Organization decomposition diagrams (organization mapping)

An organization decomposition diagram describes the links between actors, roles and locations within an organization tree. An organization map should provide a chain of command of owners and decision-makers in the organization. Although it is not the intent of the organization decomposition diagram to link goal to organization, it should be possible to intuitively link the goals to the stakeholders from the organization decomposition diagram. This diagram can also describe the definition of actors and their responsibilities. The organization is presented in terms of connections between actors, or between actors and organization units showing hierarchical links, communications and responsibilities. Missions and responsibilities within an organization can also be highlighted, by presenting the main information flows circulating between the major participants of the enterprise. This shows which information is received, processed or emitted by whom in the organization, thereby illustrating the responsibilities of organizational elements. Organization decomposition diagrams are also used to define the different roles assumed by actors. In the example shown in Figure 1, locations, roles and actors are represented. The headquarters are in Paris, and there are three branches in Nantes, Toulouse and Lyon. Organization units have been allocated to the different locations. The majority of services are concentrated in Paris. The IT department is based in Toulouse. The sales department is split over each of the branches. Through their responsibility links (role to role or organization unit), the geographica locations of roles is often implicit.

As shown in Figure 2, the definition of roles and their responsibilities is a good means of presenting the functioning of an enterprise in a general way. The actors of the enterprise and their interactions provide an overview of the organization.

An actor can represent several people within the enterprise, just as one person can correspond to several actors. Certain actors represent a group of people or actors, as in the example of "board of directors": this is an instance which groups together the directors of different departments. But like any actor, it has responsibilites and makes decisions.

Actors who are external to the enterprise are useful for showing how they are positioned with regard to the organization itself: who interacts with them.

Elements present: • Responsibility links which describe the hierarchy • Responsibility links to organization units, which indicate who is responsible for which organization unit • Communication links, which indicate who communicates with whom • Composition links, to show the constitution of composite actors. • Internal actors, who are actors who take part in the functioning of the enterprise • External actors, who are actors outside the enterprise but who interact with it (here: client and partners)

Figure 3 presents the main information flows that circulate within the enterprise. They are received from or sent to actors and/or organization units. This example focuses on flows emitted from/sent to external actors, and on the main organization units involved in their processing

Elements used:

• Actors

• Business Units

• Information flows: Information can be related to business entities to express that these are the exchanged data (Bill and Order in this example

Figure 4 shows which roles are assumed by the actors. An actor assumes a role to perform a task. The usual or expected function of an actor, or the part somebody or something plays in a particular action or event, are modeled here.

Elements used: • Actors • Roles • "assumes" dependencies

Figure 5 shows the same kind of model, but presents a great level of detail, focused on one actor. Such a detailed model per actor provides a detailed definition of each actor, showing its missions, responsibilities and rights. This figure presents the goals assigned to the sales director, his/her responsibilities (business units, managed actors), the business processes that he/she owns, his/her locations, the assumed roles, the application components that he/she uses, the other actors with whom he/she interacts, and the business entities he/she accesses with his/her rights.