Linking organizational strategies to performing capabilities

• US 8,150,726 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, Daniel C., Corneil, Chad K., Merrifield, Eric S. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US12/242,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082381A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,281 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742, 705/348, 717100-102
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• 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 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for linking organizational strategies to performing capabilities. Embodiments of the invention include determining what impact proposed capability changes in an initiative/program/project for an organizational strategy have on the organizational strategy'"'"'s performance. Schema-based representations of organizational strategies and initiatives are used to provide a common vocabulary for describing changes to organizational strategies. Proposed changes can be evaluated against an impact/value contribution curve, potentially on an ongoing basis, to determine their benefit. Corrective action can be taken when operations/tactics are trend outside of specified metrics.

Claims

1. In a computer architecture, a computer-implemented method for determining what impact a change in performance of a business capability has on an organizational strategy, the method comprising:

an act of a computing system accessing a schema-based model for an organization, the schema-based model modeling a plurality of interrelated business capabilities for the organization, each business capability representing a portion of what work the organization does, the work of a subset of the business capabilities contributing to a strategy for the organization, the computing system including at least one processor;

an act of the computing system accessing a schema-based representation of the organizational strategy, the schema-based representation of the organizational strategy defined in accordance with a strategy schema, the strategy schema defining various attributes for organizational strategies, including defining at least metrics for evaluating the performance of the organizational strategy and schema-based links to the subset of business capabilities contributing to the performance of the organizational strategy;

an act of the computing system accessing a schema-based initiative to implement a portion of the organizational strategy, the schema-based initiative defining planned changes to one or more of the subset of business capabilities;

an act of the computing system determining that the performance improvement from planned changes to one or more of the subset of business capabilities outweighs the cost of the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities, the determination including;

an act of the computing system simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative;

an act of the computing system determining property values for the schema-based links for the selected subset of capabilities, the property values determined from the performance of the subset of business capabilities based on the simulated planned changes to the one of the of the subset of business capabilities;

an act of the computing system calculating the metrics for the organizational strategy from the property values for the schema-based links; and

an act of the computing system comparing the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the organizational strategy to determine the actual impact that the planned performance changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities has on the performance of the organizational strategy; and

an act of applying the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities in response to the determination so as to improve the performance of the organizational strategy.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of accessing a schema-based model for an organization comprises an act of accessing a business capability model, wherein at least some business capabilities have a schematized service level expectation.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of identifying the subset of business capabilities contributing to a strategy for the organization from the schema-based representation of the initiative.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative comprises an act of simulating planned changes to a plurality of interconnected business capabilities.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative comprises an act of simulating planned changes to a plurality of interconnected business capabilities.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative comprises an act of simulating planned changes that impact the service level expectation of at least once business capability that contributes to the metrics of the schema-based strategy representation.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of calculating the metrics for the organizational strategy from the property values for the schema-based links comprises an act of aggregating contributions to the metrics from each of the business capabilities in the subset of capabilities.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of comparing the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the organizational strategy comprises an act of determining that the metrics indicate that the performance of the organizational strategy is operating within performance thresholds.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining that planned changes can be implemented in a cost efficient manner.

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

an act of converting the organizational strategy into the schema-based strategy representation through reference to the strategy schema; and

an act of converting an initiative for implementing part of the organizational strategy into the schema-based initiative representation through reference to an initiative schema.

11. A computer program product for use in a computer architecture, the computer program product for implementing a method for determining what impact a change in performance of a business capability has on an organizational strategy, the computer program product comprising one or more computer storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer architecture to perform the method, including the following

access a schema-based model for an organization, the schema-based model modeling a plurality of interrelated business capabilities for the organization, each business capability representing a portion of what work the organization does, the work of a subset of the business capabilities contributing to a strategy for the organization;

access a schema-based representation of the organizational strategy, the schema-based representation of the organizational strategy defined in accordance with a strategy schema, the strategy schema defining various attributes for organizational strategies, including defining at least metrics for evaluating the performance of the organizational strategy and schema-based links to the subset of business capabilities contributing to the performance of the organizational strategy;

access a schema-based initiative to implement a portion of the organizational strategy, the schema-based initiative defining planned changes to one or more of the subset of business capabilities;

determine that the performance improvement from planned changes to one or more of the subset of business capabilities outweighs the cost of the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities, the determination including;

simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative;

determining property values for the schema-based links for the selected subset of capabilities, the property values determined from the performance of the subset of business capabilities based on the simulated planned changes to the one of the of the subset of business capabilities;

calculating the metrics for the organizational strategy from the property values for the schema-based links; and

comparing the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the organizational strategy to determine the actual impact that the planned performance changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities has on the performance of the organizational strategy; and

apply the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities in response to the determination so as to improve the performance of the organizational strategy.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 11, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to identify the subset of business capabilities contributing to a strategy for the organization from the schema-based representation of the initiative.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 11, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to determine that planned changes can be implemented in a cost efficient manner.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 11, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to:

convert the organizational strategy into the schema-based strategy representation through reference to the strategy schema; and

convert an initiative for implementing part of the organizational strategy into the schema-based initiative representation through reference to an initiative schema.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to calculate the metrics for the organizational strategy from the property values for the schema-based links comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to aggregate contributions from each of the business capabilities in the subset of capabilities to the metrics.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to compare the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the organizational strategy comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer architecture to determine that the metrics indicate that the performance of the organizational strategy is operating within performance thresholds.

17. In a computer architecture, a computer-implemented method for determining what impact a change in performance of a business capability has on a business strategy, the method comprising:

an act of a computing system accessing a schema-based business architecture model for a business, the schema-based business architecture model modeling a plurality of interrelated business capabilities for the business, each business capability representing a portion of what work the business does, at least one business capability being internal to a company and at least once business capability being external to the company, the business architecture model bridging between the company and an industry so that the company can develop industry wide business strategies, the computing system including at least one processor;

an act of the computing system accessing a schema-based representation of the business strategy for the company, the schema-based representation of the business strategy defined in accordance with a strategy schema, the strategy schema defining various attributes for business strategies, including defining at least metrics for evaluating the performance of the business strategy and schema-based links to a subset of business capabilities contributing to the performance of the business strategy,

an act of the computing system accessing a schema-based initiative to implement a portion of the business strategy, the schema-based initiative defining planned changes to an identified subset of one or more business capabilities, including at least one internal business capability and at least one external business capability;

an act of the computing system determining that the performance improvement from planned changes to one or more of the subset of business capabilities outweighs the cost of the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities, the determination including;

an act of the computing system simulating the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities of the schema-based initiative;

an act of the computing system determining property values for the schema-based links for the selected subset of capabilities, the property values determined from the performance of the subset of business capabilities based on the simulated planned changes to the one of the of the subset of business capabilities;

an act of the computing system calculating the metrics for the business strategy from the property values for the schema-based links; and

an act of the computing system comparing the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the business strategy to determine the actual impact that the planned performance changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities has on the performance of the business strategy; and

an act of applying the planned changes to the one or more of the subset of business capabilities in response to the determination so as to improve the performance of the business strategy for the company.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the act of calculating the metrics for the business strategy from the property values for the schema-based links comprises an act of aggregating contributions to the metrics from each of the business capabilities in the subset of capabilities.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the act of comparing the calculated metrics to planned performance changes for the business strategy comprises an act of determining that the metrics indicate that the performance of the business strategy is operating within performance thresholds.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising determining that planned changes can be implemented in a cost efficient manner.