The define future state task is used to determine the set of conditions necessary to meet the business needs.
In order to successfully implement the solution the future state has to be well defined, achievable with the available resources and acceptable to all the stakeholders.
The future state has to be defined at a detailed level so that it fulfills the following :
1. Achieves the future state to be assessed and identified.
2. Provides a clear definition of outcomes that satisfies the business needs.
3. Is within the scope of the solution.
4. Assesses the value created by the future state.
5. Allows consensus among the key stakeholders.
The future state description should include the new, modified and removed elements of the enterprise state.
The future state can range from simple changes such as removing a feature in an application to complex changes such as entering a new market.
Numerous changes can be made to different elements in the enterprise which includes the business processes, business functions, organizational structures, technological infrastructure and organizational resources.
Describing the future state allows the stakeholder to understand the value that would be realized from the solution.
There are eleven elements that can help with the define future state task and they are:
1. Business goals and objectives: the business objectives are the needs that the business is trying to meet.
While the business goals are a longer term state that the organization is trying to establish and maintain. Examples of these include increased customer and improved safety.
High level goals need to be broken down into smaller, specific goals which can be measured to confirm if the objectives have been achieved.
A test which can be used to assess the objectives is the SMART test.
SMART stands for smart, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. All of the business objectives should be SMART.
2. Scope of solution space: The scope of the solutions space is used to set boundaries which should be used to limit the number of available solutions which would be considered for implementation.
If there are multiple options that can fulfill the business needs, it would be necessary to determine which ones should be considered.
The decision she be based on the value to be delivered to the stakeholders and that requires an understanding of the change strategies.
The decision should also involve an understanding of the quantitative and qualitative value of each solution, the time it would take to implement that solution and the opportunity cost of not implementing other solutions.
3. Constraints: Constraints describes parts of the current and future state that would not be changed by the solution.
it is the limitations that the enterprise has and which we would have to work within in order to fulfill the business need.
Examples of constraints include budgetary restrictions, time restrictions, technology, policies and infrastructure.
4. Organizational structure and culture: the relationships between people in the enterprise might need to be changed in order to fulfill the future state.
Examples of these type of changes include: changes to reporting lines such as manager and changes to the team dynamics.
Identifying and documenting these potential changes might provide insight into possible source of conflicts, impact and limits.
5. Capabilities and processes: the capabilities and processes identifies the changes to the way the work would be done to fulfill the future state.
This could involve changes to the capabilities and processes to improve the performance of the enterprise.
6. Technology and infrastructure: it might be necessary to make changes to the technology and infrastructure in the enterprise in order to achieve the future state.
Technological constraints include data elements, developmental languages, maximum file size, message size and resource utilization.
7. Policies: it might be necessary to change the organizational current policies to achieve the future state. Business policies may limit which solutions can be implemented and the approval process.
8. Business architecture: the business architecture must be able to support the future state. They should be integrated into the future state to support that state.
9. Internal assets: the current resources need to be assessed to identify which ones can be used in the future state.
10. Identify assumptions: assumptions must be identified and possible verified to prove authenticity.
11. Potential value: the potential value of the solution must be identified when defining the future state.
The potential value is the net benefit of the solution after the operating costs have been removed. The potential value must be greater than taking no action at all.
Increased value can be identified through the following:
1. external opportunities
2. strength of new partners
3. new technologies or knowledge
4. mandatory adoption of a change
5. potential loss of a competitor