Are you starting a new project and have no idea how to organize the information you have gathered? Or maybe you’re initiating a client project and you’re not sure how to present your initial assessment results? Believe me, you’re not alone. You can do all these with Planning & Discovery (P&D) reports. In this post, I am going to explain what a Planning & Discovery report is, why it is important for a project, and how you can easily create it with confidence. So let’s get started!
Planning & Discovery is an information-gathering and documentation phase meant to dig deep into details of the project, find out what is important to the client, and use that information during the implementation of the solution. Scope, depth of research, and inquiry differ from project to project, but the results are the same: valuable information. The more information you gather, interpret, and comprehend, the more prepared you will be to execute a project on time and within budget.
The information gathered and documented in the Planning & Discovery report doesn’t just provide a better understanding of the project, but it also provides the details needed in the later phases. For example in the Design & Architecture (D&A) phase, we use the information provided in the P&D to do a thorough analysis of the problem and propose a solution with more elaborated and granular details.
The Planning & Discovery report is important for many reasons, some of which are:
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- It provides a high-level overview of the project.
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- Information collected here is used in later phases of the project.
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- Formal research provides strategic direction to the managers.
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- Creates a framework to manage resources such as time, money, energy.
- Helps in developing a long-term partnership with the client.
At Anant, we focus on collecting and documenting information based on the four important aspects of the Modern Enterprise Framework, which are: People, Process, Information, and System.
People
In this segment, we provide the details of all the individuals who will work or will be involved in the project directly or indirectly. Depending on the project, people may consist of employees, vendors, partners, contractors, and most importantly the customers. This information also includes their roles and responsibilities and any additional details that might be helpful to the people working on the project.
Process
This segment is used to describe what needs to be done in the project and the processes that will be used to deliver the final result. Depending upon the project, it can either be an elaboration of the responsibilities of each person involved in the project or the list of all the processes of each department that will be impacted or involved during the project implementation.
Information
In this segment, we list the key information that needs to be stored or managed by the team in order to deliver the final outcome. It includes information about a product or service catalog, accounts, inventory and contacts. If these details are tentative to change during the project lifecycle, then it is important to have the detail of the best person to contact for further clarification.
Systems
This segment is used to record all the necessary details about the various software systems that the clients currently use, their purpose, features, and specifications. These details are used during the project planning and project implementation phase by both business analysts and development team.
You can also use this reporting framework to present your initial assessment results and compare the existing model with your recommended models.
Need help with designing your business reports? Our team has decades of experience in developing various business reports for our clients and we can help you with your project. Drop us a line at solutions@anant.us!
