Working on a Virtual Project

[omar.m]

Hello every body,

I have a suggestion:

Create a virtual company with some business.

And make an EA analys by filling all stapes and documents template.

This analys should deploy some EA framework.

What do you think about this idea?

[Jarvis]

Hello every body,

I have a suggestion:

Create a virtual company with some business.

And make an EA analys by filling all stapes and documents template.

This analys should deploy some EA framework.

What do you think about this idea?

Omar,

Another interesting idea from you! A few questions here:

- Is this going to be a new or existing virtual business?
- Which industry this business is going to be in?
- Who is going to play the different roles (e.g. CxOs, Business Users, IT Managers)?
- Who is going to make the decision in this mock exercise?
- What is the scope of this exercise? How far we're going to develop the EA process, document, and structure for this virtual business?

[omar.m]

Thank you Jarvis,

We will respond to all this good questions together.

1- Is this going to be a new or existing virtual business?
I think an existing business simplified would be better, let's see about our experiences, I work for a telecom operator as Enterprise Architect, I can provide the community with the most interesting informations about the telecom business.
2- Which industry this business is going to be in?
I propose telecom industry, do you have another proposition?
3- Who is going to play the different roles (e.g. CxOs, Business Users, IT Managers)?
No one, the stakeholders are also virtual
4- Who is going to make the decision in this mock exercise?
We will do it together
5- What is the scope of this exercise? How far we're going to develop the EA process, document, and structure for this virtual business?
The definition of the scope is a part of the EA work.

I propose to work with a framework like TOGAF, what do you think ?

Please Jarvis, give me your suggestions.

[Jarvis]

Hi Omar,

Please see below:

1- Is this going to be a new or existing virtual business?
I think an existing business simplified would be better, let's see about our experiences, I work for a telecom operator as Enterprise Architect, I can provide the community with the most interesting informations about the telecom business.
==> I worked in Finance/Insurance and IT sectors, but we can surely start this with the Telecom first.

2- Which industry this business is going to be in?
I propose telecom industry, do you have another proposition?
==> Yes, let's start with Telecom. Let's see how this goes. We can give this a test run and then we can organize this type of study/exercise as contest. When we get more members to join, we can even make it into virtual teams and I'll get sponsors to help with the prizes and awards. But let's give this a try first

3- Who is going to play the different roles (e.g. CxOs, Business Users, IT Managers)?
No one, the stakeholders are also virtual
==> OK, all virtual!

4- Who is going to make the decision in this mock exercise?
We will do it together
==> Isn't it the perfect world that we can make all the decisions?

5- What is the scope of this exercise? How far we're going to develop the EA process, document, and structure for this virtual business?
The definition of the scope is a part of the EA work.
==> Agree

I propose to work with a framework like TOGAF, what do you think ?
==> We have to start somewhere, TOGAF is definitely a good one to use.

So, sounds like we just need to start defining the next step in this Virtual Project. Could you start with the overall description of this Virtual Telecom Business? Please keep everything virtual and don't disclosure any sensitive or proprietary information.

Let's get this fun project started!

[omar.m]

So, sounds like we just need to start defining the next step in this Virtual Project. Could you start with the overall description of this Virtual Telecom Business? Please keep everything virtual and don't disclosure any sensitive or proprietary information.

Let's get this fun project started!

Hi every body,

Let's go, it will be fun

I maked a simple and brief diagram to present the Virtual Telecom Operator (VTO) business:

Nouvelle image.jpg

I tried to make it most simple in order to facilitate the analys.

Now I need your questions.

If you want to discover more the Telecom business, we can take a look together to the eTOM chart decribing the value chain of Telecom business available here : http://www.amdocs.com/posters/eTOM6.pdf

Otherwise we can start the Architecture work by defining objectives, the scope and the approch of Architecture activity.

After that we can work on the metamodel.

Every body who want to participate in this project is welcome.

Omar

[Jarvis]

Omar,

The is going to be fun. I love the eTOM chart. Very detail and nicely layout the intra-dependency. Sorry for my lack of knowledge in the Telecom area, but is this some sort of Telecom standard/framework or this is just what your company follow?

Now back to this virtual project. I have the following questions about this virtual telecom company:

1) What is the size of this company in terms of:
1.1) Capital
1.2) Market share
1.3) Head count
1.4) Geographical distribution

2) What is the business pain points?

3) What is the current IT and Business working relationship?

4) What is the short, mid and long term plans for this company?

5) What is the culture of this company? Open for new ideas or hard to break out old habits?

6) Are there any established EA?

Let's start with these questions first Back to you Omar!

[omar.m]

Hi Jarvis,

I think at the end of the project, we will create our real Telecom company

The eTOM is the best telecom standard, every telecom provider has his own organization, but it's frequently similar on some areas.

The problem with telecom business is that we are selling services not products, it's a virtual products, and it depends a lot on IT and it's difficult to measure the quality of services.

To answer you, I prefer to put this on a document that we can complete together

I will send you this document early

But let's responde here now:

1) What is the size of this company in terms of:
1.1) Capital
->1 billion $
1.2) Market share
->30%
1.3) Head count
->1000 employee
1.4) Geographical distribution
->I will put this on diagram

2) What is the business pain points?
->Our clients are not satisfied with the speed of some operations like activations, service problem management, we have also an old applications which persist to change and to evolution, we are facing to integration and interoperability problems
When we need a large view of the system we don't find informations in one place, every manager has his one documentation, and there is no information sharing system between them. We have some applications that are not used, some projects that are waiting
2 years to be launched, and IT projects managers are isolated in their projects, some time they are working in some modules, we are wasting big budget.

3) What is the current IT and Business working relationship?
->All new services are designed by business teams, after that they transfer their IT needs to the information system direction, a new project is started in order to respond to this need, the manager will choose the solution provider and make functional tests with business team. We don't have any IT standards, so every application has his own architecture and communication protocols.

4) What is the short, mid and long term plans for this company?
->short term plan: correct anomalies in the system
->mid term plan: implement business needs, and launch waiting projects
->long term plan: improve the speed of service execution and produce more service more quickly.

5) What is the culture of this company? Open for new ideas or hard to break out old habits?
->The company has an open culture to innovation, but the organization is stopping it, project managers don't collaborate and service development process takes a lot of time

6) Are there any established EA?
->No EA established yet

Thank you for your questions Jarvis

Omar

[Jarvis]

Omar,

I want to wait and see your diagram and document first. As there are still many gaps that I feel is missing for me to understand the overall business. At this point, I think I have a general idea about this virtual telecom company. But I don't think I know the detail enough to start putting things and thoughts together yet.

[omar.m]

Jarvis,

It's the some problem with this industry, no one have a clear understanding of the business

Every body is responsible of his work only, you have to ask the good questions and to link every domain with others if you want to understand the business

You can perceive this diffuculty in the eTOM chart!

[Jarvis]

Jarvis,

It's the some problem with this industry, no one have a clear understanding of the business

Every body is responsible of his work only, you have to ask the good questions and to link every domain with others if you want to understand the business

You can perceive this diffuculty in the eTOM chart!

So for the purpose of this virtual project, can you help us to simplify this industry so that we have a clear scope to work with?