Objective: First, we will assess the existing technology stack to understand its capabilities, limitations, and alignment with the business goals.

Components:

• Technology Stack Review: Inventory of current software, tools, languages, and frameworks.
• System Performance Analysis: Through direct conversation and questions, we identify where things are slow or troublesome.
• Technical Debt Analysis: Identification of outdated or inefficient technologies that may hinder future growth.
• Security Review: Assessment of security measures, potential vulnerabilities, and compliance with industry standards.
• User Interface (UI) Evaluation: Analysis of current tech stack for the user interface and identifcation of any UX professional requirements.
• Team Capabilities Analysis: Assess team size, skills, grasp, etc.

Objective: Recommend modern technologies that can enhance system performance, scalability, and maintainability.

Components:

• Technology Recommendations: Detailed suggestions for new technologies, tools, and platforms.
• Compatibility Assessment: Ensure new technologies integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure and software.
• Phased Implementation Plan: Develop a step-by-step approach to adopting new technologies, minimizing disruption.
• Pilot Test: Recommendations for pilot project to test new technologies in a controlled environment before full deployment.
• Training and Knowledge Transfer: Plan for upskilling the development team on new technologies.

Objective: Evaluate the potential impact of technology changes on business operations, both internally and externally.

Components:

• Business Process Impact: Analysis of how new technologies will affect existing business processes.
• Stakeholder Impact Analysis: Assessment of how different stakeholders (employees, customers, partners) will be impacted.
• Customer Experience Impact: Evaluation of how changes may improve or challenge the customer experience.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis: Financial impact assessment, including cost of implementation vs. expected benefits.
• Risk Assessment: Identification of risks associated with technology changes and strategies to mitigate them.

Objective: Assess current infrastructure and recommend upgrades to support future growth and new technologies.

Components:

• Current State Hosting Assessment: Review of servers, storage, and network hardware.
• Future State Hosting Analysis – Cloud vs. On-Premise: Evaluation of current infrastructure against cloud solutions, considering scalability and cost.
• Scalability and Flexibility: Analysis of the infrastructure’s ability to scale with business growth.
• Disaster Recovery and Redundancy: Review of disaster recovery plans and redundancy measures to ensure business continuity.
• Infrastructure Security: Assessment of infrastructure security measures and compliance with industry standards.

Objective: Improve reporting capabilities to provide actionable insights and support decision-making.

Components:

• Current Reporting Capabilities: Review of existing reporting tools and processes.
• Reporting Requirements Analysis: Gathering requirements from key stakeholders for desired reporting capabilities.
• Data Visualization Tools: Recommendation of tools for better data visualization and reporting.
• Automated Reporting: Suggestion for automated reporting systems to reduce manual effort and improve accuracy.
• Integration with Business Intelligence (BI): Integration of reporting tools with BI platforms for advanced analytics.

Objective: Evaluate and optimize database systems for performance, scalability, and data integrity.

Components:

• Database Structure Review: Analysis of current database schema, design, and performance.
• Data Integrity and Consistency: Assessment of data integrity measures and consistency across databases.
• Database Scalability: Evaluation of the database’s ability to handle increased data loads and user demand.
• Backup and Recovery: Review of current backup and recovery strategies.
• Database Security: Assessment of database security measures, including encryption and access controls.

Objective: Evaluate current state of documentation and map out future state options.

Components:

• Current Documentation Review: Evaluation of existing documentation for accuracy and completeness.
• Technical Documentation: Ensure that technical architecture, codebase, APIs, and systems are well documented.
• User Documentation: Review and update user manuals, help files, and other end-user documentation.
• Knowledge Base Creation: Technical recommendations for a centralized knowledge base for easy access to documentation.
• Ongoing Documentation Practices: Recommend best practices for maintaining up-to-date documentation during and after the project.

For a scaled-down and quick Business Process Analysis (BPA) before committing to a full analysis, the objective is to focus on the most critical aspects that will provide enough insights to move forward with confidence. This quick BPA should be more agile, targeting key processes, stakeholders, and pain points while avoiding a deep dive into all details. Focused on the business side of the project. (Technical details addressed above)

Objective Clarification (Quick Scope)

Define Key Objectives: Focus on the main goal of the modernization. For instance, whether the goal is to improve system performance, reduce costs, or resolve user dissatisfaction.

Identify Critical Processes: Limit the analysis to a few high-impact processes that are central to business operations or where pain points are most apparent.

Identify Key Stakeholders

Primary Stakeholder Mapping: Identify the most essential stakeholders, such as business leaders, top users, and technical staff, whose insights will have the highest impact.

High-Level Current State Overview

Process Snapshot: Create a high-level overview of key business processes involved. This could be a simplified flowchart or a basic narrative explaining how the most critical tasks are currently executed.

System Overview (covered under technical section): Focus on the core system components and integration points without going into full technical documentation.

Pain Point Identification : Gather quick insights into key pain points from a technical and process perspective. This could involve user frustrations, system bottlenecks, or outdated workflows.

Quick Gap Analysis

Future State Vision: Define a broad future vision. For instance, this could focus on modern technologies like cloud migration or updating a specific system module.

Key Gaps: Focus on identifying high-level gaps between current processes and systems versus what the organization needs to improve.

Risk and Feasibility Snapshot

Initial Risk Identification: Identify a handful of major risks that could impede modernization efforts (e.g., potential downtime, budget constraints, technology limitations).

Feasibility Assessment: Conduct a basic feasibility check to confirm if a modernization initiative would be practical and beneficial, without a full ROI or cost-benefit analysis.

Prioritization of Immediate Needs

Focus on Immediate Value: Highlight 1-2 quick wins that could provide immediate benefits or relief to pain points with minimal effort (e.g., automating a manual process, resolving a critical system bottleneck).

Effort vs. Impact: Quickly evaluate high-impact changes that could be easily implemented and deliver immediate results, giving a sense of momentum to the modernization.

High-Level Roadmap

Create a Basic Plan: Lay out a broad, high-level roadmap that includes a few clear steps toward modernization, identifying where a deeper BPA will be required.
For example:

• Phase 1: Identify and resolve critical bottlenecks.
• Phase 2: Explore cloud or system upgrades.
• Phase 3: Conduct detailed BPA for full modernization.

Resource Snapshot: Identify the minimum resources needed for the immediate next steps (e.g., specific teams or key technologies that would be required).

Scaled-Down BPA Deliverables:

Executive Summary: A concise overview of findings, pain points, and next steps.

High-Level Process Snapshot: A few diagrams or narratives outlining the current state of key processes.

Quick Gap and Risk Analysis: Summary of key gaps between the current state and desired future state, along with major risks.

Basic Roadmap: A phased approach to modernization, with immediate next steps identified.

This quick BPA will help gather just enough information to make informed decisions without investing heavily upfront, allowing you to validate the need and approach for full modernization.

To start with, we will log what brought you to this point, so we have a starting point to work from. This will be a concise description of the primary goals of the software project. For example, “To develop a web-based application that automates invoice processing for the finance department.”

This step involves defining the specific business problem the software intends to solve or the opportunity it seeks to capitalize on.

Together, we’ll identify the major factors pushing the project forward (e.g., cost reduction, efficiency improvement, compliance, or market opportunity).

List all stakeholders, including internal teams, departments, customers, and external partners.

Define the roles of each stakeholder and their level of involvement so we can ensure there is buy-in as envisioned or modifications to expectations need to be made (e.g., decision-makers, users, developers, or testers).

Capture the expectations and concerns of each stakeholder group, ensuring that the project aligns with their needs.

Identify the different types of users who will interact with the software. For each persona, describe their roles, goals, and technical expertise.

Outline user stories that detail specific actions the users will take. A user story format typically follows: “As a [user role], I want to [perform an action] so that [desired outcome].” Each story should include:

• Acceptance Criteria: Define what constitutes successful implementation of the story.
• Priority Level: Rank user stories based on importance to the overall project.

More detailed than user stories, use cases describe specific scenarios that the software will need to handle, with step-by-step interactions between the user and system. Each use case should include:

• Actors: Individuals or systems that interact with the software.
• Preconditions: Conditions that must be true before the use case starts.
• Main Flow: The sequence of steps that constitute the typical execution of the use case.
• Alternative Flows: Variations or exceptions that can occur during the main flow.
• Post-conditions: The state of the system after the use case is completed.

Create a detailed list of features that the software will provide (e.g., user registration, reporting dashboards, or notification system).

Outline how the system will respond to user actions, input, and external events.

Identify any external systems or APIs that the software needs to integrate with and describe how those integrations will function.

Define different permission levels for users and describe what actions each user role can perform within the system.

Define speed, response time, and throughput expectations under different conditions.

Describe how the system will scale with increased users, data, or transactions.

Outline security measures for protecting user data, including encryption, authentication, and authorization.

Define the standards for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), such as ease of use, accessibility, and design principles.

Specify the required uptime, fault tolerance, and failover measures.

Outline the ease of maintenance, code documentation, and future-proofing considerations.

These could be related to technology availability, stakeholder involvement, budget availability, or market trends. For example, assuming that “Key stakeholders will provide timely feedback during the development phase.”

Any limitations that the project must work within, such as deadlines, regulatory requirements, budget caps, or resource limitations. These constraints set realistic boundaries on the project’s deliverables and timelines.

List potential risks (e.g., budget overruns, resource shortages, or technology challenges). Each risk should be categorized by likelihood and impact.

Outline strategies for minimizing or managing each identified risk.

Identify any external or internal dependencies the project relies on. For example, reliance on third-party software, regulatory approvals, or other projects that need to be completed first.

Define key project milestones such as the completion of design, development, testing, and deployment phases.

Provide rough time estimates for each milestone, ensuring alignment with stakeholder expectations.

It is always good to understand investment ranges. An unlimited or undefined budget will provide flexability but also may identify areas that are in no way possible. With an idea of how much is acceptable, during the scope process, features and recommendations can be categorized, identifying priorities, next steps, and nice to haves. In this way, even the items that may not be included now can be on the roadmap so when they are added the foundation has taken them into account.

A preliminary budget estimate covering development costs, infrastructure, licensing fees, and post-launch support.

Identify the required development teams, technical experts, designers, and other resources needed to complete the project.

A formal process for stakeholders to review and approve the project scope, ensuring alignment and commitment across all teams involved.

A comprehensive document that includes all the above sections, providing a clear and shared understanding of the project’s objectives, requirements, and limitations.

Detailed user stories and use cases to guide development and user experience design.

Initial estimates to help stakeholders make informed decisions about the project.

A summary of potential risks and the mitigation strategies to address them.

Based on package and findings from above above.

Based on package and findings from above above.