Why Model Enterprise Activity?
Because business modeling helps you:
• Explain how your enterprise operates.
• Consider changes in the organization.
• Define IT requirements.
• Identify the risks linked to the enterprise processes.
• Specify collaborations with partners.
Explaining how your enterprise operates
There are three situations in which an explanatory diagram of processes implemented in an enterprise can enable better understanding of its operation:
• When a person is hired.
• When a person’s duties change.
• When instructions are not fully understood.
The standard organizational chart provides you with only an overview showing the organizational unit hierarchy, without explaining how the enterprise functions. A process diagram helps you better understand how your enterprise operates.
Considering changes in the organization
Management must improve processes in an enterprise in order to eliminate weaknesses. Management can go further by transforming certain processes so that they become key competitive advantages for the enterprise.
Formally defining processes is a way to highlight those areas needing improvement.
Defining IT requirements
Business process description can be supplemented with IT means required, functionalities to be implemented, applications or application services used.
• The functionalities (which may or may not be IT) required to execute each operation.
• Applications used
• Other material or human resources required to carry out the process.
Identify the risks linked to the enterprise processes
The description of processes can be completed with the risks identified at each step of these processes or with IT resources or other equipment or human resources that they need.
Specifying interactions with partners
Interactions with partners of the enterprise should be precisely defined to enable automation of exchanges between the business processes of the enterprise and those of its partners as part of an e-business or EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) project.