**Figure**: The Enterprise Design Facet Model.

Enterprise Design covers all that is meaningful for understanding the enterprise as a whole. It is a holistic approach to designing better enterprises.

Business Design. Business is what an enterprise is doing. Quite typically the business is all about providing products and/or services to customers that are valued – or might be valued in the future. An understanding of what customers value is the starting point. That is the customer insight, which relates to the experience of people and what role the enterprise plays in people’s lives. This relates to the identity of the enterprise, explaining why it is meaningful for people, and how the enterprise is running its business operations with its architecture.

The Enterprise Design Facet Model provides an approach for overall business design. The Facet Model can be used for designing and describing what is the business all about in which an enterprise operates. The Enterprise Design and the EDGY language can be used for designing what the enterprise is doing, how it is doing and why. All the facets (Identity, Experience, Architecture) and their intersections (Brand, Product, Oragnisation) together form the business of the enterprise. Business is at the heart of the Facet Model as shown in the figure beside.

When we are designing & developing the business, we are covering all these facets and their intersections. And vice versa, when concerning any of these facets or intersections, we are designing the enterprise’s business.

What is a business all about?

1) A business refers to an enterprising entity or an organisation comprising people who strive together to achieve common goals, in terms of identity and its promises, engaged in commercial, industrial, public, or professional activities. Some businesses are for-profit while some are non-profit, and some are fulfilling a charitable mission or furthering a social cause. These promises explain why an enterprise exists in the particular business and why it does what it does. This aspect motivates and inspires people.

2) A business run operations producing products (items, goods) or offering services, to make them available to customers (consumers, business actors etc.). This aspect covers the structure and behavior explaining how an enterprise is running its operations of the business.

3) A business is focused on meeting the particular needs of people. This aspect covers what are the needs of people that an enterprise aims to serve, fulfill and support.

These fundaments of business can be turned into the core elements of the Facet Model, Purpose, Task and Capability. Purpose defines what people believe in and strive for, Task defines what people want to achieve and get done, and Capability defines what we can do. [3] These are the outcome elements[1] of the facets (of the Enterprise Design Facet Model). Business design can be simplified with these outcome elements. Those represent the outcome-driven view of the enterprise.

Focusing on these outcome elements when designing a business, we are:

a) describing the identity of the enterprise in terms of the purpose, which reflects the promises that we have stated in the form of stories and content – via the brand,

b) defining the architecture that is comprised of capabilities as composable business components, with which the business operations are enabled, and executed by the processes and supported by the assets and employees of the organisation, and

c) effecting on experience in terms of tasks, that represent the needs of the customers, is the result of how customers’ tasks are fulfilled in their journeys when they interact via channels with the products and/or services of the enterprise.

Business value can be created by delivering customer value on the promises of the enterprise. This simplification of the business fundamentals clarifies how the Facet Model and its core elements, the outcomes, can be used for analysing and modeling the basic essence of business.

The purpose of the business is to provide goods (products and/or services) to customers, to fulfill their needs. The figure beside illustrates how business capabilities deliver value on enterprise’s promises according to customer’s needs.

Business basics. Customers have task(s) to do, which are served by the products and/or services that are produced by the capabilities of the organization, which have a clear purpose that is made visible to customers via brand.

Figure: Business basics.

The purpose of the business is to provide goods to customers, to fulfill their needs.

Business Core. Business operations, the actual operational business, is defined by the business architecture, which defines how are we running our business, how are we producing our products and services to support customers in accomplishing their tasks in their journeys. Capabilities represent composable business components, with which the products and/or services are produced. Capabilities combine behavior and structure that belong together.

Business design from the organization perspective, is covered by the elements shown in the high-level simplification beside. Customers use products and or services, that are produced by the capabilities of the organization.

Products and/or services are what is provided to customers.
Capabilities represent the core of the business: what is required for creating products and/services, and what is needed for executing the business in which the enterprise operates.
Organisation can be e.g. the whole enterprise, or some of its parts such as business unit, group or team.
Employees belong to organisation structures, and they are acting in capabilities.

Capabilities represent the core of the business operations.

Capabilities are the basic building blocks of the business, the business DNA, Capabilities are composable business components from which the business is made of. Capabilities ‘compose together what belongs together’, e.g. processes and assets. To be more precise, capabilities are realized by processes that require assets (such as applications, data, technologies, devices or facilities etc.). Capabilities cover both business and IT aspects. Capabilities combine certain people, processes and assets together, that are required so that the enterprise can do what it needs to do according to its purpose.

Figure: Capability is a composition of people, processes and assets.

Capabilities are composable business components from which the business is made.

Simplification of the business fundamentals:

Customers are served by the products and/or services
Products and/or services require the capabilities of the organisation
Capabilities are realised by the assets (and processes of the organisation)

**Figure**: Business is based on the following elements: organisation makes products/services with its capabilities that require assets.

Architecture in this context, refers to business architecture, to enterprise’s operations: how everything works, how the business runs in processes etc.

Note! The ‘real’ construction architecture of designing buildings is not the main focus area here, but it can be covered with the Enterprise Design approach and the EDGY Facet Model. The real estate, facility properties and assets are parts of the ‘architecture’ facet of the Facet Model. These elements of enterprise can be modelled with the Asset-element of EDGY. The EDGY Facet Model is flexible and expressive enough so that it can be used in all the use cases of when designing an enterprise. The Asset-element of the Architecture facet can be used for modelling any tangible or intangible object or resource or artifact in and around the enterprise, e.g. device, equipment, tool, instrument, switch, component, communication network, construction, building, location, electric system, lighting, heating-, plumbing- and air-conditioning (HPAC) systems, drains, software, hardware, applications, data etc.

Business Architecture refers to the enterprise’s operations, and how the enterprise is running its business. As such, the architecture as a concept, in this context, primarily covers aspects that are related to the business fundaments: people, processes and assets in conjunction, as a coherent whole of interconnected behavior and structure. Business architecture covers all that is relevant to run a business: people, processes and assets are composed of capabilities, which are performed by organisation structures and produce products and/or services to the customers. In contrast, to put it simply, the IT- architecture, in turn, focuses on applications and technologies only, whereas the business architecture covers all that is meaningful from the business perspective.

Business architecture covers all that is relevant to running a business.

The EDGY facet model shown below.

Experience Facet

Customer Perspective

Business design from the customer perspective covers elements as shown in the simplification below.

Figure: Customer experiences the Enterprise.

A customer has task(s) to do that are served by the products and/or services, which are produced by the capabilities of an organisation. A customer traverses a journey (of several steps), that represents what a customer experiences while doing task(s). The customer becomes aware of products and/or services with the help of the brand of the organisation. The customer contacts the products and/or services via channels, the touchpoints.

Customers access journey steps (stages, phases) via channels when they perform their tasks. Tasks are served by the products and/or services (offerings) that require certain capabilities from the organisation.

**Figure**: Business fundamentals from the Customer’s point of view.

Business value is created based on customer value, which occurs when the customer benefits from the products or services of the enterprise. So focusing on customer experience an enterprise can gain success in business.

**Figure**: The customer needs (tasks) meet the offerings (products and/or services) of the enterprise.

Capability composes all the belongs together: all that is required to produce certain outputs in the form of offerings: products and/or services.

**Figure**: Capability is a composition of people, processes and assets that belong together.

Customer-Centricity as a Business Strategy

Customer-centrism is an approach where the customer is put at the center of all designs and decisions when delivering products, services and experiences to create customer satisfaction and build long-term relationships.

Customer-first is a business strategy, where the customer is at the core of the business.

Design people in the organization must get in touch with what’s happening in the customer’s life. It is useful for designers to get awareness and understanding of the journeys customers are going through and the tasks they are trying to achieve. All the change activities in the enterprise must subordinate to creating the best possible customer experience.

Customer-centric approach can be supported by the Facet Model, by asking the right questions for designing the enterprise customer-centrism as a priority. The highest goal is to provide well-designed products and services for getting the best experience. This can be done by getting the customer insight, supported by the Facet Model and related tools, methods and techniques.

Customer-centric Business Strategy: The customer is at the center of all designs and decisions when delivering products, services, and experiences to create customer satisfaction.

Customer-Focused Business Design

Customer-focused business design is putting the customer first. Taking the customer-focused perspective, we can switch the Facet Model into the position, where the experience is on the top. This underlines the customer-oriented and customer-driven approach in the overall design. The Facet Model can be used in any position according to what is appropriate depending on the case.

Focusing on the customer, we can look at the enterprise from the customer’s point of view. Then it is important to get an understanding of what is happening in the customer’s life. What are the tasks a customer wants to achieve, and what are the jobs to be done that he/she needs to do? Answers to these questions we get by gathering information of customers’ lives. This customer insight is crucial information that can be used when designing products and services for the customer’s benefit. Customer insight clarifies what customer experiences and behaves, and what are the actual needs behind desires.

Customer Insight, can be obtained by seeing and harvested by observing and watching and by asking and then analysing. A good practice for asking what a customer needs and how he/she behaves is to make a survey. For example, by survey, we can ask customers what are the tasks they value the most. With surveys, the enterprise gets lots of data for further analysis. With the analysed data it is easier to make a difference between real needs and desires. Data analytics [2] is an important part of service design, with which it is possible to analyse the customer-related data that is harvested. In EDGY the customer needs are represented with task elements.

Needs and desires: Value Demand. There are always both functional needs and emotional desires. Both impact the experiences of a customer. Functional needs can be fulfilled by the right products and services. Emotional desires can be satisfied by quality when interacting with customers. Good quality in services means good customer experience as a response to the value demand [3].

Customer experience is a result of many things: interactions with service providers and employees. The most important factor for the experience is the outcome that the customer gets at the end of the customer journey. The outcome can be either beneficial and valuable, or it can be disappointing. Good customer experience is what an enterprise pursues, as good customer experience creates customer value that creates business value. Poor customer experience [4] is what should be avoided, as it can cause unwanted consequences for the business and the brand. Getting feedback from customers is important for analysing what can be done even better.

Customer Journey is the path of activities during which the customer is completing tasks. Customer Journey Mapping is an important tool for matching customer’s tasks to the enterprise’s products and services. This includes the channels (touchpoints), with which the customers are interacting with the enterprise.

Customer-focused business design is putting the customer first.

Customer Experience. Taking the customer perspective, we can utilize the Facet Model as shown in the figure below. Starting from the customer point of view, by following the relations between the enterprise elements, we can find the most relevant aspects of the business that affect the customer experience:

A customer has task(s) to do, that he/she experiences via Channel(s) during the Journey.
Customer Journey is influenced by the Brand of the enterprise.
The customer uses the Products / Services provided by the enterprise Capabilities.
Processes and Assets of the enterprise realise capabilities.
Processes are performed by the Organisation,
Organisation has goals and mission with a story and content, which altogether constitute the Purpose of the enterprise.
The purpose of the enterprise is made visible by the Brand.
Brand influences the customer to use the Products and/or Services of the enterprise…

The customer experience is made up of all this. Everything that a customer experiences while traversing through the journey is affecting to the emotions and feelings of the customer.

As the emotions of people are subjective [5], they are difficult to alter or interfere with by anything or anybody else. However, when a customer is interacting with the enterprise, there is much that can be done to provide the best possible quality in products and services.

Getting customer insight into the customer’s life is the predominant prerequisite for all the design efforts. With customer insight, it is possible to get information about the ultimate needs of the customers. By getting the right knowledge of customers’ needs, the enterprise can focus on the right products and services at the right time, and provide the best possible customer experience.

Good customer experience is the result of well-designed products and services.

Figure: The Facet Model as a tool for business analyses.

Customer Insight and Business Insight (1 + 1 > 2)

Think Big. Customer insight serves better the enterprise when used in conjunction with business insight – and business foresight. The most comprehensive insight can be accomplished when using these in-depth areas of knowledge together as a combined approach. This can be achieved by using the Facet Model, as its facets cover all the relevant aspects and all that is meaningful in the context of enterprises: people and their needs, existential purpose and story of promises, and operational abilities to deliver on promises.

Start Small. Take the most familiar perspective as a catalyst and then extend that with elements of other perspectives. Use the Facet Model as a map. Navigate to other territories with a curious and open mind. Take the changes [6]. Think differently. Change perspective. Discuss and learn with others. Calibrate your tools and methods with other disciplines. Discoveries and opportunities will soon appear.

Take the holistic view. The fact is that there is this one and only enterprise that we have, so why not design it all together in a holistic way? It is just reasonable to create a shared understanding of the whole entire enterprise, and not just an aspect of it. It is unwise to observe and develop the enterprise within separate practices. It is not the most optimal way to do things in many distinct groups of people with their own ways. Those various disciplines produce inconsistent, somewhat overlapping, and slightly contractionary outputs and outcomes. This causes unnecessary misconceptions and ineffectiveness on a large scale. Instead, utilise the enterprise design approach with the Facet Model and take the holistic view. Take into account all the aspects and factors at once, so that nothing has to be added to the picture afterward.

Co-design. Take the holistic view by co-designing. Experience matters and Services are not exclusive areas of Service Designers only. Respectively, architecture is not the property of architects only, not mention IT. Instead, both experience and architecture are subjects that have synergy, so they’d better be done together, in combination.

Produce a coherent, holistic single source of truth in co-design with the help of the Facet Model.

Customer View and Organisation View

**Figure**: Wireframe model of business basics.

Business-related design challenges can be analysed e.g. a) from the customer view or b) from the organization view.

Customer has task(s) to do,
which are supported and served by the products and/or services,
that are produced by the capabilities
of the organization,
that have a purpose
which is manifested by the brand
to the customers.

EDGY helps to take the holistic view of an enterprise by combining experience, identity and architecture perspectives, which is a practical approach to take into account both the customer and organization viewpoints at the same time.

Figure: Business basics in terms of the Facet Model.

[1] Outcome elements are goals or end results that we want to achieve. An outcome is a purpose to be served, or a task to be supported, or a capability to be performed. While an output is a product or service that we create or deliver, an outcome could be a demand to be served or a problem to be solved with the products or services and a set of activities. Outcome elements of the enterprise comprise the heart of business design. [2] Data Analytics is a capability, that consists of specialized skills and competencies, and specific tools and techniques such as Data Science, machine learning and AI. Data Analytics capability includes specific processes and assets (applications and data), and provides certain products & services, that are performed and provided by particular organisation structure(s). [3] Value Demand refers to needs that trigger a Value Stream. There can be two kinds of value streams: 1) Operational Value Streams and 2) Development Value Streams. The former is customer-facing and relates to business operations of the enterprise. The latter is related for change activities of the enterprise, those of which are typically performed according to agile methods and tools such as Scrum, Kanban and SAFe, and can be organized according e.g. to ITIL4 and/or reference architectures such as IT4IT. Value streams of all kinds typically utilize Lean practices. [4] Failure Demand is a remarkable reason for poor customer experience. That occurs when customer experiences poor quality, poor service, unnecessary interactions, unfriendliness, little or no attention, gets incomplete or wrong products, wrong information etc. [5] Emotions are hard to get. The emotions of people are as slippery as the organisation’s culture. Both are somewhat emergent by their nature. They are like shadows that we see, but we can’t touch them. Such intangible things are difficult to design, compared to many other concrete tangible objects or activities that can be defined in detail. Emotions or culture cannot be directly altered or changed, but they can be indirectly affected by the design efforts. A dilemma is: a single product or service can cause thousands of emotions. So, there is this ‘circular reasoning’: experience is experience. Subjective experience refers to the emotional and cognitive impact of a human experience. However, with well-designed products and services, an enterprise can produce good customer experience. Products and services can be well-designed by co-design, and supported by a combination of customer insight and business insight. [6] Take the changes. ”Chance Favors The Prepared Mind”. When you are curious and open to new ideas, when you appreciate different professions and their opinions, when you are ready to change the perspective and perception, then you can learn and find new things and get better in what you do.

Stakeholder Map

A stakeholder map (a.k.a. People Map) can be defined e.g. for the enterprise, or some of its parts, such as for business area or product-/service area. A typical stakeholder map consists of circles (like an onion), starting from the ‘core’ (inner circle), and then introducing other levels of stakeholders in other circles. The ‘core’ can represent the organization itself that is to be designed and is the focus of attention. The criteria for positioning stakeholder groups into circles can be e.g. based on relationships between the stakeholders, the distance matters: stakeholders with which the organization has closer collaboration are positioned closer.

An example version 1 is partitioned in A) organization, B) enterprise and C) ecosystem groups.

Flat format. To save space we can squeeze the circles into a tighter form as shown in the figures below. An A4 landscape format fits better into laptop screens with which we typically work, when we discuss together with some modelling or drawing tool in hand.

Customer Segment Map

Customer segments (or personas) can be identified and introduced in a customer segment map. This is a segmented representation that can be added with certain semantics: sizes of pies, and extra markings of certain criteria (such as importance, volume, costs etc.).

Customer Journey Map

A customer journey is a specialisation of a journey, which expresses what people go through in their lives: what a person feels, does or experiences over time. A journey represents a ‘slice of life’. It is a chronological and simplified representation of complex experiences. [4]

Figure: Customer Journey.

Experience is something that can be defined with journey steps. It is possible to make visible what a customer feels, does or experiences when trying to accomplish some task(s).

Touchpoints are represented as channels.

Figure: Customer Journey mapping to tasks via channels.

Customer Journey Map. Mapping is matching. Matching parts together. Like matching actors to roles, people to profiles (skills & competencies), or tasks to products. This view can be used for positioning customer tasks (a.k.a. customer needs) in line with products and/or services the enterprise offers. With this analysis, it is possible to find opportunities for possible new products/services.

Figure: Customer Journey mapping to products/services.

Customer Tasks

Customer-oriented design can be started by analysing the customer needs a.k.a. tasks. Tasks are whatever a customer wants to do. Tasks can be harvested e.g. with surveys, or just observing and interviewing the customers. When the tasks are harvested, they can be grouped for further analysis. When visualized, top tasks can be color-coded so that they can be easily recognized. Top tasks are the most important tasks for the customers, from which they gain the most benefit. From the enterprise’s point of view, top tasks are the tasks to which to focus and put effort – to enable the best possible customer experience.

**Figure**: Tasks grouped in periods of the service.

Tasks are whatever a customer wants to do.

Service Blueprint

One of the most useful and practical customer-driven visualisations is the service blueprint (service model). There are many variations of it, some of which are shown here. The main idea is to show what the customer is doing while trying to accomplish task(s), and how is he/she served by the enterprise. As such, a service blueprint combines a) customer experience in the form of the journey with b) the task(s) to be accomplished, c) the products and/or services, provided by the enterprise, and with d) the back-office processes and e) supporting applications.

Figure: Service Blueprint – focus on activities: what is happening.

Organisation structures can be added to the service blueprint diagram as shown below.

Figure: Back-stage activities with organisation structures (teams).

Service Blueprints can be used for defining customers’ activities in contrast to enterprise’s activities, and mapping customer needs (tasks) against the products and/or services that the enterprise provides. In addition, it is possible to make visible what is happening behind the scenes of products and/or services: what are the back-end processes, and which parts of the organization are involved, and what are the supporting applications.

Service Blueprint can be specified with 1) pre-service-, 2) service- and 3) post-service periods as shown below.

Figure: Service Blueprint – focus on customer journey and channels.

Figure: Service Blueprint with capabilities.

Figure: Service Blueprint with organisation units and capabilities.

Channels

Channels play an important role in serving the customers. Channels are the touchpoints via which the customers interact with the services of the enterprise. Channels can be visualized on a map and then introduced in more detail e.g. in a table.

Product and Service Offerings

What the enterprise offers can be made visible within the Product- / Service Map. It consists of products and/or services in hierarchies.

When identified, products and/or services can be used to map customers’ needs (Tasks) to the enterprise’s offerings, e.g. in service blueprints. Then it is possible to analyse do we already have the right products and/or services to help customers accomplish their tasks, or whether should we design new or better products and/or services.

Products and/or services can be visualized in a map with metrics of certain criteria, such as customer satisfaction results as shown the figure below.

Identity Facet

Identity View

Identity expresses why an entity (such as an enterprise or organization) exists. Identity refers to the existential question of why. Identity defines why something is important, why we should care about it, and why it exists in the first place. Identity elements can be used for analysing the reasons why, all the existential and deeper questions to clarify what actually matters.

The identity of an enterprise can be simplified with a few elements only as shown below.

Figure: Identity of an Enterprise.

With identity elements (purpose, story and content) and related intersection elements (brand and organisation), it is possible to focus on both of these aspects:

people, and describe the message around people’s purpose and reason for being, or
behavior, the business reason of activities that people do.

Identity clarifies all that is important to understand ‘why we do what we do’. The identity can be co-designed by people who are involved, by using these elements shown below. The example below starts with the topic, and the brand of the subject matter (e.g. entity, change initiative etc.). Then its purpose [7] is introduced with the story and content. And finally, the organization involved is introduced. These elements reflect the identity perspective and its intersections. Note that the people dimension is strongly emphasised in sentences: “we are, we exist, we do” etc., as the Enterprise Design approach is especially people-centric.

Figure: Identity view.

Use cases of the identity view are e.g. as follows:

Identity and purpose of an entity or its part (e.g. enterprise, ecosystem, organization, business unit, group, team).
Identity and purpose of a group of people working together.
Purpose and idea behind a change activity or -initiative (e.g. business transformation, concept, innovation etc.)

Another variation of the identity view that covers the organisation’s mission, vision and values is illustrated below.

Figure: Identity view communicating the organisation’s mission, vision and values.

Mission, Vision, Values, Strategy

The organisation’s mission, vision and values can be expressed, in written format or in visualisation. However, it should be considered if the identity visualization, as illustrated in the previous figure above, can be adequate enough. It can be the most appropriate way to communicate the organisation’s purpose, mission, future vision and related values within a single visualization, what we can call simply the ‘identity’. The identity covers all that is important and meaningful in the context of an organization: mission, vision, values etc.

Mission and vision both relate to an organisation’s purpose. They are typically communicated in some written form.

Mission statement communicates the organisation’s reason for being. Mission answers questions about ‘why we exist’.
Vision statement, in contrast, is a future-oriented declaration of the organisation’s aspirations. Vision is based on the mission. Vision answers questions about ‘where are we going’, ‘where do we want to be’, and ‘what we want to become’.
The strategy follows the vision statement, and the strategy aims to satisfy the mission. Strategy answers questions about ‘how we will achieve our vision’.

Figure: Mission, Vision, Strategy.

The figure below illustrates the relations between the mission, strategy and vision. A roadmap is the actual course of actions to be taken to achieve the outcomes.

**Figure**: Mission, Strategy, Vision, and Roadmap.

The mission is the purpose why an enterprise exists in the first place – the reason for being. The vision is the future state that an enterprise wants to achieve. The strategy is the course of actions to be taken toward the vision.
The strategy is like a playbook, explaining how we play, what moves we make, and according to which values and principles. The roadmap is a detailed plan of when we do actions and what are the resulting outcomes.

Strategy execution can be started by identifying high-level goals, from which the more detailed operational-level goals can be derived. After goal setting, it is possible to define concrete actions to be taken to achieve actual end results. It is suggested that the end results can be measured so that it is possible to control the progress of the strategy. According to Peter Drucker: “You can’t manage what can’t measure”.

Figure: Hierarchy of goals.

Values are typically identified and made visible to guide decision-making and people’s working in an enterprise. Values can be communicated and visualized in conjunction with the mission and vision statements.

Figure: Mission, Vision, Values.

In addition to the high-level guidance, the enterprise-level principles can be defined. Principles direct all the change activities in the enterprise to follow certain guidelines, in line with the values, to control and support people in design, development, decision-making and operations.

Figure: Principles.

The value proposition of a product- or service area can also be visualized with the same elements.

Culture

Organisation culture is what occurs when people interact with each other. Culture is an emergent occurrence of people’s behavior, which starts growing whenever two or more people work together. Culture exists for sure, we can feel it, but we can’t touch it. Organisational culture is the ‘basic assumptions and beliefs’ that are shared by members of an organization.

Culture cannot be directly changed, but it can be influenced e.g. by mission, vision and values as well as and stories we tell about ourselves, and the content that we produce and share. Culture is much about communication and is reflected in the brand image. Good culture can be seeded by management by enforcing good spirit and encouraging and inspiring working atmosphere, where employees appreciate each other. Bad culture consists of discouraging and dismissive attitudes toward colleagues, which causes bad results in employee satisfaction and recruitment.

Figure: Culture is an end result that can be affected by communication of identity.

The phrase ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ means that culture is what happens when nobody is seeing. Culture is how people behave, how they interact, communicate and do their tasks in practice. In contrast, the strategy is (hopefully) concretised and implemented in operations, processes how people should do their work.

Strategic Goals

Strategy can be concretised by breaking it into clearly defined goals. The goals represent what needs to be changed in the enterprise. It is suggested that the goals define the qualitative changes, those of which can be measured with outcomes. The outcomes are the actual achievements, the end results [8] of the goals.

Figure: Traceability of Goals.

High-level goals are usually emotional, whereas low-level goals are functional by their nature.

Goal Analysis

It is always good practice to define the goals first, at least at a high level, before starting to do anything. Goals express what we try to achieve. However, to be more precise, it is reasonable to evaluate why something needs to be done, before getting into details about what exactly needs to be done. So it is practical to identify the drivers before the goals. That procedure makes it easier to find and define the goals, as drivers are the causes of the goals. By collaboratively discussing the reasons and business conditions, it is possible to find the root cause(s) for the change.

The why can be analysed by identifying the drivers for change: what drives us (to do changes)? The drivers can then be further analysed, and then defined in terms of goals. The goals are qualitative changes to be made because of the drivers. And finally, the concrete, measurable achievements, the outcomes, can be specified. Those are the actual changes that are to be happening in the enterprise. (The steps to be taken to implement the outcomes, and the activities, are to be further defined.)

The drivers, goals and outcomes can be identified in a table as shown below, and/or modelled with EDGY outcome and purpose elements as shown below.

Figure: Drivers, goals and outcomes can be modelled and/or defined in a table.

Drivers are causes for the goals, which can be quantified by the measurable outcomes. Respectively, outcomes are derived from goals, which can be derived from the drivers. So there is traceability in both directions.

Goal Map

Goals hierarchy can be visualized as shown below.

Figure: Goal Map.

[7] Purpose essentials – the fundamental questions. Naïve question goes ‘what is the meaning of life’. This philosophical question cannot be answered with rational, scientific method-based arguments, as the question is absurd. We cannot define what is the deepest meaning or purpose of existence itself (an sich), or what is the intrinsic value of life. Or in a cosmological perspective, ‘why the cosmos bothers to exist at all in the first place’, is something that we don’t know. What we can do, instead, is to clarify the purpose of an entity such as an enterprise. We can state a purposeful meaning by using the Facet Model Identity elements as tools. It is possible to define and visualize what is important in the context of an enterprise. [8] End results are rather outcomes than outputs. The outcome-driven approach produces traceable deliverables according to the purpose of the enterprise.

Trends

Trends are drivers for change at high-level. Trends are the external opportunities and threats that can be identified within SWOT analysis. There are many trends that affect nationwide, society and economy, people, businesses and organisations, and individuals. Here are some examples of megatrends or trends that can be considered when creating visions and strategies. These are modelled as EDGY outcomes, as they represent events, occurrences or phenomena that may appear or emerge.

Figure 70: Trends (applied from the source: Sitra, Suomen itsenäisyyden juhlarahasto, https://www.sitra.fi/en/topics/megatrends/).

Drivers of Change

Drivers represent certain context-specific events or occurrences, that act as triggers for changes. Drivers are causes (some of them are root causes) for change activities.

Figure: A driver triggers a change that results from an outcome.

According to Donald Rumsfeld “there are unknown unknowns”. Concepts of “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, and “unknown unknowns” concern drivers, some of which we know, some are unpredictable.

Figure: Some drivers are known, some are not.

SWOT-analysis

Business analysis for analysing internal strengths and weaknesses together with external opportunities and threats can be done with the good old SWOT tool. It is a technique for assessing these four aspects of the business. SWOT analysis can be done by using EDGY outcomes base elements, as they represent states of affairs or business events that have occurred or may occur. These findings can be used e.g. as drivers for change within goal setting and creating a Goal Map and/or Strategy Map.

Figure: SWOT analysis.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a template for business model innovation & creation. It can be used for designing new business models / -cases or documenting existing ones. The example below introduces a version with certain EDGY elements.

Figure: Business Model Canvas (BMC) EDGY version.

Business Map

For analysing the business fundamentals, this view can be used. This view is a versioned Milky Way Map, in which the customer perspective meets the organization perspective. This view is quite a self-descriptive and simple tool. Customers and their needs are positioned on the outer circles, and the products and capabilities of the organisation are positioned on the inner circles.

Milky Way Map (MWM)

A Milky Way Map is a visual representation of the whole business or some part of it. A Milky Way Map is a visualisation of the geography of the business of the enterprise. It shows what are the customer activities or tasks to be done, and how the enterprise serves those tasks, and why the enterprise is doing all this.

The base map version above is just showing the basic idea of the Milky Way Map. There can be variations of the Milky Way Map depending on the case and what is appropriate. For example, value flow stages (sectors) can be defined according to the business, which can be anything from the whole enterprise to some specific business area. Circles and their elements can be used according to what is necessary, e.g. tasks, journeys or channels, capabilities or processes etc. The Milky Way Map can be configured to fit for the purpose.

The Milky Way Map is divided into sectors that represent the value stages of the business value flow (a.k.a. value stream). The customer journey steps (or tasks) are shown on the outer circle. The capabilities are positioned in the middle circle, and the purposes, the goals for each value stage are shown in the inner circle. The business value flow can consist of sectors such as Plan, Build, Market, Deliver, and Learn.

With the Milky Way Map it is possible to contextualise the capabilities from the enterprise’s capability map by positioning them into the value flow. This visualizes which capabilities are performed and when, which capabilities are closer to the customer, and which are supporting those customer-facing ones. The purposes in the center of the Milky Way Map, represent the goals for each value flow stage, showing why the enterprise is doing and what it is pursuing. The journey steps or tasks on the outer circle represent the customer journey, and also the tasks of the other stakeholder groups (such as partners, owners, job candidates etc.) that have some interest to the business of the enterprise.

The Milky Way base Map is shown below.

Figure: A Milky Way Map example.

For more information about the Milky Way Map see this: Milky Way Map with EDGY.

The Milky Way Map = map of the enterprise.

Wardley Map

Strategy planning can take advantage of scenario mapping with Wardley Mapping *). A Wardley Map represents the situational awareness and assumptions being made about a context, and illustrates which strategic scenarios are available, or have been recognised.

A Warldey map is a tool and an approach with which strategic scenarios can be made. The tool is simple, it consists of Y- and X-axes. The Y-axis represents the visibility towards the customer (activities needed to fulfill customer needs), and the X-axis represents the evolution (how activities change over time).

A Wardley Map is a representation of business operations in a certain context. The example below introduces an operational business landscape, in which certain strategic scenarios can be made by the management and specialists (C-level + professional advisors).

The diagram above represents the following strategic scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Customer Service -capability is outsourced, for better customer service and cost-efficiency. The new service provider manages both personnel and concerned applications (e.g. CRM).

Scenario 2:

Order Handling -capability is changed to utilize Order Handling application as a SaaS **) cloud service from an external provider, for better and modernized features. This scenario is keeping the personnel and other applications within the organization. Another option, scenario 2 B would e.g. outsource the whole Order Handling capability, not only parts of it.

Scenario 3:

Delivery and Logistics -capability is outsourced, as it is not the core but supporting operations of the business of the organization.

These scenarios can be executed sequentially, or alternative scenarios can be created for each main scenario. There is always a scenario ‘no changes at all; nothing is to be changed’, and then several alternative scenarios in what extent the target area is to be changed (from partly to completely changed).

*) Wardley map method is created by Simon Wardley. See more information from here: https://learnwardleymapping.com/book/. **) SaaS = Software as a Service. One of the cloud computing related “as a service” business models (XaaS models such as Infrastructure as a Service/IaaS, Platform as a Service/PaaS). SaaS is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. Also known as on-demand software, web-based software, or web-hosted software. [Wikipedia]

Risk Management

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is an enterprise-level approach to managing risks by identifying them and preparing against them. Risks should be taken into account not only at the enterprise level but also in each and every change activity. Risk management aims to prevent risks proactively.

Risk management covers coordinated activities to direct and control an organization. These are covered by ISO31000 standards.

Risks can be modelled with the EDGY by relating risks to elements (such as assets). A risk occurs when a threat meets vulnerability.

Figure: Risk concepts (an introductory version).

Risk management concepts are introduced in the table below.

Capability-based Risk Management. Enterprise Risk Management can utilize capabilities as main components, as they consist of all the other elements of the enterprise. Capabilities or capability areas can be used as risk ‘domains’.

Risks can be set to capabilities at a high level (as shown in the heat map above), or risks can be directed to the particular elements of the enterprise such as resources/assets. Potential targets of risks are elements of the enterprise, such as products and/or services, organization units/groups/teams, employees (skills & competencies + career-related matters), processes, applications, data, technology, devices, facilities etc.

Risk modelling can be done by using EDGY elements as illustrated below.

Figure: Assets with risks as metrics.

Another example of capability assets with identified risks.

Figure: Capability-based risk modelling.

Alternatively, risks can be explicitly modelled as outcomes and connected to elements as shown below.

Figure: Risks connected to assets of a capability.

Target Operating Model

The target operating model describes how the strategy will be realised. The modern business environment is more complex than ever before, with more challenging customer needs etc. This view is a tool that can help enterprises to focus on the right channels, products and/or services at the right time – towards their goals. It is important for enterprises to continue to thrive and operate efficiently in these continuously changing conditions and be capable of quickly adapting. It is necessary to create a strategic plan for managing change.

Figure: Target Operating Model.

Roadmap

Roadmaps can be created for any kind and size of change efforts and initiatives. EDGY activity element can be used for depicting the stages or phases of a roadmap, the series of activities to be taken for achieving a certain ultimate target.

Figure: A roadmap.

EDGY can be used for analysing, defining and visualizing business change programs. For example, a business transformation program can be illustrated in the roadmap as shown below. Each phase of the roadmap represents a certain transition that is to be taken. In this case, the transitions impact certain capabilities that are to be changed. The exact changes can be defined and visualized in detailed diagrams per each capability, explaining which parts of the capability are to be changed and how. The prerequisite is that the capabilities of the business are identified, and as suggested, visualized in the capability map.

Figure: Business transformation roadmap.

A roadmap can illustrate what has happened and what’s next.

Figure: An example roadmap.

The EDGY base elements can be used for analysing the roadmap with outputs and outcomes.

Figure: Roadmapping with the EDGY base elements.

People-Focused Identity of an Enterprise

Identity – the Business reason. Identity explains the fundamental reasons why the business exists and why it involves people around it. That’s why it is crucial to clarify why the business we do is important so that people can be motivated and provide the best versions themselves.

Cold story. American economist Milton Friedman developed the doctrine as a theory of business ethics that states that “an entity’s greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders.” Therefore, the business should always endeavor to maximize its revenues to increase returns for the shareholders.

The Friedman Doctrine, also known as the Shareholder Theory, provides insights on how to increase shareholder value. According to the doctrine, shareholder satisfaction is an entity’s greatest responsibility. However, the doctrine also faces expansive criticism since it turns a blind eye to social responsibility activities.

Warm story. Now, what can be done or should be done, is to adjust the focus on employees, as they make things happen. Satisfied employees enable good customer satisfaction. Moreover, an enterprise should turn its focus on people and social responsibility at a wider scale: all the people interested or involved in the operations of the enterprise should be put into the first place – instead of thinking of shareholders only. Shareholders benefit if all the people that experience the enterprise somehow, can get the most out of it. That means:

“An entity’s greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of all the people.”

So it is important to calibrate the focus on people and ourselves ‘what we can do for people?’ For customers, employees, partners, owners etc. People do what people have to do, if the conditions are good and the atmosphere is encouraging and inspiring.

Turn the clock to people’s time with Enterprise Design & EDGY.

Architecture Facet

Capability

A capability defines ‘what we are able to do by orchestrating people and assets’ [3]. As such, capabilities are organizational business components. They are containers for everything that belongs together and that is needed so that the enterprise is able to perform a certain behavioral part of its business.

Capabilities define what a business can do, not solely what people can do. A quite typical false assumption is to think that capabilities are people’s skills and competencies only. It is important to realize, that those are included in the capabilities, but there are more than that. Capabilities consist of people, activities and objects that belong together: people, processes and assets (resources such as applications, data, devices, facilities etc.).

Figure: Anatomy of a capability.

Capabilities are components with which an enterprise runs its business operations.

**Figure**: Activities represent the behavior that is going on in a capability, and objects represent structural elements that are used or produced.

People perform activities using and creating objects.
Activities are behavioral and objects are structural elements of the enterprise.
People perform processes and use or create assets.

Capability consists of people and behavioral and structural elements. Capability contains all that belongs together.

With the People -element it is possible to define skills and competencies, and professional profiles that are needed for performing the activities (with processes).

Figure: Capability, Organisation and Products and/or Services.

When analysing and defining the content of a capability, it is practical to take into account not only the internal people, processes and assets, but also the concerned organization structures and products and/or services.

Figure: A capability is associated with several elements of an enterprise.

Capability contains all that belongs together.

Capability Canvas

It is practical to open the content of a capability to understand what its purpose is. The content explains the meaning, as activities represent what is going on, and objects represent what assets are used in the performance.

Figure: Claims Handling Capability.

Capability-Based Design can be extended with aspects around a capability, such as ownership, finance, risk management etc.

Figure: Extended Capability.

Capability Assessment

Capabilities are:

The center of gravity of architecture
Connecting all the other elements of architecture
Capabilities are modules/components of the business
Capabilities include people with the right skills with assets to perform processes
Capabilities are what an organisation is able to do by orchestrating people and assets

High Cohesion and Loose Coupling of Capabilities

When identifying the capabilities of an enterprise in the capability assessment, a good practice is to define the borders of capabilities based on 1) high cohesion internally and 2) loose coupling externally of the elements (such as processes and assets).

Figure: Capability interactions.

A capability contains all that belong together, which means that all the elements that have tight interactions are closely related, so it is reasonable to keep them together. This high internal cohesion of elements justifies why certain elements belong together. Altogether they form a coherent whole, that represent certain operational entity. Such an entity includes all the activities and objects in the form of people, processes and assets, that are required so that certain behavior can be done. Capabilities are what is needed in an enterprise so that it can operate. Capabilities are fundamental building blocks of the business. They are composite business components, from which the business is made of.

Business Agility. Real business agility can be achieved by having adaptable business components. Business agility is the ability to adapt to changing conditions in the business environment. Capabilities are the core building blocks of business.

Composable Business. (Analogous to previous business agility.) Capabilities are basic units of concept composable business, which refers to businesses that can adapt to changing conditions by utilising clearly defined functional business components. These components provide certain services and/or outputs. They have clear boundaries, as they are autonomous and largely self-contained. Capabilities meet those demands.

Capabilities are fundamental building blocks of the business.

Capability Map

A capability map is the master structure of an organization, as it contains all the major abilities from which the business is made. A capability map is a one-page illustration of what an enterprise does.

Figure: Capability Map.

A capability map can contain a few levels of capabilities, e.g. 1) high-level business areas and then 2) atomic capabilities underneath. A good practice is to group the capability map into groups of a) customer-facing capabilities, b) core business capabilities, c) supporting capabilities and d) change capabilities (with which the other capabilities and the whole business can be managed and changed).

Note that a capability can be decomposed into more specialised capabilities as shown below.

Figure: Capabilities may have sub-capabilities.

Capability Map as Heat Map

Capability map can be enriched with extra information by tagging. Tags and metrics can be used for e.g. risk management purposes, which adds risk statuses on each capability.

Figure: Capability Heat Map.

Process Flow

The flow of a process can be modelled with ‘swimline-like’ diagram, in which the actors of the process steps are shown as horizontal swimlines. The actors are the organization structures, each of which performs certain steps of the overall process. Customer actions can be illustrated when appropriate.

SIPOC

Six Sigma tool called SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) can be used for defining elements common to all processes. This is an easy tool for analyzing the business case: what is the value the customer gets and how. EDGY object element is used for modelling inputs and outputs.

Figure: SIPOC.

Business (Data) Objects Map

Data entities used in architecture can be depicted as data assets. These are the data elements that are transferred between processes and/or applications.

Figure: Data model – assets as data objects.

Note! Element type name ‘Asset’ shown on the top left corners is added just for example purposes here, to make the usage of the multipurpose Asset -element clearer.

Tagged elements. The types of the Asset -elements can be differentiated from each other with that tag, that is positioned on the bottom of the element. An Asset -element can represent e.g. data, application or any other asset such as facility, device or technology. (Tag element can be attached to the Asset -element by ‘grouping’ functionality that is available in many tools such as Draw.io or MS Powerpoint.) A tag can be e.g. as follows: ‘Data’, ‘Application’, ‘Technology’, ‘Device’, or ‘Facility’.

Information Flow Diagram

The data flows can exist e.g. between processes, organisations or applications. Data objects are transferred in these data flows, as these flows are operational: they represent the actual business-relevant information flows between the entities.

Figure: Information flows between processes.

Figure: Information flows between organisations.

Figure: Data flows between applications.

Process Cooperation View

Information flows between processes define how an enterprise operates. As such this view represents the operating model of an enterprise. This view illustrates what is happening in and around an enterprise.

Figure: Process cooperation view.

Application Cooperation View

Application cooperation view a.k.a. application interaction view can be used for depicting how business data is transferred between the applications. Both internal and external integrations can be shown when appropriate (e.g. external parties are shown in the figure below, a Logistic company and a Bank).

Figure: Application Cooperation.

Integrations. This high-level application cooperation view can be used as the first (if not the only) diagram for exploring the integrations between the applications. This diagram introduces what business-relevant data is switched, and what is the direction of those transfers. However, this view doesn’t specify how the transfers are executed, and via which interfaces. These can be further analysed based on this high-level overview diagram. So this high-level overview represents the business architecture (and enterprise architecture) level of details. respectively, more detailed solution architecture level diagrams can be created for development purposes (e.g. for agile development teams).

It is possible to use coloring in the flow relations by adding certain semantics in data flows. Coloring scheme can indicate e.g. mechanisms (such as sync/async, batch, RPC), protocols (e.g. ftps, REST) or just differentiating the flows.

Figure: Application cooperation view – as a map like a ‘metro map’ / route map.

Application Architecture

Application architecture can be modelled in different abstraction levels, starting from a high abstraction level diagram, and then adding more details in subsequent diagrams. At the highest granularity level, the context level, the application is introduced within the business environment. This ‘big picture’ represents the overview of the high-level architecture. More detailed diagrams can be modelled, if it is appropriate to illustrate the internal logical structure of the target application. There can be a distinct diagram that introduces all the integrations between other applications (internal and/or external to the enterprise).

Component Model 0-n (CM 0-n), Component Model for short, is a system architecture modeling approach that combines Enterprise Architecture (EA) with Solution Architecture (SA). The Component Model is a way to define a target application on different abstraction levels. Level zero (CM-0) is the ‘EA level’, where the application is depicted as a ‘black box’. The next level (CM-1) defines the application as a ‘white box’, on which the application’s internal structure is opened to sub-components. The following level (CM-2) defines the main components introduced on the CM-1 level in more detail – when appropriate, for example, if the component is complex, and it is valuable to open its structure in more detail.

Note! The Component Model -concept is analogous to C4-model *). Application in this context is a synonym for a system or solution, all of which are components of the enterprise architecture of an organization. So all the applications, systems and/or solutions can be called components.

The main advantages of using this Component Model are as follows:

It is easy to create and understand the system architectures, as all of them are using the same decomposition approach for modeling the internal structure
It is easy to identify the integration points, as all the provided and required application services (or -interfaces) are defined
The whole enterprise architecture of an organization is becoming more coherent and consistent, as each individual system is depicted with a common modeling style.

Abstraction levels are as follows:

At CM-0 -level the diagram describes how the application interacts with its environment, and what are the interactions with adjacent applications and users. The target application is depicted as a black box. This is the EA-level’: the internal structure of an application is not relevant, only the services exposed.
At CM-1 -level the diagram describes how the target application is decomposed into modules (main components), and what application services (or application interfaces) those modules provide and require (use). The logical decomposition of an application is based on the functional aspects, which typically relate to physical decomposition too. The target application is depicted as a white box. This is the internal structure of an application.
At CM-2 -level, these diagrams describe how the main modules are decomposed into sub-components, and what are their responsibilities (internal functions or processes), what are the services or interfaces that these components provide and require (use).

The Application Component Model (CM) diagrams below consist of application components and application services. Alternatively, application interfaces can be used instead of application services depending on the case. As always, it is important to utilize such a modeling style that is appropriate for the purpose, and model only those elements that are informative enough and provide certain added value. It is up to the modeler, whether he or she likes to emphasize the functional aspects, or to be more concrete, and model e.g. the actual interfaces with exact naming.

Component Model – 0 (CM-0) level illustrates interactions between the target application and adjacent applications. All the relevant application services are introduced. The 0-level diagram consists of enterprise architecture-level components and their services, the target application is in the middle.

An additional information flow diagram can be provided on the Component Model level – 0. An information flow diagram (a.k.a application cooperation- or application interaction diagram) makes it visible how the data is switched between the applications: from where the business relevant data is transferred to which direction.

*) C4 model, see more information from here: https://c4model.com/

Component Model – 1 (CM-1) level illustrates how the target application is decomposed into modules (or main components), and which module realizes which application interfaces.

Figure: Application architecture at a detailed level.

Note! External applications can be left out from this level, but their interfaces are shown. Provided interfaces are colored with the default color (blue), and required interfaces are colored grey.

Component Model – 2 (CM-2) level illustrates how the target application’s modules are composed of sub-components, and how they interact. CM-2 diagram can be modelled for each application component separately, as shown in the diagram below.

Figure: Main component of the application.

Deployment environment. Technical infrastructure can be modelled also with EDGY architecture elements (Assets). This view illustrates the deployment environment, on which the business application is running. It is possible to define distinct test-, QA- (Quality Assurance) and production environments.