A Practical Framework To Turn IoT Technology Into Operational Capability
technology requirements from the three stakeholder environments( groups).
To deliver new IoT-enabled operational capability, this article proposes a practical framework that creates a shared understanding of:( 1) the business case,( 2) the solution architecture around integration, services and data flow and( 3) the domain model.
PROBLEM SPACE
The challenges associated with extracting data from sensors and machines is less of a capability gap than leveraging the data from them, as can been seen from the McKinsey survey.
The goal of this framework is not to address the technical aspects of IoT integration such as connectivity, security and interoperability. These are key technical success factors for any IoT project and warrant comprehensive technical consideration that is beyond the scope of the business focus of this article. Instead, we aim to create a practical IoT to Operational Capabilities( I2OC) framework that tackles the following business challenges:( 1) How do we describe and agree on the key business outcomes that an IoT solution will deliver,( 2) How do we describe and agree on the business integration of heterogeneous machine-borne( IoT) data with existing business applications and( 3) how do we describe and agree on the integration of IoT into existing business workflows.
Developing such a framework requires different perspectives or viewpoints and the Industrial Internet Consortium’ s Industrial Internet Reference Architecture 8( IIRA) provides practical guidance on these viewpoints. These four viewpoints are:( 1) business,( 2) usage,( 3) functional, and( 4) implementation.
“ The business viewpoint attends to the concerns of the identification of stakeholders and their business vision, values and objectives in establishing an [ Industrial IoT ] IIoT system in its business and regulatory context. It further identifies how the IIoT system achieves the stated objectives through its mapping to fundamental system capabilities.” 9 The I2OC framework describes the stated objectives in terms of key business drivers and identifies the fundamental system capabilities needed to achieve these objectives.
“ The usage viewpoint addresses the concerns of expected system usage. It is typically represented as sequences of activities involving human or logical( e. g. system or system components) users that deliver its intended functionality in ultimately achieving its fundamental system
8 https:// www. iiconsortium. org / IIRA. htm( version 1.8 accessed January 26, 2018)
9 https:// www. iiconsortium. org / IIC _ PUB _ G1 _ V1.80 _ 2017-01-31. pdf( page 15)
IIC Journal of Innovation- 35-