The Technology Suite of Automation

Abstract

The previous chapter introduced the idea of diagrammatic expression. If successful, that activity has brought us a collection of “blueprints” that abstractly represent a corporate function, or perhaps the whole of the corporation. What comes next is a critical step—mapping technology and methodology to key parts of the function. Here is where a surprising amount of art and judgement can make the difference between good automation efforts and poor ones. In this chapter I will present several guidelines about how to make this work well and to keep you from making poor, uninformed or unwise choices about where to apply technology and methodology to the blueprint.