnL then automatically moves to the rows for the tail items. Finally, the link is entered in the rows corresponding to the tails of each link, using more pick lists to ensure that the nature of the link is semantically consistent for the items being linked.
As for listing the items, the planners need to draw upon their expertise and the planning practices to determine what these links should be.
One of the differences between AnnL and other Enterprise Engineering tools is that AnnL can use, encourages the use of, verbal input. The extent of the links can be numeric (0.1 – 1) or verbal (very weak, vw, – very strong, vs), for example. Similarly, as shown later, AnnL can report numerically or verbally; whatever the recipients of the Reports prefer. Fig. 3. List of Links, showing the pick lists that are used to link head items and row items (to the left), with the extent of the link inserted into the three columns to the right That is all that has to be done by the planners. AnnL does the rest: carrying out the variety of analyses and producing the models that the planners need, in whatever format that they wish. 3
AnnL produces many different Reports, according to the application of planning. The Reports contain various versions of the trees, tables (‘matrices’ or ‘catalogs’ in TOGAF terms), or words that are the result of the calculations carried out by AnnL, using the type of items and the links between them.
One of the major advantages of AnnL is that it enables all of the many documents that make up a Business Case or the design of an Enterprise Architecture to be synchronized easily. Each time a planner changes an item or its link, AnnL will automatically update all of the Reports containing that item and link. That is, the new reports can reflect not only changes in editing of items, such as names, but also changes in the logic underlying the relationships between the components. This ability is rare in most Enterprise Architecture tools.
Examples of these Reports are given below. These examples show the variety of formats and results that can be produced by AnnL. The underlying algorithms used in the analyses are available from the Mentor site.
The following examples are taken from a case study (loosely) based upon an actual project. Anonymity is protected - as is the author. The case study involves a highlevel strategic decision by Business Utility Providers (BUP) to take an initiative forming a new business line in hiring out specialist but redundant staff. There are a number of decisions to be made at the strategic, operational, and tactical level. After these decisions (whether to centralize or decentralize the business line or to outsource the IT, for example) have been made then AnnL can prepare the blueprints for the project managers or the systems builders.
There is not enough space to show the full portfolio of reports. The following
viewpoints [
Consequence Chain. One of the techniques used in strategic planning is the modeling of the consequences of external or internal pressures upon the enterprise. The intention of this viewpoint is to assist planners in finding points of intervention that break the chain leading to risks or amplify the chain leading to opportunities. These interventions are values (descriptions of the required resource, such as a procedure for winning more business or a facility in a less risky location). The set of values that intervene in the chains describe the capability of the strategic initiative.
Figure 4 shows a consequence chain in the N2 or Design Structure Matrix [
Influence of Points of View. Figure 5 shows the influence between the points-ofview (stakeholders). This analysis starts with estimates of the initial power of the stakeholders according to their position, entered on the list of items. AnnL combines this estimate with the extent of the influences, shown in the links, to determine who inherits the most power.
The viewpoint uses strings to represent the influence from one point-of-view to the next. The ditto (“) marks represent a repetition of the item on a previous line.
The diagram shows that the PS Association representative influences the
Politicians who influence the Government, and so on. There is a branch at Government,
who influences both the Department of Labour and the BUP Board. The Suppliers
start their own string, which intersects with the other at the BUP People CEO.
PS Prof
Association
[
Politicians[
Government[
Dept of
Labour[
The numbers in brackets are the results of the calculations of cascading influence, which can be used to determine which point-of-views are key (Politicians and Suppliers in this case). AnnL does produce other tables with this information in more detail. It is dangerous politically to show this report to the actual points-of-view.
This analysis is essential for the proper design of a system [
Values Statement. AnnL can generate values trees (or means-ends tree or Functional Decomposition Diagrams), as can most tools. More usefully, AnnL also generates verbal descriptions of values, for the senior decision-makers who are more comfortable with words than with diagrams, as shown in Table 1, AnnL uses the links between values and sub-values, and the extent to which the key stakeholders are willing to pay for each value, to determine the words (‘must’, ‘should’, ..) expressing the criticality of each value. It generates this table and the equivalent visual tree. In order to contribute to meeting the goal of winning new BUP business, the BUP CEO a. Must increase awareness of staff capabilities b. Should improve exposure to market c. Might increase expertise of BUP staff whilst meeting the constraints: a. Must comply with corporate policy about …
etc
Design Analysis Display. Although Enterprise Engineering should be about
design, most Enterprise Engineering tools are useful for documenting a design rather
than for designing. They rarely help in creating ideas for options. AnnL extends the
powerful creativity technique of (General) Morphological Analysis [
Figure 6 shows an example of a Design Analysis Display. The diamonds are design decisions formed by each of the capability values that intervene in the Consequence Chain. The boxes are alternative solutions for these design decisions. A path through all of the alternatives is an option. In the example, there are 13 possible options.
AnnL can use the judgment of the planners (shown in the links representing the assessment of the alternatives against the pertinent values) to show the ‘best’ paths.
Business case report. The design of work systems involves finding the option with the least performance and price risk. As shown in Table 2, AnnL produces a “Risk Picture” for decision-makers to use to trade off the performance risks of options against their total cost of ownership, adjusted for the time of expenditure. It shows the output in words or numbers, to fit to the cognitive style of the audience. h t o n oD ign Improve exposure nice to have might not might not
The planner can use different financial metrics. They include cost-benefit ratios, Return on Investment, Internal Rate of Return, Nett Present Value, and (preferably) Risk-Adjusted Price – where the costs of failing to meet the values are added to the price. Abacus seems to be the only other tool to carry out such calculations.
Action Plan. AnnL can produce detailed Action Plans, as shown in Table 4. They list the tasks for implementing processes, who is responsible for the tasks, the assets needed and the budget for them, and the measurement of the quality of these tasks. This Report is in a format more familiar to managers.
AnnL also produces associated Reports. They include the list of roles, grouped over tasks; total budget for each task; and consolidated list of qualities (performance measures). These other Reports are generated at the same time as the Action Plan. The AnnL tool supports all of the planning needed to ensure an enterprise is viable. It uses a comprehensive checklist (WHAT) to provide a complete and consistent consideration of the resources at the various steps in the planning process.
All the planners need to do is to list and link items. AnnL then produces the Reports that support the design of architecture, in the formats that are most acceptable to the various audiences. These Reports are readily updated and synchronized.
If Enterprise Engineers use AnnL when planning work systems then they are free to use their insight and experience, systematically and with full analytical support, without being caught up in the drudgery of documentation.