Blog Archives
Building on the Business Motivation Model
One of my favourite standards from the Object Management Group (OMG) is the Business Motivation Model (BMM). I believe that this standard is crucial to be incorporated into frameworks for extracting value from IT-enabled investments because it shows what and how a business goes about achieving its aims. Nick Malik, one of Microsoft’s Enterprise Architects, has provided some very interesting commentary on the shortfalls of the Business Motivation Model that he has identified while undertaking some projects for Microsoft.
Malik has made some good observations on the shortcomings of the BMM, which he admits he doesn’t have all the answers to remedy. Those concerns are:
- Bizzarre Assumptions
- The choice of SWOT as inappropriate
- Incompleteness for large enterprises
Malik’s analysis is available on his blog.
Constructing rigorous strategic and business plans using the Business Motivation Model (BMM)
It's often confusing when you pick up a shiny new business plan or the next edition of your organisation's business plan. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be any structure. What do they mean by the term mission and vision and is there any distinction? While it depends upon the invidual business or for an operational plan, the business unit as to whether there is a clear taxonomy, there has been some work by people to provide clarity for organisations that are documenting their intent.
The Business Motivation Model was originally produced by the Business Rules Group, but was subsequently adopted and standardised by the Object Management Group. It provides a taxonomy that is mostly grouped around two broad concepts: ends and means. Ends are the outcomes you are aiming for. The means are the behaviours you will undertake to achieve those outcomes. Ends and means are grouped in a heirarchy with the vision and the mission being the broadest category. A vision is an end and a mission is a means for making it reality.
A Vision is the ultimate, possibly unattainable, state the enterprise would like to achieve. A Vision is often compound,
rather than focused toward one particular aspect of the business problem.
In contrast a mission should be broad, but focused on concrete action that will achieve the vision.
A Mission statement should consist of the following three items only and should be formed using brief statements of
them.
1. An action part (for example, “provide” )
2. A product or service part (for example, “pizzas”)
3. A market or customer part (for example, “customers city-wide”)
