Based on the Client's needs, we need to confirm the future state of the business is well defined, feasible to reach with the resources available, and that the key stakeholders have a mutual understanding about the outcome.
- Visual models/text
- Identifying relevant relationships between entities
- Identifying the effort required to implement the change
- Identifying the expected outcomes from a change that might include specific metrics or loosely-defined results.
The overall description allows stakeholders to understand the potential value that can be gained from the solution. This is also an important decision-making point related to change strategy.
- Competing strategies that will achieve the future state that is to be identified and assessed
- Providing a definition of the outcomes that will satisfy the business needs
- Detailing the scope of the solution space
- Assessing the value of the future state
- For the stakeholders to reach a consensus
The future state can refer to literally any component of an organization, such as its processes, departments, projects, locations, data management, technologies, staff, culture, management styles, and so on.
If you have multiple future states, the stakeholders will need to make a decision on which future states will be considered based on the value to be delivered and the overall objectives of the company. So, include quantitative and qualitative values of each option, the time needed to achieve each future state, and the opportunity cost to the enterprise.
In order to define the future state, there is only one input to be completed - business requirements. They include:
- Potential problems
- Opportunities
- Constraints
These will address the future state.
The outputs of the task are business objectives seen as the desired direction in order to achieve the future state. So the future state description includes the boundaries of the proposed new, removed, and altered components and the potential value, but also includes:
- Desired future capabilities
- Policies
- Resources
- Dependencies
- Infrastructure
- external influences
- Relationships between each of the elements as a whole
==NOTE: There is also a potential value, which is a value that can be achieved if the proposed future state is implemented.==
First, use the business objectives as inputs to prepare for:
- Performing elicitation
- Managing stakeholder collaboration
- Assessing risks
- Validating requirements
- Analyzing potential value
- Recommending solution
- Measuring solution performance
- Assessing enterprise limitations
- Recommending actions to increase solution value
Then, use the future state description to serve as an input for:
- Managing stakeholder collaboration
- Assessing risks
- Defining change strategy
- Validating requirements
- Defining design options
- Analyzing potential value and recommending a solution
- Measuring solution performance
- Analyzing performance measures
- Assessing enterprise limitations
Lastly, use the potential value as a starting point for:
- Preparing for elicitation
- Assessing risks
- Validate requirements
- Analyzing potential value
- Recommending solutions
- Analyzing performance measures.
General Guidelines and Tools:
- The current state description can generally be used as a starting point for defining the future state which serves to provide the background for the work that will be completed.
- Once the work has been done, you can employ metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine if the desired future state has been reached.
- Finally, define an organizational strategy that describes the method or approach the organization will take to achieve the desired future state.
The elements of business goals and objectives define the ends that an organization is pursuing. Goals and objectives can relate to changes that the organization wants to achieve or current conditions to maintain.
- Can be longer-term, ongoing, and qualitative statements.
- Can be made on a higher or lower level to illustrate the desired condition.
- For example, if an organization sets the goal to reach a higher number of end-users for this specific application, it can be broken down into a more informative goal to increase the number of end-users by 40% until the end of the quarter.
- Reduce time to deliver a product or service
- Increase employee satisfaction
- Improve safety
- Comply with new regulations and policies
Once these goals are further analyzed, they can be organized into more specific and detailed objectives that can then be linked to Goals. These objectives should be measurable which gives us information if the change was effective, so make sure to define measurable objectives as detailed as possible so that they can be a key component in the process of change implementation.
When defining the future state, we must consider the constraints and aspects of the planned future state. These aspects may not be changed by the solution. They can also be mandatory elements of the design.
Constraint Elements:
- Budget
- Time
- Technology
- Policies
- Infrastructure
- Resource availability
¶ Organizational structure and culture
Then we have organizational structure and culture, which is also a subset to change once defining the desired future state. It refers to:
- Formal and informal working relationships
- Reporting lines
- Communication channels
Each provides insight into potential conflicts, impacts, and boundaries.
Then we take a look at the capabilities and processes which explain the kinds of activities or changes that will be performed to reach the future state. These changes are needed to:
- Deliver new products or services
- To introduce new enterprise organizations
- Comply with new regulations
- Improve the overall performance of the organization
Now we look at the technology and infrastructure, which can be a bottleneck to the organization's performance. Existing technology can also influence the solution in many ways, starting from the implementation time to the resources spent. These are any IT architecture standards that must be followed. To make it more tangible, we are looking at:
- The hardware specifications
- Development languages
- Software tools and frameworks
- Licenses
¶ Standards
Lastly, looking at the business's standards, we need to define:
- Policies - whose impact can be twofold. If the current policies are inadequate to meet the arising business need, then you as the BA identify the changes necessary to achieve the desired future state. Remember that the policies are often a source of constraints, so they might cause the opening ideas for some alternative solutions that wouldn't otherwise be considered.
- Business Architecture is also a great influencer on the future state because the elements of any future state simply have to support one another. They also must contribute to meeting business goals and objectives.
- Assumptions - focuses on identifying a set of assumptions that will determine whether this strategy can succeed. It can be very tricky to prove that the delivery of a new feature or capability will fulfill the business need. Assumptions are a source of potential risk. For example, stakeholders may believe that customers will respond in a certain way to a change in the product's new feature, but there may be only unreliable evidence for that concept.
- Potential Value - a net benefit of the solution once the operating costs are accounted for.