What are the best practices and tools for creating and updating the Business Motivation Model?

1 Understand the purpose and scope

Before you start creating or updating your BMM, you need to understand the purpose and scope of your model. Why are you creating or updating it? What problem are you trying to solve or opportunity are you trying to seize? Who are your intended audience and users? What level of detail and granularity do you need? How will you measure and monitor your progress and outcomes? Answering these questions can help you define the scope and boundaries of your model, and avoid unnecessary complexity and ambiguity.

2 Use a standard notation and structure

A BMM is composed of four main elements: ends, means, influencers, and assessments. Ends are the desired outcomes or states that you want to achieve, such as vision, goals, and objectives. Means are the courses of action or resources that you use to achieve your ends, such as mission, strategies, tactics, and policies. Influencers are the external or internal factors that can affect your ends and means, such as risks, opportunities, stakeholders, and regulations. Assessments are the evaluations or judgments that you make about your ends, means, and influencers, such as SWOT analysis, feasibility study, or performance indicators. To create or update your BMM, you should use a standard notation and structure that follows these elements and their relationships, such as the OMG BMM Specification or the ArchiMate Motivation Extension. This can help you ensure consistency, clarity, and compatibility of your model.

3 Align your model with your business architecture

A BMM is not a standalone artifact, but a part of your business architecture. Your business architecture is the blueprint that describes how your business operates, delivers value, and meets its goals. It includes various views and models that cover different aspects of your business, such as capabilities, processes, services, information, organization, and stakeholders. To create or update your BMM, you should align it with your business architecture, and ensure that your ends and means are supported by your capabilities and processes, and that your influencers and assessments are reflected in your services and information. This can help you ensure coherence, relevance, and traceability of your model.

4 Involve your stakeholders and validate your model

A BMM is not a static document, but a dynamic and collaborative tool. Your business goals, strategies, tactics, and influences can change over time, depending on the market conditions, customer needs, competitor actions, regulatory requirements, and internal capabilities. To create or update your BMM, you should involve your stakeholders and validate your model regularly. Your stakeholders are the people who have an interest or influence in your business, such as customers, employees, partners, suppliers, regulators, and investors. You should engage them in defining, reviewing, and refining your model, and solicit their feedback and input. You should also validate your model against your business reality, and check if it is feasible, realistic, achievable, and measurable. This can help you ensure accuracy, completeness, and buy-in of your model.

5 Use a suitable tool or software

A BMM is not a simple diagram, but a complex and rich model. It can contain multiple layers, elements, relationships, attributes, and annotations. To create or update your BMM, you should use a suitable tool or software that can help you capture, visualize, analyze, and communicate your model. There are various tools and software that can support BMM creation and updating, such as Archi, Sparx Enterprise Architect, BiZZdesign Enterprise Studio, or BMM Studio. These tools and software can help you create and edit your model using a standard notation and structure, align it with your business architecture using a common repository and framework, involve your stakeholders and validate your model using collaboration and simulation features, and use your model for decision-making and change management using reporting and dashboard functions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?