John,
I'm just trying to understand the landscape from
the SAIL PPT you sent around.
SAIL seems to me to be a toolkit for "How to do
consulting to the government", and
especially on agency level large projects -
defining the requirements and the focus
at a 70,000ft level. Comparing and
contrasting - one particular focus of BCM -
netcentric agile information systems - does not appear to be factored
in the SAIL PPT as a main outcome from the
projects reviewed.
BCM it seems is what happens after you have
done SAIL and now need to
find a way to realize the plan itself at the
practical level. That is exactly where
we are on the eprXML project - providing pieces to
augment the deployment -
and enable the business line managers to take
ownership of the business
rules and linking and switching controls of the day
to day operations.
Also providing the means to have a agnostic
deployment of technologies
that cooperate and interoperate by applying the BCM
principles and
key technology aspects of templates, dynamic
context, and choice points.
And of coruse in the erpXML case - leveraging
legacy systems by improving
interoperability.
Also BCM is
providing a method that is assimulatable directly by practitioners
themselves throughout a Community of Interest - by
providing the roadmap
and the catalogue of pre-built templates and
artifacts they can take and use.
SAIL on the other hand appears to feature
significant hand-holding by SAIL
experts who manage the process of using SAIL for a
client.
So in summary - I would say that once a SAIL
process has finished - then the
Phase 2 becomes using BCM to deliver the actual
systems.
Therefore the area of overlap is - how much can be
garnered and deduced
during the SAIL process to facilitate the following
BCM stage?
Clearly identifying the community of interest, the
stakeholders, the business
goals and the authoritative
sources, collaboration roles and products
and services are things that SAIL and BCM
share. So this is most of
all the Conceptual Layer outputs - and so part of
the SAIL process would
be to provide those aspects of BCM
templates.
However - once this is done - then BCM really takes
over from there and
allows the line managers to complete the job the
executives and directors
have shaped. BCM at this point is a method
that practitioners then take
on as their own, and embrace it as their modus
operandi.
Thanks, DW.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 8:02
AM
Subject: RE: [bcm] Brochure Draft; An
opportunity to put into practice the BCM process
Neil,
The 60k is only for large
agencies and integrators. The SAIL program has a lower threashold for
small businesses, non-profits and consultants that also puts much value on
non-cash contributions in kind (IP, bodies, etc). As this is a
public/private partnership, the SAIL teams need to match the resources
contributed by the govt. In many cases, the SAIL partners will find the later
flow of funds to be incoming not outgoing, as this is a fee for service
model.
Regarding vendor preferences,
when looking closely at the SAIL and ICH vetting models, they have been proven
to be more agnostic than most standards efforts as everything is evidensed
based.
I suggest that the BCM team help
build out the SAIL process to make sure we are leveraging your work, and visa
versa. As we are focused on solving real world problems, (big ones), we
believe the SAIL process will find both the strengths and weaknesses of many
frameworks, including OMBs.
FYI, the concepts that SAIL are
using have been in practices since 1999 and have been successfully applied
(meaning solutions were deployed), for 6 major programs in both govt and
industry. We are looking for more standardized templates (ebXML, MDA) to
use that will improve communications between stake holders. The
ICH Solution Portal will be on line soon, and will instantiate these reference
models.
Cheers
john
-----Original
Message----- From: Neil
Wasserman [mailto:nwasserman@adaptiveservices.com] Sent: Wednesday, November
19, 2003 7:44
AM To: 'David RR Webber';
'John
Weiler'; 'BCM
OASIS' Cc:
mike.lubash@dfas.mil Subject:
RE: [bcm] Brochure Draft; An opporunity to put into practice the BCM
process
John,
To add
to what David is suggesting ...
I am
also in favor of accelerating the process of putting BCM concepts into
practice and using existing practice to inform BCM methods. It also
seems to be to be a good idea to have a more active connection between BCM and
your SAIL program if that is what you are proposing. There seems to be a
$60,000 barrier to entry in terms of such participation,
however. It is also important that BCM remain agnostic with regard
to vendor preferences. What would you suggest as the best way to
link the efforts?
With
respect to the OMB reference models, my intuition is that BCM is like the PRM
(Performance Reference Model) in that it touches the other reference models,
particularly the Business Reference Model, Data Reference Model, and Service
Component Reference Model. It informs all of these models from a
community of interest perspective.
There is
more than enough challenge, work and risk in these efforts to go around.
So I am all in favor of learning from others' experience and sharing the
burden.
From: David
RR Webber [mailto:david@drrw.info] Sent: Tuesday, November
18, 2003 9:59
PM To: John Weiler; 'BCM OASIS' Cc: mike.lubash@dfas.mil Subject: Re: [bcm] Brochure Draft; An
opporunity to put into practice the BCM process
OASIS is very clear on this
all.
If you feel you have
implementations that conform to an OASIS specification
then you can notify that technical
committee about the conforming implementation.
So far we have one that we've been
made aware of - the eprXML work from Norway -
and we are working with that team
to develop BCM templates from that that will
If you have indeed taken the OASIS
specification and applied to it your project(s)
then I'm sure we'd welcome the
feedback on what worked, and where the gap
And we'd be especially interested
in showcasing the resulting BCM templates
and other artifacts from the
project(s) that illustrate the work done.
We are also beginning to work with
other groups that have expressed interest - one
I can mention is CUNY in
New York and their
Center for XML - where they are
actively looking at BCM activities
that may fit their program there.
The other of course is the OASIS
eGov TC - and jointly developing examples
of BCM templates for specific
government domains.
So it seems to me that one path
forward would be to take whatever products
SAIL has done - and cast those
into BCM templates - as Word and Excel
documents for instance - that we
can then review and verify that in fact
they are applying BCM principles
and techniques.
This then has the benefit of
providing back into those projects BCM artifacts
that conform to an open public
standard accredited by OASIS.
With the eprXML project we started
by reviewing PPT materials and specification
and project overview materials
that showed how BCM principles are being actively
integrated into the development of
the project.
Perhaps you can share with us
similar overview materials?
----- Original Message -----
Sent:
Tuesday, November 18,
2003 9:29
PM
Subject: RE:
[bcm] Brochure Draft; An opporunity to put into practice the BCM
process
Mike,
David,
I
recognize the good work you are doing, and that the need to ground this
effort into reality. While you are doing a great job developing
specifications, a growing number of agencies and practitioners are putting
theory to practice. Within a couple of week, a new initiative will be
formed called the Solution Architecture Integration Lab (aka SAIL), that is
based on very simular work developed under the ICHnet.org consortia
efforts.
When
reading your materials, I find that we are in fact implementation most of
your vision, resulting in very specific real world example; eHealthcare,
Discovery Communications, DARPA Distributed Component-based Architecture
Modeling program (DCAM), GSA Financial Modernization Program, etc.
These effort have been widely recognized as huges successes (see ICHnet.org
web site for letters of reference).
I know
we have tried to open this discussion before, and have been at a loss of how
to bring an existing initiative into a standards process. Maybe we should
flip this and bring the standards process into the SAIL initiative.
Attached is the SAIL public/private partnership. We are already
incorporating OMB MDA for the application development layer, and are using
the OMB reference models for the upper layer. Where specifically do you see
BCM fitting into this model, and how do you envision these two dove
tailing.
Any
options are good ones, but need some specifics to ponder. It would be
easy to bring any agency or company into the SAIL program, but cannot figure
out how to incorporate an standards process into a contract vehicle that
will be solving real world problems.
Cheers,
john
John
Weiler
CTO
ICH Architecture Resource Center
+1-703-768-0400
(v)
+1-703-863-3766
(cell)
+1-703-765-9295
(fx)
www.ICHnet.org
www.SecurE-Biz.net
``And let it be noted that there is no
more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor
more doubtful in its success, than to set up as the leader in the
introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all
those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm
supporters in those who might be better off under the new.''
Niccolò Machiavelli
1513
-----Original
Message----- From: David RR
Webber [mailto:david@drrw.info] Sent: Tuesday, November
18, 2003 3:01
PM To: BCM OASIS Subject: [bcm] Brochure
Draft
I really like how this is
looking.
I've made some minor edits and
fix'ins as
Next bit is the [implementation]
linkage as
The BPSS stuff I posted today
relates - basically
the BCM requires certain
behaviours of the implementation
layer - critical is ability to
support context driven
mechanisms and linking and
switching thru choice points.
And SOA is definately
preferred. Some words along
those lines should
cover.
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