Assess Capabilities and Constraints

Solution Planning Series

This is the third installment in the solution planning series. In the first post on solution planning, we provided an overview of the concept of solution planning as a necessary exercise to be performed before commencing solution implementation. The second post discussed scope confirmation, the first step in the solution planning process. This post discusses the second step in the solution planning process: assessment of capabilities and constraints.

Assessment of capabilities and constraints entails considering the current state of an organization to identify factors that may impact on or influence how a solution will be delivered. Organizational capabilities are the combination of tangible/ intangible assets that an organization draws from to execute its business strategy and get work done. From a solution implementation perspective, constraints are restrictions or limitations that exist within the organization and should be taken into consideration in planning for the solution.

Organizational capabilities assessed during solution planning may include the following:

• Business performance: how is the business performing today?

• Current business process(es) for in-scope areas of the business (the areas of the business that would be impacted by the solution should have been agreed on during scope confirmation). Findings may include activities performed, who does what, etc.

• Current application landscape: what are the current applications within the organization? Would there be a need to make any changes to the existing applications? etc.

• Technical environments: what technical infrastructure exists? Would these meet the business’ future needs? etc.

• Organization and support capability: are there sufficient people, skills, tools, etc. to maintain and enhance the current environment? Would there be a need to increase organizational capability post solution implementation?

Organizational constraints considered during solution planning may include the following:

• Delivery approach: does the organization have a preference for waterfall, agile or a hybrid delivery approach?

• Deployment approach: will the solution be delivered at once (big-bang approach) or in phases?

• Release dates: for business reasons, are there dates before which the solution must be delivered?

• Resourcing: does the organization have the human resources required to deliver on the project? Is there a need to hire or augment resources in order to deliver the solution?

In order to get the best results, it is important to ensure that the right business and technology stakeholders are involved in the assessment exercise. Operating with an understanding of the organizational culture and stakeholder preferences, it is also important to use a mix of engagement strategies to get the best capability and constraint assessment outcomes. Engagement strategies may include questionnaires, one-on-one meetings/ interviews, focus group sessions, follow-up meetings, etc.

As with all activities performed during solution planning, assessment of capabilities and constraints should happen at the very beginning of the process, before solution implementation commences. Benefits of conducting a detailed assessment of capabilities and constraints before solution implementation commences include:

• Establishment of a benchmark for current performance levels. This will serve as a basis for measuring improvements after solution implementation

• Insight into the current state of in-scope processes and changes that may be required

• Understanding of how the new solution will fit into the organization’s application landscape

• An appreciation of the changes required to make the technical environment adequate for the solution to be implemented

• Identification of resourcing required to successfully deploy the solution and to support the solution after go-live

• Clarity on preferred delivery and deployment approaches

Do you have an opinion on this post? Kindly share your thoughts and comments below.

There are a couple more posts to go within the solution planning series. Please join us next week for the next one.

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