Collaborative Enterprise Modeling and Knowledge

Management by

Professionals and consultants working within the enterpriseor across a client base deal with a great deal of knowledge.They use their skills and expertise to apply this knowledge toparticular situations, thereby improving quality, productivity,efficiency and resource utilisation - ultimately adding value forstakeholders of the enterprise.

This group has traditionally been inadequately supported bysoftware tools. Office products produce individualdocuments, spreadsheets, presentations and the like, but donot relate these to overall projects or provide an easy way tomanage templates and versions of documents derived fromthem. Modeling tools are often too heavyweight and toospecialised, forcing unsuitable approaches and notations to befollowed. Many tools are single user - limiting their usefulnessin a team. Few are properly web enabled, allowing the entry,query and management of information via the intranet orInternet - this limits their usefulness across anenterprise or within a consulting organizationwith distributed teams. Some high end tools doaddress areas like enterprise architecture, butare prohibitively expensive to deploy on a largescale, leading to bottlenecks.

Promis (and its precursor organizations), as along time knowledge-based consultancy groupworking in the areas of strategy, enterprisearchitectures, program management and methods, has developed a tool specifically tosupport the kinds of activities undertaken byplanners, architects, business engineers, projectmanagers, methods implementors and otherknowledge intensive professional roles.

What is EVA netmodeler?

EVA netmodeler is a solution comprising a knowledgerepository, a web based software tool and sets of meta datawhich customise the tool for particular purposes, such asenterprise architecture management, program managementor methods definition and management. It supports multipleconcurrent users and is implemented as a server productbehind a standard web server (e.g. IIS™, Apache™,Websphere™) while storing repository information in astandard relational database management system (e.g. SQLServer™, Oracle™, DB2™). It can run in either aWindows NT/2000/2003/XP ™ environment or on aUnix™ platform (special request).

Users access EVA through standard web browsers (e.g.Internet Explorer™, Firefox™). EVA uses only standardprotocols supported on current popular browsers and doesnot require any plug-ins or Java. All that is required isHTML, CSS and a basic subset of Java Script.

EVA is very flexible and can be easily extended by users tosupport additional types and relationships, in a matter ofminutes, interactively at run time and without affectingother users’ access to the system.

While EVA manages rich structured data and relationshipsinternally within the repository, it can also reference andmanage a wide variety of knowledge assets created in othertools, including: word processing documents, spreadsheets,models, project plans, presentations - even audio and video.

How Do You Work with EVA?

EVA provides flexible ways of capturing, relating, queryingand viewing information, models and associated documents.

Release 2.6

You could choose to work with hierarchical listsof items, the details of an item, follow logicalrelationships to other items, query their details,edit items, create new links or alter others inthe process as you progress using the ItemTree Browser

SQL Server, IIS, Internet Explorer, Windows NT/2000/2003/XP, Excel,Word, Power Point, Visio are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Oracle is atrademark of Oracle Corporation. DB2 and Websphere are trademarks ofIBM Corporation. Firefox is a trademark of The Mozilla Foundation.

Release 2.6

You can view information asforms and hyperlinks, a simple

but powerful interface providedby the Unified Browser. This

allows the easy capture of infor-mation, linking to related itemsand navigation of related itemsusing a familiar web navigation

metaphor or video recorderstyle controls

You may want to see informationas a matrix, detailing the relation-

ships between items of selectedtypes using the Cross Refer-ence Browser. This is also aconvenient place to validate,

create or cancel relationshipsand associated information.

Relationships can be inferred,supporting “what if” and impact

analysis

The in-browser GraphicalModeler provides easilydeployed visual modelingcapabilities for both content andmeta models using popularstandard notations or your owncustom notations with pictorialicons or vector symbols. GMcommunicates with the EVAserver over standard web proto-cols and tight integration ensuresmeta model adherence and easeof modeling with maximumreuse. Advanced features includedifference analysis, visual modelsummary, inferred relationshipsand ability to include relateditems automatically.

Release 2.6

The Content Browserprovides a convenient way to

quickly view rich content. Itpreserves the relationships to

other knowledge items, allowingyou to quickly view them too. It

can display documents, presenta-tions, models, web pages,

spreadsheets, project plans andaudio and video content with

appropriate viewers.

Items and relationships can beviewed graphically in theGraphical Browser, whichallows querying items within theconcept space and refocusing toany displayed item as the anchorpoint. The Graphical Browsercan also follow single relationshiptypes recursively - for exampleto display a hierarchical structuresuch as an organization chart.

You can view all items of a giventype, their properties and/orrelationships in the WorksheetBrowser. Sorting can be byattributes or relationships.Editing selected items andviewing linked content is alsosupported.

Release 2.6

A temporal view can be achievedin the Calendar Browser forany items identified as timerelated. Month, year and dayviews are provided. It is alsopossible to create new itemshere or to view details of linkeditems.

The Spatial Browser providesa way of viewing topographical,

geographical or conceptual mapsas an aid to locating relevant

knowledge within a context. Drilldown capabilities and queries on

the knowledge base aresupported. Unique custom

“dashboards” can be created.

The Context Browser allowsworking through the knowledge

space from a focus item in anydimension, allowing viewing of

properties, relationships andhiearchical structures as you

progress. It also supports sophis-ticated inferencing of “child” item

relationships to “parent” items.Detailed matrices can be shown

to document the relationshipsbetween a hierarchy of items and

related items. Printer friendlylayout is supported..

Release 2.6

A powerful search facility assists infinding relevant content in the repository,in managed documents and in linkeddirectories and their contents.

The Delta Browser allowseasy discovery of changes toselected types within a specifiedtime period. This can afford theuser a quick update if you havebeen away from the knowledgebase for some time, or alloweasy export of relevant items tosynchronise two knowledgebases.

The Master-Detail Browserallows simultaneously viewing,editing or creating an item of

one type and all related items ofanother type (or even several

types) linked to the “master” viaa selected relationship e.g.

A Project and Team Members; aSeminar and all Attendees; a

Planning Scenario and all relatedelements, such as Goals,

Products, Projects, Channels etc.

Release 2.6

Should you need to do so, andbe authorised to, you couldextend the capabilities of thetool immediately within theType Maintenance Browser.Users can extend existing typesand define new types thenassociate properties, legalrelationships, default values andtemplates with them. As soon aspermissions are set the newtypes are “live” for authorisedusers. If preferred, meta modelscan also be defined or amendedin the Graphical Modeler.

A built in Report Writerallows easy generation of

customised reports - either adhoc or saved for future

convenience. Reports can usefilters to further customise datapresented. Reports can include

selected attributes andrelationship data with a choice

of sort sequences based oneither. No coding is required.

Release 2.6

Custom Views can bedeveloped which use a mix of

HTML/Java Script code andserver API calls to provideunique interfaces meeting

special requirements.

This is an example of theprogramme view now included as a standard

example.

EVA can generate free standingweb sites of selected content,allowing easy distribution to an

audience that does not have access tothe tool.

Output is formatted for easy transferto CD or web server.

Models can be exchanged withVisioTM, using an XML-basedmapping between the visuallyrendered and repository storedmodels. This allows consolidatinginformation available in previouslycreated models, initial developmentof content in Visio, visual renderingof repository information in Visioand translation of visual modelsbetween representations.

Interaction of Visio clients withEVA is achieved over standard webprotocols.

Release 2.6

Data is easilyexchanged with

spreadsheets andother tools via CSVand XML import and

export interactively orvia batch files.

This facilitates easydata capture and

sophisticated analysisand graphing output.

A composite documenteditor allows traversing themeta model and buildingcustomised documentstructures where you select thetypes, relationships andattributes that you areinterested in documenting. Thespecification can then be saved and run at any time by selectinga start item from therepository. The output is in theform of a hyperlinked reportwith a table of contents.

Security

EVA has a powerful security model that relates users toa profile that determines which functions within the toolmay be used, what types of knowledge a given user canaccess, and what may be done (view, create, update,delete, import or export). Groups and roles aresupported. Users may belong to multiple groups.

Filters

User defined filters allow control over what is viewed.These can be based upon values of properties ofselected types, relationships or hierarchies. For example:Viewing everything linked to a particular business unit;viewing tasks which have not been allocated to anyresponsible party (hence no “allocated” link); or perhapsviewing information added within the last month only.Filters can be logically combined and may be named andsaved for easy use by novices.

Templates

EVA supports the definition of default values andtemplates. For example, one could specify that a projectshould have a budget expressed as an Excel™spreadsheet, a business case expressed as a PowerPoint™ presentation, a risk assessment which is aWord™ Document and a User Requirements Interviewwhich is an AVI video file. We may have several otherattributes, such as the name of the sponsor, theinception date of the project, current status etc.

Once the structure is defined to EVA and templates areprovided for the relevant items, a user creating a projectwill automatically get a set of these templates clonedand associated with the new project. These can then beeasily opened from within the EVA environment andcustomised to the project. EVA can version these

artifacts for you as well, providing a secure knowledgebase on a server. This kind of power can prevent theloss of valuable knowledge when staff move on, and canallow much greater leverage from existing assets, sincethey are easily findable and identifiable as to theircurrency, state and relationships.

Integration

An “anonymous mode” feature allows generation ofqueries into the EVA knowledge base. These can beembedded in web pages or other document typessupporting URL’s and allow EVA content to be accessedwithout logging on and within existing web sites. Thisfacility can be deployed very quickly - in one instance aproduction software fault tracking and releasemanagement system was conceived, modeled,implemented and live on the Internet supporting userson two continents in less than a day.

Views which can be exposed in this way include GenericItem Display and Edit (GIDE), reports and compositeviews.

Customization

Menus. Authorised users can create customized menu'swhich are associated with a user or user group, thusallowing rapid access to frequently used functions andcontent.

Custom Views allow the rapid creation of completelycustomized user interfaces, using an API to theunderlying functionality. These can take on the look andfeel required by a user community or integration with acorporate web site or portal. Views can be added to thetool at run time without interrupting operation.

Release 2.6

EVA can supportmultiple portals whichprovide live repositorycontent to casual usersin a read only form.

These are easily set upwithout programming.

Spatial Views facilitate setting up of dash boards andnavigation tools based upon your own pictures,frameworks and conceptual models.

Graphical Modeler supports the definition of yourown model types and model symbols.

Collaboration

A “discussion” data type allows easy linking of threadeddiscussion groups (like news groups) to any knowledgeitem. This can facilitate the work of teams collaboratingin a given area.

Tool Integration

EVA can import and export both type definitioninformation and instance data as XML or CSV.

A component is available to allow other applications toquery the repository over the web, subject to security. .

The Visio Requestor feature allows retrieving EVAknowledge items into Visio, rendering them there asgraphical models, where they can be laid out, and savingthe layouts back to EVA. Any information from therepository can be composed into models and renderedin Visio with user selected shapes.

EVA supports exchanging models with Visio, with anXML-based mapping between the visually rendered andrepository stored models. This allows consolidatinginformation available in previously created models, initialdevelopment of content in Visio, visual rendering ofrepository information in Visio and translation of visualmodels between representations. Interaction of Visioworkstation with EVA is achieved over HTTP and canthus occur from any network connected workstation.

An interface allows capturing information in Excel, thenimporting into EVA.

EVA can read from and write to user designatedexternal SQL data stores.

Methods Engineering

For methods engineers, EVA supports a unique featureallowing a complete corporate method to be defined,with the ability to automatically generate a customisedsubset of this (required deliverables, tasks andresources) for a chosen type of project.

Many features of the tool are user configurable, allowingthe look and feel, as well as other important attributes,such as server directories etc. to be customized.

Consultants (both consulting businesses and internalconsultants within corporates) can link deliverables toprojects and clients while maintaining consistency acrossmethods and techniques - evolving these over time in acontrolled manner. EVA can provide a sharedknowledge base to authorised users, even where these

are working off-site, thus enhancing the value ofknowledge in your practice.

Server Administration

EVA has administration tools to configure the tool,monitor usage and performance, review any errorslogged, export meta-data definitions, switch databases,report statistics of repository and more. All of these areavailable to authorised users via a web browser.

Events and Actions

EVA can monitor activities for you and alert subscribingusers to events which have occurred e.g. The DatabaseAdministrator may want to know when a new item oftype “Data Model” is added to the repository.Outbound e-mails can be generated. Routine actions canbe triggered by time events. Directories can bemonitored and new content picked up automatically.

Calculated Fields

Calculated fields allow computation and derivation ofvalues from underlying properties in the repository. Thesource values can be on the current item, related itemsor located via type/item/property ids. The approach isdeclarative: much like a formula in a spreadsheet, exceptthat the “cells” referenced are item properties from therepository. It is thus trivial to have a summary itemquery and summarise values from related detail items,for example. More sophisticated uses can compute chainlengths of dependent items, work out dates, determinerelative priorities and provide many other kinds of vitalinformation for decision making.

Additional Features

EVA provides an automated repository auditcapability which reports on repository population,currency of information, richness of population ofproperties per type, and richness of population ofrelationships. Snapshots of this information can be usedto actively manage knowledge state, acquisition,refreshment and management.

EVA can generate freestanding web sites ofselected content. This is a very useful mechanism forcreating "read only" sites or knowledge bases on CD fordistribution. Users require only a browser to view thiscontent - no server access is required. Selected contentcan also be exported to a freestanding star schemadatabase for further processing in business intelligencetools.

Inferred Relationships. EVA can infer and report onrelationships between items that are not explicitlyrelated. E.g. If a component is part of a system, and thesystem belongs to a business unit, we can infer thecomponent belongs to the business unit.

Release 2.6

Scenarios and Difference Analysis. EVA can managemultiple scenarios and versions of models and shareinformation between these. Differences between modelscan be automatically highlighted graphically.

Domains allow the easy management of related typesin the repository and switching viewing of these groupson and off at runtime. If preferred, securityadministration can use this model to simplifymanagement. Domains also facilitate easy export andimport of related sets of information.

Application Areas

EVA can be used in support of the following types ofactivities:

Enterprise Architecture ManagementNOTE: EVA is fully TOGAF compliant and certifiedProgram and Project Management

I.T. Governance (e.g. COBIT, ITIL)Requirements ManagementSoftware Development Management Online Strategy Methods Engineering and ManagementConsulting practice knowledge managementVirtual team supportHuman Resources information managementHealth Information ManagementLegal Practice knowledge managementEngineering firmsISO 9000 implementationCourse Administration

In short - any group needing to capture, organize, queryand share information, models and knowledge on adistributed and flexible basis.

Release 2.6

To Find out More...

Please contact us via e-mail to info@pro-mis.com

More details about Promis: www.pro-mis.com