Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
full depth of requirements requires a
decomposition of explicit requirements
to yield the implicit ones. Following
the principle of divide and conquer,
the IA architect examines requirements
in terms of process (business), system
(technical), and compliance (business
and technical), and decomposes each requirement to finer granularity to the point
of having business meaning in an enterprise context. Following are descriptions of
business process decomposition, systemic decomposition, and compliance require-
ment decomposition.
D1
i
D2
i
Domain 1
Domain 2
Figure 6.2
Domains and domain
interfaces.
6.4.1
Business Process Decomposition
Business process decomposition begins with identifying the workflows (see the
Enterprise Context Framework in chapter 11). Workflows consist of procedures
(formal statements of processes), which in turn consist of tasks. People (actors) or
technologies (entities) perform tasks (actions). Collections of actors, entities, and
actions comprise a domain. The interaction of actors, entities, and actions (domains)
is the enterprise dynamics.
Many people in the organization will think they know what the business driv-
ers are and often look askance at the person who seeks clarification. Much time
and money have been spent developing solutions to the wrong problem because
everyone understood what the business drivers were (or rather everyone understood
what the business drivers were supposed to be). Business process decomposition will
often illuminate what the internal business drivers really are and help to articulate
the real problem and how to address that problem (see appendix I for more on
problem definition).
Figure 6.2 shows two domains (domain 1 and domain 2) and interaction by
way of their respective interfaces (D1i
i
and D2
i
). The IA architect identifies each
domain, domain interactions, domain interfaces through which they interact,
domain activities (tasks), and domain products (the end result of the domain activ-
ity) with respect to each of the IA core principles. The IA architect asks the follow-
ing questions at each step:
n
What are the business risks? Technical risks? People risks? Mission integrity
risks? What are the possibilities of loss or injury to the organization?
Identify, enumerate (list), and articulate (describe) each risk.
How should the organization address these risks?
Accept
Ignore
Share
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