The development of the Business Motivational Model (BMM) provides standard definitions and structures for the elements of a business initiative such as the business vision and the related goals and objectives. It also defines relationships between elements e.g. a Goal amplifies a Vision and a Goal is supported by Strategy. The BMM addresses the business Owner's perspective and the Motivation ('Why' column) of the Zachman framework. The purpose of this article is to provide a summary of the model and some reasons why it can be of value.

In the information engineering field the use of models has been a long established practise. Data flow models such as Gane and Sarson have been used to model data flows, ERD diagrams have been used to model data and the advent of  the Universal Modelling Language (UML) have become well known to those involved in technical architecture. Modelling has been used to help ensure alignment between the different layers of IT architecture i.e. application, data and technical architecture. However there has not been such a focus on modelling the high level business architecture, i.e. why a business does what it does.  This is a little surprising given the fact that the need to ensure alignment between IT and business has been a common challenge amongst organisations.

The Business Rules Group (BRG), (www.businessrulesgroup.org) published the first version of the model in 2000. After 4 years of use by BRG members and others, the BRG updated it and published Version 1.1 in January 2005. The model was subsequently submitted to the Object Management Group (OMG) for approval. The OMG BMM Version 1.0 Specification was published and made available on the OMG website in August 2008 as OMG document number 'formal/08-08-02'

 
Figure 1: Business Motivation Model

The business motivational model consists of four core components.

1. The Ends – the desired state that the business wants. The “WHAT”
An End may be either a Vision or some Desired Result (a Goal or an Objective) and can be represented as a hierarchy. Vision is an overall image of what the organization wants to become and is more long term. It usually encompasses the entire organization and is long-term in its perspective. Desired Results, on the other hand, are the more specific Goals and Objectives that the enterprise, or some part of it, intends to achieve.

2. The Means  – the ways in which the end state is achieved. The “HOW”
The Means exists within a hierarchy as shown below, and consists of Mission, Courses of Action and Directives. A Mission indicates the ongoing operational activity of the enterprise.  Courses of Action are categorized as Strategies and Tactics. Directives indicate how the Courses of Action occurs and comprise the business rules and business policies that direct the business strategy and tactics. For example the strategy of a motor dealership to increase the level of repeat business may be guided by a business policy to contact customers after three months to ask if they are have any issues with their new vehicle.

 3.  Influencer
An Influencer is something that can impact what the business does i.e. the Ends (Vision, Goals etc) and how the business achieves its Ends (strategies and tactics).
Influencers may be Internal (from within the business) or External (from outside the
business boundary). For example, the bandwidth of the company network may be an internal Influencer which inhibits the strategy to provide all employees access to the internet. An external influencer would be a government regulation that restricts the hours that the company can trade.

4. Assessment
An assessment is a judgment about the influence on the enterprise’s ability to employ its Means or achieve its Ends. The decisions are reflected in changes to the Ends and/or Means. (3). SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) is an approach suggested by the BMM. However it is not mandated and a business can decide to use another method. A motor vehicle manufacturer may have a strategy of having a vehicle in every sector of the market. However after making an assessment that the luxury vehicle market will not provide sufficient return on investment it decides to change it strategy.

The Business Motivation Model is not a full business model e.g. it does not include a business process models. However as shown in figure 1 it does reference three business models being Business Process, Business Rules and Organisation Unit. 

There are many reasons to use the Business Motivational Model.  Firstly it provides visibility of how the elements of the BMM (vision, goals, strategy etc.) relate to the other OMG business models.  This helps the business to know whether it has the appropriate business processes, business rules and organisation structure. Having a complete model of the business would enable management to determine the impact of a change to a business process on the ability to implement its strategy. 

A second benefit of the BMM is that it provides definitions of goals, objectives, strategies and the other the elements of the model. In any organisation people will often have a different understanding of what the elements of the BMM mean and it is not uncommon for many of the terms to be used interchangeably e.g. goals and objectives. This can make it difficult to clearly communicate the business plan across the organisation. The BMM is applicable to any enterprise and different business units within an organisation unit can maintain their own model that aligns with head office other business unit models. 

One criteria to assess the benefits of any model is the ease with which it can be used. A model that is overly complex is unlikely to be used or maintained.  The Business Motivation Model is a simple structured model (approx 40 concepts) that can be drawn on one page. The BMM is agnostic in respect to methodology and could be utilised by a range of repository tools.

The Business Motivational Model has been created from a business perspective and its simplicity means it can be easily understood by management.  The use of a model to capture business motivation may help in educating senior management of the benefits of modelling and could possibly help in promoting the use of a complete enterprise architecture model.