CMO | QualiWare Center of Excellence

Product Variant Master

Purpose: The purpose of the Product Variant Master template is to provide an overall view of a product’s variants and can be modelled from the viewpoints of the Customer, Engineer, Part, or Production.

Core concerns: The Product Variant Master template enables you to model product variants by mapping their parts and part variants. The template includes the following objects: Product, Product Rule, Product Attribute, External Document and General Concept. These objects can then be connected as being Part of Product, Kind of Product, or by a “View Connection”.

The abstraction level that defines whether the model is from the viewpoint of the Customer, Engineer, Part or Production is chosen in the model’s property window.

The model below is a Product Variant Master of a balcony:

Relation to other templates: The Product Variant Master is a decomposition of a Product. As such it is related to the Product Canvas and Product Architecture. It can contain a Product Rule Table and could also be linked to from a Product Roadmap.

Properties and metadata: The Product Variant Master can for example retain the following information:

A description of the model
Choice of the Kind of Notations Graphics
Choice of Abstraction Level
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Product Variant Master where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

For more information: You can learn more about the Product Variant Master model by reading the following article (page 1-7):

Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Hvam, Lars; Haug, Anders: Modelling Product Families for Product Configuration Systems with Product Variant Master. (p. 1-7) In: Wotawa, Franz & Pill, Ingo. (2010). On Classification and Modeling Issues in Distributed Model-based Diagnosis.

Product Canvas

Purpose: The purpose of the Product Canvas template is to present the relevant information related to a specific product.

Core concerns: The Product Canvas template enables you to gather relevant Business Charts and model Personae, Product Demands, Markets, Locations and Products. Additionally, you can model a SWOT analysis that details the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats the product is affected by.

Below, you can see two Product Canvases. The first has its focus on a product within two markets, showing the expectations two different customer segments have to the product.

The second example shows information related to a specific market, Poland, including product architecture and business assessment:

Relation to other templates:

The Product Canvas Template is inherently related to the Product Architecture, Product Roadmap and Product Variant Master, in the sense that all these models focus on different aspects of the lifecycle of a product. Furthermore, you can create additional Business Charts for the Product Canvas by using the dedicated template. Another view on projects and initiatives are provided from the Enterprise Investment Portfolio. There, the reasoning behind the investment in the project is visualized by connecting the initiative (in this case a new product) to the specific goals of the enterprise that it contributes to. Another view on how the product meets customer needs can be documented in the Value Proposition Canvas.

Properties and metadata: The Product Canvas can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the canvas
Link to the one responsible for the canvas
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Product Canvas where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

Product Architecture

Purpose: The purpose of the Product Architecture template is to document the building blocks of a product. Below is an example of a product architecture:

Core concerns: The Product Architecture template enables you to model a Product and connect different parts of it with three different connection types: Part of Product, Kind of Product, and Product Interface. See below for an example of a Product Architecture where each Product object is represented graphically:

Relation to other templates: Depending on whether the product is in production or in its development phase, it could be further described in a Product Viewpoint template, have a Product Variant Master, Product Rule Table or be represented in a Product Canvas. It may also be illustrated along with other products in a Product Roadmap, just as its production may be detailed in a Manufacturing Routing Network.

Properties and metadata: The Product Architecture can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the accuracy of the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

In the picture below you can see the Product Architecture’s properties dialogue window, where the properties can be viewed and edited:

Enterprise Investment Portfolio

Purpose: The purpose of the Enterprise Investment Portfolio template is to model enterprise goals and investments.

Core concerns: The Enterprise Investment Portfolio template enables you to model Goals, Projects, and Initiatives. The projects and initiatives can be connected to enterprise goals them through Project Contributions, that show the viable minimum and optimistic maximum of the value contribution. Below, you can see an example of an Enterprise Investment Portfolio, where the way goals are realized is visualized:

Other Functionalities: By using the Enterprise Investment Actions tab, you can create, for example, a Portfolio Value matrix, which offers another way to view the same data:

Relation to other templates: The Enterprise Investment Portfolio is a strategic template and is as such related to the enterprise’s Strategy Model, Strategic Roadmap, Business Canvas and Innovation Canvas. The projects contained in the initiatives can also be further described in the Work Model template.

Properties and metadata: The Enterprise Investment Portfolio template can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Enterprise Investment Portfolio template, where you can view and edit the diagram’s Properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

For more information: This model type is used in the Enterprise Investment Methodology developed by Chris Potts and QualiWare. To learn more about Enterprise Investment, you can about it here:Enterprise Investment.

Dashboard

Purpose: The purpose of the Dashboard template is to publish selections of Business Charts targeting different stakeholders. It should be used to gather a series of relevant or connected Business Charts to provide a dashboard-like overview.

Core concerns: The Dashboard template enables you to gather Business Charts, Key Performance Indicators, Performance Indicators and General Concepts to create stakeholder specific views of analyzed data. For example, an Enterprise Architect could find a Dashboard containing Business Charts relevant to the usage and governance of the Enterprise Architecture useful.

Below, you can see examples of different Dashboards presenting an array of Business Charts:

Relation to other templates: The Dashboard template is closely connected to the Business Chart template, as the Dashboard publishes the charts the Business Chart template generates.

Properties and metadata: The Dashboard can for example retain the following information:

A description of the Dashboard
Link to the owner of the Dashboard
Link to the one responsible for the Dashboard
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Dashboard template where you can view and edit the dashboard’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

Customer Journey Map

Purpose: The Purpose of the Customer Journey Map template is to document the customer’s journey from awareness to the end of their interaction with an organization, covering possible touch points from the customer’s perspective.

Core Concerns: The Customer Journey Map template allows you to model connections between different Personas, Customer Journey Phases, Touch Points, Goals, Roles, Locations, Channels, Technology and the aspects from a SWOT analysis.

You can choose to model both a current state and a desired future state of the customer journey and use the documentation for process improvement. Below is an example of a current state model and a future state model:

Current state model:

Desired future model:

Other functionalities: The customer’s touchpoints can be elaborated upon with four scores for Customer Satisfaction, Customer Importance, Customer Effort and Net Promoter Score. Particularly vital touchpoints can be designated as a Moment of Truth.

Relation to other templates: The Customer Journey Map can be used as a groundwork for a strategic change, which for example can be modelled in a Work Model, a Business Capability Model and/or a Strategy Model.

Properties and metadata: The Customer Journey Map can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the accuracy of the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Customer Journey Map, where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties.

For more information: on Customer Journey Mapping, please view our webinar Experience Mapping – Customer Obsession for IT and Digital Professionals with Milan Guenther and Katharina Weber.

Conceptual Data Model

Purpose: The Conceptual Data Model template is used to describe a high-level business oriented structure of the information concept used in a specific business area. Below yo can se an example of a Conceptual Data Model where the data is divided into data for internal and external use:

Core concerns: The conceptual data model template enables you to model a preliminary high level data model. It may be abstract in content and sparse in attributes. Its preliminary structure allows for many-to-many relationships. When using the Conceptual Data Model, you can model Information Concepts, Subject Areas, and their interrelationships. Below, you can see a car rental service’s Conceptual Data Model for a customer’s data.

Relation to other templates: The conceptual data model is a means of communicating information structures between participants in a project or documenting the overall Information Concept of a specific organization. For a more detailed model you should use a Data Model Diagram.

Properties and metadata: The Conceptual Data Model can for example retain the following metadata:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the accuracy of the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

In the picture below you can see the Conceptual Data Model’s properties dialogue window, where the information can be viewed and edited:

Business Process Network

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Process Network is to at document a mid- to high-level view of Business Processes and their interrelationships.

Core concerns: The Business Process Network template enables the documentation of top to mid-level processes. The core objects available to model with are Business Processes, Business Events, Business Objects, Business Scope, Information Systems, and different types of connections. Below you can see two examples of a Business Process Network modelled in different styles.

High level process view without business events or connections between processes:

High-level process view where business events and connections indicate a flow between processes, stakeholders and customers:

Relation to other templates: The top-level processes would typically be broken down to one or more levels of mid-level processes. The last level of Business Process Networks can then be broken down to several Workflow Diagrams or Business Process Diagrams detailing the activities contained within the business process

Properties and metadata: The Business Process Network can for example retain the following information:

Description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for executing the processes in the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

In the picture below you can see the Business Process Network’s properties dialogue window, where the diagrams properties can be viewed and edited:

Business Ecosystem

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Ecosystem template is to enable an organization to understand itself from an outside-out perspective by modelling the environment in which the organization is embedded.

Core concerns: The Business Ecosystem supplies five elements to model with: Business, People, Things, Business Interaction and Business Moment. The Business Ecosystem template should primarily be used for modeling entities outside the enterprise to identify new business opportunities in the form of Business Moments.

Above you can see a model of a Business Ecosystem. The blue areas are Business Moments, where the interactions between People, Businesses and Things create business opportunities for your enterprise.

Relation to other templates: The Business Ecosystem model is based on the Enterprise Design theories and is as such in the same family as the Customer journey map.

The Business Ecosystem is a strategic model and can be used to document a strategic possibility or track along with for example Business Capability Models, Strategy Models, and Work Models.

Properties and metadata: The Business Ecosystem can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the application architecture
Link to the one responsible for the application architecture
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

For more information: If you want to learn more about Enterprise Design, we have a four-part webinar by Milan Guenther available for viewing. You can also visit Milan’s website, where you can learn more about the Enterprise Design framework.

Business Chart

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Chart template is to create different graphs and charts using information from other diagrams and templates. The Business charts can then either be published on a Dashboard and/or stored.

Core concerns: The Business Chart template is concerned with analyzing other templates and models. Therefore, it is not modelled like a typical template, but created using the Chart Wizard found in the template’s property window:

Below, you can see the Chart Wizard that helps you create your Business Chart:

The Business Chart template can for example be used to generate a chart over how the capabilities or Key Performance Indicators of an enterprise are performing over time or compared to desired values. Additionally, Business Charts can be used to analyze static data entered in a Matrix model. You choose the input to your Business Chart as a ‘Data Source’ in the templates metadata (see figure under Metadata).

Below, you can see two very different examples of business charts:

Relation to other templates: The Business Charts are published using the Dashboard template.

Properties and metadata: The Business Chart template can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the business chart
Link to the one responsible for the business chart
Link to data source
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Business Chart Template where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.