Objective to Project link

[swa]

Hi,
I could not find a link between Objective and Project in the meta-model. How the Strategy Progress can be measured in Essential AM? Thanks.
SA

[jonathan.carter]

Hi,

Objectives are linked in-directly to Projects via the Strategic Plans. These are not really project plans but rather the 'what' we need to do, with the Change Activities (Programmes, Projects, etc.) as the 'how' we plan to do it.

Strategic Plans describe what we need or want to do and can define the set of Objectives that will be supported by this Strategic Plan. Then we can define a Project as the Change Activity that will realise the Strategic Plan (or at least part of the Strategic Plan) and we capture that relationship by connecting the Project to the Strategic Plan via its 'Strategic Plans Supported' relationship slot. (ca_strategic_plans_supported slot in the meta model documentation of the Project class)

This gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how the Strategy and the Change Activities are defined - things are not always clear and straight-forward in the real world! Essential Viewer will navigate these indirect relationships so that on the Project Summary View, we can see all the Objectives that are being supported by the Project - so we know why we are doing it.

It is a little off topic but probably worth mentioning that the Strategic Plans are used on the arcs of the Roadmap Models (the arrows on the graphical model) to describe how we plan to move from one Architecture State to another. This is all in the Strategy Management section of the model and it is in the Change Management section that we manage the Projects and Programmes that will be actually making the changes to the enterprise in order to deliver the Strategy and Roadmap.

Jonathan

[swa]

Hi,

Thank you Jonathan. The explanation not only answered my query but also helped me understand the purpose all those "... plans" as I was also trying to grasp the purpose of those plans in the meta-model. I will go through the views you mentioned and hopefully that will give a better understanding of the linkages. Thanks.

SA

[swa]

Hi,
I have another query regarding distinction between Goal (long-term) vs Objective (short-term) which are usually related to a long-term Goal. How is this captured in EAM meta-model?
The topic was related so I have put it under this topic. Thanks.
SA.

[neil.walsh]

Hi,

We see Goals as longer term objectives and model them using the Objectives meta-class. However, we understand that there are scenarios where you might want to distinguish these separately and we use Taxonomy Terms to separate the kinds of objectives we have (for example, in a custom view).

We had planned for this to be included in the 3.0 release however it missed the release window and was pushed back to our next release.

I'll describe how to add these manually. If you follow these steps exactly, it will be compatible with a future update to support this.

How to add Goal and SMART Objective taxonomy terms

In Protege

1. Browse to EA_Support > Taxonomy
2. Highlight the "Objectives" taxonomy
3. On the right hand pane, above "Taxonomy Terms" click the "Create Instance" button to create a new Taxonomy Term
4. Use the following details:

• Name = "Strategic Goal"
  Taxonomy Term Label = "Strategic Goal"
  Description = "A high level objective that may or may not have specific targets or timelines"

5. Create a second Taxonomy Term for Objective with the following details

• Name = "SMART Objective"
  Taxonomy Term Label = "SMART Objective"
  Description = "A concrete objective that displays Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely characteristics"

As with any meta-model change, it's critical you take a backup of your repository before making a changes.

You can the associate the relevant Taxonomy Term with your Objective object using the "Classified As" slot to distinguish between Strategic Goals and SMART Objectives

Let me know how you get on. As always, any problems, add a post on the forum.

Thanks

Neil

[swa]

Hi,
Thank you Neil for very clear instructions. I achieved it without any problems. Which reports show the goals and SMART objectives and how they are distinguished in reports? Thanks.
SA

[jonathan.carter]

The Business Performance Model view shows all of the objectives but in the current release does not really distinguish between goals and objectives.

However, we have an improved version of this view that does organise the objectives in terms of the goals, the objectives and measures for them. This should be available in the next minor release.

Jonathan