Catalyst Concepts
The Catalyst framework illustrates the breadth of areas addressed by the Catalyst methodology.
A specific program, project or outsourcing engagement will not necessarily include all life cycle phases and management areas, but the fact that they are available and already integrated is one of Catalyst’s strengths.
Domains of Change
Catalyst views the business situation from six basic perspectives referred to as the domains of change:
Business Process. What opportunities exist to improve current processes to enhance business performance?
Organization. What change in culture, capabilities, roles, and training is needed to accomplish the necessary business change?
Location. What is needed in terms of geographic distribution of processes, people, technical infrastructure, data, and applications?
Data. What information content and structure is necessary to meet the business requirements?
Application. What application design best fulfills the requirements and how should the application be developed, integrated, tested, and deployed?
Technology. What are the hardware, system software, and communication network components needed to support the business and its systems?
Life Cycle Processes
Catalyst processes address all life cycle phases necessary for enterprise business change and continuous improvement:
- Vision and Strategy establishes the business vision and priorities and determines direction for subsequent initiatives.
- Architecture establishes the requirements, direction, and structure for the business and the supporting information systems.
- Development designs, builds, and tests the solution components (from all domains of change) that compose a release.
- Integration tests and incorporates solution components from the required change domains into a new or evolving systems environment.
- Deployment pilots and launches the operational systems, processes, and organizational change components to the organization.
- Operational services performs and supports defined service levels for the operation, maintenance, and support of the new or existing systems.
Management Processes
Catalyst addresses all the necessary management areas for overseeing large-scale business change and ongoing services:
- Enterprise and Portfolio Management
- Program Management
- Project Management
- Service Management
- Architecture and Engineering Management
- Management Support Processes