Spatial Browser

Logon and click Submit then select Spatial Browser from the Browser tabs at the top of the window. This will bring up the Spatial Browser page directly.  The graphic presents a four piece jigsaw which represents the PROMIS EA Framework, namely:

• Business Architecture – enterprise environment
• Application Architecture – computerised/manual systems information use
• Information Architecture – support of Business Decision making and applications
• Technical Architecture – Hardware devices

Note: In reality there would be a fifth piece of the jigsaw representing the Methods Architecture – How the organisation creates strategy, delivers systems, manages projects (ITIL – IT Infrastructure Library, MSP – Managing Successful Programmes, Prince2 – Projects in a Controlled Environment, M_O_R – Management of Risk, P3O – Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices.

Select Business Architecture - the example shows Customers being Freight and Individuals and their mapping to the Markets the categorise being both Freight and Passengers, Domestic and International.  We can see that the Channels to market are currently only through Agents and that the model needs updating to accommodate Web access.  Services are aligned with the Markets as are Products.  There are more Stakeholders than expected covering all aspects of the business but the number of Suppliers has been kept to a minimum to simplify business operations.

Note: It should be noted that we refer to the types of information that the business uses as Item Types and that occurrences of  information for each Item Type are called Item Type Instances.  So, for example, a Stakeholder is an Item Type but a Captain is an example of an instance of this Item Type.

The Eval model data leans more towards addressing Tactical and Operational issues rather than Strategic imperatives.

Technology shows the types of aircraft in the fleet which needs to increase according to the objectives in their Business Models. 

We can drill down and look at the processes as set out in Control Service Support. This shows the Process Architecture alongside all the usual process item types such as Business Events, Business Rules, Resources etc. The Applications shows the list of Application Systems currently used by the airline.

We can reverse back out to show the big picture view again by selecting the icons we drilled down from, namely in Control Service Support and then click on the jig saw puzzle icon, which if you hover over tell us its name which is Architecture Home.  We can drill down into the other three Architecture Types or select from the drip down list.  If we select Application Architecture this shows us the Types and Functional Areas of the current systems.

We can also reveal the current Information Architecture and Technical Architecture by drilling down.

Note: We can also show other Frameworks like TOGAF in outline, if these have been setup (see TOGAF Framework in Part C of this document). There is also a Data Architecture spatial map on the Eval version of the software.

If we select Business Architecture from the big picture and then Organisation we are presented with a flat list.  We can drill down on any of the Organisation Units, say Operations and this will display an additional information pane.  This type of screen presentation is called GIDE (Graphical Item Display and Edit). 

The Spatial Browser has its own toolbar.  The default is Drill Down, but the others toolbar options provide for Properties etc. (hover the cursor over each toolbar item to see pop-up information).

Note: The Spatial browser provides a way of viewing information from the perspective of spatial models. These can reflect geographical maps, conceptual maps or topographical maps. A map has a background image and a variety of items mapped into its boundaries. These can represent further maps, allowing "drill down" capability; icons which will query the knowledge base for a specific type of item; or icons which represent specific items of a designated type. Other browsers may be launched from the spatial view, allowing designers to create rich interfaces to knowledge base information.   A few possible of this Browser Type include:

• Geographic maps with a world view, drilling down to a continent view, then a country view; possibly with cities mapped onto the surface at their latitude and longitude
• Architecture framework maps which will provide a graphical representation of the elements in a given architecture, with active icons which will list all elements in the knowledge base of the designated type. Levels of the architecture can be nested.
• The overall business view, balanced scorecard or key performance indicator

Note: We have extended our frameworks to include support for COBIT and TOGAF (see the Supplementary Information section at the end of this Guide).

To make more sense of this structure we can use another type of browser.  First select Air Apparent from the Item Type list and then click on to the Context browser tab.