You've Finally Gotten Project Approval. Now What?

Where do you begin? How can you make sure that you identify all of the system functionality demanded by its users? How do you begin to estimate the effort? How can you segregate needs from wants? How do you achieve consensus among all constituents?

If you're working with Gemini Systems, the answer to all of these questions is with the Shared Vision Workshop. The Shared Vision Workshop represents a formal, highly structured approach to helping businesses define requirements for automation initiatives or process reengineering opportunities.

Why Bother?

A disturbing statistic: Corporations waste $500 billion per year worldwide on misguided or inefficient IT spending (Gartner Group, 2002). Studies indicate that incomplete requirements and lack of user involvement are leading causes. Gemini Systems' Shared Vision Workshop significantly increases the likelihood of IT project success by applying scientific methods to what is too often a haphazard exercise: defining business requirements.

What is the Shared Vision Workshop?

The purpose of the Shared Vision Workshop is to develop a shared understanding of the business under consideration in order to provide a sound foundation for the implementation of technology solutions intended to:

Improve customer satisfaction Maximize revenues Increase efficiency

Reduce costs Increase service levels Enhance quality

Importantly, it is a workshop, not a meeting: all participants are active contributors to the process. We start with a clean slate and focus on understanding the business from an information perspective. Discussions of specific technology options are deferred until this solid foundation has been laid. Key user involvement occurs from the very beginning helping to ensure that the system's designers are really the business experts themselves.

Why Do They Work?

Gemini's Shared Vision Workshops have proven to be effective in defining business requirements for the following reasons:

• Business experts participate right from the start
• The process is structured and rigorous
• Errors are caught and conflicts are resolved early
• Business process improvements are often discovered
• The gap between business people and technical staff is bridged
• Complete and accurate requirements identified early on result in time and cost savings during downstream development and testing

Gemini Systems runs five distinct types of analysis workshops, one or more of which are held to initiate a new system development project depending on the nature of the system to be built. They are:

• Interface Model - depicts how information flows should be manifested (data entry screens, reports, e.g.).
• Business Information Model - describes the business environment (internal & external), and the flows of information emanating from, coming into, and occurring within the business under consideration.
• Data Model - describes the logical relationships that represent the information foundation of the business.
• Business Process Model - describes the elements of business processes within and across internal functions, their participants, conditions of satisfaction, and cycle times.
• Information Access - prepares organizations with the knowledge, strategic vision, and executive commitment to achieve their search and information access goals.
• Enterprise Information Portal - provides key stakeholders with a more detailed description of the portal vision and an affirmation of its business value.

For more information on the Shared Vision Workshop and Gemini Systems contact us.