E-business value web

• US 9,619,766 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2013
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ahern, Marybeth, Law, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swartz, Stephen S
• Application Number:
  US14/027,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20140019180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction

Abstract

A method and system is provided to manage and track changes in enterprise architectures. The invention provides a hierarchical visual management tool to manage and update relational information within an enterprise in a controlled fashion. The relationship may be maintained in a database and displayed via graphical user interface. Enterprise assets are categorized into such categories as goals, customer values or requirements, capabilities, resources, and the like. A hierarchy is constructed so that relationships between these various categories are identified and captured using the invention. Weights may be assigned to each element of the categories so that any proposed change to an enterprise architecture may be viewed so that a value can be ascertained and compared between other values of other proposed changes. In this manner, tracking and management of evolutionary changes to an architecture may be accomplished using relational information.

Claims

1. A system comprising a hardware device which tracks and manages changes in an enterprise, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

a web-based management tool programmed to illustrate and quantify a value of transforming an enterprise business model from a current “

as-is”

state to a proposed “

to-be”

business model, which is implemented on the hardware device and uses the CPU to determine that the “

to-be”

capabilities add value to an enterprise, and to what degree such value is added;

first program instructions that identify a new enterprise asset to an enterprise architecture, the enterprise architecture comprising defined relationships between customer values, capabilities of the enterprise, and resources of the enterprise, wherein;

the customer values are requirements of the enterprise,

the capabilities are functions of the enterprise that deliver the customer values,

the resources are physical components of the enterprise that enable the capabilities, and

the customer values, the capabilities, and the resources have a defined hierarchical relationship, wherein;

at least one of the customer values is mapped to one or more of the capabilities, and

the one or more of the capabilities includes a plurality of the resources;

second program instructions that determine whether the capabilities satisfy requirements of the new enterprise asset;

third program instructions that identify one or more new capabilities corresponding to the new enterprise asset;

fourth program instructions that identify one or more new resources corresponding to the one or more new capabilities;

fifth program instructions that implement the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

sixth program instructions that update the hierarchical relationship to include relationships between the new enterprise asset, the one or more new capabilities, and the one or

seventh program instructions that track the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

more new resources based on assigned performance based metrics;

eighth program instructions that define and test the assigned performance based metrics in a prototype environment to obtain estimates on performance of the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

ninth program instructions that modify the obtained estimates on performance using real performance information as the real performance information is observed from the implementing the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources; and

tenth program instructions that determine whether relationships between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources satisfy the assigned performance based metrics,

wherein the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory, and

a graphical user interface (GUI) to display the “

to-be”

business model and resources to support capabilities of the transformed “

to-be”

enterprise, to view information contained and managed by an e-Business Value Web (eBVW) database hierarchy, and to provide a visual representation of the hierarchy relationship,

wherein the graphical user interface includes control buttons configured to permit traversal of the hierarchy relationship by a user,

wherein the system is operable to provide a first display page on the graphical user interface for the customer values, a second display page on the graphical user interface for the capabilities and a third display page on the graphical user interface for the resources for the defined hierarchical relationship,

wherein the control buttons are operable to change the display on the graphical user interface between the first, second and third display pages in response to operation of the control buttons by the user,

wherein the system is operable to provide a traceability scale on each of the display pages that shows a level of the display page currently being displayed within the defined hierarchical relationship, and

wherein the system is operable to provide a download mechanism on each of the display pages to provide for downloading display data shown on a currently displayed one of the display pages into database formats other than eBVW database format for at least one of maintenance and reports.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifying the new enterprise asset includes identifying at least one of a new customer value, a new technology, a new workforce skill and a new process.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the identifying the new customer value comprises:

providing a new shareholder value;

ensuring the new shareholder value aligns with one or more established goals of the enterprise;

determining whether one or more of the capabilities of the enterprise satisfy the new shareholder value; and

if so, updating the hierarchical relationship to include relationships between the one or more capabilities of the enterprise and the new shareholder value.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the hierarchical relationship is maintained between the new customer value, the one or more goals, the capabilities, the one or more new capabilities, and the one or more new resources; and

the hierarchical relationship is displayed via the graphical user interface.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the identifying the new enterprise asset further includes:

determining whether one or more of the resources of the enterprise satisfy the one or more new capabilities; and

if so, updating the hierarchical relationship to include a relationship between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more of the resources.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

eleventh program instructions that determine which one or more resources supports which one or more new capabilities;

twelfth program instructions that establish measures for the one or more new resources; and

thirteenth program instructions that evaluate the one or more new resources contribution to the one or more new capabilities based on the established measures.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

fourteenth program instructions that assign weights for the one or more new resources;

fifteenth program instructions that evaluate the one or more new capabilities based the assigned weights of each of the one or more new resources;

sixteenth program instructions that reprioritize the one or more new capabilities when the assigned weights are not within defined parameters; and

seventeenth program instructions that perform a tradeoff analyses that determines implementation phases for the one or more new capabilities.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising eighteenth program instructions that conduct a business case analysis based on the implementation phases.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

nineteenth program instructions that assign outcome based performance metrics to the one or more new capabilities and one or more new resources; and

twentieth program instructions that evaluate effectiveness of the one or more new capabilities and one or more new resources to an enterprise stakeholder.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display the hierarchical relationship between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage device having readable program code embodied in the storage device, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

identify a new enterprise asset to an enterprise architecture, the enterprise architecture comprising customer values, capabilities of the enterprise, and resources of the enterprise, wherein;

the customer values are requirements of the enterprise,

the capabilities are functions of the enterprise that deliver the customer values,

the resources are physical components of the enterprise that enable the capabilities, and

the customer values, the capabilities, and the resources have a defined hierarchical relationship, wherein;

at least one of the customer values is mapped to one or more of the capabilities, and

the one or more of the capabilities includes a plurality of the resources;

determine whether the capabilities satisfy requirements of the new enterprise asset;

identify one or more new capabilities associated with the new enterprise asset;

identify one or more new resources corresponding to the new enterprise asset;

implement the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

update the hierarchical relationship to include relationships between of the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

track the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources based on assigned performance based metrics;

define and test the assigned performance based metrics in a prototype environment to obtain estimates on performance of the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

modify the obtained estimates on performance using real performance information as the real performance information is observed from the implementing the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources;

determine whether the relationships between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources satisfy the assigned performance based metrics; and

provide a hierarchical visual management tool programmed to manage and update relational information within the enterprise and transform an enterprise business model from a current “

as-is”

state to a proposed “

to-be”

business model which is displayed on a graphical user interface of a web based application,

wherein the hierarchical visual management tool is a web application management tool, and the graphical user interface displays information contained and managed by an e-Business Value Web (eBVW) database hierarchy, provides a visual representation of the hierarchy relationship,

wherein the graphical user interface includes control buttons configured to permit traversal of the hierarchy relationship by a user,

wherein the at least one component is operable to provide a first display page on the graphical user interface for the customer values, a second display page on the graphical user interface for the capabilities and a third display page on the graphical user interface for the resources for the hierarchy relationship,

wherein the control buttons are operable to change the display on the graphical user interface between the first, second and third display pages in response to operation of the control buttons by the user, and

wherein the at least one component is operable to provide a traceability scale on each of the display pages that shows a level of the display page currently being displayed within the hierarchy relationship, and

wherein the at least one component is operable to provide a download mechanism on each of the display pages to provide for downloading display data shown on a currently displayed one of the display pages into database formats other than eBVW database format for at least one of maintenance and reports.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the identifying the new enterprise asset includes identifying at least one of a new customer value, a new technology, a new workforce skill and a new process.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the identifying the new customer value further comprises:

providing a new shareholder value;

ensuring the new shareholder value aligns with one or more established goals of the enterprise;

determining whether one or more of the capabilities satisfy the new shareholder value; and

if so, updating the hierarchical relationship to include relationships between the one or more of the capabilities and the new shareholder value.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

maintaining the hierarchical relationship between the new customer value, the one or more goals, the capabilities, the one or more new capabilities, and the one or more new resources; and

displaying the hierarchical relationship via the graphical user interface.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the identifying the new enterprise asset further includes:

determining whether one or more of the resources satisfy the one or more new capabilities; and

if so, updating the hierarchical relationship to include relationships between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more of the resources.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the at least one component is further operable to:

determine which one or more resources supports which one or more new capabilities;

establish measures for the one or more new resources; and

evaluate the one or more new resources contribution to the one or more new capabilities based on the established measures.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the at least one component is further operable to:

assign weights for the one or more resources;

evaluate the one or more capabilities based on the assigned weights of each of the one or more new resources;

reprioritize the one or more new capabilities when the assigned weights are not within defined parameters; and

perform tradeoff analyses that determine implementation phases for the one or more new capabilities.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the at least one component is further operable to conduct a business case analysis based on the implementation phases.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the at least one component is further operable to:

assign outcome based performance metrics to the one or more new capabilities and one or more new resources; and

evaluate effectiveness of the one or more new capabilities and one or more new resources to an enterprise stakeholder.

20. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the at least one component is further operable to display the hierarchical relationship between the one or more new capabilities and the one or more new resources using a graphical user interface.