This process requires that you take business requirements and translate them into detailed solution requirements. In general, this process takes the business concepts and translates those into solution requirements that can be developed within the recommended alternative. This process is intuitive for most project teams since it is typical to jump to a solution when a person or team is presented a problem. However, just as the steps to document the business process was done iteratively to ensure all steps were included and provided a complete context to understand the problem, the process to progressively elaborate the solution requirements will take many iterations to completely define the technical requirements. For example, if the mid-level business requirement is to send notifications when a triggering event occurs, this can translate into many detailed solution requirements to set up a service to send a notification and the rules that trigger the notification. The Stage 3 document can take another 3 to 6 months to prepare for projects that are within the organization’s delegated purchasing authority and more time if the project requires a BCP.
Stage 3 Keys to Success
- Spend adequate time, which can be anywhere from 3 to 12 months depending on the project scope, to define detailed solution requirements. The solution requirements will be the key input to develop the work breakdown structure and determine deliverable expectation documents for the team in charge of the project’s execution phase.
- Develop the procurement vehicle based on CDT recommendations to ensure all aspects of the procurement have been considered and documented.
that are derived from the mid-level business requirements. This process requires that you take business requirements and translate them into detailed solution requirements. In general, this process takes the business concepts and translates those into technical requirements that can be developed in the recommended solution. This process is intuitive for most project teams since it is typical to jump to a solution when a person or team is presented a problem. However, just as the steps to document the business process was done iteratively to ensure all steps were included and provided a complete context to understand the problem, the process to progressively elaborate the technical requirements will require many iterations to completely define the technical requirements that convey what is needed to perform the business process step in the new solution. For example if the mid-level business requirement is to send notifications when a triggering event occurs, this can translate into many detailed technical requirements to set up a service to send a notification with parameters to handle the many different situations when the notification service will be used. The Stage 3 document can take another 3 to 6 months to prepare for projects that are within the organization’s delegated purchasing authority and more time if the budget requires a BCP and project oversight due to additional documentation requirements.
Stage 4 is the culmination of all the project planning and is the final check to ensure the business objectives have not changed since the Stage 1 analysis was completed, the mid-level requirements and finances gathered in Stage 2 remain consistent with organization’s needs and budget, and that the procurement methodologies and detailed requirements defined in Stage 3 have been prepared completely and are in alignment with prior analyses. This final review is the last stage prior to issuing the procurement vehicle. At this stage key action dates for the procurement are finalized, the planning phase is officially over, and the procurement begins. The Stage 4 documentation consists of a final checklist to ensure the project team is ready to manage the tasks to address bidder questions, make any necessary changes as addenda to the procurement documents, evaluate the bidder responses, negotiate contract items, manage any protests and make the final decision to award. Stage 4 documentation requires that each of these steps is documented and ensures the procurement was managed according to the plan. All in all the completion of the stage gate PAL process can take anywhere from 9 months for mature organizations attempting to migrate a well-defined manual process to an electronic solution to 2 years for organizations which have little experience developing project plans or for large scale projects involving many business units across multiple systems.
If you have a project you want to explore more fully but need some help to get it off the ground, Estrada Consulting has excellent staff resources with considerable experience performing the work to complete the Project Approval Lifecycle process. Our extensive experience in executing system development and implementation projects for government organizations will provide the insight to best prepare your organization to initiate and plan a successful project.