Re: Business Mapping

[john.mostert@tyrastrategies.com]

"Natural Living Systems?  If you think about how people get things done 
together what do we do naturally to get stuff done?  Do the ways we map 
processes or systems of processes show the natural way that people interact 
to make action occur?  I don't think they do.  Most mapping conventions 
depict our processes as flows of things and data.  Even the depictions of the 
tasks that people perform appear as things.  When we interact naturally to 
get stuff done together we don't simply do tasks like machines - we have 
conversations that result in action.  The general topics of our conversations 
for action are our conditions of satisfaction.  The flow diagrams, business 
maps, deployment flowcharts, data flow diagrams, etc., that are used in our 
profession of management are deeply rooted in the machine model - input, 
process, output.  Fine for machines, but not fine for people."

I agree!

Most modeling approachs depict "processes of things and data". A more useful approach is "context Modeling", a process that does not consider the sequencing of information. We will be better served if we gather and organize information in "context" i.e. Functionality required should be related to "Business Drivers" and "User Needs". This provides us with a better way to communicate WHY we need a specific element of functionality. We also require a mechanism that allows to determine WHO else requres this same functionality and relate this to their specific needs. I have used this technique very succesfully in simple procedure audits. For example a data input form requires specific input data. I can relate this to WHO must provide this info, WHAT activities require this information, WHAT output reports contain this info, and WHO requires this report.


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