Its time to throw out the flow charts. xBML breaks down the silos of an enterprise and provides the means for clear, concise communication between all members of the organization. Tyler and Baker provide a complete guide to xBML, and to why unlocking an organizationsBusiness Genetics will lead to quantifiable business improvement.

Cedric G. Tyler is President of BusinessGenetics®, principle inventor of the xBML methodology, and a leading expert in the fields of Business Modeling, Business Process and Information Technology. He began his career with IBM in the UK and subsequently cofounded INFOMET and Infolab, two international companies specializing in the business-to-information technology interface which were acquired by IBM in the 1990s. He has advised many leading organizations in the private and public sectors and served as an adjunct professor at the Daniels College of Business at Denver University.

Steve Baker is CEO of BusinessGenetics® and has over twenty-five years of experience in the IT, Healthcare, and Real Estate industries. He has held management positions in Fortune organizations including Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). For the past decade he has focused on improving the communication within and among businesses as well as improving their operational efficiencies. He sits on the boards of several private and nonprofit corporations, and has been an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Business.

Acknowledgements ix

Preface xi

1 Whats the issue and why should I care? 1

2 Why are tools to understand business so inadequate?5

2.1 How did we get here? 8

2.2 Business definition à la 20th century 13

2.3 But we have had some (limited) success 21

3 OK (enough already), so What must be done?25

3.1 Purpose-based thinking 33

3.2 How we answer the W5 questions 35

4 What do genetic business models (xBML) look like?39

W1: theWhatdimension 49

W2: theWhodimension 54

W3: theWheredimension 57

W4: theWhichdimension 61

W5: theWhenmodel 66

W5I (integrated): theHowmodel 69

5 How do we (quickly) create xBML models (aka Business Co-FormulationTM) 81

6 The So what (wheres my darn ROI?)97

6.1 Some quantifiable types of business gain 102

6.2 Some more very real but less quantifiable types of business gain 116

7 How do I implement this?131

7.1 Enterprise deployment? 131

7.2 But how do I implement or manage my xBML projects? 136

8 What about BPM (Business Process Management)? 141

9 What the heck is the difference between BPEL, BPMN, UML, IDEF and xBML?149

9.1 BPEL 150

9.2 BPMN 154

9.3 UML 159

9.4 IDEF 166

9.5 xBML 167

10 Based on (anticipated) popular demand, more on auto-business requirements generation 173

11 COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) software selection 181

12 An added big, big takeaway 185

13 A quick last summary 191

Appendices 195

Appendix A: xBML example Fill a vacant job position 195

Appendix B: Potential knowledge sources 201

Appendix C: Some government laws governing commerce 202

Appendix D: Sample enterprise deployment what model 209

Appendix E: BRD 211

Appendix F: Can xBML be automated? 216

Glossary 221

Bibliography 235

Index 237