ANSWER

The business vision serves as a foundation that drives, guides and unifies the project from beginning to end. It may be captured in a 1-page Vision statement or a formal Vision document, depending on the size and complexity of the project.

The Vision is articulated by senior or executive management teams. It describes the business outcomes that the project is expected to achieve, and identifies the strategic and tactical changes needed in in the target-state. It provides necessary direction that enables operational staff to give requirements that move beyond current-state in the direction that management has chosen.  A common failing in projects without a clearly defined vision is a target-state solution that looks remarkably similar to the current-state environment.

The Vision also serves to guide the BA over the course of the project. When dealing with detailed requirements and business rules, it is often easy to ‘get lost in the weeds’ and lose track of strategic directions. The BA uses the Vision as context to guide requirements elicitation (“what capabilities would you need in order to shift from your current-state to the envisioned target-state”) and to validate requirements being captured for alignment to the desired end-state.

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Sandy Lambert
Business Architect
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