Setting Business Goals

Business analysis should articulate the goals of a deployment project. Clear goals help focus design decisions and prevent the project from going astray. Contrasting the business goals with current operations also helps determine design decisions.

Scope

Business requirements should state the scope of the deployment project. Make sure you identify areas that can be solved and avoid open-ended requirements that make the goal either unclear or unreachable. A poorly defined scope can lead to a deployment design that insufficiently addresses business needs or that is extravagant with resources.

Priorities

Prioritize your goals to ensure that the most important aspects of the deployment can be achieved first. Limited resources might require postponement or modification of some goals. For example, large and complex deployments generally require phased implementation of the solution. By stating the priorities, you provide guidance on decisions that might need to be made for your deployment design to be accepted by the stakeholders.

Critical Qualities

Identify areas that are critical to success to allow stakeholders and designers to concentrate on the most important criteria.

Growth Factors

As you set business goals, consider not only the current needs of the organization, but anticipate how these needs might change and grow over extended periods. You do not want a solution that is outdated prematurely.

Safety Margin

The design of your solution is based on assumptions made during this business analysis phase. These assumptions might not be accurate for various reasons, such as insufficient data, errors in judgement, or unanticipated external events. Make sure you plan for a safety margin not only in your business goals but throughout your planning so the solution that you design can handle unexpected events.