Business Vision

Revision History

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Table of Contents

5. Precedence and Priority

Business Vision

1. Introduction

The introduction of the Business Vision provides an overview of the entire document. It includes the purpose, scope, definitions, acronyms, abbreviations, references, and overview of the Business Vision.]

1.1 Purpose

[Specify the purpose of this Business Vision document.]

1.2 Scope

[A brief description of the scope of this Business Vision document; what Project(s) it is associated with and anything else that is affected or influenced by this document.]

1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

[This subsection provides the definitions of all terms, acronyms, and abbreviations required to properly interpret the Business Vision document. This information may be provided by reference to the project's Glossary.]

1.4 References

[This subsection provides a complete list of all documents referenced elsewhere in the Business Vision. Identify each document by title, report number if applicable, date, and publishing organization. Specify the sources from which the references can be obtained. This information may be provided by reference to an appendix or to another document.]

1.5 Overview

[This subsection describes what the rest of the Business Vision contains and explains how the document is organized.]

2. Positioning

2.1 Business Opportunity

[Briefly describe the business opportunity being met by this project.]

2.2 Problem Statement

[Provide a statement summarizing the problem being solved by this project. The following format may be used:]

The problem of	[describe the problem]
affects	[who are the stakeholders affected by the problem?]
the impact of which is	[what is the impact of the problem?]
a successful solution would be	[list some key benefits of a successful solution]

2.3 Business Position Statement

[This section is optional. If you are implementing a new business this section may be useful to help sell the idea. Provide an overall statement summarizing, at the highest level, the unique position the business intends to fill in the marketplace. The following format may be used:]

For	[target customer]
Who	[statement of the need or opportunity]
The (business name)	is a [business category]
That	[statement of key benefit; that is, what is the compelling reason to do business with?]
Unlike	[primary competitive alternative]
This business	[statement of primary differentiation]

[A business position statement communicates the business idea to all concerned.]

3. Stakeholder and Customer Descriptions

[To effectively provide products and services that meet your stakeholders' and users' real needs, it is necessary to identify and involve all of the stakeholders as part of the Business Modeling process. You must also identify the customers and partners of the business and ensure that they are adequately represented by the stakeholder community. This section provides a profile of the stakeholders involved in the project and the key problems that they perceive to be addressed by the proposed solution. It does not describe their specific requests or requirements as these are captured separately. Instead it provides the background and justification for why the requirements are needed.]

3.1 Market Demographics

[Summarize the key market demographics that motivate your business decisions. Describe and position target market segments. Estimate the market's size and growth by using the number of potential customers, or the amount of money your customers spend trying to meet needs that your products or services would fulfill. Review major industry trends and technologies. Answer these strategic questions:

- What is your organization's reputation in these markets?

- What would you like it to be?

- How do current products and services support your goals?]

3.2 Stakeholder Profiles

[Describe each stakeholder in the business here by filling in the following table. Remember that stakeholder types can be as divergent as customers, departments, and technical developers. A thorough profile would cover the following topics for each type of stakeholder.]

3.2.1 <Stakeholder Name>

Representative	[Who is the stakeholder representative to the project? (This is optional if documented elsewhere.) What we want here is names.]
Description	[Brief description of the stakeholder type.]
Type	[Qualify the stakeholder's expertise and background.]
Responsibilities	[List the stakeholder's key responsibilities with regard to the changes being made that is, their interest as a stakeholder.]
Success Criteria	[How does the stakeholder define success? How is the stakeholder rewarded?]
Involvement	[How is the stakeholder involved in the project? Relate where possible to the Rational Unified Process roles that is, Business Use Case Model Reviewer, and so on.]
Deliverables	[Are there any additional deliverables required by the stakeholder? These could be project deliverables or outputs from the system under development.]
Comments / Issues	[Problems that interfere with success and any other relevant information go here.]

3.3 Customer Profiles

[Describe each unique customer of the business here by filling in the following table for each customer type. A thorough profile covers the following topics for each type of customer:]

3.3.1 <Customer Name>

Representative	[Who is the customer representative to the project? (This is optional if documented elsewhere.) This often refers to the Stakeholder that represents the set of customers; for example, Stakeholder: John Smith.]
Description	[A brief description of the customer type.]
Type	[Qualify the customer's expertise, background and degree of sophistication.]
Success Criteria	[How does the customer define success? How is the customer rewarded?]
Involvement	[How the customer is involved in the project? Relate where possible to the Rational Unified Process roles that is, Business Use Case Model Reviewer, and so on.]
Deliverables	[Are there any deliverables the customer produces and, if so, for whom?]
Comments / Issues	[Problems that interfere with success and any other relevant information go here. These include trends that make the customer's job easier or more difficult.]

3.4 Customer Environment

[Detail the working environment of the target customer. Here are some suggestions:

Number of people involved in completing the task? Is this changing?
How long is a task cycle? Amount of time spent in each activity? Is this changing?
Any unique environmental constraints: mobile, outdoors, in-flight, and so on.?
Which processes are in use today? Future processes?
What other organizations does the customer do business with? Does your business need to integrate with them?

This is where extracts from the Business Model could be included to outline the task and business workers involved, and so on.]

3.5 Key Stakeholder or Customer Needs

[List the key problems with existing solutions as perceived by the stakeholder. Refer back to the Problem Statement and Business Position Statement. Clarify the following issues for each problem:

- What are the reasons for this problem?

- How is it solved now?

- What solutions does the user want?]

[It is important to understand the relative importance the stakeholder places on solving each problem. Ranking and cumulative voting techniques indicate problems that must be solved versus issues they would like addressed.

Fill in the following table-if using Rational RequisitePro to capture the Needs, this could be an extract or report from that tool.]

Need	Priority	Concerns	Current Solution	Proposed Solutions
Broadcast messages

3.6 Alternatives and Competition

[Identify alternatives the stakeholder perceives as available. These alternatives can include doing business with competitors, finding a procedural solution or simply maintaining the status quo. List any known competitive choices that exist or may become available. Include the major strengths and weaknesses of each competitor as perceived by the stakeholder.]

4. Business Modeling Objectives

[List here the objectives of the business modeling effort. Consider the following three categories for identifying objectives:

Timeliness of operations
How long does it take for the business to perform its operations?
Cost of doing business
How much does it cost to provide each service?
Quality of business operations
How well does the business deliver its services to customers?]