| Introduce the approach to the company |
The EKD approach must first be ”sold” to the company. This, of course,
requires that the company management, or the those responsible for the
budget, must become convinced of the possible positive effects of using
it. Other employees of the company, relevant to the project, must be convinced,
if possible, that the EKD process will not threaten their jobs, positions,
or ”pet methods”. Using EKD will cost time and human resources. It is only
reasonable to understand that people, in general, are careful in accepting
a new way of working, considering hundreds of "new methods" offered to
them by consulting firms. In this initial stage, it is often helpful to
refer to other companies using EKD (success stories) or related methods,
such as Enterprise Modelling according to F3(Esprit project). |
| Set the scope and focus of the project |
An EKD project must have a well defined mission and expectations
regarding results. The purpose of the project must be clear to all involved.
Sufficient time must be given at the start in order to clarify the scope
and focus of an EKD project. |
| Obtain company support and resources -
get acceptance |
An EKD project cannot, similarly to other projects,
be successfully executed without sufficient resources and authority. Persons
involved must be explicitly given time to participate. Computing and other
resources must be allocated. Experience from Vattenfall shows that "participative
modelling" of a certain issue may require 5 - 8 participants, each participating
in at least 5 modelling sessions, consuming each about 30 person hours
in participative modelling, in consultations about the work produced, and
in the walk-through of models. |
| Define persons and roles in the modelling
project |
An EKD project typically involves a number of different types of
”actors” such as the project manager, the steering committee, the reference
group, the (domain experts) modelling participants, the modelling facilitators,
the modelling technicians, and others such as tool-set experts, persons
responsible for documentation, and model designers. However, not all of
these may be needed in a smaller project. |
| Select members of the project team |
As already mentioned, the result of an EKD process will not have
a larger span of influence than the influence of the highest official employee
of the modelling group. Also, nobody can be an expert on all possible aspects
of the project’s problem. Try to compose the group as broadly as possible
in order to cover different aspects of the issue at hand. |
| Get acquainted with project members |
It is advised not to start the first modelling session
without first meeting all the members of the modelling group individually.
The meeting can preferably be conducted as an ”interview”. The interviewers
should (at least) be the project manger and the modelling facilitators.
The interview normally gives an improved mutual understanding of what should
or could be done in the first modelling seminar, i.e. what kinds of issues
to tackle and which EKD models to employ at the start. In summary, the
interview should be carried out in order to obtain information to help
defining more clearly the focus of the participative modelling sessions. |
There
is a need to start a participative modelling project
Definition of the objectives and focus of the project, description of the
allocated resources and the project team.