[Blog 7] Chapter 6: Strategy Analysis(pawandeep)

Knowledge areas for strategy analysis:  There are four different areas for strategy plan or analysis. These are given below:

Analysis current state: in this we understand the business needs and how it is going in present day, what kind of context we need for change.

Define future state: Firstly, define the future goals and objects of business and after that what kind of change can do in the business processes to meet with that goals.

Asses risks: not every company takes risks. There are some small companies which do not like to take risks in their business but big companies always asses’ risks to test changes and for better development of their business.

Define change strategy: it focusses mainly on these things performs a gap analysis between current and future state, assesses options for achieving the future state, and recommends the highest value approach for reaching the future state.

The core concept model of change strategy:

Core Concept	During Strategy Analysis, business analysts
Change: the act of transformation in response to a need.	define the future state and develop a change strategy to achieve the future state.
Need: a problem or opportunity to be addressed.	identify needs within the current state and prioritize needs to determine the desired future state.
Solution: a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a context.	define the scope of a solution as part of developing a change strategy.
Stakeholder: a group or individual with a relationship to the change, the need, or the solution.	collaborate with stakeholders to understand the business need and to develop a change strategy and future state that will meet those needs.
Value: the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to a stakeholder in a context.	examine the potential value of the solution to determine if a change is justified.
Context: the circumstances that influence, are influenced by, and provide understanding of the change.	consider the context of the enterprise in developing a change strategy.

Analyse current state:  The major purpose of analyse the current state is to know about the reason that why enterprise need to do some change in business and what kind of aspects we need for that as well. If I talk about the description of that that current state, then the starting point always analyse to understand why change is needed. I want to explain some techniques used in process.

Techniques:

Business Capability Analysis: these identify the gap and prioritize them in relation to value and risk.

Business Cases: used to capture information regarding the business need and opportunity.

Concept Modelling: used to capture key terms and concepts in the business domain and define the relationships between them.

Data Mining: used to obtain information on the performance of the enterprise.

Document analysis: this is a technique in which they analyse the documentation of current state and this documentation includes implementation of solutions, training manuals, issue reports, information and public industry benchmark.

Interviews: facilitate dialogue with stakeholders to understand the current state and any needs evolving from the current state.

Item Tracking: tracks and manages issues discovered about the current state.

Stakeholders:

As we already discuss the different types of stakeholders in chapter one now there is brief explanation for them.

Customers: As customer plays an important role for the business, they are the main from which the company get results. As on the basis of the feedback from customer company can do some changes for running their business more effectively.

Domain Subject Matter Expert: has expertise in some aspect of the current state.

 End User: directly uses a solution and might have input about issues with a current solution.

  Implementation Subject Matter Expert: has expertise in some aspect of the current state.

 Operational Support: directly involved in supporting the operations of the organization and provides information on their ability to support the operation of an existing solution, as well as any known issues.

 Project Manager: may use information on current state as input to planning.

 Regulator: can inform interpretations of relevant regulations that apply to the current state in the form of business policies, business rules, procedures, or role responsibilities. The regulator might have unique input to the operational assessment, as there might be new laws and regulations with which to comply.

Suppliers:  these are the influence for the company, and they can focus more on that what are  our customers looking for? What we can do more to make more satisfaction for our customers?

Define future statement: the description of future statement includes many different things for example:

• business processes, • functions, • lines of business, • organization structures, • staff competencies, • knowledge and skills, • training, • facilities, • desktop tools, • organization locations, • data and information, • application systems, and/or • technology infrastructure.

There is a diagram process for future state what input we need and what process includes after that what kind of outputs we can get?