Candidate Entity Type and Activity Analysis

Applications

To identify candidate entity types and activities to be included in an information architecture for business reengineering, process redesign or other enterprise engineering projects.

Procedures

1. Review information sources, such as key business documents, interview notes, or focus group notes.
2. Create a candidate list of the entity types and activities which support the scope of value stream analysis (e.g., which satisfy customer requirements).
3. Apply an appropriate information engineering modeling technique to derive an information architecture. (See Entity Relationship Modeling and Process Modeling.)

The information sources are reviewed, and any candidates for entity types or business activities are documented. During this review, it is inevitable that there will be confusion about certain aspects of the business, a lack of detail on some topics, and specific questions arising from the review. These issues should also be noted so that they can be resolved during subsequent enterprise engineering sessions (e.g., workshops, additional interviews, etc.).

Also identify candidate and other relevant information, including attribute types, source of creation, synonyms, and relationship types.

A list (see following example) can then be used to develop an information architecture, using an appropriate modeling technique.

Example