Ignoring the current state

Closely related to the first value trap is another failure mode where instead of replicating the current state, the project leadership marks it as clearly out of bounds for analysis and charters the project team to only consider the organization’s target state. Another form of this value trap occurs when analysis of the current state is considered separately from the target state design and change management plan by an independent team.

Focusing on the future

When developing a new set of processes and supporting capabilities to enact significant change to the way things are currently done (which is often the case when seeking service quality and cost optimization value), it can be important not only to avoid replicating the current state, as we discussed in the previous section, but also to re-imagine and re-engineer processes to improve them. Decision-makers with limited resources will need to prioritize efforts and may decide to only focus...