Enterprise Analysis: An Introduction To Evaluating Your Organization

As a business or enterprise develops, it evolves to meet the needs and objectives of its founders. As time goes by, it can grow so large that it becomes overburdened by too many products, too many divisions, too many management levels, or a multitude of other problems. Enterprise analysis is a method used by a Business Analyst to identify and define why an organizational change is needed.

Enterprise analysis by a Business Analyst (BA) is a method used to identify and define why an organizational change is needed. In order to learn what is going on, the BA cannot do better than to keep in mind the four rules provided in Rene Decartes' Discourse on the Method (the "true method of arriving at a knowledge of all things of which my mind was capable").

Rule 1: Method of Systematic Doubt: accept nothing as true unless clearly recognized as such
Rule 2: Analysis: to solve problems systematically by analyzing them part by part
Rule 3: Synthesis: to proceed from the simple (seed) to the complex
Rule 4: Avoidance of Deductive Error: to review everything thoroughly to ensure that nothing is omitted

While enterprise analysis is generally considered the responsibility of upper-level management, quite often these busy executives lack the time and specific skills to properly address these problems or opportunities. The BA, therefore, can play an important role by bringing the requisite analysis skills necessary to achieve an optimum solution. To accomplish these challenging objectives, the BA will:

Identify the Enterprise Architecture
Conduct feasibility studies
Establish the project scope
Conduct the initial risk assessment
Prepare the decision proposal
Implement and run the project, following approval

"When people understand the vision and larger tasks of their enterprise, and are given the right information, resources and responsibilities, they will 'do the right thing!'"

W. C. Hansen, The Integrated Enterprise

Because organizations evolve to meet the challenges they face, they tend to deviate from their most effective structure. The first step is often a project in itself--identifying and evaluating the relationship of the organization's architectural structure.

According to the Zachman Framework, an enterprise's architecture is composed of six simple concepts divided by six perspectives.

The Six Overall Concepts are:

Motivation: Why are you in business?
Time: When do you want things to happen?
People: Who will help you get things done?
Network: Where will you work?
Function: How will you perform the work?
Data: What information do you need to operate?

The Six Perspectives are composed of different viewpoints of the architecture at different levels, from the top down.

Business Scope: (contextual) Executives
Business Model: (conceptual) Business Analysts
System Model: (logical) Systems Analysts
Technology Model: (physical) Architect
Technology Definition: Developer
Information Systems: Machine View

To effectively analyze the enterprise, a number of modeling techniques may be used to depict the architectures. It would be unusual for all of these techniques to be used, but the complexity of some organizations is such that a clear understanding of their architecture might require the use of more than one technique.

Context Structure Models: Depict the entities involved in the business, showing their relationships and other important information about them.
Usage Models: Depict the activities or processes in the business and the actors that are involved in each.
Data Behavior Models: Depict the attributes of the objects or entities defined in the context structure models.
Process Flow Models: Depict flow of activities and business processes in an organization.

That is the broad outline of what you need to look for and some of the techniques you'll use to identify the enterprise architecture.

Before Enterprise Analysis can begin, a feasibility study (another mini-project all by itself) must take place to determine the requirements for the study--just what is the study trying to learn?

Once requirements are identified and the approach is planned, the first step of a feasibility study is to put people's ideas about the process being studied to the test. A variety of techniques may be used, depending on the nature of the problem or the potential business opportunity. The object of this activity is to eliminate subjective views of the opportunity or process and provide unbiased data.

It is most likely a variety of possible solutions may be identified as appropriate. Each and every potential solution identified must be examined and tested for feasibility. Again, a variety of techniques may be employed, depending on the details of the potential solutions and the business processes involved. By producing data that compares potential solutions to each other, the optimal solution can be selected.

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