Ideally your company has documented its information flows. Information flows should already be in the repository in order to define the business data that is transferred. Some analytics in Alfabet FastLane can only be understood if the relationships between information flows and business data are defined. information flow An information flow describes the exchange of business data between source and target applications.

An application can be a source of an outgoing information flow and the target of an incoming information flow. The information flows transfer the business data that applications either create, read, update, or delete (CRUD).

1. In the navigation panel, click Information Architecture > Information Flows to open the data workbench for information flows.​ The syntax of the information flow name is: <Source Application> > <Target Application>.
2. In the data table, click the navigate  button of the information flow you want to define. Go to the Overview tab and open and scroll to the Business Data page and open it.
3. Click New > Create Business Data and define the business data's basic information or click Add Existing Business Data to select a business data that is in the repository. Click OK or Next to save the data.

An application can be a source of an outgoing information flow and the target of an incoming information flow. The information flow transfers the business data that applications operate on. The application can create, read, update, delete (CRUD), or process the business data. The application's information flows may also use the business data.

In the navigation panel, click Application Architecture > Applications  to open the data workbench for applications.​ In the data table, click the navigate   button of the application whose use of business data you want to define. Go to the Overview tab and open and scroll to the Business Data page and open it.

Select the checkbox  for the business data you want to edit and click the Business Data Usage button to open the editor to define how the application operates on the business data. Select all checkboxes that are relevant for the application and click OK to save the specification.

Specify the usage of the business data by the source or target application or the information flow. In the Overview tab of the application, click either the application displayed in either the From (Source) Owner attribute or To (Target) Owner attribute to navigate to the application. In the Information Portfolio tab, scroll to the Business Data  page to open it.​ Select the checkbox   for the information flow you want to edit and click the Business Data Usage button to open the editor to define how the application operates on the business data. Select all checkboxes that are relevant for the application and click OK to save the specification.

• Create: Select if the business data can be created by the application.
• Is Input: Select if the business data can be used by any of the application's incoming information flows.
• Read: Select if the business data can be read by the application.
• Is Output: Select if the business data can be used by any of the application's outgoing information flows.
• Update: Select if the business data can be updated by the application.
• Delete: Select if the business data can be deleted by the application.
• Processing: Select if the application processes information pertaining to the business data. Processing indicates that the business data is handled in the context of the relevant object without the data being altered, created or deleted. The data is typically kept locally so that a desynchronization results between the processed business data and the system(s) of records for the business data.

  Typically, it is not the raw data that is processed but some aggregation or abstraction of the business data (for example, data in an operational data store or an OLAP-based reporting solution).

• Business Data Usage Comments: If required, provide additional information about the business data usage.

In contrast to the concept of an authorized user or authorized user group which grants read/write permissions to an object, roles which are fulfilled by people or organizations may also be specified for an object. The role definition specifies the functional relationship or responsibility that a user or organization has to an object. The specification of a role is primarily for documentation purposes and provides additional information about stakeholders interested or responsible for the object. A person assigned to have a role for an object will not have read/write permissions based on the role definition. If the user shall have read/write permissions, they must be assigned to an authorized user group specified for the object.

Alfabet FastLane provides out-of-the-box role types that enable you to understand who is responsible for your IT assets in your IT portfolio. Additional role types that are relevant for your company can also be added.

Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets? 

To define the users and organizations that have a role for an asset, navigate to the data workbench where the asset is defined. You can either:

• Click the Edit button to open the wizard and select Responsibilities in the Go to Step field.
• In the data table, click the navigate  button of the asset you want to define. Click Overview and scroll to the Responsibilities page and open it.

Define the users that have a role for an asset. In the toolbar, click Person to associate a user with the asset. The user can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

• Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the asset.
• Business Owner: A person or organization that owns the asset and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
• IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the asset and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
• Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the asset and therefore requires read-only access permissions.

In the selector, find the user to assign the role to and click OK.

Define the organizations that have a role for an asset. In the toolbar, click Organization to associate an organization with the asset. The user can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

• Business Owner: A person or organization that owns the asset and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
• IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the asset and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
• Operations: An IT organization responsible for the operations of the asset.
• Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the asset and therefore requires read-only access permissions.

In the selector, find the organization to assign the role to and click OK.

An evaluation is a measurement of the performance of an asset. Preconfigured indicator types and possibly custom indicator types added by your company are available to evaluate and are used in various analyses in Alfabet FastLane. Some indicator types are automatically computed by the system and others must be manually defined.

Update computed indicators. Click the Calculate button to update computed indicators via the Calculate button. The indicators will be recalculated based on the current. Please note that computed indicators that are calculated based on the current data.

Select an indicator type and click Edit Indicator or click Group Edit to open a dialog where all indicator types can be edited that are not automatically computed by the system.

Define the asset's indicators. To do so, navigate to the data workbench where the asset is defined:

• Click the Edit button to open the wizard and select Evaluations in the Go to Step field.
• In the data table, click the navigate  button of the asset you want to define. Click Overview and scroll to the Evaluations page and open it.

You can attach documents to objects in Alfabet FastLane in the Attachments view available in object profiles.

To define a generic attribute for an asset, navigate to the data workbench where the asset is defined. In the data table, click the navigate  button of the asset you want to define. Click Overview and scroll to the Attachments page and open it.

Upload a document to the asset.

Click New > Add Document. Select the file from your local drive and click Upload. The document is displayed in the data table.

Note that when you upload a document, you must ensure that the document is not encrypted. Encryption might be caused by Microsoft™ Information Protection. Only documents with the sensitivity label "Public" can be uploaded. Other reasons for encryption might also apply due to your company's security policies. The following file types are allowed: .xlsx, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, .zip, .png, .jpg, and .json The following file types are not allowed: .exe, .bat, .cmd, .ps1, .txt, .xml, .wsdl, .html, .svg

Add a URL to the asset. You can define a URL for the selected object. The user must have access permissions to the document and have access to the network path specified in the link and, typically, be in the same network domain.

• Title: Enter a meaningful title for the URL link to help users understand why you included this URL with the selected object.
• URL: Enter a valid URL starting with the prefix https://www. or http://www. The URL link may contain up to 511 characters. The user’s Windows® environment must be able to identify the document extension and identify the correct application to open the document. A validation will be executed to ensure that a new URL is well-formatted and does not contain a period <.> without a leading or trailing blank space.

The following browsers support opening the files via the Web link definition in Alfabet FastLane: Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 11.0 and Microsoft® Edge® in conjunction with Windows® 10. Mozilla® Firefox® 24.0 or higher including Mozilla® Firefox® Quantum are also supported but require additional configuration in the browser settings.