Risk Assessment: Business Activity Maps (BAMs)

1. Risk Assessment: Business Activity Maps (BAMs) COMM80: Risk Assessment of Systems Change Unit 9

2. Objectives of Session Coverage • To understand the use of RAMESES Business Activity Maps. • To understand the purpose of RAMESES Business Activity Maps. • To develop an ability to read, modify andcreate such maps.

3. Business Activity Maps (BAMs) • Focus on perspective of fit of system to business. • Layers of information, • current, • proposed system • Tutorial: consideration of usage, modification of existing maps.

4. Requirements for the Technique • Evolved in response to three main requirements for a Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) environment: • effective acquisition (gathering the data), without disrupting the business, • accessible presentation of findings, and • analysis of the business process.

5. Mapping the Business Activity • Mapping happens at two levels: • managerial (macro) • This follows the reporting structures for the area of the business being examined. • operational (micro) • This follows the individual tasks in a process.

6. Mapping the macro (top) level • To map the business activities at the macro (managerial/top) level “reporting-to” and “responsibility for” structures are used. • A starting point for these can be organisational hierarchy charts.

7. Example – starting at the top level

8. Mapping the macro level • … Then the boundary for the project is identified. • only the relevant reporting-structures are tracked any further. • To track this information from the senior managers worksheets (forms) are used.

9. Example – starting at the top level

10. Example top-level Worksheets • The top worksheet (form) collects the “data from each senior manager within the areas of concern to the project.

11. Example top-level Worksheets • The second worksheet (form) typically records: • the managerial/supervisory structure below this particular senior manager • the related responsibilities, and • any software that is believed to be used within their area of influence.

12. Constructing the top-level Business Activity Map • This mechanism of gathering the necessary data using worksheets (forms). • avoids the need for specialist training of the staff. • reveals the senior managers perceptions of what is happening within the organisation.

13. Macro Level Example

14. Mapping the micro level • To map the activities within a business process at the micro level individual task inputs and outputs are tracked.

15. Task Trailing

16. Task Trailing

17. Purpose of the Micro (bottom/operation level) • Gathers the detailed data required. • Identifies Staff within the Business Processes. • Documents the Task Trail for the Business Processes within the boundary, including: • Identification of IT usage. • Audit Staff IT Profile . • Audit Staff IT-Satisfaction.

18. Micro-level Worksheets These sheets are for individual sets of “input-task-output”.

19. Micro-level Work sheet (for details of IT-usage etc.)

20. Construction of the Business Activity Map • The operational-level task trail data is gathered from individuals at their work areas using a set of worksheets (forms). • Again this approach avoids the need for specialist training of the staff. • The data from each individual is used to construct the complete business process (detailed business activity map).

21. Micro Level Example

22. Presenting the Maps: Hierarchies and Layers. • Hierarchies are traditionally used in process modelling to drill down into the detail of a process. • In this approach comparisons can be made between the activities perceived by management levels and the operationalised activies. • Layers allow additional features to be added to/removed from a map. E.g: • IT support is superimposed onto the maps. • Staff skill can also be added.

23. Presenting the Maps:IT Usage • Maps with IT usage added provide richer data sets. • They also enable comparisons (managerial v. operational).

24. … Systems Usage Layer Added Colour is used to represent different software solutions detected as in use.

25. Presenting the Maps: Current and Planned IT Usage. • Maps with IT usage added provide richer data sets. • They enable comparisons between the current usage of IT and the planned usage.

26. Proposed system usage Proposed System Layer Added

27. How is this Risk Analysis? • The sets of maps highlight: • Inconsistencies between the managerial views of the business activities and their actual operation. • The usage of IT in the organisation (official and un-official) and the level of reliance on these solutions. • The extent of change from the current state of IT usage to the proposed IT solution. • The staff competency and confidence in using current IT solutions. • In all cases the bigger the gap between the comparisons the greater the risk in a change management project. • Without the maps decisions would have been based on inaccurate managerial knowledge/data. • With the maps the risks accompanying the change are made explicit and can be dealt with.

28. Summary • You have been introduced to RAMESES Business Activity Maps. • The concept of mapping at the macro (managerial) and micro (operational) level has been discussed. • The process used to gather the data and construct the maps has been defined. • Some ways in which the maps can be use for analysis have been highlighted. • The link with Risk Analysis has been made explicit.