Home > Services > IT Consulting > Business Modeling

 SERVICES
Is it time to re-think your business processes?

Get the benefits of Business Modeling?

Document and comprehend business process complexity
 
Make it easier for analysts, IT professionals, managers and users to communicate
 
Ensure that stakeholders have a common understanding of the business processes of the organisation
 
Derive better business requirements for new IT systems
 
Identify areas that need improvement
 
Prioritise business requirements


Services include:

  • Start-up meeting to establish the Business Case and undertake Risk Management Analysis
  • Define business vision
  • As-is Business Use Case Model - modeling of current business process
  • To-be Business Use Model - what the future business process will do
  • Functional specifications, detailing user requirements
  • Application architecture describing new software architecture
  • Technical architecture describing the new hardware and infrastructure environment
  • Cost estimations of new software solution

Business Modeling 
RUP Business Modeling Methodology

Business Modeling is  set of activities whose goal is to help one visualise and understand business processes.  Models are helpful in documenting and comprehending complexity. They make communication easier. 

A company will model a business, 

  1. In order to re-think/or re-engineer how the business operates and interacts with the outside world. 

  2. In order to improve/streamline a business process.

  3. In order to automate a business process i.e. implement a new software solution. 

A company will use Business Modeling when selecting a  Commercial-off-the-self (COTS)  software solution to

  1. Ensure shareholders have a common understanding of the structure and the processes of the organisation.

  2. Understand current problems in the organisation and identify improvement potentials.

  3. Derive better system requirements, so that the information system actually fits in the organisation. 

The methodology Ithaki Consulting uses for the business requirements definition is the IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP), which is based on Visual Business Modeling using  Unified Modeling Language (UML).  RUP is a leading methodology that can be equally employed in projects of Business Process Improvement (BPI), Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), implementing COTS software packages or as a software engineering process.  Its goal is to ensure the implementation of high quality software that meets the needs of end-users within a predictable schedule and budget. 

UML is an open, de facto standard, visual modeling notation for the analysis and design of software systems.  It is specified by the Object Management Group (OMG) to which most of the well-known computer software companies belong.  

The diagram below shows the overall architecture of RUP:

 

The horizontal axis represents time and shows the lifecycle aspects of the process as it unfolds.  The vertical axis represents disciplines, which group activities logically b nature.

The RUP has two dimensions:

  1. The first dimension represents the dynamic aspect of the process as it is enacted, and it is expressed in terms of phases, iterations and milestones.

  2. The second dimension represents that static aspect of the process: how it is described in terms of process components, disciplines, activities, workflows, artefacts and roles. 

RUP is an iterative methodology and is very different to other methodologies of the waterfall model type.  Deliverables under RUP are not completed on the first processing.  Some activities initially happen at a high level and superficially, and whilst the phases of the project are developing these are further analysed and documented as the workgroup deliberates more on the specific deliverable, since during the course of the project the requirements are crystallised and discovered better. 

The deliverables from the requirements analysis using RUP are artifacts, which include documents as well as models.  

 Funding Consulting
 IT Consulting
 Project Management
Business Modeling
IT Solution Advisory Services
IT Effectiveness Assessment
 Management Consulting
 Project Management
Employee Handbook
e-policy
Red Teaming
 Business Development
 Training