The analyze potential value and recommend solution task is used to calculate the possible value for each design option and decide which is the most suitable one to meet the enterprise’s requirements.
The analyze potential value and recommend solution task describes how to calculate and model the potential value delivered by a set of requirements, designs, or design options.
When analyzing the potential value, the business analyst has to consider the uncertainty of the estimates which were used in the calculation of the design options value. There are different ways of assessing the value of a design option and that includes financial, reputation or marketplace impact.
The assessment is done by assessing each design option against the other design options and the advantages and disadvantages of each option is considered.
Sometimes it would be impossible to recommend the best option especially if they are all equally valued.
The MOSCOW method – Must, should, could and would have requirements is the rating scale that is usually used in those situations.
In these situations, the requirement would have to be prioritized and higher value would be give to the “must have” requirements versus “should have” requirements.
If this rating does not yield a definite recommendation, then there might be a need to develop proof as concepts and measure the performance of each design option.
If this does not yield a result then we might have to start the designs from scratch or recommend that the enterprise does nothing as there is no solution that could fulfill their needs.
There are four elements which are used in the analyze potential value and recommend solution task and these are:
1. Expected benefits: the expected benefits describes the positive value that a solution is meant to provide to the stakeholders.
Examples of positive value include benefits, reduced risks, compliance with business policies and improved user experience.
The expected benefits can be estimated based on a set of requirements by thinking carefully of the business objectives which are to be fulfilled. The benefits of a solution should be realized over time.
2. Expected costs: the expected costs of a change should include any potential negative value which is associated with a solution.
This includes the cost to acquire the solution, the cost of maintaining the solution over time and any negative effects which the solution may have on the stakeholders.
Examples of the expected costs include:
- Timeline.
- Effort.
- Operating costs.
- The purchase and implementation costs.
- The maintenance costs.
- Physical resources.
- Information resources.
- Human resources.
The increasing costs for a design option should consider the cumulative costs of the design elements. The business analysts should also consider the opportunity cost when calculating the expected cost of a change.
The opportunity cost is defined as the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
3. Determine Value: The potential value of a solution is based on the benefits delivered by that solution and the associated costs. The value can be positive or negative depending on if the benefits exceeds the costs or not.
The business analysts should define an estimate of the change in monetary terms by considering the tangible and intangible costs and benefits.
Tangible benefits are quantifiable benefits such as paid time off, salary and profit sharing while intangible benefits are customer loyalty, copyrights and employee retention.
Tangible costs are the quantifiable costs related to a source or asset. Examples of tangible costs include employee wages, rental costs land and the purchase of a equipment.
While intangible costs are unquantifiable costs related to an identifiable source. Examples of Intangible costs include losses in productivity, loss of customer goodwill, drops in employee morale and damage to corporate reputation.
When the estimates are being calculated the uncertainties in the estimates must be taken into consideration.
4. Assess Design Options and Recommend Solution: The design options are assessed based on the potential value that they are expected to deliver.
The business analyst might need to re-evaluate the design allocation assignment due to a better understanding of the cost to implement each component and the best cost-to benefit ratio.
There are several factors to take into consideration when re-evaluating the design allocation assignment and these include:
- Available resources: there might be limited resources assigned to the change by the enterprise.
- Constraints on the solution: there might be regulatory requirements or business decisions which could influence the way certain requirements are to be handled or prioritized.
- Dependencies between requirements: some of the requirements might be dependent on other requirements being delivered first and this could limit the design options.
While the business analysts could recommend the option or options that are deemed to be the most valuable solution to address the enterprise need.
It is possible that none of these design options would address the need and the best recommendation is to do nothing.