Where to start?
Every project needs a place to start before a solution can be created, and even before we can start asking people what their requirements are. My recommendation is to start with existing business processes. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but this is where you start.
But what happens if you are assigned to a project and the client doesn’t have any documented business processes? That makes it a bit more challenging. In that case, if I were the SA during the pre-sales engagement, I would suggest recommending to the client that they do a diagnostic. I define a diagnostic as going in and looking at the current system they have and how a given person completes certain tasks. This way, you are not taking time out of the main project to get this information.
In fact, if you can sell an analysis and design phase, you can produce the business processes and start to work on the solution blueprint. Then, you can use this as the project’s starting point...
