The teams were working on various projects to ‘transform’ the businesses. They dove into a number of As-Is assessments that were lengthy, comprehensive and very large. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of pages of materials were prepared, reviewed and approved by the SMEs. With all this work and all this approval, the next steps, development & implementation, were sure things. The resulting solutions proposals were all expensive and complex, with many, many person years of effort required to deliver the first version. The original Business Requirements were skipped over to focus on the details of the new comprehensive processing solutions. The customer (bill payer) was unhappy.

1. Copyright ©2018 Albert CerqueiraCopyright ©2018 Albert Cerqueira
Why am I hearing
Stupid Things?
Business Requirements

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Gathering Business Requirements
If it was easy,
anyone could do it.
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It takes dedication, organization, & effort to gather
business requirements.

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Gathering Business Requirements
• Usually something simple like:
– Raise Revenues: new customers or new
products/services
– Lower Operating Costs
– Improve Inventory Cycle Times
– Improve Time to Market
– Increase Cash Flow
– Improve Customer Satisfaction
– Improve Employee Moral
– Increase Profits
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This is the
‘what’ of the
Business
Requirements
OK maybe getting the Business
requirements isn’t so hard after all?

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The what is a short list
• It doesn’t usually change;
• There may be a couple of related items;
– Maybe lower ops costs AND improve customer
service.
– But usually there is a focus on just one area that is
the cause of the transformation project.
• So where is the effort?
– What makes it hard?
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Hard part must be figuring out how to
achieve the what (business requirement) in
a particular situation?
Establish the KEY Business Outcomes:
•First Principle – its all about what are
you doing & why are you doing it
– Collect what is being done; and
– Why are you doing that?
• Key outcomes that the organization is trying
to achieve.
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Make it Better & Make it Different vs
Make it Better & Keep it the Same.

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There are NO experts on how to do things
differently
‘What are you doing & why are you doing that?’
…is better than…
‘How do you do that now & How can we make it
better?’
• Limits the process to minor productivity improvements.
• Driven by too deep a review of As-Is Processes.
• The Question: ‘And what do you do next?’
– Is ‘how do you do that now’ in disguise, since each step
is being catalogued, it must be important.
– If it is important, the new solution needs to do it too.
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Hard part must be figuring out how?
• There is a need to develop a logical sequence for
completing a process;
• The As-Is version is just a reference; it is useful for
getting a framework.
– It does NOT deserve a ton of attention or super detailed
documentation.
– We do NOT need to create a new process/solution that
mimics the existing one.
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Business Requirements driven by Transformation,
require understanding the business outcomes and a
willingness to change how it is done.

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Black Box : Details Don’t Matter
• The real challenge is finding a way to achieve
the same operational outcomes while
meeting the business requirements of
improving customer satisfaction.
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As-Is To-Be
Inputs
Out-
comes
Feedback
Inputs
Out-
comes
Feedback

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If you don’t focus on outcomes and
change
The natural tendency is to dive in and
get all the details;
We want to be helpful and busy right away.
This leads to a comprehensive review of the
As-Is processes, tools and methods.
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So a team documents and entrenches the ‘value’ in the minds of the
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) of how the current processes run
and why it is good that they continue to do so.
The solution is then presented to the Customer (bill payer).

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Why am I hearing ‘Stupid’ things?
We are here to help…..
• Step 1 define the problem
• Step 2 get the details
• Step 3 get more details
• Step 4 get more details
• Step 5 get more details….etc
• Step 199 figure out the
‘answer’
• Step 200 present the
‘answer’
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Conclusion,
the answer is:
Too Complicated
Too Long
Too Expensive
Too Difficult

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Ultimatum
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This is ‘stupid’, why am I
hearing stupid things?
I’m not stupid!
It must be you!

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The customer sees this as a failure
• Their simple needs were ignored in exchange for expensive, complex
solutions that may or may not work.
– Thus: ‘This is Stupid’
Example:
• House Kitchen & Bath Renovation: Budget $50K & 2 months:
• You observe lots of work & activity must be going well?
• We are at the ‘half way’ point.
• Ask the contractor, “how are we doing?”
– Well we had a lot of trouble with the plumbing and the stud work,
– the dry wallers were late and the carpenters couldn’t complete the
Cabinets,
– because the designers didn’t have the materials and finishes sorted out.
– We are about 25% done and 75% spent. Is that OK?
– By the way we also picked a really neat finish for the floor, imported
Italian Marble!
• A steal at $25.00 per square foot! It is going to look great!
Conclusion:
• So the project is going to take 4 months longer to finish than planned and 3
times the budget. Are you happy?
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13. Copyright ©2018 Albert Cerqueira13 A.C&A Confidential 02/05/18
How to set priorities to avoid stupid?
Respond to the Business Drivers
Set Time & Resources as
constraints
Continuous Delivery?
Is it a big problem?
Value vs Difficulty
Scope
Time Resources
Make sure the Customer is part of the ‘requirements’ process get
past Users.
Call out challenges to the constraints early.
Recognise when the game has to change; its big, there is no
‘affordable’ solution.
Lets go back to the customer to get directions.

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The Customer has Needs
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• They usually have Resource & Time Constraints.
– What can you do about a new product launch in
say 3 months…
– Is very different from, I want to launch a
completely new business next year.
• Adjust Scope to fit the art of the possible
– Work at the right level;
– Limit scope to fit the objective by treating Time &
Resources as fixed constraints.
• Recognize when the constraints and the goals are
mismatched.
– That is a different discussion with the customer.

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BackstoryI first put these concepts together a few years back.
•The teams were working on various projects to ‘transform’ the businesses.
•They dove into a number of As-Is assessments that were lengthy, comprehensive and very large.
•Hundreds and sometimes thousands of pages of materials were prepared, reviewed and approved by the SMEs.
•With all this work and all this approval, the next steps, development & implementation, were sure things.
•The resulting solutions proposals were all expensive and complex, with many, many person years of effort required to deliver the first
version.
•The original Business Requirements were skipped over to focus on the details of the new comprehensive processing solutions.
•The customer (bill payer) was unhappy.
Why ‘Stupid Things’ … …This trap is hard to avoid:
•The details matter, so the As-Is details must be very important.
•The development process always starts with the As-Is assessment.
•But the problem statement(s) by the customer (payer), is the real objective(s).
•When the proposed solution spends all its time explaining how the As-Is will become a new solution, the customer hears NOTHING about
their needs and conclude that a very expensive boondoggle was underway.
•They become frustrated and conclude that the solution is ‘stupid’ since it does not address their needs.
•If the solution is ‘stupid’ then the presenter is not coming off too well either.
Practical Implications:
•If the goal is transformation, the As-Is assessment efforts need to be minimized.
• Use the black box assessment technique and focus on inputs and outcomes.
•Any solution should be designed from the top down to address the customer's (bill payer) requirement(s).
•Collecting the key inputs, activities and outcomes is all that is needed to create a whole new way of doing something.
• Assumes your team can invent a new solution for an old problem.
•A whole new set of details are needed in the new solution to make sure the integrity of the process is preserved for all stakeholders.
•This requires more creative thinking on the part of the business users; some users never make the transition.
•This comes with a much bigger change management tail than a simple rebuild of the As-Is; but is a truly transformative opportunity.
•The failure in these endeavours is not building an innovative solution, it is in poor preparation of g the organization for real change.