I've thought that the best way to get agreements between people is to capture how something would work. There is more to understanding the efforts of others beyond pictures, it takes some explaining of how they do their jobs and what is the value in what they do. I found this picture of Walt Disney's Production Company from 1943 and they built a flow of how work gets done.
Back in 1943, we didn't have computers but there still was a need to understand how a matrix of production and management came together to execute on a big production. The practice of modeling this together is called Enterprise Architecture. In today's world of technology, we have to consider the Business Processes, the Data, the Applications, and Tech Platforms you consider to connect to producing value.
If you want to build a picture of your organization and the connected relational models, engaging your organization to gather this information is a healthy way to discover things that don't work well. This can also give you insight to new capabilities that will give your team an edge that will require change. I'm sure in most roles within an organization, we know pretty quickly which things 'keep you up at night' or would be convenient if they stopped. Part of Enterprise Architecture is also mapping the governance processes in organizations to show how those support the overall organization.
Thanks for your thoughts on this! I'm new to blogging and welcome your thoughts on Enterprise Architecture or how to engage your team in improving.
Thank you for reading!
Ben Barbro
Enterprise Architecture Practitioner and President of Strategic Resource Consulting, LLC