Some EA And BPA Tools Support Enterprise Quality Initiatives

Many commercial organizations first captured business processes as part of enterprisewide quality initiatives. But now that multiple tools — such as business process analysis (BPA) tools as well as business process management (BPM) and enterprise architecture (EA) tools — also capture processes to support continuous productivity improvement initiatives, professionals in quality initiatives would like access to the graphical models. Despite arguments to the contrary from quality purists, sharing a common tool can be a pragmatic approach to process capture, especially considering the significant software licensing costs for these tools. Not all EA tools deliver comprehensive and specific quality-related capabilities to support Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), or ISO9000 programs. However, Forrester's 2007 analysis of leading EA tools revealed that most of the leading products from our evaluation (and some second-tier EA tool vendors) support quality functions in a limited fashion. Forrester recommends that EA tool customers continue to push EA vendors for improved quality program support.