TechTalk: Use the business process catalog to manage project scope and estimation
Managing project scope and estimation in a Dynamics 365 implementation is essential for delivering a successful project. A well-defined scope acts as the foundation for the entire implementation process, outlining specific goals, objectives, and deliverables. It also mitigates the risk of scope creep and helps ensure that the project stays on track, delivering a tailored solution that meets business needs. The business process catalog plays a crucial role in this process by providing a structured approach to defining, aligning, and estimating project efforts.
We based the article on a TechTalk that you can find online in the Dynamics 365 channel on YouTube.
The following image illustrates the different ways that you can use the business process catalog as part of managing the implementation project.
As the illustration shows, you can use the business process catalog to accelerate sales. You can enhance the efforts in demos and presales. You can also model processes by importing them into a business process modeling tool and then estimate efforts, define the scope, analyze fit and gaps, and create a project plan. Finally, you can manage the project by importing data into a project management tool. This flow helps streamline and optimize different stages of business process management.
Align estimates with business processes
In any Dynamics 365 implementation, aligning the estimation process with the business processes in scope is vital. When you do this mapping and understand the processes, the solution becomes more efficient and likely to meet the business's needs. This alignment sets the foundation for clear communication between the project team and business stakeholders, ensuring that everyone speaks the same language and is on the same page.
The following image outlines the key steps to ensure business goals align with processes. It starts with understanding and clearly defining overarching business goals. Then you map these goals to specific business processes, and that helps ensure that each process directly aligns with the goals. The image emphasizes the importance of setting measurable objectives for each goal and discusses how alignment guarantees that every business process contributes to achieving the overarching business objectives.
Benefits of accurate scope and estimation processes
One of the key benefits of accurate scope and estimation processes is improved resource allocation, which can lead to a more cost-effective implementation. Identifying potential risks early in the project allows for the development of contingency plans, reducing the likelihood of disruptions and helping to keep the project on schedule. Effective stakeholder communication and alignment are critical in this process, as they help build confidence and trust among project participants.
Define business goals with the business process catalog
Use the business process catalog as a tool to help define business goals and objectives, ensuring that these are directly aligned with the specific processes that you'll implement. This alignment ensures that every business process in scope for the project contributes to the achievement of the overarching business goals, such as improving customer satisfaction or optimizing operational efficiency.
Stakeholder collaboration and process prioritization
To successfully define the project scope, it's important to provide access to the business process catalog to all relevant stakeholders, including business users, project managers, and technical teams. This collaboration ensures that the catalog is thoroughly reviewed for completeness, accuracy, and relevance. It also helps make sure that you apply any necessary updates or modifications to reflect the specific needs of the organization.
Prioritization of business processes is another essential step in the scope definition process. By identifying the critical processes that are essential for the success of the project, the project team can focus on delivering a minimum viable product while also planning for any other phases or rollouts that might be required. This prioritization process helps to break down the project into manageable pieces, ensuring that each phase is feasible and achievable.
Revisit and refine the project scope
Throughout the project, it's crucial to regularly revisit and refine the project scope as new requirements emerge. This iterative process ensures that the scope remains aligned with the project's objectives and that any necessary customizations or configurations are identified and addressed.
Analyze current business processes
The process of analyzing current business processes, often referred to as discovery, is a critical step in aligning the project scope with existing workflows. However, it's important to avoid the pitfall of designing processes solely based on existing technology or step-by-step procedures. Instead, the focus should be on optimizing processes for the future, using the capabilities of Dynamics 365 or other new technologies being implemented.
The following image highlights key risks to avoid when defining the scope of a project. We advise against simply replicating current processes without considering future needs. The image shows the danger of failing to reevaluate and optimize processes when you transition to a new system, and it emphasizes the importance of focusing on long-term success by seizing opportunities for process improvement. Lastly, it stresses the need to align processes with overarching business goals rather than being limited by the current system's constraints.
Identify dependencies and interactions
Another key aspect of defining the scope is to recognize dependencies and interactions between processes. When you identify these dependencies, both in Dynamics 365 and in external systems, you gain a comprehensive understanding of the overall project scope. That then helps you craft a detailed diagram of the Dynamics 365 ecosystem in relation to the organization's broader technology landscape.
Collaborate and document
Collaboration with business stakeholders is essential throughout the scope definition process. Assigning stakeholders from different areas of the organization ensures that the scope is aligned with the organization's structure and that all relevant business units are involved. This collaboration fosters a holistic approach to scope definition, using the business process catalog as a tool to facilitate communication and alignment.
Documenting business scope
Documenting the business scope is critical, whether using the catalog or not. Thorough documentation of business processes, from discovery to implementation, provides clarity and serves as a reference point throughout the project. The business process catalog can be used as a framework for creating a detailed scope document, incorporating unique patterns, user stories, and use cases specific to the organization. This detailed scope helps to keep the project on track and provides a clear roadmap for achieving the defined goals and objectives.
Estimating project scope
When estimating the project scope, it's important to consider various factors, including workshops, work breakdown structures, integrations, data migrations, and potential gaps. Workshops should be clearly defined in collaboration with stakeholders, ensuring that the right people are involved at each stage of the project. The work breakdown structure provides a detailed list of tasks and configurations that need to be completed, helping to ensure that the project is manageable and achievable.
Integrations, data migrations, and gap sizing
Integrations and data migrations are also critical components of the estimation process. While the catalog doesn't include these elements by default, they should be added as new rows and aligned with the relevant business processes. Identifying and sizing gaps is another important step, as it allows the project team to estimate the effort required for customizations, integrations, and other tasks that aren't covered out of the box by Dynamics 365.
Planning for unknown factors
Throughout the project, it's important to build in time for unknown factors, testing, documentation, and training. Each round of discovery and design workshops might bring new requirements, and it's essential to have a change management process in place to handle these. Testing and iterating on the results are crucial to ensuring that the solution meets the business's needs, and proper documentation and training are essential for a successful implementation.
Continuous improvement and optimization
Monitoring and optimizing the project plan is an ongoing process, and time should be allocated for continuous improvement. This includes regularly revisiting and refining processes, whether during the initial deployment or in subsequent phases of the project. If they implement a culture of continuous improvement, the project team can ensure that the solution continues to meet the business's needs and adapts to changing requirements.
Conclusion
Using the business process catalog to manage project scope and estimation is a critical component of a successful Dynamics 365 implementation. By aligning business goals with specific processes, involving stakeholders in the scope definition process, and regularly revisiting and refining the project plan, organizations can ensure that their projects stay on track, on budget, and deliver the desired outcomes. The catalog serves as a valuable tool in this process, providing a structured approach to managing scope and estimation that helps to ensure the success of the overall project.
The following image illustrates the recommended mapping between components of the business process catalog and Azure DevOps. It shows how end-to-end business processes correspond to area paths, business process areas to workshops, and business processes to epics. Additionally, patterns or scenarios in the catalog are mapped to user stories within Azure DevOps. This mapping helps align business process management with project management tasks in Azure DevOps for streamlined operations.
Related information
You can use the following resources to learn more about Dynamics 365.