Introduction

Hello people of Khabrov!

In my practice, there were projects where I started from the start, and where I had to be included at the implementation stage. Sometimes when entering a project, you want to give up, because it is simply not clear, and what awaits the customer or the technical task leaves many questions.

In the framework of one project, the company OTR 2000 had difficulties with the technical task itself, but thanks to the project team (I remember everyone, you are the best with whom I have ever worked), it was possible to level the backlog of the project and bring the team out of a state of permanent time constraints.

As part of another project at the Spora company, the customer himself proposed a similar approach (Ernest Yuriyovich, this knowledge still helps me, thank you very much for it), which allowed us to achieve good results and formulate a long-term plan that was implemented ahead of schedule and at the same time there was a healthy atmosphere in the team.

There was a project where the deadline was two months away, and the work forecast was for five months :))) But it worked out. The main difficulty was not in the technical task or unclear goals, but in the ever-increasing volumes and a little administrative chaos. How it was possible to solve these questions and I wanted to tell.

Formulation of the problem

Sometimes the technical task gives answers to the question: what is the expected result, what does the customer want to receive. Deadlines are starting to burn. The customer wants more than stipulated in the specifications and there is no way to refuse. The question arises, what to do? Where to start?

The essence of the approach

It is necessary to build a tree of goals for the project based on the technical task. If the technical task raises more questions than answers, then you will have to reorganize it a bit. If you start from the beginning of the project, it will be easier. Two steps will help with this.

Step 1. Tree of goals – structured, built according to the hierarchical principle (divided by levels, ranked) set of goals of the economic system, program or plan, in which: the general goal (“top of the tree”) and sub-goals of the first, second and subsequent levels (“branches of the tree”) are highlighted. The name “goal tree” is related to the fact that the schematically presented set of goals divided by levels resembles an inverted tree.

It is important for us to describe at least the first 2-3 levels, depending on the complexity of the project/product, because for us it will be a set of tasks to achieve the goal. The tasks will not always be correlated with the technical task, here it is important to find out from the customer where the truth is and, of course, adapt it for acceptance tests, since the results of the work will be accepted according to the technical task.

We need to take the goal stated in the terms of reference and formalize it. It is important to remember that each goal should have targets.

Example 1:

The general purpose is the technology of assessing the state of health of an employee for admission to work/training/procedures/…

Level 2 objectives. Top-level business goals (admission decisions) and user satisfaction goals (health data). Based on them, you can form an approximate implementation plan, if the project/product got to you at the initial stage, then based on the data, you can give an approximate estimate of the necessary resources according to the technologies, the software used, and resource needs

Example 2:

Business goals (the example will be partial to understand the logic of construction).

Increase in income:

• increase in sales (at least 10 clients/customers per year);

• the possibility of use in any browser (the software is available inside ZSPD protected transmission network);

• integration with popular models of equipment for taking medical readings (for example, we need to measure pressure, temperature and pulse. To determine the indicator, we need a list of equipment).

Cost reduction:

• the ability to use in the cloud;

• ensuring the ability to save data in a secure storage (medical data requires a special attitude, not everyone has the ability to save such data);

• the possibility of generating impersonal reporting for the customer (special tool).

User satisfaction (the system has at least 3 groups of users – customer, consumer and administrator, and each of them has its own satisfaction criteria):

• Customer. Ability to receive a report on mobile devices (for 1 day and for a period).

• Customer. Ability to process data at 100 information collection points.

• Customer. Ability to remotely check equipment performance (monitoring 1 time per hour).

• User. The ability to receive the results of reviews on a mobile device (for 1 day and for a period).

• Administrator. The possibility of embedding into the customer’s circuit (an API is required for the customer to build his UI within his own systems).

Third-level goals will allow you to detail the task in even more detail. If you’re lucky and you’re at the start of a project/product, there will be limitations on technology, infrastructure, users, etc. at this level.

Our task is to approach the matter creatively and design a tree of goals in such a way that the contours of the business architecture become obvious, it becomes clear what has been done and what remains to be done

It is enough to transpose the finished goal tree, we will get a set of tasks (decomposition with conditions for achieving the result). Next, this set of tasks should be grouped to obtain a business architecture.

Step 2. Business architecture is a discipline that “presents holistic, multidimensional business views of value delivery capabilities and the relationships between those business views and strategies, products, policies, initiatives and stakeholders.” This definition is given in Wikipedia. We will simplify it a little for our purposes – it is a description of the key business goals and business functions of project/product implementation. In my opinion, this way it became clearer and better connected with the tree of goals.

To form the contours of project/product implementation, it is necessary to break it down into understandable elements:

Infrastructure is an element with which we can conduct business (knowledge, objects, equipment, patents, know-how).

Production is an element of a set of approaches, methods and technologies that allow you to obtain a product or service. (List of services, products, services)

Supply is an element that provides material resources for production. (Receiving data, resources, materials from external sources)

Marketing is an element that allows you to bring information about a product and service to the target audience. (reach, converter, landing, sale)

Sale – an element that provides the consumer with assistance in making a choice. (sales methods, A/B testing)

Support (service) – an element that provides after-sales service, technical support (SLA)

Accounting, finance, economics – elements that allow you to take into account all financial and non-financial flows in all elements. (reporting on business metrics, financial metrics, etc.)

Jurisprudence and security are elements of business and product protection against the tricks of ill-wishers.

Management is an element of activity organization and a decision-making center.

I am sure that the list can be supplemented, and some elements can be detailed. You may not need all the items, but I will say this, it all depends on the project/product.

Communication channels. In this block, it is important to consider the methods of communication between elements. There are many of them. For example, you can cite a CRM system, an ERP system, etc. Anything that allows you to receive data.

Method of organization

In my opinion, everything here is individual, there is no universal pill. There are optimal approaches for each business and element. This difficult topic gets an additional complication due to the neophytes of some agile methodologies 🙂

Conclusions

Using these two tools will bring the terms of reference into a form that allows you to plan, manage development or, if you’re lucky and involved from the start, form a clear terms of reference.

With this approach, regardless of the stage at which we started the implementation of the project/product, the chance of success increases. But it is important to remember that success depends primarily on the team and the quality of management.

It is important to remember:

An army of rams led by a lion will always win over an army of lions,
led by a ram. Napoleon Bonaparte