Why should we Discover?

There are times when a company wants to change the way they are working in order to bring in efficiencies at different levels. This change has become mandatory to them because their current process or systems are not able to help them meet their strategic goals and therefore making a negative impact on their overall performance. In such cases the company management decides to change systems that they think is the bottleneck and embarks on a mission that will remove the bottlenecks. This experiment can help them meet their immediate goal or solve the problem they are facing. In the long term these bottlenecks will start surfacing again in different forms. Even well thought long term solutions need to be revamped and modified periodically but the cost of doing this will be much lesser because this will be done less frequently because of long term visibility and changes will be controlled.

To save companies from getting into a situation where there is chaos in the projects they initiate, they run into cost and effort overrun because of unknowns surfacing every now and then, there is no clarify in the next step that has to be taken, the recommended approach is an initial discovery phase. The discovery phase will help the company in taking a step back, analyze the current situation and pain points and come up with possible solutions to overcome the challenges that are facing. A discovery phase is suggested for every project if the company is not very sure of the details of the project. If the company who is outsourcing the project knows (1) the requirements that the project should meet (2) the problems that the project should overcome (3) possible approaches that can be taken to solve the problem then the discovery phase may be avoided. But this is not true in most cases. Companies outsourcing projects normally does not know (1) the detail requirements of the project (2) possible solution options or approaches (3) how the solution is going to help them and what kind of benefits its going to bring (4) the impact a good solution will have in its ROI (4) if that is the right project for them to do now.

It is very important for a company to understand whether the step they are taking is right or not. In such cases, it is recommended for any company to invite a vendor to do an initial discovery. The company can themselves do the discovery of they have the right resources. A typical discovery phase may have the following activities:
1. Workshops with the company stakeholders to understand the problems they are facing
2. Come up with possible solutions for the problems and have discussions on the same with the stakeholders from the company
3. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of each solution or approach and point out the recommended approach
4. Help the company to understand the ROI from the initiative or project
5. Come up with cost, effort and schedule plan for the implementing the identified approach or solution
The above mentioned 5 steps will, at least, help a company take the next step with more confidence and will help in gaining the support from the company senior management. The business model of a discovery can depend on the company and the vendor doing the discovery. In some cases it can be offered for free based on conditions and in other cases it can be charged based on a pricing model. But, apart from the activities discussed above, such a phase will also give an opportunity for the company to evaluate the vendor on various aspects like project management, communication, customer awareness, technical depth, execution ability, process etc. This also increases the comfort level the customer has for the vendor and brings in a degree of trust and confidence in the vendor. So, I think, the discovery phase is a phase which will benefit the vendor and the company and should be followed in almost all cases.

Today, because of recession, cost cutting measures, increased pressure to drive initiatives that will help in bring down cost companies discourage a discovery. Another reason for rejecting a discovery phase is the misunderstanding of knowing that this phase will not bring in any tangible benefits to the organization. Sometimes, the vendor is not able to depict the real advantage of a discovery phase to the company or did not execute the previous discovery it in a way that brought benefits to the company. I think this is the most important phase before any project execution and the vendor should bring in its best resources to do this phase. Also, the company should bring in required stakeholders from the departments involved and ensure that there is commitment from them and everyone is aware and working together with the vendor for a successful discovery.