This page explains why and when to align a need with strategy, outlines the key steps and helps potential buyers access expertise.
Why and when to align a need with strategy
Before approaching the market, a potential buyer should consider whether the effort of solving the need is aligned with strategy. This involves determining whether solving the problem serves the agency’s strategic goals or fits with its priorities. Teams might be working on solving the same problem elsewhere, or the problem is being tackled at an all-of-government strategic level.
Strategic alignment should be undertaken at the Qualify phase, before undertaking a Discovery activity to validate and scope the need, or before engaging the market.
Who to involve
ICT strategy professionals continuously scan the market so they can keep up to date with technology trends, competitive analysis, emerging technologies, new products in market, and both current supplier solution capability and their future roadmaps.
Strategy professionals and ICT procurement category specialists may also provide advice on:
- regulatory technology (RegTech) domain ethical risks and mitigants
- ICT market scanning outsourcing options
- ICT market domain knowledge
- known solutions, pros and cons
- outcomes of previous approaches to market
- tactics for innovation buying pathways.
Once a prospective buyer has consulted strategy professionals and subject-matter experts, they will gain a better understanding of whether they should progress with addressing the need, and if it qualifies, for an innovation buying approach.
How to assess a need
When a problem arises, it’s important to determine the needs that are contributing to the issue at a high level. This involves a basic understanding of what is lacking or not working properly and setting rough goals and outcomes.
Buying teams should form a solution hypothesis by engaging with subject-matter experts and strategy professionals. The hypothesis should not be a solution assumption, but an initial estimate of possible solutions to inform strategic alignment and market research activities.
Should your need qualify as an innovation buying project, you can undertake a Discovery activity for a deeper understanding of the problem and value of solving, and refine more concrete goals and desired project outcomes.
Expand the dropdown boxes below to learn how needs relate to problem-solving:
A need may arise when someone undertakes a periodic review to determine if a solution is still fit for purpose and providing value for money. This review is an opportunity to consider if there are any problems that must be addressed.
Needs may be uncovered by a business owner at any point during business operation. Needs can include improvement opportunities for user experience, support, resource availability and competency. They could also be fixes for bugs, faults and technical issues.
In alignment with wider agency and government strategies, ICT/digital needs such as transformation, consolidation, expansion or retooling may be identified.
If the problem is industry or NSW government wide, it’s crucial to understand why the market has failed to address it. Use evidence to justify why your agency should attempt to address this need.
The outcome is a description of a great future where your needs have been met. To help imagine a future state and identify what goals will help you achieve your desired outcome, ask yourself these prompting questions:
- What would your stakeholders be doing, seeing, thinking and feeling differently from today?
- What would a great operating environment look like?
- How will you know when you have been successful?
- How would you benchmark your success from the current state to the future state?
At this early point in your journey, your answers to these question will be quite high level, need validation with your stakeholders and may change.
Learn techniques that bring stakeholders along on the journey to shape and define goals, outcomes and success measures.
Engage relevant strategy professionals and experts in the ICT/digital/product and technical domains to gain an awareness of:
- inflight or planned projects seeking to solve the same problem
- whether the problem is aligned to the NSW Government strategic priorities
- whether the problem or solutions are on a roadmap
- whether the problem should be solved
- whether the problem is worth solving
- whether problem has already been solved elsewhere in the NSW Government
- existing supplier capability within the NSW Government that can be expanded to support new use cases.
The NSW Digital Strategy identifies priority missions and digital commitments that set the strategic direction for the NSW Government. The NSW State Digital Assets Reuse Policy mandates agencies to reuse what is already available.
Brainstorm ideas about what could address your needs to form a hypothesis about solutions. This may involve technology, professional services, contract labour or other possibilities. To build out your hypothesis, you should:
- outline problem and solution possibilities to align with ICT/digital strategy
- The NSW Digital Strategy identifies priority missions and digital commitments that set the direction for the NSW Government.
- Agency digital strategies address their specific functions and technology needs.
- discuss ICT solution possibilities with an ICT procurement category specialist.
- check with subject-matter experts across a diverse set of expertise (e.g. data privacy, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity).
It's unlikely that even the most knowledgeable ICT strategist or specialist is across every new or emergent technology domain and capability. Solution possibilities should therefore remain as a hypothesis at this stage. Assuming a solution too early can lock out innovation.
When the solution is unknown, there might be multiple solutions to the problem, or the market is evolving quickly, it’s a good idea to first check the Test and Buy Innovation eligibility checklist to see if the need might qualify as innovation.
Resources to align your need with strategy
Discover our definition of innovation and check if your buying project qualifies.
Learn the risks of assuming the solution, and value of an outcome focused buying approach.
Consider the key questions to ask and the pros and cons of buying, building or borrowing.