Modelling Tools

28 June 2008

I’ve been playing around recently with a number of modelling tools for business process and software development and I’ve found how easy it is to get sucked into spending large amounts of time just modelling away by oneself.

Part of the problem is the lack of immediate feedback; there is a latency which allows misconceptions to be unaddressed and compounded. In addition, the temptation is to produce vast swathes of material that come out oh-so-nicely formatted in the resultant document output. Problem is, your stakeholders just aren't going to read it.

As most stakeholders in a business-change context are busy people, it’s always a challenge to get a group to firstly read, then understand and finally take action on a document – and this problem is compounded if that document is dozens of pages or longer.

So the answer is if you have to use a modelling tool, then I suggest the following to ensure that you’re getting the most value out of the activity:

• always model with others;
• provide rapid, public feedback;
• use the simplest notation that can work;
• cherish clarity more than slavishly following a standard; and
• too little is better than too much.

Success Stories

"Agilier's experience in managing business processes made them an ideal candidate to manage functional integration thereby reducing a significant risk to the business. This involved them working with the workstream leads and developing a high-level integrated businesses process against which we planned our programme."

Chris Davies
Programme Manager, EADS Defence and Communications System

"I was extremely happy with the professional and complete way that Agilier performed their work and would not hesitate to use their services again."

Mike Haynes
Senior Project Manager, Cogent Defence and Security Networks