In Part 1 we took a look at a sample As Is change control business process as presented to us by our fictional customer.
The customer owns the process
Don't go stomping all over the customer's processes like you own them
Our next goal is to produce a To Be model by improving on the As Is model. However, the worst thing we could do is stomp all over our customer’s process with our business analysis boots (I think I’ll call them BABs, in case I ever want to use that phrase again) and tell them how we are going to improve the way they do things. That is an excellent way to alienate the customer.
As business analysts, it’s true that we bring things to the table that the customer generally does not. Otherwise, we should not be at the table at all. We bring modelling techniques, we bring experience of other projects, we bring an objective point of view which enables us to help the customer avoid the four monkeys, we bring the ability to see the difference between what the customer wants and what the business needs.
Your customer, on the other hand, brings experience of using the As Is process, experience of the problems involved in the process and a deeper understanding of the strategic objectives, and nuances, of the business.
It is by working together with the customer that we stand the best chance of producing a good To Be model. However, we must never forget that the customer owns the process and the customer will have to live with the new process long after we have left and, most importantly, the customer must feel that we understand this.
This point is important enough to stand on its own, so we’ll leave it there for the moment.
In Part 3, we will take a look at identifying problems with the As Is process.
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