Business Visioning

Definition

Business Visioning

the requirements engineering task during which the customer organization’s vision of their [re]engineered business enterprise is produced and documented

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Business Visioning is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Visioning
• Subclasses: None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Business Visioning are to:

• Form a consensus regarding the customer organization’s vision of their modified business enterprise among its stakeholders.
• Determine and document the business drivers that motivate the reengineering of the enterprise including current and future challenges and opportunities.
• Determine and document the business enterprise’s new mission and core values.
• Determine and document the business enterprise’s goals.
• Determine and document the success criteria for the reengineered business enterprise.
• Determine and document the business enterprise’s new lines of business, target markets, products, and services.
• Model the new business enterprise.
• Determine and document the business enterprise’s new organizational relationships.
• Determine and document the business enterprise’s new initiatives, technologies, and applications.

Preconditions

Business visioning can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase has begun.
• The business strategy team is staffed and adequately trained in application visioning.

Completion Criteria

Business visioning is complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The business vision statement has been completed, evaluated, and approved by the authorized customer representative.

Steps

Business visioning typically involves the business strategy team performing the following steps in an iterative, incremental, and parallel manner:

• Produce a high-level description of the new business enterprise.
• Determine and document the enterprise’s:
  • Business Drivers
  • Challenges
  • Opportunities
  • Motivation for Reengineering
• Determine and document the enterprise’s business drivers, opportunities, and challenges.
• Determine and document the enterprise’s mission and core values.
• Determine and document the enterprise’s overall goals including:
  • Financial Goals
  • Market Goals
  • Organizational Goals
  • User Goals
• Determine and document the success criteria for the reengineering effort.
• Determine and document the enterprise’s new:
  • Lines of business
  • Target market segments and associated market channels
  • Products and services
• Develop a summary-level business object model and business process model for the new enterprise.
• Determine and document the enterprise’s new organization:
  • Organizational Structures:
    • Management Structures
    • Business Units
  • Stakeholders
  • Partners
  • Suppliers
• Determine and document the enterprise’s new:
  • Major Initiatives
  • Technologies
  • Planned Applications
• Determine and document the investments needed to successfully reengineer the enterprise:
  • Cost
  • Staffing
  • Facilities
• Determine and document a rough timeline for the implementation of the business modifications.

Techniques

Business visioning can typically be performed using the following techniques:

• Brainstorming.
  Brainstorm
• Cross Functional Teams.
  Use a cross-functional strategy or requirements team including multiple roles to envision the business.
• Documentation Studies.
  Read the customer analysis, market analysis, technology analysis, and user analysis documents.
• Interviews with:
  • User Representative(s) from each group of users including user management.
  • Domain Expert(s) (e.g., industry analysts).
  • Customer Representative(s) (both management and staff).
  • Marketing Representative(s).
• Incremental development.
  Incrementally develop the business vision document.
• Iteration.
  Iterate the business vision document.
• Joint Application Development.
  Hold business visioning sessions with focus groups of relevant roles:
  • Obtain an experienced facilitator.
  • Obtain and schedule an appropriate facility.
  • Recruit representative [potential] users (e.g., from a user group, email discussion group, or advertisements).
  • Provide information and questions about the planned application (e.g., slides, demonstration, sample user interface, questionnaire, and/or checklist).
  • Lead the discussion.
  • Obtain anonymous feedback.
• Timeboxing.
  Timebox the user analysis task so that new increments of user information are available at regular intervals.

Work Products

Business visioning typically results in the production of the following work products:

• Business Vision Statement

Guidelines

• Business visioning is typically required for business engineering projects.