Understanding Current State

"Why didn’t we know about this!?"

said the angry over-dramatised Special Agent character on tv…

… also said by some PM, sponsor, or stakeholder about halfway through a program.

The Projects life can be exciting at times, fast paced like Rush Hour, and occasionally as slow as a stare-off in Days Of Our Lives…
 

But if the project team ever hears someone say .. 'We didn’t we know this',  or that or whatever…  One begins to wonder who will be roasted OR potentially thrown under the bus.

Jokes aside, the point I am making here is about the importance of understanding the Current State (of affairs) before starting a project/program.

The PM, BA and SME's play a critical role to make sure discovery work is done properly for Current State processes, systems, integrations, people.

-- The analysis work on Current State needs to be thorough, and well understood.

-- Enough time needs to be allocated so that it is properly reviewed, validated and signed off.

The benefits of having The Current State documented..

-- helps illustrate current pain points,

-- is a key input to defining and driving the change for Future State and beyond.

-- should be well understood from an architecture viewpoint

If anyone does not know… When a program of work is about to start;
-- the scope-of-work is used as THE primary basis of what will be worked on and delivered in that program/project

If scope changes are required after a project has begun, this will likely have an impact on:

-- potentially de-railing the project in terms of what gets delivered to customers, when it gets delivered,  and overall solution design.

-- costs (UP)

-- impact resources availability (DOWN)

-- vendor engagement (could go either way)

Thus if scope changes, very likely the go-live changes.
if go-live changes, then customer expectations need to be aligned and updated.

All in all, it is not a pleasant experience. A lot of what I describe above can be minimised or eliminated altogether if teams ensure that the Current State is well understood and documented.