BUSINESS PURPOSE
The purpose of this activity is to group objectives (as
documented in the IRM as MI resources) into projects (PD's)
based on commonality. This analysis is performed in preparation
for development of the Enterprise Information Strategy.
OVERVIEW
The grouping of objectives into projects could be
formulated on a random basis, but this would result in projects
with inordinate scopes and complexity. Projects should be
defined in an organized manner for ease of evaluation and
manageability.
There is not necessarily a one-to-one relationship between
objectives and projects. One project may implement many
objectives and one objective may be implemented by many
projects. The established resource relationships include:
"MANY-TO-MANY"
-------------- -------------- --------------
|REQUIREMENTS| | OBJECTIVES | | PROJECTS |
| |<<------>>| |<<------->>| |
| (IR) | | (MI) | | (PD) |
-------------- -------------- --------------
Functions (FE) and Positions (OE) are, of course, also
related to these resources in a many-to-many relationship.
There are fundamentally three considerations for grouping
objectives:
- Compatible work effort: Modification/Improvements,
New Development, and Maintenance.
- For Modification/Improvements and Maintenance, note
the common system resources affected by the objective.
- Compatible due dates.
- Common areas of the business affected by the objectives.
STEPS IN EXECUTION
- Enterprise Engineering collects all of the information
requirements associated with the project. It is important
that the engineer be reminded of the boundaries of the
project. If not observed, the engineer may go beyond the
scope and do more (or less) than is necessary.
- Enterprise Engineering performs an analysis of each
information requirement to determine what functions,
positions, and existing systems (if any) are affected.
- Enterprise Engineering groups information requirements
based on commonality.
- Enterprise Engineering defines objectives that will
implement the requirements.
- Enterprise Engineering prepares a cost/benefit analysis
for the requirements for each objective. This analysis
is posted to the objective. The result of this phase
are formally documented Work Requests/Objectives (derived
from MI resources in the IRM).