Empowering the business analyst for on demand computing

The tools, methods, and techniques used to create business architecture are often quite different from those used in developing software architecture. This “impedance mismatch” or gap is aggravated by volatile business requirements that need to be satisfied in operational systems. Bridging this gap not only allows a more seamless transition and faster time to market, but also enables and empowers business analysts to contribute their deep subject matter expertise at many phases of the software-development life cycle, a critical aid in fruitful application development. This paper presents a case study of a project with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which explored the potential for reducing duplication of effort among patent offices by sharing work products. IBM provided an innovative method to support the analysis, the “business compiler,” a tool that implements Grammar-oriented Object Design (GOOD). GOOD is a method for creating and maintaining dynamically reconfigurable software architectures driven by business-process architectures. The business compiler was used to capture business processes within real-time workshops for various lines of business and create an executable simulation of the processes used.