Business needs driving IT decisions - using feature analysis and stakeholder evaluation in Rolls-Royce

This experience paper is a follow-on from an experience paper presented at last year’s EASE conference which looked at the use of feature analysis to support strategic IT decision-making within an engineering support function in Rolls-Royce [1]. The feature analysis tool is exceedingly powerful and informative, particularly appreciated by senior managers. The graphical output enabled senior managers to make strategic decisions quickly and effectively. The tool was extended by the creation of different views of the business, of which the feature and system comparison view has been by far the most useful. The other views proved interesting, but did not ultimately have the impact of the feature and system comparison. Feature analysis is an informative and effective tool for managers and developers but is not complete in itself. A stakeholder analysis also proved extremely useful and powerful. It can concisely summarise who has influence and why. The analysis focussed thinking on how to manage the stakeholders. Feature analysis combined with stakeholder analysis proved to be particularly effective.