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 )
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