IoT Project Initiation

An important aspect of the Ignite | IoT Project Initiation phase is a requirements analysis, which is more in-depth than the analysis performed during the business model creation phase. In comparison, this requirements analysis takes a deeper look at specific user requirements, with the goal of reaching a level of detail that is capable of supporting an initial solution design. The project initiation is usually performed by a small team of subject matter experts. In particular, the team should have a dedicated solution architect (who may not have been as deeply involved in the business model creation phase). In addition, the team should include a business analyst with extensive domain knowledge and a clear vision for the functional aspects of the solution.

If we remember our previous discussion on the “clash of two worlds”, it becomes clear that finding suitable business analysts and solution architects is both critical and challenging. For example, if the business analyst comes from a line of business that was traditionally responsible for the asset, they may find it challenging to think in terms of services. If a service-centric person is chosen for this role, on the other hand, they might lack the in-depth domain knowledge that only comes from years of experience in the domain of the asset. In some cases, therefore, it may be beneficial to compose the team for the IoT Project Initiation phase by selecting multiple experts with complementary backgrounds.

The project initiation team will have to perform many of the usual tasks in this phase – stakeholder analysis, environmental analysis, requirements analysis, risk and resource assessment, etc. In the following, we will describe which additional IoT-specific aspects will be added to these standard project tasks. The final outcomes of the Ignite | IoT Project Initiation phase are the initial solution design and the project structure, based on the workstream structure described previously.