Designing a Performance Based Enterprise

When most professionals talk about designing a performance based enterprise, they inadvertently slip into discussions about the IT system. The ERA™ methodology maintains a broader and more holistic perspective. While ERA™ addresses thoroughly the Technical Systems within the enterprise, such as IT and manufacturing systems; it also focuses on the Human Systems and the Administrative and Organization Systems which collectively define the enterprise.

Before the enterprise architecture is selected and design begins, ERA™ leads us through a structured set of thought and design processes, as described here.

Strategy Formulation
Strategy Formulation defines the process of specifying an organization's objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating the resources that will implement the plans. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually performed by the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team. It provides overall direction to the whole enterprise. An organization’s strategy must be appropriate for its resources, circumstances, and objectives.

Strategic Analysis
A business model (business design) is the mechanism by which a business intends to generate revenue and profits. It is a summary of how a company plans to serve its customers and involves both strategy and implementation.

Architectural Design
An Enterprise Architecture describes business structures and the processes that connect them. Systems Engineering is the application for engineering the solutions to a complete problem, in its full environment, by the systematic assembly and matching of parts in the context of the lifetime use of the system.

Architectural Management
A Design Architecture is an arrangement of design elements that provides the design solution for a product or life cycle process intended to satisfy the functional architecture and the requirements baseline (IEEE 1220).

Once a Design Architecture has been develop using ERA™ it will have the inherent performance characteristics required to thrive. What’s more, the nominal and maximum performance characteristics will be known before any resources are expended to developed the implementation. Indeed, this is what defines a performance based enterprise design.

Each element of the ERA™ process can be mapped to the enterprise’s key performance parameters.
Click HERE to see an Example.