EA Articles / Reference

EA Articles / Reference

Zachman International Membership access to the articles published on John Zachman's members site.  

Real World External Objective

Stakeholder Audience
Fit for purpose isn't going to be a discussion with functional or users in many cases your only audience follows;

Board of Directors-Yes
C-Level Executives-Yes
Functional Managers-No
Users-No

Industry
All

Geographical
By geographical region
Prescribe using the "Buy Sell" boundaries to align appropriate local risk in higher controlled populations.


What?

The term Real World was introduced by a recent radio interview that has my full support; what I am passionate about ensuring exist and I get really nervous when this vital real world view isn't measurable.  

My own point of view; Keeping in mind that in no way are my post the expressed views of those acknowledged in forming this Point of View.

I've confirmed my understanding and appear to be generally correct in the way I translated the message.

Using an example of the Real World 
Item Scenario
The external market identifies a device when it has a distinct dependency on software to use the device we must consider the item software according to General Accounting Accepted Practices.  SOP 172.  This forces a series of constraints on any organization that has been a hardware company for many years. 

Think about the implications to an organizations culture in transforming this mindset from hardware to software.  It's a difficult task for anyone.  My prescription intents to minimize the effects of the management reporting or people side of performance.  With a method to consider for the Real World perspective.  

Assume that the model was done for us; Complete with design, models and scenarios.
Next step get the industry experts on board.  My first draft was reviewed and considered a win from an educators perspective.

People 
The solution I speak of has the potential to move away from the multi-million dollar initiatives we are currently driving to relieve our resource constraints and re-purpose their energy towards the legacy clean up.  Identify the many ways your company can reduce waste.  Change management will be in full force to get your company prepared.  There are decisions to make in getting your organization modeled.  You can use expensive tools or hire someone to model the process for you.  I strongly recommend performing physical observational interviews with the users who are identified in the operational applications, try to stick with the operational applications.  

Process
The process perspective has a number of ways to approach the process.  You can model the process using an application you may already own or you might want to insert a layer between your people and process using a simple middleware application.  Let's understand the dependencies;

1. People side of the process "as is" may be riddled with non-value add or fine grain responses to strong regulatory requirements inserted in 2002-currently today.  If you are like most enterprise customers; your response to the regulations was either planned to correct.  
1. The response from your "Fit for Purpose" audience will be to improve at a rate that makes sense for the different organizations.  

Real World in the clouds or to keep with a current analogy on any highway anywhere in the world; without disruption to the current have traditionally voiced in communicating the way I view the world and gaps that need to be addressed.

Technology
This subject has several key Business Services to factor and ideally converge in this Real World Solution.  Technology to relieve or reduce the people side of change using a layer to keep them comfortable and productive when or if any decommission or change needs to be made from  the users to the solution.

Security
Allows better control over records and secures the types of records a user can download to the desktop.  Enables intellectual property protection.
Allows for create read update with a publishing layer
Manages entitlement to a fine grain view only layer
Systematically allows your Active Directory to manage visibility using the organization hierarchy.

Resilience

• Allows great features for resilience when used out of the box with connectors to the platform.
• Allows a layer between the systems to close virtually then publish to ERP. 
• Allows users to function without connections for an extended period of time building their inputs until the connections are restored.
• Ensures no Data loss through less desktop transfers. 

Effort
Rapid response to requirements in some cases the process can be initiated and handed over in just 3 days for procurement into Oracle one use case was 3 days from design to hand-off with only 1 experienced business process and analyst who knew the problems and targeted eliminating the threats.

Benefits 
Impact-74 users

• Local preference with Centralized control.
• Geographical nuances by segment and region were adjusted for those regions (fit for purpose) without threats to the (Real World) 

Operations in a federated model-became more confident and less re-active to business request.

• Enabled more visibility  for the team by request and 
• Who and where the request was no longer required a scheduled meeting nor searching through emails.  
• Status by process in operations increased the teams ability to provide responses immediately. 
• The systems contact was amazed that no issues were reported after transitioning from former resource to new with less skill.  
• This may appear to have been an issue due to person; when in fact the issue was corrected by design.  
• It was too hard for me to understand with the vast experience in my tool box.
• Avoid threats with new SOX or LEGAL compliance concerns.

Transparency

• The ability to manage the pipeline was no longer in email communications. 
• Executive Visibility;
• The VP was no longer in the blind and understood the dates and people when surprises surfaced.  The VP had the summary and the option to drill down to the user.  

Simplification

• Converges numerous technologies to a common desktop service.  
• Information and Data Management immediately
• People side of change - contain bad behaviors into a single environment fewer opportunities to penetrate greater threats. 
• Allows a way to measure people and their responses to different decisions without forcing a tremendous amount of development.  
• Personalization on the fly - easy enough for an administrative assistant to support.  
• Many basic business templates to quickly enable "real world" from "fit for purpose"

Allows the business to expand from the real world without threats when site hierarchy uses the best practice approach with organization hierarchy the inputs and outputs with rights to information are managed by organization to manager.

1. Effective tools to use have proven in days you can create a layer that has established resilience with no more than something you may already have in exchange.  
1. The tool 
   
2. If not, try a tool of choice and understand the tradeoffs of any custom development.

Fit for Purpose Internal Subjective Quality

Internal Stakeholder (Customer) Expectation Setting

• How do you attain a common outside in perspective when you have a different measure of quality according to different stakeholder groups? 
• Personally, I need to have a clear understanding that the client realizes the difference between their choice and decisions made for them. 
• Then I need to be clear on the companies position around their profitability impacts to the bottom line and outcomes that people rarely connect in the current cultural models.

Motivational Factors

1. We can expect our stakeholders to have the right intentions.  
1. In my experience 95% was a rule that worked. 
2. The playing field and players are far from the way they were before the technology wave took us from stovepipe to 3 tier architectures.  
3. My perspective has changed bringing the actual good intentions to a 50% mark at best.  I'm actually being very generous in this measure.   
2. How do you know when they are thinking with there company or functional view?



The performance model converges industry to quality, tying together the architecture types with quality and fact based decision making. 

Quality or Rubber Stamp

1. The only way I am able to make this determination; once I compare or benchmark the stakeholders performance against industry standards.  
1. This would be the Performance and Quality baseline to aspire in any certified ISO organization.  
2. Only when you have a global benchmark to align the stakeholder position with a performance beyond the industry standard; will you be able to provide value.  do you have a chance to take the stakeholder from a silo to quality. 
3. When the stakeholder falls below the standard; you can see the motivation for a rubber stamp project.     
4. The most difficult part of this type of project would be that the manager would be the one promoting lower quality to mask their own preference or the survival mechanism. 
2. When does quality at a lower threshold work? 

1. The company had a solid SYSTEM scenario although your stakeholder would have benchmarked their corporate Performance Model to the industry standard.
2. If all functions were in the room and agreed with the point in time measure for quality. 

Key to overcoming these barriers;

1. Establish the performance model-Use a stakeholder matrix to record your engagement opportunities for future planning or to prevent similar projects in the future.  
1. Many executives will agree with discreet performance measures in these stakeholder groups. 
2. Seek subject matter expertise on the subject. 
2. Consider a workshop on the connections or dependencies that each audience may recognize or avoid to meet their functional requirements which are in conflict with quality practitioner commitments.   

References;

1. Predictibly Poor Data Quality 
2. Jim Harris - Data silo's versus sharing
3. My own private data

Jim Harris makes my job so much easier, he gracefully writes on subjects near and dear to my complex points of view.  

Item Design Patterns

Item Design Patterns
Most emerging or advanced technology hardware devices rely upon the IOS + features therefore the automatic defaults to no recognition until the software components are delivered.

• Hardware device - when the device sold has been structured in a transaction with another add on feature. 
• Exceptions; a case where the hardware and software have different shipment schedules.
• Assume the device isn't valued alone and requires the software in this scenario their is no value for recognition of revenue the answer is "no". 

Quality on your Offers - From a customer perspective

Item Transaction behaviors
One of the most identifiable gaps in our business and IT communications seems to be understanding the difference between setup of the master item and how the item may be sourced for application transaction records.  

Let's make a few assumptions; 

1. The sole purpose of an item intends to create an offer which the seller will supply to a              1. customer in exchange for commerce.  
1. Every customer has the same regulations that you are asked to follow; If you avoid certain rules you are not only putting your company at risk, you are putting the companies customers at risk. 
2. Your idea of quality and your customers can meet at the industry standard holding your own company and the customer equally accountable.    
1. 1. your customers in reality this goal can be reached through a converged view of fact based decision making to the industry definition.
2. The value you gain a common reference that meets everyone's ideas of the rules of engagement.  
3. Without this performance model, you have less opportunity for success in that you are playing with the functional silos and each organizations idea of quality.  
3. Think about it, if each organization has their own idea of quality in regard to your offers;
1. What does this do to your process efficiency or ability to make a profit?  

1.  You are unlikely to know the actual profit. 
2. Most companies create the items in an offer.  
1. After doing so the transactions source the information once on an opportunity.  
1. The details from the opportunity would need to transfer to a FORECAST.  
1. In solution selling; You need to acquire and forecast resources to meet the deliver by date.  
1. You lose margin by paying higher rates for last minute dive and catch or the hero approach when you are operating in silo's.  
2. The person who didn't want quality at the point when it matters most to another stakeholder.  
2. Offers have the same expectation and must be considered the "WHAT" in every transaction capability.
1. Management creates the offer
2. Transaction capabilities "how", "when", "why", and "who" regardless of the functional requirements or individual points of view in your organization.  
3. If the industry sells an offer, you never want to tell a customer something in contrast to the customers perception.  
1. You may be like most people and you could assume that you have a way to intervene when your customer escalates.  
2. You have just made an assumption that your customer has to come back to you to complain.  
3. The customer first contacts the industry standards for the ways they can officially inform watchdog groups to audit your organization.  
3. Adopt a rule that you create a performance model as the minimum quality across each function the stakeholders either non-discreet if they are comfortable with the company view in contrast to their own.  
1. Generally those who are performing beyond the performance model will be open to the comparison to a performance model  
2. Those who fall below may be a different discussion leaving a discreet view for the function that management activities are compared and justify or disputes an audit finding of non-conformance. 
4. se are your performance model- 4 fact based decision making. 
5. There are several ways a customer may become a competitors customer
1. If it cost them money in excess of the price on the order.
1. If your systems force the buyer to enter new product, software or service identifiers, every time they place an order.  
2. If you fail to honor the expectations and agreements made when the end customer and sales relationship manager had the opportunity to forecast conversation.  
1. If you always send your product and later send another order for other components.  
2. If you fail to meet the commitment date.  
1. When the end customer and sales commitment was confirmed a date and technology type with any service dollars were applied to an opportunity.  
3. No buyer wants to issue a purchase order based on a certain set of conclusions, then be forced to modify their work.  Their own quality measures get penalized for this revision.  
3. The buyer get's information about the offer and sources for the best price according to industry rules.  The buyer understands the website and industry analyst view.  
1. The quote details are typically your own company view.  
2. Your company many want to itemize every item on the quote.  
3. You are adding complexity to your process workflow.  
4. If you relieve your granular view on the fact that within each technology you have a set of sub-groups, you present the level 2 technology category and level 3 sub-groups at a summary view.  
5. This allows the children items without the effort of details that often change up to the point of a customer purchase order. 
6. reference system of record into an application.  

 

Templates when referenced by an operational application in the revenue stream allows for the systematic application of accounting codes based on the users relationship with a company code.
In Oracle this usually reflects a flex account or Chart of Accounts in Oracle and other ERP systems.

• Hardware device - recognize revenue on shipment assume the rule, however the revenue record will either exclude the option or introduce the dependency on a feature add on technology.
•  

Adjustments System Allocations

Adjustments or System Allocations

• When the identifier derives the specifics of the item, you are not using your system relationships as designed.
• When the identifier derives the logic you force your suppliers to enter new product identifiers in their systems to create a purchase order with you.  
• If the customer simply wants to renew the software they purchased from you the year before, they don't understand the logic behind creating a new product identifier.
• The decision in your system; shouldn't cause the customer to enter new items in their systems.  
• Update the value in the item template to apply the new version value in reference to new transactions.   
• When the transaction references the item in the form of an offer, you have the systemic application of cost to the appropriate revenue transaction.   

Item Offer Voice of the Customer

Voice of the Customer

• A customer measures the supplier (your organization is the customers supplier) quality or value in the effort it takes to do business with a supplier.  
• Does the supplier use basic identifiers that do not force me to change or add items to my purchasing system?  

Item Templates

Item Templates
Some people refer to these as the product family setup features. If not careful-you might end up with many items you never use. 

The process impacts are huge.  The ability to work with your suppliers; higher threats of abuse based on the obvious maturity in your business processes. 


Purpose of item templates in Real World stakeholders views
To enable item logic re-use and generic standards to meet the criteria of classification systems consistently.

Using Quantified Measurement Systems

• In volume driven organizations you will see the item described in the item identifier name or Product ID
• Think for a moment about the way you have a dollar bill
• If every-time you put the dollar in your pocket you were unable to see it except in a handful of pennies.  Every time you wanted a dollar from your pocket book or wallet a hundred pennies would be the reality for you.  
• As a result the many steps and touches become higher threats for defects.  
• Measuring and using a percentage has simply taken the dollar and broken it into 100 times the threat.  
• You had a single defect in a way you could address
• You know have a hundred that say your okay and no one will address because it's far too complex. 
• Think of the way more impacts any person in this analogy
• You have to place each penny into a piggy bank; many times I drop a few.
• You have to count each penny individually; I often get distracted and have to restart again.  
• If every penny was to be placed into 100 banks; you would have the same problem with higher effort.  
• Often people use this approach without revealing that they could have had a single defect without 100 movements into many piggy banks.  
• Many people think this approach makes sense. 

 Qualified measurement systems

• Design with the abstraction of design patterns; before performing root cause to understand the norms try not to assume that the experts have the ability to see beyond their own work flows
• Especially if they are on the receiving end of the penny scenario.  
• Understand the object design patterns; 
• Think of a pivot table; large amounts of data can become larger simply by placing data in a certain position.
• Use the pivot table to reduce the many into common patterns.
• The template isn't changing the value in the field of the template change.
• What patterns exist in technology offers?
• Apply high, medium, and low indicators to assign your external risk reporting assignment in the template of your items.  
• Try one per class based on your SEC reporting.  
• One for cost and one for revenue. 
• High
• New-High
• aka New Business Models
• aka Competitive Advantage
• aka Higher Resource Skills
• aka Higher risk
• aka not fitting in your current system
• aka intellectual property 
• aka high controls
• aka higher touches fewer outside the norm
• Medium 
• Advanced - Medium
• aka mature in market with increasing value
• aka harder to ship complete
• aka higher cost
• aka begins to shift to channels in program or a single offer special training.
• Low 
• Core/Foundation - Low

 In closing let's see how this template applied to our items in an offer translates into our highway analogy.  

• High - Slow lane on the highway
• Medium - Middle lane on the highway
• Low-fast lane or commuter lane with partners

Any organization anywhere in the world.  

Atomic Items

Atomic Items

In most ERP systems you will have the setup of the items, in the item master.

• An atomic item has value if the item can be sold and the item has been factored in one of the organizations current markets.   
• The item must be considered a value for a customer party and generic items are resold through your channels models.  
• Test the validity of the item as an ala carte item when the channel partners may be qualified to sell or have been trained and certified to sell an atomic item.  

Applied Item Template

• Assigns the revenue treatment defaults
• Applies the rule for use in transactions as the reference information based on the point in time of the transaction record. 

Generic Object Types

Test

• Can you find value in a power cord without the device?  
• Can you use the cables on an existing device when built for a specific device family?  

Universal or Generic Objects

• Objects are typically known as hard bundles or unstructured items-the items cannot be unstructured.  
• Objects should default the power and communication requirements based on the end country mapped to the location code segment 2 in many financial management capabilities.  
• Objects are considered unstructured items, they cannot be decomposed from a device with an intent to have value. 
• Objects are not revenue generating types and therefore have no value in the item master.  
• Objects are defaults on the BOM of the device.  
• Objects are not going to influence the pricing on an offer when a single price is used for the presentation of a system or bundle.   
• Objects never change the margin calculation on the system or bundles.  

Object Parts

• Maintenance contract items are not in the item master.
• Objects may be sold as a parts in maintenance contract models. 

Example Hardware Objects

• Power cords, cables and similar universal with local requirements 
• Objects are included in the price of a device.

Example Software Objects

• Objects are a fundamental part of the use of a device, internal operating software (IOS) of the type without any features.  
• A license for the IOS download capability isn't an actual paper or product for a shipment to receive into inventory, rather the HOW an entitled user acquires the software systematically.  
• Objects of the IOS types are NOT add on features rather the basic software allowing the device to register a warranty and allow connectivity with other devices.