Business or Mission Analysis
Lead Author: Tami Katz Contributing Authors: Lou Wheatcraft, Mike Ryan
The primary start to the engineering of any system-of-interest (SoI) is to obtain an understanding the organizational objectives behind the development of the SoI, which is performed as part of the concept definition process.
The first activity performed in concept definition is called Business or Mission Analysis, which involves the effort of defining the problem, threat, or opportunity, as well as the mission, goals, objectives, and measures that will be addressed by a solution. The solution could be a new system, a change to an existing system, a service, an operational change or some other solution. This effort is typically performed by the organization’s strategic and business operations levels and focuses on the identification of the primary purpose(s) of the SoI (its "mission"). The second concept definition activity is called Stakeholder Needs Definition, which explores what capabilities are needed to accomplish the mission.
Business or Mission Analysis is often performed iteratively with the Stakeholder Needs Definition activity to better understand the problem (or opportunity) space, as well as options of solution space.
Purpose and Definition
The purpose of Business or Mission Analysis is to understand a mission or market problem, threat or opportunity, establish the objectives and measures of success of a potential solution that could address the problem/threat/opportunity. This consists of a strategic analysis related to emerging needs, capability gaps, opportunities, and potential solutions that can be applied by an organization to obtain its business objectives. This effort is done prior to project formation in order to define the problem space, and it input to the project team's development efforts.
Principles and Concepts
For the SoI under development, success depends on the project team's understanding the data that constitutes the purpose of the SoI (why?), acceptability or desirability of a solution (what?), measures (how well?), and the conditions in which the SOI must operate (in what operating environment?)
Prior to project formulation, a project champion and business analyst in the organization's enterprise works with key stakeholders at the organization’s strategic and business operations levels to clearly define the problem, threat or opportunity for which the project team is to address. Identifying the specific problem/threat/opportunity will enable the project team to understand if the project is worth doing, why the system is needed, and the expected capabilities of the SoI. The next step is to identify the mission, goals and objectives (MGOs) based on the defined problem, threat or opportunity, as well as the measures of success.
- The Mission statement is based on the analysis of a problem, threat, or opportunity that the project was formed to address and defines the “why” - why does the project exist?
- Goals are elaborated from the mission statement to communicate what must be achieved to result in a successful mission. Goals allow the organization to divide the mission statement into manageable pieces and promote a shared understanding between the project team and the organization’s strategic and business operations level stakeholders of what will be done to achieve the mission.
- Objectives are elaborated from the goals to provide more details concerning what must be done that will result in the mission to be achieved, i.e., what the project team and the system to be developed need to achieve so the system can fulfill its intended purpose in its operational environment when operated by its intended users.
- Measures are quantitative metrics used to validate the SoI against the objectives as well as to manage system development across the life cycle.
As part of the Business or Mission Analysis effort, an initial assessment of key stakeholders and SoI life cycle concepts are established to support identification of candidate solution classes. The organization then performs an evaluation of whether to proceed with development of the SoI based on analysis of the data and alignment with organization's enterprise strategy. Upon agreement to proceed, the data from the Business and Mission Analysis effort is provided to the project team to complete the rest of the process of the SoI concept development, as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Business or Mission Analysis addresses the effort to generate project success, which is provided to the project team for further concept definition activities. Original SEBoK figure.
Output of the Business or Mission Analysis process includes:
- Identification of major stakeholders
- Definition of the problem, threat or opportunity space
- Elaboration of the mission, goals, objectives (MGOs) and measures defining project success
- Capture of preliminary life cycle concepts
- Identification of initial concepts of the solution space
- Traceability of strategic problems/threats/opportunities and MGOs/measures to the preferred solution classes
- Confirmation of organizational support
It is typical for the effort of Business or Mission Analysis to be done at a business enterprise or operation levels, where the initial assessment results in the authorization for a project and associated budget along with an acquisition concept. For the project team responsible for developing the SoI, this means seeking an understanding of this content to ensure the outcomes of the project align with the organization's overall strategy behind developing that particular SoI.
Once the project has been formed, the output from the Business or Mission Analysis is then provided to the project organization for use in additional analysis that establishes an overall set of needs for the solution (described in Stakeholder Needs Definition).
Process Approach
Identify Major Stakeholders
During this process the initial stakeholder identification is performed. This can be captured in a register, noting the stakeholder and their involvement with the SoI and project, as well as establishment of prioritization among the stakeholders. This list is expanded upon during Stakeholder Needs Definition.
Define the Problem, Threat or Opportunity
Identifying the specific problem, threat or opportunity will enable the project team to understand why the system is needed, and which capabilities, functions, performance, and features that are important to the customers, users, and operators of the system. Steps to defining the problem, threat, or opportunity include:
1. Identification of the organization’s strategic and business operations level stakeholders that are impacted by the problem or threat or those who will benefit by pursuing the opportunity.
2. Collaboration with these stakeholders to understand how they are impacted by the problem or threat or those that will benefit by pursuing the opportunity.
3. Clear definition of the problem, threat, or opportunity.
4. Stakeholder concurrence with the problem, threat, or opportunity statement.
Example Problem/Threat/Opportunity statement: Marketing is seeing an increase of work from home personnel that are purchasing more coffee makers. Existing coffee makes have single functions while consumers want a multi-function hot beverage maker to get a blend of options like traditional brew or espresso. There is a huge opportunity if first to market. [INCOSE, 2022]
Define the Mission, Goals, Objectives and Measures
To obtain the MGOs and measures, the project champion and business analyst collaborates with the stakeholders that participated in defining the problem/threat/opportunity to better understand what they would view as an acceptable outcome by asking:
- How do they define success?
- What measures would the stakeholders use to determine success?
- What is the intended use of the SoI and in what operating environment?
- What capabilities, features, functions, and performance do they need?
- What are their expectations for quality and compliance (such as with standards and regulations)?
- What specific outcome(s) do they expect once the SoI is delivered?
For cases where there is no existing SoI (also known as a “green field” project), a common approach is to characterize the “as is” or “present state “of the organization in terms of the problem, threat, or opportunity and then characterize the “to be” or “future state” of the organization in terms of the resolution of the problem, neutralizing the threat, or the ability to pursue the opportunity.
For existing systems that need to be updated (also known as a “brown field” project), a common approach is to list the problems or issues with the existing “as-is” system and the reasons it needs to be changed. Key information includes what value they believe will result from the change by addressing: What can the existing SoI no longer do, what performance needs to be improved, what changes need to be made concerning interactions with external systems, what updates are needed as a result of changes to applicable standards and regulations.
It is also important to understand different perspectives. The problem/threat/opportunity, MGOs, and measures from a business perspective (developing organization or customer organization) may be different than the consumer or user’s perspective, thus both must be addressed. The consumer/user does not necessarily care about the developing organizations profits, time to market, market share, etc., they care about how the resulting product meets their needs. Thus, there could be several sets of MGOs and measures that need to be defined and met by the project team from both a business perspective and a consumer/user perspective of the product to be developed. This may lead to conflicts, e.g., product price vs. profitability and market share, which need to be prioritized based on the organizational enterprise strategy.
Examples [derived from INCOSE, 2022]:
- Mission statement: Provide a home-based, one-stop, hot coffee appliance.
- Consumer Goal: Obtain home brew coffee quickly.
- Consumer Objective: Receive finished home brew coffee within minutes upon request.
- Consumer-focused Measure: Finished home brew provided within 2 minutes of activation. Rationale: Consumer survey results.
- Business Goal: Increase market share.
- Business Objective: Increase market share of Company X sales regions.
- Business-focused Measure: Improve current market share of Company X sales regions by 20%. Rationale: Enterprise strategic vision.
Capture Preliminary Life Cycle Concepts
Life cycle concepts define what the SoI needs to do and how well during its intended use in the expected operational environment, from multiple perspectives. This includes various use cases with expected interacts with external systems, identification of drivers and constraints, expected risks to success in the context of the MGOs and measures.
Initial life cycle concepts are established by the organization and include preliminary acquisition concepts, preliminary deployment concepts, preliminary operational concepts, preliminary support concepts, and preliminary retirement concepts. Operational concepts include high level operational modes or states, operational scenarios, potential use cases, or usage within a proposed business strategy. These concepts enable feasibility analysis and evaluation of solution options.
In a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) effort [set link to MBSE section], these life cycle concepts are generated in a system model, typically as use cases, and associated with users and life cycle stage.
These life cycle concepts will be further refined within the stakeholder needs definition process.
Identify Uncertainties and Risks
The initial life cycle concepts include some level of uncertainties. This leads to risks which need to be identified and managed using the Risk Management process [add link to Part 3 page]. These risks may also serve as input to generation of additional life cycle concepts (such as addressing cyber security or hazards to successful operation).
Identify Initial Concepts of the Solution Space, Including Alternatives
A solution class refers to the means of achieving a solution. Examples include development of a new system, modifying or upgrading an existing system, leveraging multiple existing systems, or generating operational changes.
Possible solution classes to address the problem/threat/opportunity are assessed against the initial life cycle concepts, MGOs and measures. Feasibility of the solution class and its capability to meet the strategic needs are key decision criteria, as well as considerations of cost and schedule. The decision management process is used to evaluate alternatives and to guide selection [link to Part 3 page]. The assessment of alternatives can include modeling, simulation, analytical techniques, or expert judgment to understand the risks, feasibility, and value of the alternative solution classes.
The conclusion of this effort results in the identification of initial concepts of the solution space, including alternatives, which are traceable to the organization defined problems/threats/opportunities and MGOs/measures.
Assessment of Continuation of Effort
Upon the conclusion of the Business or Mission Analysis process the organization performs an evaluation on whether to commence with development of the SoI. The key determination is alignment with the Enterprise strategy. If the effort is to be continued, a dedicated team is formed (referred to here as the project team), which will take the outcomes of the Business or Mission Analysis effort and commence with the Stakeholder Needs Definition activity.
References
Works Cited
INCOSE. 2022. INOSE Needs and Requirements Manual, version 1.1. INCOSE-TP-2021-002-01.
INCOSE. 2022. INOSE Guide to Needs and Requirements Manual, version 1. INCOSE-TP-2021-003-01
Primary References
ISO/IEC/IEEE. 2023. Systems and Software Engineering -- System Life Cycle Processes. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organisation for Standardisation / International Electrotechnical Commissions / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2023.
INCOSE. 2023. 'Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Life Cycle Processes and Activities', version 5.0. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, ISBN: 978-1-118-99940-0.
Additional References
None.