DETERMINING CAPABILITY INTERDEPENDENCY/CONSTRAINTS AND ANALYZING RISK IN BUSINESS ARCHITECTURES

• US 20100318395A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Corneil, Chad K., Merrifield, Eric S. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for determining capability interdependency and analyzing risks in business architectures. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention can be used to drive an understanding of the relative interdependency (complexity) of a capability and how capabilities impact one another. Connectedness and/or data exchanged between capabilities can be used to formulate relative interdependency (complexity) of a capability and can be analyzed to inform a number of strategies from data architecture and business intelligence and project risk. Other risk/impact analysis data can be combined with interdependency (complexity) to present risk/impact analysis scenarios for organizations.

Claims

1. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for identifying interdependency between business capabilities and underlying components that provide functionality to the business capabilities, the method comprising:

an act of accessing a business capability model for an organization, the business capability model including a plurality hierarchically arranged business capabilities, each business capability representing a portion of what the business organization does, each business capability in the business capability model connected to one or more other business capabilities in the capability model;

for each business capability in the business capability model, an act of the processor determining the dependence and constraints of the business organization on the business capability, including;

an act of determining the number of connections between the business capability and other business capabilities;

an act of identifying each connection between the business capability and another business capability;

an act of determining the connection type for each identified connection between the business capability and another business capability; and

an act of assigning a dependence value to the accessed business capability based on number and type of connections between the business capability and the other business capabilities;

an act of creating an interdependency and constraints view of the business organization, including;

an act of calculating the interdependence of each business capability relative to the other business capabilities based on the assigned dependence values;

an act of spatially arranging the business capabilities relative to one another according the hierarchal arrangement; and

an act of assigning a visual indicator to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability such that business capabilities with different calculated interdependence can be visually distinguished from one another.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an act of accessing a plurality of business capability attributes, the plurality of business modeling attributes corresponding to the business capabilities of organization;

an act of formatting the accessed plurality of business capability attributes in accordance with data formats defined in a structured data model;

an act of modeling the business capability model from the formatted business capability attributes, including;

an act of modeling a first business capability from the formatted business capability attributes, the first business capability supported by a first set of people, processes, and technology and data in the business organization that indicate how the first business capability does work;

an act of modeling a second business capability from the formatted business capability attributes, the second business capability supported by a second set of people, processes, and technology and data in the business organization that indicate how the second business capability does work; and

an act of modeling a connection between the first business capability and the second capability from the formatted business capability attributes;

an act of modeling constraints associated with the connection between the first business capability and the second business capability from the formatted connection attributes.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an act of presenting interdependency and constraints view of the business organization to a decision maker to assist the decision maker in making a decisions with respect to allocating resources for the organization.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of creating an interdependency view of the business organization comprises an act of creating a risk/impact analysis view of the business organization, the risk/impact analysis view combining the interdependency values with risk/impact analysis data.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of creating a risk/impact analysis view of the business organization comprises an act of creating a risk/impact analysis view from one or more of business capability cost, business capability maturity/predictibility, and business capability value.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of creating a risk/impact analysis view from one or more of business capability cost, business capability maturity/predictibility, and business capability value comprises an act of assigning visual indicators to distinguish between interdependence and risk/impact analysis data.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of assigning a visual indicator to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability comprises an act of assigning a color to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability comprises.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the act of creating an interdependency view of the business organization comprises an act of creating a heat map from the color assignments;

and

further comprising an act of presenting the heat map at a display device.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of creating a risk/impact analysis view from one or more of business capability cost, business capability maturity/predictibility, and business capability value comprises an act of assigning visual indicators to distinguish between interdependence and risk/impact analysis data.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the act of creating an interdependency view of the business organization comprises an act of creating a heat map from the color assignments;

and

further comprising an act of presenting the heat map at a display device.

9. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for identifying interdependency between business capabilities and underlying components that provide functionality to the business capabilities, the method comprising:

an act of accessing a business capability model for an organization, the business capability model including a plurality hierarchically arranged business capabilities, each business capability representing a portion of what the business organization does, each business capability in the business capability model connected to one or more other business capabilities in the capability model;

an act of accessing a data model for the organization, the data model modeling the organizations business data into different data types;

for each business capability in the business capability model, an act of the processor determining the dependence and constraints of the business organization on the business capability, including;

an act of identifying the different data types that flow through the business capability;

an act of identifying the frequency of each identified data type flowing through the business capability; and

an act of assigning a dependence value to the accessed business capability based on frequencies of the identified data types flowing through the business capability; and

an act of creating an interdependency and constraints view of the business organization, including;

an act of calculating the interdependence of each business capability relative to the other business capabilities based on the assigned dependence values;

an act of spatially arranging the business capabilities relative to one another according the hierarchal arrangement; and

an act of assigning a visual indicator to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability such that business capabilities with different calculated interdependence can be visually distinguished from one another.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

an act of accessing a plurality of business capability attributes, the plurality of business modeling attributes corresponding to the business capabilities of organization;

an act of formatting the accessed plurality of business capability attributes in accordance with data formats defined in a structured data model;

an act of modeling the business capability model from the formatted business capability attributes, including;

an act of modeling a first business capability from the formatted business capability attributes, the first business capability supported by a first set of people, processes, and technology and data in the business organization that indicate how the first business capability does work;

an act of modeling a second business capability from the formatted business capability attributes, the second business capability supported by a second set of people, processes, and technology and data in the business organization that indicate how the second business capability does work;

an act of modeling a connection between the first business capability and the second capability from the formatted business capability attributes.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

an act of presenting interdependency view of the business organization to a decision maker to assist the decision maker in making a decisions with respect to allocating resources for the organization.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of creating an interdependency view of the business organization comprises an act of creating a risk/impact analysis view of the business organization, the risk/impact analysis view combining the interdependency values with risk/impact analysis data.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of creating a risk/impact analysis view of the business organization comprises an act of recreating a risk/impact analysis view from one or more of business capability cost, business capability maturity, and business capability predictability.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of assigning a visual indicator to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability comprises an act of assigning a color to each business capability based on the calculated interdependence for the business capability comprises.

17. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein for each business capability in the business capability model, the act of the processor determining the dependence of the business organization on the business capability further comprises:

an act of determining the number of connections between the business capability and other business capabilities;

an act of identifying each connection between the business capability and another business capability; and

an act of determining the connection type for each identified connection between the business capability and another business capability;

an act of determining the relative constraint value for each connection between the business capability and another business capability.

18. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein an act of assigning a dependence value to the accessed business capability based on frequencies of the identified data types flowing through the business capability comprises an act assigning a dependence value to the accessed business capability based on number and type of connections between the business capability and the other business capabilities.

19. A computer system, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer storage media having stored thereon computer executable instructions representing;

a mapping module, an interdependence assignment module, a value assignment module, a risk analyzer, and a presentation module, wherein a processor invokes computer-executable instructions to implement the configured functionality of any of the mapping module, the interdependence assignment module, the value assignment module, the risk analyzer, and the presentation module,

wherein the mapping module is configured to;

access a business capability model for an organization, the business capability model including a plurality hierarchically arranged business capabilities, each business capability representing a portion of what the business organization does, each business capability in the business capability model connected to one or more other business capabilities in the capability model;

map the business capabilities in the business capabilities model other data selected from among;

other business capabilities in the business capabilities model and data flowing through the business capabilities in the business capability model; and

output a mapping of the business capabilities, the mapping the business capabilities to the other data;

wherein the value assignment module is configured to assign a dependence value to each business capability in the mapping based one or more of;

the interconnectedness between the business capability and frequencies of identified data types flowing through the business capability;

wherein the risk analyzer is configured to;

access the mapping;

access risk/impact analysis data; and

formulate a risk/impact analysis data for the business capabilities in the business capability model, the risk/impact analysis view formulated by combining the mapping and the risk/impact analysis data; and

wherein the presentation module is configured to;

present the risk/impact analysis data as a risk/impact analysis view of the business organization, including;

spatially arranging the business capabilities relative to one another; and

assigning one or more visual indicators to each business capability based on the risk/impact analysis data for the business capability such that business capabilities can be visually distinguished from one another based on the risk/impact analysis data so as to provide the business organization a risk/impact analysis of its business capabilities.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein an act of assigning one or more visual indicators to each business capability based on the risk/impact analysis data for the business capability comprises an act of assigning visual indicators to distinguish between interdependence values and risk/impact analysis data.