As is the case with many of us in the Business Architecture forums, my career is firmly rooted in computer science and information technology. The first few years of my professional life found me devising algorithms, designing databases and writing code for various organizations around the Washington, D.C. beltway. It was a pleasant and satisfying endeavor, well suited to my quiet disposition. Despite the unavoidable meetings with end users –  which meetings never failed to throw a monkey-wrench into my carefully crafted programs – my projects tended to unfold without major heartaches while I dug deeper into James Martin’s Information Engineering, Barry Boehm’s Spiral Model for Software Development, and Barbara von Halle’s writings on data architecture and business rules.

“How can I get the information I need from this ocean of models? “- questioned the VP of Operations after going through the process repository built for his group. The repository had hundreds of models of different types.  They were built over months of effort from Subject Matter Experts and Process / Business Architecture practitioners. He wanted to find out

What percentage of activities are automated and manual?

Which teams use a specific application?

How many teams are involved to execute a value stream?

How many people refer to models in the repository to perform their daily duties?

At what rate are different teams building these models? Etc

The information for which the VP of Operations was asking buried was in the repository – many times in multiple models. To answer each of question, the analyst may need to spend a couple of hours to go through multiple models, generate reports, analyze and then consolidate information.