Project Requirements Process R020

Blog: Biz-Performance, David Brown

R020 – Business Vision, Objectives, Do-wells

DEFINITION

Provide a high-level statement of the organisation’s business objectives. This should relate to the aspects of the business which the project is concerned with. It may be in the form of a business vision, statement of objectives and do-well statements. The study is not restricted to the objectives of the project – it is intended to give a clear understanding of the underlying business such that needs and requirements, (plus future selection, design and change decisions) can be established on the basis of the true underlying business vision.

SUMMARY

Ideally there should be a firm, defined understanding of what the business is trying to achieve. This may already have existed within the organisation or it may be established during the Project Launch segment. If it is incomplete or insufficient, further work may be required to identify the underlying requirements for the new system.

Key questions to answer may be:

What is this business trying to do – where does it want to go and how?
What specific objectives have been defined to meet this vision?
What must the organisation do well to achieve those objectives?
Hence – what are the main objectives and priorities for applications in the defined area?
How can we measure success in meeting the business objectives and the success of the new business system?

PATH PLANNING GUIDANCE

This process is optional. It is used where a strategic view of the organisation and its business systems is relevant to the requirements for the current project and that view is not sufficiently established already.

DEPENDENCIES

Prerequisites (Finish-Start):

Project launch

Prerequisites (Finish-Finish):

Review / confirm business needs and anticipated benefits (L020)

Dependent procedures (Finish-Finish):

Needs for business change and priorities (R050)
System vision (R070)

RECEIVABLES

project constitution / scope

DELIVERABLES

Business Objectives -part of Definition of Requirements (DoR)

TOOLS

Examples: Balanced Business Scorecard
Examples: Enterprise Architecture,
Examples: Benefit Model
Guidelines: MOC – “Collaborative” approach
Examples: Balanced Scorecard approach
Other methodologies as appropriate, eg

Balanced Business Scorecard,
IT Strategy,
IT Assessment,
Strategic Systems Planning,
Benefit Realisation,
Business Process Re-engineering / Improvement.
Enterprise Architecture Tools and Frameworks – TOGAF, APICS SCOR, eTOM etc,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

Purpose of this process

The objectives, needs and requirements relating to a new system should not be developed in isolation from the overall business objectives of the organisation. On the contrary, they should be drawn directly from the underlying business vision.

This process is intended to identify the business vision, objectives and do-wells such that the requirements for the new system can be developed with these underlying needs in mind. This may either require the identification and dissemination of existing concepts, or it may involve the development of a new or revised statement of the organisation’s objectives.

There are two main ways in which this information is used:

It provides a framework within which the objectives, needs and requirements of the proposed system can be examined. This allows the project team to:

understand why certain needs and requirements exist,
question whether the needs and requirements expressed by users are genuine needs or are merely symptoms of a different problem,
see the wider picture of the business and its needs such that business processes can be re-examined and re-engineered if appropriate.

It contributes to the baseline understanding of the business processes and the anticipated usage and benefits of the system. This should be used in future stages of the project to help the team to:

refine the definition of anticipated benefits / benefit model,
provide background text for the documentation sent to prospective vendors,
evaluate tenders,
understand the business processes during the design and prototyping of the system,
consider the desirability of any proposed changes to the project scope or design.

Scope of this process

The scope of this process may vary vastly depending on the needs of the client organisation. It could form a major project in its own right, setting a business vision by extensive workshops at senior executive level using specific approaches and methodologies, such as those employed by a Consulting Company..

Alternatively, it might be a simple question of documenting a business vision which is already well established and understood within the organisation’s executive.

The process will normally examine the underlying business objectives of either the whole organisation, or of those parts of the organisation that are relevant to the current project. Note that the scope for this process would normally be wider than the defined scope for the overall project and it should not, therefore, be constrained by the stated scope of the project.

In many projects there may not be a need for this process at all. The business vision may already be firmly established and documented, or there may not be a sufficient strategic element to the business needs to justify a review of the underlying business vision and objectives.

Nature of the investigation

Try to establish the organisation’s business vision. This usually requires the participation of the most senior executives. They should be coached to debate and agree where they want the business to be going.

Try to gain a thorough understanding of how this vision corresponds to specific business objectives. There should be defined “hard” objectives. These objectives should be formulated to lead the organisation towards its vision.

Try to understand what the objectives mean in practical terms. How is the organisation going to achieve those objectives? What must it do well to succeed with them.

Try to understand how the things that need to be done well will be promoted. How will they be measured? How will they be impacted by the proposed system? What is the relationship between obtaining these business goals and the scope and anticipated benefits for the new system?

Techniques

The process requires active participation from the organisation’s executive and key decision makers. Only they can consider and agree what the organisation’s true vision and objectives should be.

This participation would normally be achieved using a series of workshops, facilitated by an outside specialist. It may be appropriate to use the workshopping techniques from the “Collaborative Approach” to change management (see Guidelines: MOC – “Collaborative” approach).

It is probably best to address the issues in sequence, holding at least one workshop for each step, eg:

vision
objectives
do-wells
consequences / actions / performance measures.

Example approach based on the Balanced Business Scorecard

Its is recommend that there is a strategic top-down approach to the business vision and objectives. This approach is known as the “Balanced Business Scorecard”.

The business strategy is developed from the initial vision, through the objectives and specific “Do-Wells”. Specific Performance Measures are defined to promote these do-wells and to demonstrate how well they are being achieved. This is based on the premise that if you measure something the personnel will strive to score highly in the measurement – this, of course, makes it vital that the right measurements are defined otherwise it might be all too easy to obtain a high score in an undesirable way (for example, increasing customer satisfaction by doubling the workforce).

The Performance Measures are set out in the form of a “Balanced Business Scorecard”.

SIIPS The Balance Business Scorecard Approach.PNG

The Performance Measures in the “Balanced Business Scorecard” are deliberately constructed to give a balanced view of the things which the organisation must get right if it is to succeed. This view de-emphasises the eventual financial outcomes and emphasizes those aspects of the business that to lead to financial success. The balance is given by looking at four perspectives:

SIIPS The Balance Business Scorecard Approach 2 .PNG

Documenting the organisational impact

The findings from this process will be included in the Definition of Requirements (DoR). The contents should be agreed informally with the appropriate executives and managers prior to publication in the DoR (see Process R150).