The result of a functional area analysis has been described in Concept: Functional Area Analysis. Briefly, we end up with:
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Functional areas identified, described, and related to business domains
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Relationships between functional areas identified
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Business functions provided by each functional area identified and allocated to the functional areas
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Business functions required by each functional area identified.
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Business subsystems (or business service interfaces) defined to aggregate business functions.
We can get this result by following a multi-pass approach to (1) identify a candidate functional breakdown of the
business and (2) refine this initial model using behavioral analysis techniques.
Initial model
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Begin with a list of the major domains of the business. For a Rental Car Example, these might include "Marketing and Customer Management",
"Rentals Management", "Rental Fleet Logistics", "Business Administration", etc.
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Describe the domains, in terms of their major functional responsibilities.
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Leverage the definition of each domain to identify the major responsibilities of each domain.
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Group responsibilities that have strong affinity and allocate them to logical functional elements within each
domain -- the initial functional areas
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If you are aware, from domain knowledge or other means, of relationships between functional areas that are
driven by functional dependencies, identify them
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If you are aware of services that a functional area requires from another functional area, allocate those as
"required services".
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If the allocation of required services to a functional area uncovers a previously-undiscovered relationship to
another functional area, create that relationship between the functional areas.
Once the above actions have been performed, we will have our initial functional area model.
Refined model
This initial model can be refined and cross-validated using the results of behavioral modeling. As is described
in Guideline: Decomposing Business Processes, a given business process can be
successively refined, drilling down with each level of refinement to sub-processes that are executed by more detailed
elements of the business structure. The first two levels of this decomposition typically result in process
descriptions that involve interactions between domains and then functional areas. The process descriptions
that are derived in terms of interacting functional areas can be used to identify the following:
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Additional functional areas within a given domain
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Additional functions that are provided by a given functional area
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Additional functions that are consumed by a given functional area
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Additional functional dependencies between functional areas, thereby driving the creation of additional
relationships between functional areas.
Aggregating business functions
Once the functional areas, their provided functions, and their required functions have been defined, provided functions
with high affinity (perhaps those involved in executing one or more closely-related business processes) can be grouped
together, using either business subsystems or business service interfaces. Concept: Functional Area Analysis describes these concepts.
The use of business service interfaces to aggregate functions provides us with a consistent approach for describing the
interfaces between functional areas. Any required function can be mapped back to the functional area
that provides it. This provider will be offering this function through its own provided business
service interface. Go back to the business area that requires the function, and assign to it a required business
service interface that matches the one on the providing functional area.
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