| Backbone Cabling |
The vertical or riser cabling of a multistorey building (Building Backbone) or inter building cabling of a multi building site (Campus Backbone). |
| Base Product Name |
This is only applicable to off-the-shelf products and is the commercial name by which the product is known in the market rather than a name by which it might be known in an agency. This permits easy identification of similar products and is particularly important in capturing information for the Queensland Government Baseline. For example, although a customer relationship management application based on Siebel CRM may be known as "the Client Management system" in your agency, the Base Product Name will permit identification of other applications based on the same product which are in use across Government. |
| Baseline |
A description of existing programs, projects, investments and/or assets. Established to understand the existing environment, it provides a starting point against which progress or improvements can be assessed. |
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BCP (Business Continuity Plan) |
See "Business Continuity Plan". |
| Benefit |
The improvement resulting from an outcome, which is perceived as positive by a stakeholder and will normally have a tangible value expressed in monetary or resource terms. Benefits are realised as a result of activities undertaken to effect a change. Benefit realisation often takes time as outcomes are operationalised. Benefits can be Measurable, Financial, Quantifiable and/or Observable. |
| Benefit and Change Owner |
The role responsible for benefits management, from identification through to delivery, and ensuring the implementation and embedding of the new capabilities delivered - typically allocated to more than one individual. Also called 'Change Agent' or 'Business Change Manager'. |
| Benefit Owners |
A Benefit Owner is an individual or group who will gain advantage from a business benefit and who will work with the Business Change Manager and the program or project team to ensure that the benefit is realised. In many instances the Business Change Manager will be the benefit owner. Benefits owners are identified and recorded in the Benefits Profile. |
| Benefits Dependency Network |
This tool is a critical success factor in the benefits management process. The network enables the investment objectives and their resulting benefits to be linked in a structured way to the business, organisational and ICT enabled changes required to realise those benefits. The network should be created from the right of the page to left. Construction of the network commences with understanding the drivers acting on the organisation, agreement on the investment objectives for the particular initiative and identification of the benefits that will result if the investment objectives are achieved. |
| Benefits Management |
The identification of potential benefits, their planning, monitoring and tracking, the assignment of responsibilities and authorities and their actual realisation as a result of investing in business change. It is usually carried out as a key part of program management or project management. |
| Benefits Management Approach |
How the program will handle benefits management. |
| Benefits Profile |
The complete description of a benefit or dis-benefit. |
| Benefits Realisation Plan |
A complete view of all the Benefit Profiles in the form of a schedule. |
| Benefits Specialist |
In support of the Senior Responsible Owner and the Business Change Managers, and depending on the level of complexity of initiatives, a Benefits Management Team of Benefits Specialists and Analysts will be appropriate. A typical Benefits Specialist would be responsible for coordinating the implementation of the agency’s Benefits Management Strategy and the activities in support of that strategy at the program or project level. |
| Best and Final Offer (BFO) |
In complex acquisitions of ICT goods and services it may be necessary to engage in a best and final offer process to obtain the optimum results. Such offers may be confined to price, but may also extend to the scope of the goods, equipment and related services and service contracts proposed by a supplier. Formal notice is required in the original invitation document to reserve the right of the agency to issue an invitation for a best and final offer. |
|
BFO (Best and Final Offer) |
See "Best and Final Offer". |
| Blueprint |
A future model of the Agency or business unit, it’s working practices and processes, the information it requires and the technology that will be needed to deliver the capability described in the Vision Statement. This is often portrayed diagrammatically from a future state perspective. |
| Bottom-up Estimating |
Approximating the size (duration, effort and cost) and risk of a project (or phase) by breaking it down into activities, tasks and sub-tasks, estimating the effort, duration and cost of each and rolling them up to determine the full estimate. Determining duration through a bottom-up approach requires sequencing and resource levelling to be done as part of the scheduling process. Best performed by those actually intended to do the work, or those with the same skill sets required for that work. |
| Building and Entry Controls |
Access control mechanisms, which restrict access to areas, such as checking of identification, access tokens, smartcards or any other form of identification system. |
| Building Distributor (BD) |
The distributor in which building cable(s) terminate(s) and at which connections to the campus backbone cable(s) may be made. |
| Business and Information Visioning |
A critical part of the strategic planning process which enables the creation of future scenarios to help drive and direct the investment in ICT in the agency. It provides the agency with an opportunity to think about future business models and approaches.
It usually takes the form of a workshop bringing the ICT Planning Team together with business staff and managers.
The process should consider the needs of the business in the future and provide direction for existing and future information and applications, and possibilities for new information, applications or technologies. |
| Business Case |
Refer to Program Business Case or Project Business Case. |
| Business Case Management |
The manner in which the program's rationale, objectives, benefits and risks are balanced against the financial investment, and how this balance is maintained, adjusted and assessed during the program. |
| Business Change Manager |
The Business Change Manager is responsible for realising the benefits by embedding the capability generated by the program into business operations. The Business Change Manager has responsibility for benefits definition and management throughout the program. |
| Business Changes |
Those changes to working practices, processes, and/or relationships which will cause the benefits to be delivered (or begin to be delivered). They cannot normally be made until the new business or technical system is available for use and the necessary enabling changes have been made. |
| Business Context Diagram |
A Business Context Diagram is a graphic depiction of relationships among business role-players. It shows external relationships with businesses, individuals and the as well as relationship with internal role players and the agency or business unit being analysed. The diagram consists of labelled circles which represent the role-players and labelled arrows that indicate the type and direction of business interactions. Business role-players are generally organizations, divisions, and departments. The Business Context Diagram can also contain potential role players. In addition to the key role-players, the context diagram helps the Business Analyst to understand more about business functions, behaviour, and outcomes. |
| Business Continuity (BC) |
Business continuity (BC) addresses organisational recovery following a disaster. It assumes that prevention arrangements have failed and that an incident has occurred which has interrupted normal business to the extent that corrective action is required. |
| Business Continuity Plan (BCP) |
A plan that describes a sequence of actions, and the parties responsible for carrying them out, in response to a series of identified risks, with the objective of restoring normal business operation as soon as possible. |
| Business Direction |
The strategic focus of an organisation, a tendency toward a particular end or goal. |
| Business Domain |
One of the categories in the Queensland Government's generic classification scheme which seeks to identify the types of Business processes required to meet organisational requirements.
Domains are organised in a hierarchy of three levels with Level 1 as the broadest grouping and level 3 as the most specific.
(See also "Business Portfolio Framework") |
| Business Drivers |
Business needs or opportunities which influence business planning decisions. Drivers can be both external and internal but are specific to the context in which the organisation operates. |
| Business Exposure Grid |
One of the ICT Asset Assessment grid models used in the Queensland Government ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology to assess the current risk to the business posed by each asset to the business based on its Business Impact and Technical Condition. The Business Impact can be used to indicate the consequences to the business should the asset fail or not be available. The Technical Condition can be interpreted as a measure of the likelihood of failure.
The significance of the quadrants of the Business Exposure grid (in descending order of risk) is as follows:
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Extreme - high business value with low technical condition
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High - high business impact and high technical condition
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Medium - low business impact and low technical condition
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Low - low business impact and high technical condition (See also "ICT Asset Assessment Grid Model") |
| Business Goals |
Generalised statements of the long-term targets that an organisation is aiming to achieve. |
| Business Goals Support |
A dimension in the assessment of Information Future Business Value in the Queensland Government ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology. It deals with the extent to which the use of an Information Asset is capable of furthering the goals of the organisation.
(See also "Business Goals", and "ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology") |
| Business Impact |
A major characteristic in the Queensland Government ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology. It measures the significance of the Information Asset/Application/ Technology to the business in terms of its coverage and support for existing business outcomes in meeting its operational and service delivery requirements.
The evaluation criteria include:
- the operational/ political/legislative impact of unexpected outage or failure;
- fitness for current purpose;
- scope of use; and
- frequency of use.
The assessment of Business Impact is not designed to determine where the agency would be without this type of application but to determine how much leverage the agency is getting out of the current application.
(See also "ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology") |
| Business Imperatives |
Government and legal obligations that an agency must fulfil that may not be explicit in their business strategy documents. For example, payroll, financial reporting obligations, ministerial briefs. |
| Business Imperatives Support |
A dimension in the assessment of Future Business Value in the Queensland Government ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology. It relates to the extent to which an asset relates to the furthering of the business imperatives of the organisation.
(See also "Business Goals" and "ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology") |
| Business Objective Support |
A dimension in the Queensland Government ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology. It measures the extent to which an application or technology relates to the furthering of the business objectives of the organisation.
(See also "Business Objectives", and "ICT Portfolio Assessment Methodology") |
| Business Objectives |
Specific and measurable outcomes that are to be achieved in a specific timeframe. |
| Business Portfolio Framework |
A logical structure developed for the business layer of the Government Enterprise Architecture which defines the Queensland Government's generic classification scheme in terms of business systems and functions required to meet organisational requirements. This framework provides a taxonomy for categorising the business processes used across the Queensland Government so agencies can reach a common viewpoint of the Business Domains across the Queensland Government for consistency in ICT Planning across Government. As the framework is based on what the process does rather than where it is applied, such classification can identify any overlaps in business processes and activities within the agency as well as a basis for potential future business partnering between agencies with similar business process profiles. |
| Business Process |
A Business Process is the execution of a sequence of related steps in response to an event that leads to a clearly defined deliverable or outcome. A number of role-players may contribute to the execution of an end-to-end Business Process. End-to-end business processes may also cross functional boundaries. If service channels have already been identified, it should be noted that different service channels are usually described in separate Business Processes. |
| Business Process Register |
Register which lists the Business Processes of an agency. These can be identified from a breakdown of the major functions of each business or program unit. |
| Business Profile |
The Business Profile for ICT Planning is a collection of information on the agency Vision, Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Business Processes within the scope of the ICT Planning Process and the strategic alignment between these elements. |
| Business Profile Template |
A template provided in the ICT Planning Methodology to document the Business Profile which offers guidance in completing the Business Dashboard and evaluating the strategic alignment between the elements of business direction and how well they are supported by the business processes. |
| Business Strategies |
The generalised mechanisms that the agency employs to assist in achieving the business objectives. |
| Business Vision |
The business vision of an organisation reflects the key focus of the organisation and how it wants to be perceived by external parties at some point in the future |