Analyzing the Business Drivers
This step seeks to confirm, or to gain an understanding of, the pressures facing the business today and anticipated for the future. The initiative team must gain knowledge of the factors and issues that provide either threats to be mitigated by the business or opportunities to be exploited. It must consider a range of possibilities for the planning horizon, not just a fixed guess on one possible scenario. The insights must be commonly understood and accepted.
Figure 10.4 shows an example of the knowledge produced as a result of analyzing business drivers.
Figure 10.4. An analysis of Global Software, Inc.’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Techniques
The analysis techniques can be anything that the organization’s management is comfortable with. The chosen technique should be able to uncover the sometimes hidden factors and perspectives that drive different managers in differing directions. Some good choices are SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and business scenario analysis.
Lessons Learned
Gather any existing documents that relate to the pressures facing the “Organization-in-Focus,” including customer surveys, market analyses, research reports, and industry journals.
Speculate on the key factors driving attainment of the organization’s long-term objectives. Determine the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Plot key leverage points in the business factors that have high impact and high uncertainty. Conclude what needs to be managed. Focus on discussion and sharing of insight, not on building pretty models.
Be careful of seeing only an internal perspective. Customers, suppliers, and other outside industry experts might know better or be able to prove perspectives as a wake-up call. Their points of view are hard to argue with. Always use external factors as the rationale for recommendations. This allows management to avoid becoming personal and makes sure that everyone doesn’t get bogged down with internal issues. Make sure that your facts are correct and supportable.
Involve representatives from many organizational units that might have varying perspectives on the drivers. By involving them in the same workshops, new understanding will accrue to all.