Martin Henkel

Capability Driven Development - an Approach to Support Evolving Organizations

The need for organizations to operate in changing environments is addressed by proposing an approach that integrates organizational development with information system (IS) development taking into account changes in the application context of the solution – Capability Driven Development (CDD). A meta-model for representing business and IS designs consisting of goals, key performance indicators, capabilities, context and capability delivery patterns, is been proposed. The use of the meta-model is exemplified by a case from the energy efficiency domain. A number of issues related to use of the CDD approach, namely, capability delivery application, CDD methodology, and tool support also are discussed.

Modeling business capabilities and context dependent delivery by cloud services

Contemporary business environments are changing rapidly, organizations are global, and cloud-based services have become a norm. Enterprises operating in these conditions need to have the capability to deliver their business in a variety of business contexts. Capability delivery thus has to be monitored and adjusted. Current Enterprise Modeling approaches do not address context-dependent capability design and do not explicitly support runtime adjustments. To address this challenge, a capability-driven approach is proposed to model business capabilities by using EM techniques, and to use model-based patterns to describe how software applications can adhere to changes in the execution context. A meta-model for capability design and delivery is presented with the consideration to delivering solutions as cloud services. The proposal is illustrated with an example case from an energy efficiency project. A supporting architecture for the capability development and the delivery in the cloud is also presented.

Service-based processes: design for business and technology

Composition of software services is a fundamental part in supporting enterprise business processes. Designed properly, executable processes can be used to closely support business processes by the integration of existing software services. In order to support business processes the design of the executable process must closely follow the business events and activities, as perceived by business actors. However, the design must also consider technical issues such as limitations in existing technology and systs. In this paper we examine how technical syst constraints influence the realization of business processes. Based on this examination we present a set of realization types that describes the transformation from a business process into its realization as an executable process. We also propose design criteria that need to be adhered to in order to cater to both business and technical needs.

Value and Goal Driven Design of E-Services

E-services are used as the cornerstones for modeling interaction points of cooperating IT systems, within and between enterprises. So far, research and development of e-services have mainly focused on an operational perspective, such as the development of standards for message exchanges and service coordination. However, on a strategic level, the success of e-services depends on its ability to work as a catalyst for the business values that are being exchanged. In this paper, we present an approach that utilize value and goal models as the foundation for designing e-services. The approach can be used to strategically ensure that the developed e-services support the desired business values for involved actors. A case study from the Swedish health sector is used to ground and apply the presented approach.

Capability-Based Business Model Transformation

Any organization in subject of changes in the environment, or having the desire to improve, needs to change their processes, personnel and their use of resources. Changes, may they be called for by external threats or opportunities or internal strengths or weaknesses, take their departure in an organizations existing capabilities. To support change, there is thus a fundamental need to understand and analyse an organizations capabilities in order to perform changes. In this paper we present an approach to support organizational change by the use of a capability based recursive analysis, and a set of improvement patterns. The recursive analysis is based on resource types, and capability sub-types. We illustrate the approach by using several examples taken from the industry.

An Approach for E-Service Design using Enterprise Models

Organisations demand new business models for value creation and innovation that require collaboration with customers and vendors in agile and flexible networks. To realise such networks, organisations are embracing service oriented models and architectures using e-services for business communication. A major issue for a service oriented organisation is to design and offer e-services that are adapted to the needs, wants, and requirements of customers and vendors. This is a challenging task as different customer groups and vendors will have different requirements, which may vary over time, resulting in a large number of e-services. In this paper, the authors suggest enterprise models as being adequate instruments for design and maintenance of e-services. More specifically; an approach for designing e-services based on value and goal models, which will ensure that the constructed e-services will satisfy the needs and wants of customers. A project from the Swedish health care sector is used to demonstrate and evaluate the proposed approach.

Strategies for Capability Modelling: Analysis Based on Initial Experiences

Competitiveness and growth on an international market is for many businesses tightly coupled to their ability of quickly implementing new company strategies, business services and products or market entries. Capability management is among the approaches proposed to tackle these challenges. A feature is capturing the context of capability delivery and providing mechanisms for configuring the delivery. Among the work on capability management is the capability-driven design and delivery (CDD) approach that has been proposed by the EU-FP7 project CaaS. The aim of this paper is to contribute to CDD by (i) introducing different strategies for capability modelling, (ii) elaborating on the differences between these strategies, and (iii) contributing to an understanding of what strategy should be used under what preconditions. The paper addresses these aspects by describing the strategies and initial experiences gathered with them.

Pondering on the Key Functionality of Model Driven Development Tools: The Case of Mendix

Model Driven Architectures and Model Driven Development (MDD) have been used in information system (IS) development projects for almost a decade. While the methodological support for the MDD process is important, the success of a project taking the model driven approach to development also heavily depends on the tool. The tool simply needs to support a set of key functionalities, such as an appropriate level of model abstraction, the refinement of models and finally the execution of models. In this paper we analyze a new MDD tool, namely Mendix, with respect to a number of functionality areas needed to achieve success in a project and capitalize on the benefits of MDD. Our findings are that Mendix use a well selected set of models and that these models are well integrated and suitable for the construction of small systems. Based on the key functionality areas we also point out the weaknesses of the tool.

Combining Tools to Design and Develop Software Support for Capabilities

Analyzing, designing and implementing software systems based on the concept of capabilities have several benefits, such as the ability to design efficient monitoring of capabilities and their execution context. Today, there exist new model-driven methods and development tools that support capability-based analysis, design, and implementation. However, there are also a plethora of existing efficient development tools that are currently in use by organizations. In this article, we examine how a new set of capability based tools, the Capability Driven Development (CDD) environment, can be combined with model-driven development tools to leverage both novel capability-based functionality and the proven functionality of existing tools. We base the examination on a case study where an existing model-driven tool is combined with the CDD environment.

Supporting Evolving Organizations: IS Development Methodology Goals

Organizations operate in increasingly dynamic and diverse environments. This leads to high variability within the organization, and the necessity to create context-aware information systems. As a part of these systems, context and business process metrics need to be monitored and acted upon. Capability Driven Development (CDD) addresses these challenges and integrates organizational development with IS (Information System) development. This paper integrates results from an industry survey and three industrial cases to define the key methodology goals for CDD.