Customer Journeys in EA

[dstueven]

Hi all,
I recently started working with EA using it to bridge the gap between business capability and technical architecture views. That works quite well for me using standard UML components which I tailored a bit using stereotypes, script and tags.
Now I would like to model customer journeys to map them to business capabilities (which then map to the architecture components).
Has anybody already done something like this? What ind of elements would you use for the steps of the customer journey? Is there any diagram type that is close to customer journeys?
Thanks for pointing me in any promising direction.

[Sunshine]

I use ArchiMate value chains, business processes and collaborations etc.
Can use time line graphs to show mood of customer - happy, sad etc
There are examples of similar approaches using ArchiMate for customer journeys
http://www.hosiaisluoma.fi/blog/customer-journey-archimate/
https://bizzdesign.com/blog/archimate-3-0-and-customer-journey-maps/

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I use ArchiMate value chains, business processes and collaborations etc.
Can use timeline graphs to show the mood of customer - happy, sad etc
There are examples of similar approaches using ArchiMate for customer journeys
http://www.hosiaisluoma.fi/blog/customer-journey-archimate/
https://bizzdesign.com/blog/archimate-3-0-and-customer-journey-maps/

Hi Sunshine,  for Value Chain, do you merely mean "chains of business function/processes"?  There is no occurrence of the term "Value Chain" in the ArchiMate 3.0 spec.  We're looking at implementing Porter-style Value Chains in out MDG, so I'm interested in others' experiences.

The existing EA "Value Chain" mechanism, is a starting point but needs some conceptual "jiggering" to make it work correctly with other elements.

Paolo

[Richard Freggi]

Use case diagrams are a very robust way to model customer needs, wants and expectations  (business capabilities).
The sequence diagrams let you model the specifics of how to satisfy these wants, needs and expectations.  You can accurately model how the system supports very complex requirements with sequence diagrams.
Then your class diagram shows the sum total of all classes and constraints that are needed to enable the sequence diagrams
Your system (technical) architecture (applications and interfaces) shows what IT systems provide the information defined in the class diagram.  In a good architecture (low cost, easy to implement and flexible to evolve) you will make careful balance of which system provides / enables  / transmits which class.

Each of these diagrams can be at contextual, logical or physical level depending what you want to show your audience.

Voila!  Traceability from customer requirement to IT enabler and back.  Time for a beer.

[dstueven]

Thanks to all for the input. I started using sequence diagrams but they still feel quite technical (even though I agree that at some stage in the process they are needed). That is why I am interested if others came to a different approach. Will try Archimate to see if that is closer to what I am looking for.
Thanks again and open to any other suggestions.

[Sunshine]

...
Hi Sunshine,  for Value Chain, do you merely mean "chains of business function/processes"?  There is no occurrence of the term "Value Chain" in the ArchiMate 3.0 spec.  We're looking at implementing Porter-style Value Chains in out MDG, so I'm interested in others' experiences.

The existing EA "Value Chain" mechanism, is a starting point but needs some conceptual "jiggering" to make it work correctly with other elements.

Paolo

Good question. Over the years I've implemented value chains using archimate in various forms.
Initially I used functions and processes. Recently in the last year or so I've added value stream to my MDG and used those to in conjunction with business capabilities to create value chains based on blog from Marc Lankhorst, Henk Jonkers and Adina Aldea at BizzDesign
https://bizzdesign.com/blog/why-adding-a-value-stream-element-to-archimate-is-key/
There is another blog about value mapping
https://bizzdesign.com/blog/archimate-3-0-and-value-mapping/
Still experimenting with it at present to see if it all makes sense to the business folk.
A little while ago I imported the APQC v7.1 model but ended up creating two new element types to try and match their terminology of Category, Group, process, Activity and Task at the various levels. I mapped Process to ArchiMate and Activity and Task to BPMN elements.
Using the APQC framework to model the whole enterprise. Replaced some of the unique specialised stuff with what my organisation does from our operations manual and it seems to be hanging together although its a lot of work and still not finished.
Not sure if there is a right answer for all of this.
I'd be interested in what you are doing.
Happy to share the APQC model but its mapped to my EA MDG and you would have to translate it to your MDG. Easy enough with a script or SQL statement