Business Mapping

A New Approach to Building Systems

To compete in today's environment, businesses need to be proactive. They need the ability to direct change and innovate, thereby dramatically improving the way they do business.

This requires a new approach to building the systems used to manage the business. Systems can no longer be built to meet a particular functional need - because if the need changes or is different elsewhere in the organisation, then the system has to change. This traditional approach to system development results in delay and frustration, and constrains the way business operates.

The new approach starts with an activity called Business Mapping. Like surveying a piece of land before you decide on the buildings, Business Mapping is concerned with identifying and defining what the business manages and how it does it. This approach requires senior business managers, from across the organisation, to participate in mapping workshops. The investment of time (days rather than months) enables their understanding of the business and it's long-term policies to be captured and communicated.

The following pages describe how the business map is built and how it is used.