Abstract:
A business enterprise is assessed by a consultant using a computer implemented tool for practicing component business modeling techniques. The tool builds a map of components, filters the map to form a heat map and identifies collaborations. Key performance indicators are evaluated.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present invention is related to application Ser. No. 12/411,781 filed Mar. 26, 2009 entitled, METHOD FOR TRANSFORMING AN ENTERPRISE BASED ON LINKAGES AMONG BUSINESS COMPONENTS, BUSINESS PROCESSES, AND SERVICES, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     The present invention is related to application Ser. No. 12/411,741 filed Mar. 26, 2009 entitled, BUSINESS ASSESSMENT METHOD, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to tools for use in assessing a business enterprise. More specifically the tool is used for assessing and implementing a business transformation within the enterprise. Even more specifically, the transformation is implemented using service oriented architecture and component business modeling techniques. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Component Business Modeling (CBM) techniques are described by Rackham is US 2005/0203784, filed Mar. 9, 2004, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Additional CBM techniques are described in US 2005/0246215, filed Jul. 8, 2005, US 2007/0027701, filed Jul. 15, 2005, US 2007/0021993, filed Jul. 23, 2005, US 2007/0038627, filed Aug. 12, 2005, US 2007/0050232, filed Aug. 26, 2005, US 2007/0162482, filed Jan. 10, 2006, US 2007/0174109, filed Mar. 8, 2007, and US 2008/0221940 filed Mar. 8, 2007. 
     Service Oriented Modeling and Architecture (SOMA) techniques are described by Ang et al in US 2008/0027784, filed Jul. 31, 2006, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Additional SOMA techniques are also described in US 2008/0126147, filed Jul. 31, 2006, and US 2008/0270201, filed Apr. 30, 2007. 
     Consulting work to perform assessments of a business enterprise for the purpose of implementing a transformation using the techniques of CBM and SOMA has become a significant effort by business services providing companies. It would therefore be a significant improvement in the art to have an assessment and implementation tool to facilitate such consulting work. 
     OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a computer implemented tool for performing a CBM or SOMA assessment of a business enterprise. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide such a tool which supports a combined CBM/SOMA assessment and further may be used in implementing a service oriented architecture (SOA) solution based on the assessment. 
     These and other objects are attained in accordance with one embodiment of the invention in which there is provided a computer implemented tool for business transformation, comprising; a computer processor, a software development kit adapted for integrating and running plug-ins, the software development kit when launched on the computer processor presenting a user with an integrated development environment having a set of available plug-ins comprising, an activities view for editing activities associated with a component, a custom attributes view for editing customer attributes on a component or competency, a connections view for viewing collaboration in a CBM map, a heat map view for displaying host maps on a CBM map, a metrics view for editing KPIs, key performance indicator, on a component or a CBM map, a plug-in containing a core metamodel, and a plug-in for creating and specifying enterprise process scenarios. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a simplified CBM map; and 
         FIG. 2  depicts a software development list for integrating and running plug-in modules. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In  FIG. 1 , there is shown a simplified example of a typical CBM map. The columns  1  are business competencies which is defined herein to mean large business areas with characteristic skills and capabilities. For example, product development or supply chain would be business competencies. The rows  2  are accountability levels also called activity levels, which characterize the scope and intent of activity and decision making. There are three accountability levels. Direct, deals with strategy, overall direction, and policy. Control, deals with monitoring, managing exceptions, and tactical decision making. Execute, deals with doing the work. Each element, e.g.  3 , within the map is a business component. For example, credit administration. A component is a part of the business enterprise that has the potential to operate independently. A business component could even be a separate company or a part of another company. 
     Construction and use of a CBM map is described by Rackham in US 2003/0203784. However, from the complexity involved, the computer implemented tool of the present invention is required to permit consultants to more easily practice the assessment steps needed in a business transformation. For example, a business component may contain several activities. Typically, a CBM map may have 300 to 700 activities in total, although actual situations vary from industry to industry, and enterprise to enterprise. 
     The term business service is used to mean some goods or services that a component offers to other components or external parties. Business services are the value provided by the components to the enterprise. In accomplishing this value, there are collaborations between components. These collaborations represent the needs of individual components to use business services from other components in the CBM map. Each of these collaborations is captured by the present invention tool as a relationship between business services existing between a given pair of components. 
     A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurement for gauging the success or performance of a component. Examples of KPIs are profit, inventory turnover, and number of patents filed. A KPI may apply to more than one component. Furthermore, a KPI may have more than one comparison value. A KPI may be compared to an industry median value for that KPI. 
     Business components provide the capability using the present tool to easily observe the enterprise through a different number of lenses by simply changing the criteria by which components are evaluated, such as financial, strategic fit, organizational, or technical. A view is a graphical visualization of an evaluation of the components based on a simple criterion or attribute. Many views may be simultaneously visible, thus component evaluations based on several criteria can be observed. A view therefore is a graphical representation of a CBM map on which components are decorated (colored, shaded, or displaying an icon) to show the results of one or more evaluations. A consultant using the present invention tool needs to choose the appropriate evaluation criteria that defines the view, and thus, such a choice is critical to determine the actual outcome of this feature. 
     Attributes are properties within components. The value of an attribute may be mapped and displayed within a component in a custom attribute view. A plug-in of the present invention generates and displays this custom attributes view. 
     A heat map in the present invention tool is also a view to visualize a composition of views. The heat map is also used to identify hot components which by definition are candidates to analyze for opportunities for improvement and innovation, depending on the selected criteria. 
     The computer implemented tool of the present invention is constructed using a software development kit (SDK) adopted for integrating and running plug-ins. More specifically, the best mode comprises a series of plug-ins written in the Java programming language. These are modeled and persisted using the facilities of the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). Eclipse is an open source platform available from International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, N.Y., and other participating companies. 
     The Eclipse Modeling Framework SDK is a platform built on a mechanism for discovering, integrating, and running plug-ins. Each separate plug-in operates on files in a workspace and surfaces its specific user interface in a workbench. When the platform is launched, a user is presented with an integrated development environment (IDE) comprising the set of available plug-ins. The platform also provides useful building blocks and frameworks that facilitate the creation of new plug-ins. 
     In  FIG. 2 , there is shown an example SDK  10  presenting an integrated development environment. The main platform  12  accepts user developed plug-ins  14 , as well as Java development tools  16 . The tool of the present invention  18  is presented with the set of available plug-ins  14 ,  16 . Other tools  20  and even other applications  22  may simultaneously utilize main platform  12 . 
     For the present invention, the plug-ins comprise an activities view, a customer attributes view, a connections view, a heat map view, a metrics view, core metamodel, and enterprises process scenarios plug-ins. These essential plug-ins permit the user to create CBM maps and perform assessments according to the CBM techniques. 
     Other optional plug-ins may also be present. For example, plug-ins for providing backward compatibility to previous file versions, exporting a CBM map to HTML, JPG, BMP, and presentation software graphics formats, exporting KPI&#39;s to a spreadsheet file, text searching capabilities, and presenting user interfaces. 
     While there have been shown and described what are at present considered the preferred embodiments of the invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.