Information and Knowledge Management using ArcGIS ModelBuilder

Monika Magnusson and Marie-Therese Christiansson
tions, such as eServices, the strategy level corresponds to providing services, the (operative) process
level corresponds to the performance and the system level to delivering services.
Figure 1: The three level model (Österle, 1995; Nilsson, 1999).
2.3.2 Goal modelling – some rationales
Soft goals and visions found in government policies or regulations are not directly achievable. Rather,
they are “achieved through a network of intentional dependencies” (Gordinj et al.,2006:27). Goal
modelling is utilised to plan, reveal, analyse or evaluate these dependencies between goals. Ideally
the goal models should enlighten why different organisational goals exist and how business processes,
and tasks fulfil the goals. Goal modelling enables the discovery of ‘logical holes’ i.e. soft goal
without measurable (hard) goals or tasks to fulfil them or, vice versa, planned actions without a clear
relationship to goals. Mapping of goals is therefore a natural step during the analysis of the current
(as-is) situation as well for the desirable (to-be) situation. Goal modelling is also vital for understanding
organisational problems and suitable solutions, and thereby possible to use both in the design and
evaluation of eServices. Gordijn et al. (2006:26): claim that “Software engineers must first understand
an eService before they can build effective systems to support it. That means understanding [...] the
enterprise’s goals and intentions”. In an eGovernment setting, goal modelling can also be utilised to
ensure that local goals are in line with transnational and national goals.
2.3.3 Goal modelling techniques
There are different approaches to goal modelling. Typically, a preliminary set of goals are first identified
and listed before their interrelationships are analysed, although the process is iterative in character.
When analysing interrelationships between goals, new goals are often identified. Subsequently,
the identification of goals could result in the decomposition of one goal into several others. Soft goals
(visions), hard goals and tasks can be decomposed into sub elements such as other soft goals, hard
goals, tasks or resources. The sub elements thus contribute to the higher level elements, see Figure
2. Kavakli (2004) claims that asking ‘how-and-why-questions’ can refine goals and goal models. That
is, by reflecting on why a goal or task exists it is possible to find higher-level elements and by asking
how the element should be made operational it is possible to reach more refined means. As shown in
Figure 2, with the AND-decomposition link, sometimes a combination of tasks is needed to fulfil a
hard goal. Subsequently a task or a hard goal can be achieved be one of many alternatives tasks (the
OR-decomposition link).
314