Statement of Intent
The Statement of Intent (SOI) is a plan that describes how some or all of the components in the analysis process will be used to achieve the desired outcome of the analysis project - and crucially it should make clear the desired outcome.
If you are bidding for analysis work, the SOI helps you to define the scope of the work you are offering as part of the engagement.
To demonstrate how this works in practise, I'll use the cellar door of a winery as an ongoing example (Cellar Door). For our Cellar Door the SOI might take the following form:
Statement of Intent - Cellar Door Analysis
All the good project details
Cover off all that project defining information:
- Who - identifies the individuals doing the analysis work, the people they are doing the work for, the access needed to expert personnel, third party suppliers and external resources and any relevant organisational hierarchies and lines of reporting,
- Where - the physical and on-line sites that will be involved in the work,
- When - essentially the project Gantt chart showing when the work will be done, key milestones, review periods and delivery dates,
- Why - is the Desired Outcome section, an example of which is given below,
- How - describes how the tools in the process will be used, an example of which is given below,
- Financials and Agreement - the quoted price of the analysis work and the contractual agreement in whatever form your organisation prefers.
Desired Outcome (Why) - example
The analysis will help the Cellar Door to determine whether the acquisition of a customer realtionship management (CRM) system would benefit the business in terms of improved customer interactions and targetted advertising of wine products. The analysis will not deliver a full business case for the acquisition of a CRM. That is a piece of work that will be dependent on a favourable outcome of this analysis.
The Analysis Process (How) - example
The analysis process for this piece of work has been tailored to suit the assignment in the following way:
- Rich pictures: initial discussions indicate that the Cellar Door is a complex mix of wine making, food preparation, and hospitality processes which require business functions to keep operational. An initial rich picture will be constructed that seeks to capture the Cellar Door operation as a whole. If the complexity of the operation makes the picture too busy, up to three operational areas may be made the subject of their own rich picture.
- Using the rich picture(s) to identify candidates, the consultant will write user stories to capture the current experience of users operating within the Cellar Door. User stories will cover activities such as taking a booking, taking a food order, processing a payment, paying a supplier and ordering winery supplies.
- Following the creation of the rich picture(s) and user stories, the consultant will develop a root definition of the Cellar Door which describes what the system is and what it aims to achieve, guided by the mnemonic CATWOE. The CRM system will need to support the root definition for it to be a viable acquisition.
- Based on a detailed analysis of the rich picture(s) and user stories, the consultant will develop a business capability model (BCM) as a way to capture and represent those capabilities that the Cellar Door needs in order to operate correctly and efficiently. The capability descriptions will be discrete and high level, ideally exhibiting high cohesion within the capability and loose coupling between them.
- The BCM will be augmented with heat maps. Two distinct types of heat map are planned - the first that identifies organisational (managment responsibility) boundaries and the second that identifies which existing systems support the capabilities. The user stories typically signal issues enabling these heat maps to reveal:
- Any areas where management responsibility is unclear or ambiguous,
- Capabilities that are not currently supported by any systems, but where system support may be beneficial, highlighting any work-arounds,
- Candidate capabilities that may be improved by the adoption of a CRM system, in turn defining what the CRM should be capable of doing (requirements discovery).
- Based on all that investigation and discovery, the consultant will use his/her skills and experience to develop business process models (BPM) that define how the Cellar Door operates today (As is), and what Cellar Door operations could be with a CRM implemented and any other process improvements (To be). The BPMs represent a key milestone and review checkpoint. It is essential that the Cellar Door understands the root definition and BPMs and engages with the consultant in a comprehensive review process. The outcome of this review will be the first formal indication as to whether the CRM adds value to the operation and further work should be undertaken. It is quite possible that the analysis reveals little or no value is added by the CRM, in which case the analysis engagement should end with an Action Plan stating those findings.
- Tech Tools (Technique Tools) - Risks, issues, threats and opportunities (RITO) list - The Prioritisation grid - Ishikawa diagrams - will be deployed as needed.
- A first set of high level requirements will be developed stating what the Cellar Door needs the CRM to be able to do. Requirements will follow SMART principles and will include the requirement statement and a rationale.
- Finally the Action plan details how the Cellar Door will proceed (or not) with the test, evaluation and eventual procurement of a CRM.