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Loading ...The Anatomy of a Pre-Analysis Cookbook – Part 2: Nuts and Bolts (Contd.)
Arun Nithyanandam -
This is a series of posts, if you haven’t read the earlier ones, please read it here.
The Anatomy of a Pre-Analysis Cookbook – Part 1: Overview
The Anatomy of a Pre-Analysis Cookbook – Part 2: Nuts and Bolts
Business Templates
These are the standard business language that is used for documentation, agreements, system generated emails, etc.
• What kinds of templates are usually used in conjunction with the business object?
• What sections of these are modified often? List out relevant sections here.
Master Data
This topic would, in some cases, include vendor master, supplier master, clients, personnel information, etc.
• Please list out sources or systems that are currently used to maintain master data. Examples will include vendor master, supplier master, clients, products, etc.
Integrations
This is a common feature of a large project. Invariably you will end up with integrating data to various other systems within the company.
• What are the integration points for the new system to talk to? The integration includes information exchange that could go in to the new system and/or out of the new system.
• What is the company standard for directory services?
• Is there a single sign-on currently implemented within the company?
Products, IP, etc
• Do you maintain a list of products, services, or solution offerings?
• Do you maintain any knowledge or IP-related information?
Legacy Data
This section covers the already-existing data for the business objects. The data can be located in legacy systems, in various spreadsheets, documents, or even hard-copy information.
• What is the volume of the legacy information for the business object?
• What is the volume of the legacy information for associated objects?
• Is the legacy data in a mix of stages in the lifecycle? Do they include objects in creation, review, approvals, executed or published, etc?
• What is the format of the legacy data? (Examples could include Excel, PDT, etc)
Search and Reporting
• Is there a currently a report that is used by your organization?
• If yes, what are the data points being reported on?
• How frequently are these reports run?
• What is the report format? (Examples could include Excel, pivot tables, etc.)
Next week on these pages : The Anatomy of a Pre-Analysis Cookbook – Part 3: Take aways
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About the Author
Arun Nithyanandam is a Strategy and Management Consultant based in Silicon Valley. Arun has managed multiple multi-million dollar IT projects in US and Europe across verticals. His current focus areas are Enterprise Contract Management Systems (deploying Nextance proposal-to-revenue and source-to-savings solutions to help companies improve financial performance and lower risk) and Enterprise Content Management Systems. Arun works with CIGNEX Technologies, a provider of Open Source based enterprise content management solutions.
During his spare time (if any) Arun enjoys hiking and reading.
Arun is currently working on a book (co-authored with Bill Sherman) code named “Managing Multi-million dollar projects” to be published in 2008.
For the collection of all Arun’s articles, please visit Squidoo Lens Arun Says
Posted on June 6th, 2008 by Arun Nithyanandam and filed under Best Practices | 6 Comments »
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