CC/Solve Approach



 

The CC/Solve Approach


Addressing a New Reality

In today’s world of ever increasing complexity, even common issues defy simplistic solutions. "Obvious" answers often prove inadequate upon further research and analysis. Devising a workable solution requires addressing a myriad of direct and indirect issues, conflicting goals and priorities, and often, overwhelming technical detail. Attaining buy-in and support from affected stakeholders means reducing complex concepts and plans to digestible proportions without losing the underlying message. Implementing the solution requires constant vigilance. Additional issues and challenges arise. Other priorities draw resources and play havoc with schedules. Without flexibility to respond to these changing demands, even the best solutions falter.

Organizations must accept this reality. The world is becoming more interconnected and complex, not less. Organizations prepared to handle this reality will find opportunities for growth and success; those unprepared will face an intolerable array of unsolvable issues. To succeed, we must devise problem-solving approaches that challenge conventional wisdom and reduce complexity to manageable proportions. To this end, Clarity Consulting devised its CC/Solve Approach to IT problem-solving.

CC/Solve Guiding Principles

CC/Solve is a business-oriented approach to solving IT problems. Its underlying concepts and techniques are as applicable to IT outsourcing evaluations as to developing sales and marketing approaches for a new product or service. The principles below are the heart of the CC/Solve process.

  • Business Focus First

Technology is integral to today’s businesses. It forms the core of their operations and provides their competitive advantages. But technology must serve, not drive, the business. Problem or opportunity analysis must begin with a thorough understanding of business objectives and their underlying pressures and motivation. The appropriate technology becomes a tool for achieving these objectives.

  • People follow Processes that use Technology

Whether building a new application, selling a new software tool or revamping an IT organization, technology is only part of the solution. The best technology cannot overcome inefficient processes or insufficiently trained and motivated staff. An effective solution integrates people, process and technology components to achieve its objectives.

  • Strive for Best Practices

The IT industry has almost fifty years of experience and lessons learned, yet it often repeats mistakes from the past and continually re-invents the wheel. Clarity Consulting is dedicated to identifying, incorporating and disseminating best practices as part of its engagements. In addition, each solution should contain the metrics and techniques to enable continuous improvement as best practices evolve.

  • Formal, yet Flexible

Ad-hoc methods can solve only the smallest and simplest problems. A formal approach guarantees consistent, repeatable results and enables tuning to respond to new situations.

CC/Solve Approach

  • Investigate

You cannot solve tough problems without perspective and a thorough understanding of influencing factors. This step gathers data from many sources to develop a big picture of an issue. Clarity Consulting conducts ongoing research on IT issues, markets, best practices and new technology and services. During an engagement, client-specific goals, opportunities and issues are gathered. Interviews, group workshops and documentation reviews are used as appropriate to gain the required supporting data.

  • Interpret

Data must have context to become information. Information must be interpreted and understood to become knowledge. This step extracts and prioritizes information from the data collected during the Investigate step. Using the organization’s business objectives as context, it separates important issues, concerns and opportunities, and discards irrelevant distractions. It maps interrelationships between issues, opportunities and influencers to develop a true picture of the situation. This understanding clarifies the situation by reducing it to its most essential issues and required actions.

  • Formulate

This step formulates approaches for addressing the issues and accomplishing the actions identified in the Interpret step. These approaches consider people issues, such as training, organizational structures and resource requirements, process issues, and technology. Where appropriate, alternative solutions are identified and their benefits and drawbacks are weighed. Individual solutions are drawn together into a strategy and plan for addressing the entire problem. When outside implementation resources, tools or technology are required, Clarity Consulting draws upon its extensive experience to recommend the appropriate providers.

  • Communicate

The greatest strength of the CC/Solve approach is its ability to bring clarity to complex issues and solutions. By reducing issues and solutions to their essential components, it is possible to develop simple means for communicating their concepts to affected stakeholders. Clear, easy-to-understand diagrams become icons of the issues and the proposed solutions. Selling these concepts through an effective communication strategy gains buy-in and commitment to the solution. Group and individual presentations, workshops, overview documents and guidelines or methodologies are all possible components of the communication strategy.

  • Facilitate

The final step in the CC/Solve process guides the implementation of the solution. Regular reviews of progress and analysis of project metrics provide a means of handling unexpected issues and avoiding problems. This step relies on continuous process improvement techniques to ensure that the project operates as effectively as possible. If new best practices, technologies or other beneficial changes become available, they are incorporated into the original strategy and action plan. Clarity Consulting is committed to supporting its recommendations and will maintain involvement as desired by its client.