One of the major errors analysts make in business analysis is that of starting with modeling the “As Is” processes. This approach is hugely wasteful of time, money and peoples’ goodwill and delivers no real benefit. Most modeling projects run in this way take so long to deliver the promised results that they fail.

If the business is not currently doing what it ought to be doing in the way that it ought to be doing it, then modeling it is about as useful as modeling what it was doing last week, last month or last year.

And what have you got at the end? A detailed model of what the business OUGHT NOT be doing!

All good business analysis starts by modeling WHAT the business OUGHT to be doing. This is the only model that is of any value.

Sadly, I have actually heard many analysts actually say out loud that this cannot be done. When they make this statement they are actually saying “Nobody in this business knows what they ought to be doing”! If this is the case the business may as well shut up shop.

Good analysts find the key senior executives in the business - going to director level if necessary - who know what ought to be done, interview them and the then build a series or really powerful models that can take the business to where it ought to be - at an accelerated pace.

The “As Is” and “To Be” approach is a very bad practice that was introduced by large consultancies who got paid large fees for producing models. The more models they produced, the more money they got paid! So, instead of developing one effective “Ought to be” model, they developed three models – only one of which would be of any use – the “As Is”, the “To Be” an then the migration model from the “As Is” to the “To Be”.

It was these same consultancies who introduced the flawed approach of modeling business processes instead of business functions. Why? Because it required far more (up to 300% more) modeling time for which they got paid.

Its time for the industry to drop these bad habits.

These faults can be overcome by modeling business functions rather than business processes. The act of identifying business functions identifies by default what OUGHT to be happening in the business.

Decomposing functions rather than processes also results in 300% fewer diagrams being produced.

The Integrated Modeling Method enables you to achieve accelerated results by placing the Function Catalogue at the core of all other models.

John Owens
john@ integrated-modeling-method.com
Http://www.integrated-modeling-method.com