Building the Agile Enterprise

Fred Cummins , is currently an independent consultant and business systems architect. He is an active member of the Object Management Group as co-chair of the Business Modeling and Integration Task Force, co-chair of the Business Architecture Special Interest Group and co-chair of the Value Delivery Modeling Language Finalization Task Force. He was a leader in the development of the VDML (Value Delivery Modeling Language) and the CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation) specifications. He is a member of the board of LEADing Practice that is the provider of reference enterprise standards based on industry research by the Global University Alliance. Mr. Cummins has authored three books and a number of professional papers, and is inventor on 14 US patents. He was previously a Fellow with EDS and Hewlett Packard. He has consulted and developed systems in multiple industries including manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, transportation, telecommunications, insurance and government. Throughout his career he has applied advanced systems technology.

"Building the Agile Enterprise not only covers many corner stones of enterprise agility, it delivers an integrated view of how agility is enabled by policies and a business awareness supported by technology architecture/design patterns. Fred Cummins has hit the mark by aggregating the many tributaries of agility instead of picking one pattern and/or technology. This is a sophisticated and integrated atlas that is a challenge for IT professionals to implement, but a must for flourishing organizations." --Jim Sinur, Vice President, Gartner"Never before has technology been so close to the business. In fact, technology is becoming more and more embedded in the business. This means that change has to go hand in hand on both at the business and the technology side, — or that technology has to at least support the high demands of business change. In particular, enterprise agility is a major requirement for those organizations that want to succeed in this new world dominated by rapid change. Business are increasingly asked to change and to react quickly to changes in market conditions — look at what’s happening currently in the car manufacturing space with the increases in petrol prices or in the financial community with the sub-prime crises as just two examples. This book provides a marvelous, clear, and comprehensive road map of how key technologies such as service-oriented architecture, business process management, and model-based management are instrumental and key in realizing a truly agile enterprise. It explains why and how a structured and strategic approach to SOA, along with the adoption of other available paradigms and technologies, can enable future enterprise agility. As Fred suggests, this is a must-read for CIOs, enterprise architects, and IT management in general that is embracing transformation and innovation programs; I would go further and say that some key chapters will make great reading for CxOs outside IT and in the driving seat of the enterprise." --Diego Lo Giudice, Principal, Forrester Research"The author, Mr. Cummins, has already made a tremendous contribution to the discipline of Enterprise Business Management through his leadership in the development of business modeling standards as a co-chair of the Object Management Group's Business Modeling and Integration Domain Task Force. This book breathes life into those standards, with simple and clear explanations of how to apply these and other information technology standards in what is described as the Agile Enterprise, incorporating and expounding upon the most important trends in the advancement of information technology, such as Service Oriented Architecture and Business Process Management, culminating in a what he defines and explains as the discipline of Model Based Management. The authors level of experience is obvious from the generous use of industry examples and analogies. A must read for business leaders that need to demystify these technologies and standards, and other agents of enterprise transformation and adaptation!" --George Thomas, Enterprise Chief Architect, US General Services Administration (GSA)

• ContentsIntroduction1. The Agile EnterpriseCommon business challengesThe modern ecosystemA new way of thinkingAgility enablersSOA Maturity ModelCSFs on the journey to agility2. Service Oriented ArchitectureBusiness servicesSOA infrastructureDefining servicesEnterprise transformationSOA Challenges3. Business Processes in a SOAProcess conceptsProcess modelingOperating modesProcesses in SOAChoreography4. Business RulesTypes of RulesImplications of SOARules management5. Enterprise Information ManagementAgile enterprise requirementsLogical data modelData exchangeBusiness intelligence servicesMaster data managementKnowledge management6. SOA SecurityWhat makes SOA different?Encryption and signaturesIdentification and authenticationAuthorizationRole-based access control (RBAC)XACML PoliciesAccess control administrationFederation of trust domainsAccountability and non-repudiationMonitoring, logging, alerts and auditsVulnerability scanning and intrusion detection7. The SOA Organization StructureHow is SOA different?Service unit typesHierarchy design factorsOrganization specificationsOrganizational transformation8. Event Driven AgilityEvent resolution business frameworkOrigins of eventsIdentification of events of interestSources of Event noticesEvent notification infrastructureEvent resolution processes9. GovernanceBenefitsSOA Governance FrameworkStrategic PlanningEnterprise intelligenceBusiness ArchitectureAudit and Risk AssessmentEnterprise TransformationStandards and technologyInformation Technology servicesFinance & Accounting servicesPurchasing servicesHuman resource management servicesProduct Value Chains10. Business ModelsBusiness modeling viewpointsModeling tool standardsEnhanced modeling capabilitiesTactical solutions