Problem Structuring to Enable Innovation in Business/IT Projects

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a problem structuring method in business and IT analysis illustrated with an example. The project describes an IT consulting case done for a Swiss medical society faced with a problem of change management and digital transformation. We show business analysis techniques of modeling actors’ behavior, motivation, and information exchanged between them. We model business and IT services and structure case information in order to design a solution to the problem and its implementation requirements. We highlight how accommodation of different viewpoints enables business and IT alignment and removes hindrances to innovation.

Appendices

Annex 1

1.1 Interview Transcript: Sébastien Chevallaz, SFD President

Sébastien Chevallaz, President, March 5 20XX, Lausanne

Alain:

You asked me to do an on-line database for your society, the Society of Family Doctor. Can you tell me a bit more?

Sébastien:

Yes, SFD advises about internships to medical students. We need a database of internships that will be available to all our advisors so that we can improve the advice we give.

Alain:

So, the database should contain information about internships?

Sébastien:

Yes.

Alain:

And internships are 6 months long positions offered by hospitals that medical students take to be certified as medical doctors?

Sébastien:

Yes, exactly, only the internships our students take are specified by FMD and should lead them to be certified as family doctors.

Alain:

Do all advisors do the same job?

Sébastien:

Not really. Curriculum advisors are the first point of contact for a medical student. They follow the student all along his or her studies and make sure they take the internships specified by FMD. Regional advisors help find the recommended internship in the hospitals in their region. They advise students on the internships they should take to be able to open a practice in their region.

Q:

So how does it work?

A:

The medical student calls a curriculum advisor who meets them regularly and can send them to meet with a regional advisor if needed. The goal is to help complete their post-graduate training and to help understand how to open their practice in their region of interest.

Alain:

So, I suppose that the advisors are not all located in the same office?

Sébastien:

Well, they work out of different places, yes. We have regional advisors in the main city if of each region: for example, Sion for Valais or Lausanne for Vaud. We manage five regions: Valais, Fribourg, Genève, Neuchâtel, Jura, Valais, and Vaud (all part of the Suisse Romande). The curriculum advisors are in Lausanne (in canton de Vaud), the headquarter of SFD.

Alain:

So, they need to all see the same internships through the on-line database?

Sébastien:

Yes, that is it. That is why I need you.

Alain:

And it should be online so that the advisors can access it from anywhere they are?

Sébastien:

Yes.

Alain:

What do they use now?

Sébastien:

They each have their stuff. Excel, paper, e-mail, whatever.

1.2 Interview Transcript: Claire Simmens, SFD Secretary

Claire, Secretary, March 12 20XX, Lausanne

Alain:

Hello, I am Alain. I was sent by Sébastien to better understand your work with SFD and the internships.

Claire:

Hello. I am Claire. Pleased to meet you.

Alain:

Pleased to meet you. I was wondering whether you could tell me more about the way you manage internships.

Claire:

Sure. It is very complicated. I try to figure out which internships are available in hospitals. It is difficult.

Alain:

Why is it so difficult?

Claire:

Because I cannot call the hospitals. I have to ask the advisors.

Alain:

Why so?

Claire:

Because I do not have contact in hospitals. The advisors do. They are doctors.

Alain:

So how does it work? You call an advisor, and?

Claire:

And I ask them to tell me which internships are available in which hospital in their region.

Alain:

Ah, so you are talking to regional advisors?

Claire:

Yes. Well, they are all regional advisors, as you call them.

Alain:

So they give you this information?

Claire:

Well, not easily. I guess even for them it is difficult to know which internship is available because it changes all the time. A student takes the last internship in a pediatry and suddenly they are not available.

Alain:

So what do you do?

Claire:

I do my best. I write down whatever information they give me. Available, not available, no information.

Alain:

And where do you write it?

Claire:

In my internship binder.

Alain:

Can you show it to me?

Claire:

Sure. It is there, on the shelf. You can pick it up for me?

Alain:

Yup, here it is. Ah, I see you a table with hospitals, internships, status, etc. Can I take a picture and show it to Sébastien?

Claire:

Of course.

Alain:

Oh, I see there are two sections here. What is the other one that says Students?

Claire:

That one is where I put the information about the internships that the students have taken. There is a sheet for each student.

Alain:

Interesting. Where do you get this information from? From the advisors?

Claire:

No, I regularly call the students and ask them where they are.

Alain:

Nice. Can I take a picture of this one too?

Claire:

Yes, but be careful, it has the names of students on it. Here, put this post-it over the name so it does not show.

Alain:

Thanks a lot. Just one more question. This binder is here in your office. How do the advisors look at it?

Claire:

Philippe is here in Lausanne, so he sometimes comes in and looks at it. The others, like Philippe, sometimes come here, less often though. And once every while they call me.

Alain:

Great. Thanks again. I will share this with Sébastien if you agree.

Claire:

Sure. I was happy to help.

Alain:

May be a last request, would you mind to help me write a typical and concrete scenario on how SFD provides advice to the MD in training? If you can talk of a case of someone you personally know. This scenario will help me for understanding how things are done concretely.

Claire:

I know an FD that just set up a practice. Her name is Carmen Barras. She came to see us at the end of her training as an FD. I know her as we come from the same village, called Randogne, located above Sierre, in Valais. It is closed to the Crans-Montana ski resort. Carmen did discover SFD via our website, 2 years back. She called us and I did set an appointment with Dr. Sébastien Chevallaz, our president, in Lausanne. It was in the conference room next door. I remember it lasted quite a while. They met and Dr. Chevallaz asked a lot of feedback on how her work was, he then checked that what was done was compliant with the FMD requirements. Last he gave some recommendations for the remaining internships.

Alain:

Did he provide actual internship info?

Claire:

May be but I doubt. Usually, he recommends the disciplines in which the internships should be done. The actual internships are usually recommended by our contact in the canton. In this case: Dr. Franck de Kalbermatten.

Alain:

Do you know how this went.

Claire:

Yes as she called me afterward. Her meeting was very useful. It did happen in Sion. She told me that Franck helped her to find internships that were very useful for an FD in Randogne.

Alain:

Can you explain more?

Claire:

In Winter, the FD in Randogne has to care about ski injuries. So she did her internship in traumatology in Sion.

Alain:

And what is Carmen doing now:

Claire:

I called her recently. She will open a group practice in Randogne with another FD coming from Geneva. Her practice will allow the current FD in Randogne to retire and his patients will be taken care of by these new doctors.

Alain:

Let me recap who is who in this story. We have:

• Claire Barras, the FD in training.

• Phillipe Chevallaz, as curriculum advisor located in Lausanne.

• Franck de Kalbermatten, as regional advisor located in Sion.

• Christian Aymon, the doctor who did retire.

• And yourself, Claire located in Lausanne.

Is this correct?

Claire:

Yes.

Alain:

Obviously, what SFD did for Claire was very useful. Do you do an evaluation of your services with the MD in training? Did Claire suggest some improvements?

Claire:

Now that you mentioned it, yes indeed.

Alain:

Great story, can I use it in my models? Do you think Claire would agree? It would allow us to get a much better understanding of how AFS is working.

Claire:

I am sure she will agree. I call her and let you know if she has a problem with you using her story. She is really enthusiastic about what SFD did for her.

Annex 2

Fig. 6

Point of view of the SFD secretary