In the first phase of a strategic technology understanding a high-level understanding of the service was undertaken.
The following were investigated:
- Who are their customers and what are their needs?
- What does the service deliver to meet those customer needs and achieve it’s policy outcomes?
- What are the opportunities and pain points within the service?
- What capability needs does the service have? And are they common needs?
- Who are they using technology to meet those capability needs?
From the customer need, to the customer journey steps they go through, to the capability needs to the technology used to meet those needs.
The business anlayiss work mapped where DWP technology is on the evolution scale to start to see where the opportunities were to commoditise DWP technology estate.
Simon Wardley’s Situation Awareness Mapping technique was used above. A Wardley Map is a representation of the landscape in which a business operates. It consists of a value chain (activities needed to fulfill user needs) graphed against evolution (how individual activities change over time under supply and demand competition). A Wardley Map represents the situational awareness and shared assumptions being made about a context and hints at what strategic options are available.
Once a number of maps were created, a number of views were applied on them to spot patterns and inertia within the organisation. This allowed us to identify areas for further analysis.
Building on the data gathered from the mapping approach, a basic enterprise architecture model was built that helped to bring the information together. This was then aligned to the DWP Technology TCO model so the technology cost of delivering its capability needs across the department was started to be understood with greater clarity.
The costs of delivering capabilities analysis allowed prioritised focus areas to be identified. Areas in standardising, simplifying and sharing technology solutions to meet the capability needs across DWP.
Candidate plays were tested out with key stakeholder representatives throughout the business to see if (1) They’re right plays for to be pursuing, (2) They will add customer and business value , (3) DWP were already already doing them (but perhaps they need more corporate sponsorship), (4) DWP were already doing them but not in a scalable, sharable way , and (5) They will be blocked by or dependent on other activity.