Current state analysis

The analyse current state task is used to understand the reasons for the changing enterprise needs and how that would affect the organization.

To do this we have have to understand why the change is needed. A change cannot be made without changing to the current state of the organisation.

The business analyst helps enable this change by expressing this business need that drives this desire for change. It would be impossible to create a strategy for a change without understanding the need for that change.

The business analyst needs to examine the current state of the organization to understand how the change might influence the existing processes, stakeholders, policies and technology. The current state also needs to be examined to understand the changes that need to be made to attain the future desired state.

Analyzing the current state of the organization is an ongoing process because the organization is not a static environment, it changes constantly so it is necessary to reconfirm all the requirements in order to make an informed decision.

There are various elements which can help with the analyze current state task and they are:

1. Business needs: The business needs are the problems that the organization is currently facing. Examples include customer complaints, loss of revenue and new business opportunities.

There are different ways of identifying the business needs in the organization and they are:

i. Top down: this is when the business needs are provided by senior management.

ii. Bottom up: this is when the business needs are problems with the system, function or process.

iii. Middle management: this occurs when the business needs are provided by a manager who wants additional functionalities to meet the business objectives.

iv. External sources: this occurs when the business needs are provided by external parties such as customers and competitors.

The business need is often expressed with a solution that might fulfill that need but the business analyst has to question the assumptions and constraints that have been made by the stakeholders on the stated business need.

The assumed business need has to be questioned to ensure that is actually the need of the business and not just an assumption.

If the business need is not correctly identified then the wrong solution would be implemented which would not fulfill the required need and would result in a waste of time, effort and resources.

The solution to the business need should generate benefits for the stakeholders and the enterprise. In order to identify potential solutions the business analyst should ask the following questions:

a. identify the problems plaguing the organization in relation to the business need and quantify those problems in terms of lost revenue, inefficiencies, dissatisfied customers and low employee morale.

b. the expected benefits that the solution would bring such as increased revenue, reduced costs and increased market share.

c. how quickly the problem could be resolved and the cost of doing nothing.

d. the cause of the problem.

The business need would drive the analysis of the current state and would uncover underlying causes of the problem.

2. Organizational structure and culture: the organizational structure is the relationship between people working in the enterprise.

While the organizational culture are the beliefs, values and norms shared by the people in the organization.

The business analyst has to perform a cultural assessment to identify the following

i. cultural changes which are required to achieve the organizational goals.

ii. if the stakeholders understand the value delivered by the current state.

iii. confirm if the stakeholders are satisfied with the current state or if a change is needed.

3. Capabilities and structures: the capabilities and structures are the activities an enterprise performs.

This include its knowledge, functions, products and services and processes.

The business analyst can use two methods to identify the capabilities and structures and they are:

1. A capability – centric view of the enterprise is used when considering innovative solutions which could produce new outcomes. This is useful because capability – centric view is a functional way of arranging one relationship to other relationships which makes it easier to identify gaps.

ii. A process – centric view of the enterprise is used when considering ways to improve the current processes. It is useful in analyzing the end to end process for ways of increasing performance.

4. Technology and infrastructure: the information system is used to support their processes, customers and decisions making.

The infrastructure describes the enterprise’s environment in regards to physical components and capabilities. The infrastructure includes computer hardware, physical plant and operations.

5. Policies: Policies ensure that the right decisions are made, provide guidance to staff, support governance and determine how new resources are acquired.

6. Business architecture: the enterprise business architecture meets the business and stakeholder needs. These needs need to be met by the future state or the change would result in a loss.

7. Internal assets: the business analyst identify assets in the current state such as financial resources, patents, reputation and brand names.

8. External influencers: there are external influencers which might present constraints, dependencies or drivers on the current state.

Examples of external influencers include:

a. industry structure : industries have certain ways in which they create value and changing that way can lead to huge losses.

b. competitors : competition can be intense between competitors and a new competitor can change the nature of the industry.

c. customers : discovering new ways to improve the customer’s experience can lead to greater value in the enterprise.

d. suppliers : suppliers have great influence in the enterprise because without them the enterprise cannot meet its commitments.

e. political and regulatory environment : the laws of the country in which the enterprise is conducting its business can influence its decisions due to its laws and regulations.

f. technology : recent and future technological advancements can influence the business needs.

g. macroeconomic factors : the macroeconomic environment which includes trade, unemployment and inflation could influence the need.