Which category of activities should be identified first when developing a 'Business Activity Model' (BAM)?

The Business Activity Model (BAM) is constructed to represent the activities necessary to achieve a system's purpose, as defined in a root definition. The logical starting point is to identify the 'Doing' activities. These are the primary, operational activities that directly transform inputs into outputs and fulfill the core purpose of the business system. Once these fundamental value-creating activities are established, the other categories of activities—which plan for, provide resources for (enable), and measure the performance of the 'Doing' activities—can be logically derived. This ensures the model is built around the central function of the system.

A. Enabling: Enabling activities provide the resources (e.g., staff, technology) required by other activities. They cannot be identified until the core 'Doing' activities they must support are known.

B. Planning: Planning activities set the direction, scope, and targets for the 'Doing' activities. The 'Doing' activities must be defined first before they can be planned.

D. Monitoring: Monitoring activities assess the performance of the 'Doing' activities against the plan. Therefore, both the 'Doing' and 'Planning' activities must be identified before monitoring can be defined.

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1. Checkland

P. (1999). Systems Thinking

Systems Practice: Includes a 30-Year Retrospective. John Wiley & Sons. In Chapter 6

the construction of a conceptual model (or BAM) is described as flowing directly from the root definition's main verb

which corresponds to the primary 'Doing' activities. The other activities are logically dependent on these.

2. Wilson

B. (2001). Soft Systems Methodology: Conceptual Model Building and Its Contribution. John Wiley & Sons. Section 4.3

"Model Building

" explains that the primary-task activities (the 'Doing' activities) are derived directly from the transformation process (the 'T') in the CATWOE analysis and root definition. The regulatory (planning

monitoring

control) and enabling activities are then built around this core set.

3. The Open University. (2006). T3061 Managing complexity: a systems approach - Block 2

Section 5.3 Building the conceptual model. Milton Keynes: The Open University. This courseware explicitly states that the modeling process begins by listing the minimum necessary activities implied by the verb in the root definition. These verbs represent the core 'Doing' activities of the system.