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Design a solution with a clear vision and strategy

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Before you design a solution, you need a vision and a strategy. Your vision is what you want to achieve, and your strategy is how you plan to get there.

Vision

A vision is a desire to change the present and improve the future. It can come from a prediction, a challenge, or an opportunity.

When an organization decides to transform, it usually has a vision that guides its change. The vision can be expressed in a mission statement or a business case with specific objectives. For example, your vision might be to:

  • Modernize your legacy business applications.
  • Work faster and more collaboratively.
  • Increase your profits.
  • Improve your service or product quality.
  • Enhance your user experience.
  • Empower your users to build apps that add value.

Your vision helps you shape your plan for achieving it.

Business strategy

Your business strategy supports your vision by answering key questions, such as:

  • Why are you making this change, and what are the expected benefits? What is the business value of your solution? Where do you see your organization in 5, 10, or 20 years?

  • What business capabilities can your solution offer? What business processes can you run? What information and data do you need to record and report on your services or products?

  • Who are the clients, customers, or people inside your organization that your solution will serve or affect?

  • Would you like to improve your current line of business or explore a new industry?

  • When do you want to realize your vision? What is your timeline? And do you want to deliver your solution all at once or in stages?

  • Where are the regions, geographically and functionally, that your solution will apply to? Will you apply it to all or some of them?

  • Who will plan, design, and deliver your solution? Do you have a preferred partner, or do you need to select a vendor? Who will support and maintain your solution after it goes live?

  • How will you use technology in your solution? This question is the first step of solution design and the link to your solution strategy, and the business case for IT transformation.

Solution strategy

Your solution strategy is a comprehensive view and approach that defines your overall solution. A solution blueprint is a living document that you review at several points during your project to help you identify and take actions, mitigate risks, and resolve issues as they arise. In the Success by Design framework, the blueprint is essential for your project's success, and provides a view of the overall solution architecture and the technologies it depends on.

Diagram of Success by Design phases.

The Solution Blueprint Review workshop is a mandatory part of the solution design experience, and helps you track your solution design's progress to ensure that your vision and objectives are still viable. It also allows solution architects and the implementation team to review and understand your:

  • Program strategy
  • Test strategy
  • Business process strategy
  • Application strategy
  • Data strategy
  • Integration strategy
  • Intelligence strategy
  • Security strategy
  • Application lifecycle management (ALM) strategy
  • Environment and capacity strategy

Capturing these details helps you understand the project, and validates your solution design through the complete and well-organized processes, data, and people enabled by Dynamics 365.

Learn more and review a list of activities in each Success by Design phase at Introduction to Success by Design.

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