Designing digital solutions - Part 2

Contents & artifacts of a rough concept

As described in the previous blog post, our first step in designing a digital solution is always to develop a rough concept. Whether we use classic or agile methods for the subsequent implementation is irrelevant to us. In both scenarios, we prefer an initial phase to create a common understanding of the following points: 

• What are the goals of the project or digital solution? What NON-goals are defined?
• What are the functional and non-functional (high level) requirements for the solution?
• Which systems of the enterprise architecture should be connected and how? 

When answering these questions, we always look at the solution from the three perspectives already mentioned and develop artifacts that serve these perspectives. In most cases, these artifacts are as follows:

• Customer journey maps and high-level wireframes to visualize functional requirements (customer and business perspective)
• Process visualizations to illustrate and define requirements (business and technology perspective)
• Solution architecture (technology perspective)

These artifacts initially define the broad scope of the digital solution to be developed. 

Use of the developed artifacts

Based on the above artifacts, the next steps (detailed design and implementation) can be developed, defined and delimited:

• Project resources required to develop the digital solution (people, time, and budget)
• Potential risks and dependencies, as well as initial strategies and mitigation actions
• Rough planning and prioritization of required work packages, if necessary

This is usually done in several iterations to match the scope of the next project phases with the available project resources. On the other hand, dependencies on other projects or initiatives may require an adjustment of the initial project plan or simply the sequence of work packages. 

We often draw from the agile toolbox, using methods such as user story mapping to divide the target scope into increments, or weighted shortest job first to prioritize requirements and functionality. 

Challenges during the rough conception phase

We encounter a variety of challenges during this phase of the project. The following are particularly common:

• Unclear organizational and project responsibilities
• Insufficiently mature strategic content and preliminary considerations
• Access to and availability of expertise on the customer side
• Lack of involvement of all relevant stakeholders

If these challenges are not addressed in a structured manner, there is a high risk that the content developed will not be sufficiently valid and therefore will not receive the necessary support throughout the organization. However, these are critical prerequisites for sustainable project success. 

In the last part of this blog series, I will explain how we address these challenges. In the next part, we will look at the content and artifacts of the detailed design.