Introduction Business planning involves setting goals for a company and determining strategies to achieve them. Crucially, it guides the organization towards growth and success with a clear plan. In this process, key individuals such as company executives, department heads, and sometimes external consultants are pivotal. They work together to shape the company’s direction, manage resources, and establish deadlines… Read More »
Previously I have written about strategy related techniques using the Business canvas model and SWOT. Another technique I have previously used that can also be useful is called Scenario planning. This can also be used to identify the transformational needs within an organisation to ensure it stays relevant. The outcomes of this exercise are a set of plans… Read More »
There has been so much uncertainty for many businesses over the last few years with significant changes to external factors. The slide below is from a presentation I did at the APM SIG conference on Target Operating Models. This article looks at external factors and why companies will need to plan their target operating model to ensure they… Read More »
Planning and estimating a project can be difficult because it involves so many unknowns particularly near the beginning of a project. There are several Business Analysis tools that can help. This article is to provide an overview of some of these and an explanation of: Why they are useful for estimating; When best to use them; and How… Read More »
Purpose of Business analysis approach The purpose of the business analysis approach document is to set out the business analysis involvement for the work concerned to set expectations, to feed into a wider plan and gain agreement on the deliverables. When to put together a Business Analysis approach document This could be put together as part of the… Read More »
The risk of changes to requirements can be minimized by having a robust requirements gathering process. For various reasons requirements could still change and it is important to have a process in place to manage these changes when they happen. Changes need to be prioritised, documented, communicated and implemented if approved. The main steps and questions to answer… Read More »
For the purposes of this article the assumption is that estimations and planning are required for gathering system requirements. However it could equally be adapted for business requirements and other areas of the project development lifecycle. A use case model describes: System boundaries are Systems in scope for the project Use cases are The things the system in… Read More »
Check list for the beginning of a project Are the scope and objectives clearly defined? Have the problems and opportunities been identified? Are all of the stakeholders known? Is there a plan? What are the deliverables? It can be difficult to know where to start at the beginning of a project so this section aims to provide a… Read More »
This article sets out a list of 5 steps that can help reduce the timescales of a project. Step 1 Establish the confidence of the estimates. Are some high due to a lack of clarity of what is required or a high amount of contingency added. It may be possible to get lower estimates from challenging these. Step… Read More »