Defining Business Needs and Solution Scope

Defining the Business Needs and Solution Scope

Defining the Business Needs and Solution Scope applies an approach to using business analysis skills at the “fuzzy front end” of a change initiative or even before!  

Prior to launching an initiative to affect any sort of organizational change, be very clear about the desired business outcomes, determine a solution scope, identify and assess all the viable options, scrutinize each of the options, and then make sure you understand all that is involved in the change initiative, including required costs, resources and risks.  

The business case establishes the framework for a successful change by revealing all of the potential pitfalls, and tells executives the whole story before the investment is made.  A good business case is honest, unbiased, objective and well-socialized; key stakeholders contribute and review before it is formally presented.  

The skills of business analysis can help many professionals identify the right types of solutions to solve their business challenges and build the business cases to justify those recommendations. Defining the Business Needs and Solution Scope is an intermediate to advanced course designed to provide the knowledge needed to begin working on identifying business needs and analyzing the benefits of various solution options to help limit the choices before work gets underway or even before the solution work is chartered. In particular, this course “precedes” the typical project-life cycle as it sets up the benefits, value and possibilities that the change may bring, which then become the focus of the initiation phase of a project to implement those changes and execute the strategy.  

This course can help anyone who needs to understand how effective projects and programs align with organizational strategy and confer benefits that solve business problems or who makes decisions or informs those who make decisions on which projects and programs to invest in.