The Business Motivation Model (BMM) in enterprise architecture provides a scheme and structure for developing, communicating, and managing business plans in an organized manner. Specifically, the Business Motivation Model does all of the following:
- identifies factors that motivate the establishing of business plans;
- identifies and defines the elements of business plans; and
- indicates how all these factors and elements inter-relate.
What is the Business Motivation Model?
There are two major areas of the Business Motivation Model.
- The first is the Ends and Means of business plans. Among the Ends are things the enterprise wishes to achieve — for example, Goals and Objectives. Among the Means are things the enterprise will employ to achieve those Ends — for example, Strategies, Tactics, Business Policies, and Business Rules.
- The second is the Influencers that shape the elements of the business plans, and the Assessments made about the impacts of such Influencers on Ends and Means (i.e., Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
The Ends, Means, and Influencers are related to each other in order to answer the following two fundamental questions:
- What is needed to achieve what the enterprise wishes to achieve?
This question is answered by laying out the particular elements of the business plans — in other words, the Means necessary to achieve the desired Ends. - Why does each element of the business plan exist?
This question is answered by identifying the particular Ends that each of the Means serves, and the Influencers that underlie the choices made in this regard. This is what is meant by motivation.
All elements of the Business Motivation Model are developed from a business perspective. The basic idea is to develop a business model for the elements of the business plans before system design or technical development is begun. In this manner, the business plans can become the foundation for such activity, connecting system solutions firmly to their business intent.