Before a project starts, we clarify the current state, the business need, the future-state goals and the expected business value. With business case, gap analysis, stakeholder analysis and strategic-discovery techniques, we position the project in alignment with corporate goals.
We Clarify the Business Need, the Future State and the Project Value
We don't begin technology projects by only analysing the requested features. First we assess, together, the organisation's current state, business goals, problem areas, opportunities and the desired future state.
At this stage the goal is to clarify why the project is needed, what business value it will produce, which change it will support, and which conditions must be met for it to succeed. This way the project and product scope rests on a foundation aligned with corporate strategy.
Here BABOK's strategy-analysis perspective comes to the fore. The gap between the current state and the targeted future state is analysed, the business need is defined, a business case is built and the rationale for the technology investment is clarified.
This Phase at Unitic
Analysis outputs become the project's canonical source: requirement, use case, role and business rule documents are kept versioned in Linear. Every unresolved topic is recorded as a numbered open decision; it is never closed by assumption. On the same topic, the latest customer finding takes precedence over a more recently dated internal document.
AI agents speed up discovery: scans of existing documents, systems and competing products are on the table from day one — people still make the decisions.
Techniques Used
- Current state analysis
- Future state analysis
- Gap analysis
- Business case preparation
- Business need analysis
- Problem definition
- Opportunity analysis
- Value proposition analysis
- SWOT analysis
- PESTLE analysis
- Capability analysis
- Stakeholder analysis
- Persona analysis
- User journey mapping
- Target state modelling
- Risk analysis
- Assumption and constraint analysis
- Change strategy assessment
- Benchmark analysis
- Strategic discovery workshops
Sample Deliverables
- Current state analysis
- Future state definition
- Gap analysis output
- Business case
- Business need document
- Problem and opportunity areas
- Alignment matrix with strategic goals
- Stakeholder map
- Value proposition
- Persona set
- User journey map
- Success metrics
- Risk, assumption and dependency list
- Prioritised need set
- Initial scope proposal