We've been looking at BAM, the business activity model.

Remember, this was an illustration of one person's perspective. Other people will have different views. Contrary to popular opinion, the CEO's view of the world is not the only one.

Consider this — what's a prison? Is it a place of incarceration? Is it a place of punishment? Is it a venue for education, for rehabilitation? Well, the answer is, it's probably all of those things, it rather depends on your perspective.

What's a garden for? Relaxing? Growing flowers? Growing vegetables? Playing football?

What's your organization for?

Interesting questions.

If we're trying to define a target operating model, we shouldn't be relying on just one stakeholder's perspective, no matter how important, how senior they are. We need to incorporate multiple views.

And, indeed, if we're going to perform gap analysis using the business activity model, then we need to be looking at a model that the majority of key stakeholders accept, not one person's view.

So how do we get to consensus? Well, in an ideal world, the business analyst and stakeholders will examine the different perspectives, superimpose them, as it were.

Look for commonalities, look for differences, discuss those differences, come to agreement on the ideal view of the organization, in its future state, remember.

That's more realistically a lot of the time, we'll need somebody to make a decision and if you think back to the business perspective, back to CATWOE, the O in CATWOE was for 'Owner'.

This is the person who ultimately may be able to make that decision. To use a particular perspective, to use a combination of perspectives. To find some compromise that is acceptable.

Think of our Tutocracy case study and the perspectives that you know about in there. We had Jake. Jake's business activity model included setting up partnerships with education providers, scheduling classes, you know, music, drama, etc.

While Aisha's business activity model wouldn't mention those, would it? Because they weren't part of her perspective. But, her BAM would include, I assume, maintaining physical classrooms. Virtual ones as well.

So, there are going to be differences between their views. I guess they'd both agree on recruiting tutors, creating content, delivering sessions. But we'll have to facilitate a conversation between them to determine which other activities need to be part of this consensus view.

Understanding the consensus BAM | BAP |

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