Business Objective Mapping
One of the things I am always amazed by is that many people when asked why they are creating a solution don’t actually know how it will benefit the organization as a whole. Sure this solution makes performing action A easier, but if performing action A easier doesn’t benefit the business and isn’t in line with business objectives there are probably much more important solutions that individual can be working on.
I always talk about how important tracking is, well another aspect of project management and analysis is understanding how a solution benefits the organization and what business objectives does it help meet. Stating that a solution solves a problem isn’t enough, you have to understand what solving that problem means to the business, this is the only way you can properly identify priority on whether to do solution 1, or solution 2 first (unless you have limitless resources and money, and if so please give me a call).
In the table below we can see ▓ as a direct relationship, and ▒ as an indirect relationship. With a glance we can see exactly how Solution 1 maps to the business objectives and if we are really interested in objective 2 and 3, we would implement solution 3 first (probably).
|
|
Business Objective 1 |
Business Objective 2 |
Business Objective 3 |
|
Solution 1 |
▓ |
▒ |
|
|
Solution 2 |
▒ |
|
▒ |
|
Solution 3 |
|
▓ |
▓ |
Where do business objectives come from? Typically to get business objectives you identify the vision statement for what the organization is striving towards, take that vision and break down what it really means into several major business objectives. Often many people in the business will be able to identify what the business objectives are for you, or it should be easy to come up with some of your own that ring true for the business as a whole.
An example of one of these business objective matrices can be found below.
Lets give an example: I am an organization that sells cars and fixes cars.
Vision Statement:
To provide our customers with the most affordable, best valued cars while providing them with a complete car maintenance solution and unrivaled customer service.
Business Objectives:
- Improve Customer Service
- Improve Sale of Cars
- Improve Sale of Maintenance Services
Those are some very generalized objectives. Well now Johnny in the Technology Department comes up with a couple wonderful solutions for our Car company.
Johnny’s solutions are:
- Implement a File Sharing Solution that will enable sales people, customer service people, and maintenance people to share information.
- Implement a Mobile Workforce Solution that will enable employees to communicate via wireless devices anywhere in the company building.
- Implement a Sales Tracking Solution that will help track all sales.
- Implement a Maintenance Inventory System that will help track tools and maintenance supplies.
That is fantastic Johnny, and now how do these solutions MAP to the objectives of the business? Well that’s easy, Johnny uses the business objective matrix I mentioned above to show his bosses and they can see easily and graphically exactly how these solutions benefit the organization. This will allow them to easily prioritize the solutions by what their immediate business needs are.
|
|
Improve Customer Service |
Improve Sale of Cars |
Improve Sale of Maintenance Services |
|
File Sharing Solution |
▒ |
▒ |
▒ |
|
Mobile Workforce Solution |
▒ |
▒ |
▒ |
|
Sales Tracking Solution |
|
▓ |
▓ |
|
Maintenance Inventory Solution |
|
|
▒ |
Hope this helps you win more success,
Richard
Tags: Business Objectives, Business Value, Solution Mapping
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