Analyzing Activities › Event Analysis › Event Classification

Event Classification

Events can be classified into two groups:

• External events—An external event is an event that results from the execution of some process outside the scope of analysis, which is seen as originating outside the scope.
• Temporal events—A temporal event is the arrival of a specific time that enables the execution of one or more processes.

Although the existence of an external event arises from some external activity, the identity and execution of that activity are not visible to the roles and activities within the analysis scope. Only the external event can be recognized.

For example, the external event "Customer Places Order" is the result of some purchasing process that is performed by a customer. The nature of this process is of no interest in analysis and indeed change without affecting the results of analysis. The external event "Customer Places Order" originates outside the enterprise.

Other events can arise within the enterprise but are outside the scope of analysis. For example "Foreign Currency Available" originate from a Treasury function outside the scope of Purchasing, where the process of securing currency is not visible to Purchasing roles or activities.

When you discover an event that results from a process within the scope of analysis, define that event as a post-condition of the process. Conditions are described in the Interpreting Dependencies section in this chapter.

The response include:

• Decisions that are taken by organizational roles within the scope concerning what response to make. For an account of role analysis, see the chapter "Analyzing Interactions."
• Performance of activities within the analysis scope.

When users are describing the response to events by business, distinguish between planned, repeatable responses and on demand reactions, which vary according to the circumstances of each event occurrence.

For example, when the event "Order Delivery is due" occurs, the business always performs the process Deliver Order. However, when "Customer complains that an order has not been delivered," the business does whatever is necessary to satisfy the customer.

Planned the responses are candidates for information system support. Informal, on demand responses are more difficult to automate but examined for opportunities to improve formality. If a customer complaint, perhaps the human decisions cannot be formalized, but the selected response include some formal, repeatable activity. This response executes the process Record Complaint, or even Deliver Order if the business has omitted to do this, or the delivery is found to be lost and must be repeated.