At the beginning of any assignment an appropriate amount of time in spent to achieve a deeper understanding of the problem or opportunity facing by the client. Where the information is available, reviews of such things as the company aims and objectives, functional strategies, next years to come plans, & company long term vision etc are undertaken to context the problem or opportunity. This research coupled with discussions with key stakeholders enables a picture of the needs and wants of the business to be drawn together, including what acceptable solutions could look like. This phase often includes detailed work to quantify the benefits that may be realised and to enable a level of prioritisation where a number of problems or opportunities exist. At the end of an analysis phase the customer is provided with a detailed report, and after a stakeholder review, the next phase is kicked off.

in this phase the set of information gathered from the analysis phase is used to create a set of recommendations & suggestion. Depending on the customer that could either be 2-3 options, with associated pros and cons, or it could be the solution considered to best meet the customer's criteria including consideration of such factors as cost, benefit, timescale, level of change, impact, risk etc. These recommendation(s) are either presented back to the steering group (or similar) or passed to the project sponsor who will deliver the output as required to appropriate internal teams. Once the decision is taken to move forward, the next phase is kicked off.

this is the longest and most significant phase, and it breaks down into a full lifecycle with project management approach. Project definition right through to post implementation support and project review is included in the implementation phase. Change is by far the most demanding piece, with a need for the widest range of skills and resources to support the customer.