This service empowers organizations to take control of their destiny and build an operating model for people, process, and technology that supports current and future success.
Service overview
The Cogentes Roadmap Development service helps organizations create a clearly defined roadmap for moving from their current state operating model for people, process and technology to a desired future state operating model within a given timeframe, usually a few quarters. This service presupposes that both a current state assessment and a future state vision have been completed.
At Cogentes we often find that business and IT leaders struggle to define a realistic strategy that they firmly believe will take them to where they want to be in the future. While long-term plans and visions might exist, confidence in their accuracy and feasibility is often low. The Cogentes Roadmap Development service addresses that issue by creating the building blocks for the future of an organization’s operating model of people, process and technology – building blocks that are reasonable, practical, and that deliver business value at every phase of development.
One of the major reasons business and IT leaders lack confidence in long-term plans is because they are not based on an in-depth analysis of the current state, the desired future state and the requirements to close the gaps between the two. This is an intensely analytical and time-consuming process that only very senior business and IT people can perform.
Few organizations have the ability to see objectively and horizontally across all groups within the enterprise, understand their business processes and requirements, project where these will be in a few years, and translate those requirements into a comprehensive plan that is broken down into realistic and achievable phases. Even if this capability exists within an organization, staff who could create a roadmap are usually very busy with existing projects.
Most business leaders are hoping that IT leaders are translating business goals into actionable, pragmatic, and achievable plans. But what these executives usually don’t realize is that IT leaders are often over-burdened with supporting the current state model. A plan to achieve the desired future state operating model can be low on the list of an already overextended IT leader’s priorities.
The value of this service
The Cogentes Roadmap Development service is the solution to all of the issues noted above. It puts no strain on existing IT staff and leaders. It delivers a broad perspective across the entire enterprise. It creates practical and realistic phases of development that a business can implement over time. It gives executives the confidence to know that their desired future state operating model is being invested in with each new budget cycle of the technology spend.
The roadmaps we develop take a horizontal view of an organization, looking at the capabilities of individual groups and departments, but also looking across all groups at their ability to change to meet future state goals and the impact of their requirements on the overall technology enterprise. We strive to develop architectures that support the business holistically, that are agile and flexible, and that are cost-effective and appropriate to the desired future state.
The roadmaps break down into realistic phases, each with their own milestones, and delineate the steps that should be taken to transform the three areas of the operating model:
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people’s skill-sets
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business processes
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technology architectures
The roadmap provides timelines for each phase and rough budget estimates for cost-planning purposes. It also provides architecture diagrams for each phase, which empower IT staff to work toward the milestones and business results associated with that phase of development.
The results of this service
The roadmap provides a sizable list of initiatives for the next several quarters that a business can implement, knowing that the initiatives will progress toward the realization of business strategies and the desired future state operating model. The roadmap empowers organizations to take control of their technology expenditures and invest wisely in the people, processes, and technology architectures that will enable not only current, but also future, success.
The roadmap provides a series of benchmarks against which an organization can measure its progress in specific intervals. This can help a business decide where and what to expend resources on and to what degree. The roadmap greatly reduces unpleasant surprises and greatly improves predictability.
Our approach
Cogentes consultants develop the roadmap for moving from the current state to future state operating model by first performing a gap analysis of the major differences between the two models. We analyze other operating models from industry trends and published research and compare those against our client’s goals.
Cogentes consultants then work with our clients to define the time period in which the future state operating model should be achieved. We identify the major building blocks that need to be put in place for the organization to realize real business value at every phase of development.
Cogentes consultants develop an enterprise timeline and map each building block to a set of milestones and each milestone to a set of initiatives. Building blocks, milestones, and initiatives are all divided into a limited number of phases that are distributed across the enterprise timeline.
Cogentes consultants also develop a set of architectural diagrams for each phase. Based on the building blocks, milestones, and initiatives for each phase, we can forecast rough expenditures, required skill-sets, and work plans that should be managed to. We also create success criteria for each phase, which act as a barometer for a company to monitor the effectiveness of their efforts.
Our deliverables
The deliverables from this service include a Microsoft Word document that:
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Identifies each phase along the roadmap by short-term, medium-term and long-term goals.
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Breaks down each phase into the business-value building blocks, major milestones and initiatives associated with that phase.
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Outlines the rewards that will be realized from that phase which may include cost reductions, productivity improvements, increased agility, re-skilling of staff, etc.
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Notes the range of achievements, costs, opportunities, challenges, and risks associated with each phase.
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Provides recommendations for reducing risk and costs for each phase of development.
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Details external research and industry trends that were considered in the development of the roadmap.
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Includes architectural diagrams associated with each phase of development.
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Provides a communication plan for promoting each phase of the roadmap to the organization at large.
