9.2 Process 2: Design the Outcomes

9.2 Process 2: Design the Outcomes

[!NOTE] Core MSP Process Definition: Design the Outcomes is the second lifecycle process in MSP 5th edition. It takes the approved Programme Brief and Outline Business Case from Process 1 and designs the detailed architecture of the future state. Its purpose is to articulate what the transformed organization will look like, how it will function operationally, what quantifiable benefits will be harvested, and how the investment is justified.

Moving from a high-level strategic concept to execution requires rigorous architectural and behavioral design. If an enterprise attempts to plan project schedules and deploy capital before clearly defining its desired future operational state, constituent projects inevitably deliver conflicting, fragmented capabilities that fail to integrate into operational business-as-usual (BAU).

Process 2 resolves this challenge by establishing the structural and human foundation of the transformation. It answers two vital executive questions:

1. What will the organization look, feel, and operate like once the transformation is fully achieved?
2. What precise, measurable benefits will prove that this transformation was worth the investment?

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Formulating the Vision Statement

The first major management product developed in Process 2 is the Vision Statement. While the Programme Brief documented executive rationale, the Vision Statement articulates a vivid, compelling picture of the desired future operational state.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     THE MSP VISION STATEMENT (THE NORTH STAR)              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  - Compelling & Inspirational : Unifies diverse stakeholders around a shared goal │
│  - Outward-Facing & Strategic : Focuses on customer, citizen, or end-user value  │
│  - Clear & Unambiguous        : Avoids technical jargon and vague corporate slogans│
│  - Durable yet Adaptable      : Guides multi-year decision trade-offs and scope   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Strategic Functions of the Vision Statement

• Aligning Diverse Stakeholders: Large programmes cross internal department boundaries, business units, and external supplier ecosystems. The Vision Statement provides a shared reference point that aligns conflicting departmental agendas.
• Guiding Trade-offs and Scope Arbitrations: When project teams encounter technical trade-offs or budget constraints during delivery, the Vision Statement serves as the litmus test: Does this proposed compromise support or compromise our core transformational vision?
• Inspiring Cultural Mobilization: True transformation requires operational staff to abandon familiar routines and embrace new ways of working. A compelling vision communicates why the disruption is necessary and how the future state benefits both employees and customers.

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Developing the Target Operating Model (TOM) Across Its 7 Facets

In MSP 5th edition, the Target Operating Model (TOM) is the primary architectural blueprint defining how the enterprise will function once the programme's outcomes are embedded. The TOM replaces the 4th edition concept known as the "Blueprint."

A Target Operating Model is not merely an IT network diagram or an organization chart. To ensure systemic, lasting change, MSP structures the TOM across seven facets:

                             TARGET OPERATING MODEL (TOM)
          ┌───────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┐
          ▼                               ▼                               ▼
    [ PROCESSES ]                     [ CULTURE ]                 [ ORGANIZATION ]
- Value streams & workflows   - Mindsets & behavioural norms  - Organizational structures
- Customer journey handoffs   - Leadership styles             - Roles & accountabilities
- Operational procedures      - Psychological safety          - Sourcing & commercial models
          │                               │                               │
          ├───────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
          ▼                               ▼                               ▼
    [ TECHNOLOGY ]                 [ INFRASTRUCTURE ]        [ INFORMATION & DATA ]
- Software applications       - Buildings, depots, estate     - Master data governance
- Cloud services & platforms  - Plant, fleets, equipment      - Data pipelines & analytics
- Integration interfaces      - Networks & physical security  - Records, privacy, retention
                                          │
                                          ▼
                              [ KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING ]
                        - Critical competencies & skills
                        - Training, reskilling, certification
                        - Knowledge retention & lessons

The 7 Facets Detailed

The Architectural Journey: AS-IS to TO-BE via Intermediate States

The TOM maps the progression from the current operational baseline (AS-IS state) to the desired future state (TO-BE state). Crucially, in complex transformations, the organization cannot leap from AS-IS to TO-BE in a single bound. The TOM therefore defines intermediate operating states that correspond to the conclusion of each planned delivery tranche, ensuring business-as-usual remains stable during transitions.

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Benefits Definition, Profiling, and Realization Planning

Transformational programmes exist to deliver strategic value. In Process 2, the leadership team transforms high-level candidate benefits into rigorously defined, measurable management products.

1. The Benefits Map

The Benefits Map is a visual, cause-and-effect dependency diagram that illustrates the complete value path from technical outputs to strategic enterprise outcomes:

[ PROJECT OUTPUTS ] ──► [ CAPABILITIES ] ──► [ OUTCOMES ] ──► [ BENEFITS ] ──► [ STRATEGIC GOALS ]
  New Automated CRM      Customer 360-View     First-Contact    25% Reduction     Market Leadership
  & Digital Portal       Available to Reps     Resolution Up    in Service Cost   & Customer Growth

• Outputs: Tangible specialist deliverables produced by projects (e.g., a software database, a renovated distribution hub, a new training manual).
• Capabilities: The operational ability to perform a new activity enabled by combining project outputs with retrained staff and updated processes.
• Outcomes: The resulting operational change in business-as-usual performance once capabilities are adopted.
• Benefits: The quantifiable, measurable improvements that provide clear value to the organization (e.g., $15M cost reduction, 40% faster processing time).
• Dis-benefits: Measurable negative consequences that the organization consciously accepts as a cost of transformation (e.g., temporary 10% drop in call center throughput during system cutover).

2. Benefit Profiles

For every candidate benefit identified on the Benefits Map, the Business Change Manager (BCM) authors a comprehensive Benefit Profile. An MSP Benefit Profile includes:

• Benefit Identifier & Description: Clear, unambiguous title and narrative.
• Operational Benefit Owner: The specific operational manager (typically a BCM) held accountable for realizing the benefit.
• Metric & Measurement Unit: Concrete KPI (e.g., minutes per claim processed, customer retention percentage, direct labor cost per unit).
• Baseline Performance: The verified, measured pre-programme performance level against which all future improvements will be audited.
• Target Value: The specific quantifiable improvement target (e.g., reducing claim processing time from 48 hours to 4 hours).
• Realization Timescale & Dependencies: When the benefit is expected to materialize (often months after project outputs are handed over to operations) and which project deliverables are prerequisites.

3. The Benefits Realization Plan

The Benefits Realization Plan consolidates all individual Benefit Profiles into an integrated, master schedule. It maps out:

• The schedule of intermediate and final benefit measurement audits.
• The tracking mechanisms and dashboard reporting cadences.
• Post-transition operational reviews to confirm that realized benefits are sustained over the long term within business-as-usual.

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Establishing the Initial Programme Business Case

During Process 2, the high-level Outline Business Case formulated in Process 1 is elaborated into the comprehensive initial Programme Business Case.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     THE INITIAL PROGRAMME BUSINESS CASE                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  - Total Cost of Change     : Project Capex + Business Transition Opex      │
│  - Quantified Benefits      : Sum of cashable & non-cashable Benefit Profiles│
│  - Risk-Adjusted Appraisal  : Sensitivity analysis against major threats    │
│  - Ongoing Affordability    : Multi-year funding drawdown vs enterprise cash │
│  - Continued Justification  : Formal confirmation that ROI remains positive │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Components of the Initial Programme Business Case

1. Comprehensive Cost Modeling: Integrates capital expenditures (software licensing, physical construction, hardware procurement) with operational change expenditures (staff retraining backfill, dual-running operational costs, redundancy costs, and PMO operational costs).
2. Benefits Valuation: Details both cashable benefits (direct budgetary savings, headcount reductions, reduced vendor fees) and non-cashable benefits (enhanced employee satisfaction, increased brand equity, improved patient safety).
3. Investment Appraisal: Presents formal financial metrics such as Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Payback Period based on realistic benefits realization curves.
4. Sensitivity & Risk Analysis: Stress-tests the investment case against adverse scenarios, such as a 20% increase in vendor development costs or a 6-month delay in operational adoption.

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Key Roles & Dynamic Collaborations in Process 2

Successful execution of Process 2 requires intensive, daily collaboration among the core leadership triad:

                       ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
                       │    SENIOR RESPONSIBLE OWNER (SRO)    │
                       │  - Champions the Vision Statement    │
                       │  - Owns the Programme Business Case  │
                       │  - Directs stakeholder alignment     │
                       └──────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                          │
             ┌────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┐
             ▼                                                         ▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐                         ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ BUSINESS CHANGE MANAGER (BCM)│                         │      PROGRAMME MANAGER       │
│ - Leads operational TOM design│                         │ - Coordinates design streams │
│ - Formulates Benefit Profiles│                         │ - Ensures technical alignment│
│ - Measures AS-IS baselines   │                         │ - Consolidates Business Case │
│ - Assesses change capacity   │                         │ - Manages design budget/risk │
└──────────────────────────────┘                         └──────────────────────────────┘

• Senior Responsible Owner (SRO): Champions the Vision Statement across the enterprise; ensures that the emerging design remains true to strategic corporate objectives; maintains personal accountability for the integrity of the Programme Business Case.
• Business Change Manager(s) (BCM): Acts as the voice of operational business-as-usual; leads the design of the TOM facets closest to business operations — processes, culture, organization, and knowledge and learning; identifies candidate benefits, establishes operational baselines, authors Benefit Profiles, and ensures that planned transitions are operationally realistic.
• Programme Manager: Directs the day-to-day work of enterprise architects, business analysts, and design consultants; ensures cross-facet technical coherence; aggregates delivery cost estimates and schedules into the Programme Business Case.

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Real-World Organizational Transformation Scenario

MetroHealth Regional Integrated Care Transformation

Context: MetroHealth, a public healthcare network comprising four regional hospitals and 35 primary care clinics, initiated a multi-year transformation to establish a patient-centered integrated care delivery model.

Executing Process 2 (Design the Outcomes):

• Formulating the Vision: The SRO spearheaded the Vision Statement: "Empowering every regional citizen with proactive, seamless healthcare through unified digital access and integrated clinical teams, reducing preventable hospital admissions by 30% by 2030."
• Architecting the TOM Across the 7 Facets:
  • Processes: Redesigned chronic disease management pathways from reactive emergency admissions to proactive telehealth monitoring.
  • Culture: Introduced collaborative, inter-professional care norms, moving doctors and nurses from competitive department silos to unified care teams.
  • Organization: Replaced legacy hospital-centric governance with five regional community health boards and redrawn clinical accountabilities.
  • Technology: Deployed an enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) platform and a secure patient mobile portal.
  • Infrastructure: Converted 14 outpatient wings into community diagnostic hubs and installed resilient fibre links to all 35 clinics.
  • Information and data: Created a centralized clinical data warehouse with predictive models to identify high-risk diabetic and cardiac patients.
  • Knowledge and learning: Trained 2,500 clinicians on digital health tools and certified 400 nurses as community care coordinators.
• Benefit Profiles & Business Case: The BCMs established strict baselines: current readmission rates were 18.2%, and emergency department wait times averaged 6.4 hours. Benefit Profiles established targets of 11.5% and 2.5 hours, respectively. The SRO consolidated these into a $120M Business Case demonstrating $185M in net economic value over seven years.

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Exam Tips & Common Traps

• Exam Tip (The 7 Facets of the TOM): On the MSP Foundation exam you must be able to recall all seven facets of the Target Operating Model: processes, culture, organization, technology, infrastructure, information and data, and knowledge and learning. Questions frequently ask which facet a specific organizational asset belongs to — a depot or vehicle fleet is infrastructure, not technology.
• Exam Tip (Benefits Ownership): Remember that Business Change Managers (BCMs) own the Benefit Profiles, establish operational baselines, and lead the design of operational TOM facets. The SRO owns the overall Business Case.
• Common Trap (Vision Statement vs. TOM): Do not confuse the Vision Statement with the TOM. The Vision Statement is an inspirational, concise summary of the desired future state. The Target Operating Model specifies in detail how that future state will function operationally across the seven facets, and documents the current state, future state, and the gap between them.
• Common Trap (Premature Realization): A common distractor claims that benefits are harvested or realized during Process 2. This is false. Process 2 only identifies, defines, profiles, maps, and plans benefits. Actual benefits realization occurs when capabilities are transitioned and embedded into BAU during Process 4 and Process 5.