Visioning is used to determine the desired outcome for an initiative worded in a concise and approachable manner.

Agile Extension to the BABOK^®  Guide – section 7.24

When Patriots coach Bill Belichek meets with his team to begin practices, I would imagine that the first thing he says is something like “Our goal for this season is to win the Super Bowl.”

Everything else the team does is derived from that goal.  The team may not fully know how they are going to do that.  And certainly the other teams want to prevent them.  But everyone on the team knows that when Coach says “We’re going to win the Super Bowl” he knows they can succeed. And they understand what winning means.

Elements of Visioning

But there’s more to Visioning than simple inspiration.  Yes, it is a set of beliefs.  But it also is a SHARED set of beliefs.  Everyone gets there or no one does. That is called a Vision Statement

This shared set of beliefs comes out of facilitated vision exercises – or Vision Exercises. Finally it is expressed in detailed objectives to measure the goals – known as Impact Metrics.  These metrics show that the plan is working, but are not necessarily cause and effect related.

Back to Football, Coach may set goals for player’s strength, speed and skill.  Will those cause them to win?  No. Will they help? Yes. That’s the difference between correlation and causation.

Visioning Description

Visioning begins in the Strategy Horizon, where the organization determines which initiatives align to organizational goals. The vision for an initiative is set just before the beginning of the project and lasts through it’s duration.

The Vision Statement helps orient all those involved in the project toward the overall goal both of the initiative and the organization. It identifies how the resulting product will leave an identifiable mark on the products or services provided or on the organization as a whole.

One additional consideration is that Visioning may be associated with multiple related initiatives.

Finally the context is communication, and the audience is internal teams and external stakeholders.

• Agile
• BA Techniques
• Strategy Horizon