Purpose of Opportunity Framing?

• To create alignment between the team and stakeholders on the scope of the opportunity, the perceived value of engaging in the opportunity, and the vision of success for engaging in the opportunity.
• To identify and characterize the main stakeholders involved and, according to their interest and influence levels, develop differentiated stakeholder engagement strategies.
• To identify and characterize the risks associated with the opportunity and develop mitigation and management strategies according to their likelihood and impact levels.
• To better define the key scope of effort required to progress the opportunity and to build an integrated roadmap, including the key decision points and milestones, for the team to deliver a successful outcome for the opportunity.

Opportunity Framing takes the team and its stakeholders through a process where three fundamental questions are answered:

1. Where are we now?
2. How will we get there?
3. Where do we want to be?

It is important to highlight that Opportunity Framing will first ensure all understand sufficiently what the starting point of the opportunity or project is, then will create a common view around where the opportunity or project needs to be at the end, and only then will the opportunity Framing develop the road map of how to get from now to the endpoint.

Opportunity Framing helps the team be more effective because, at the start of an opportunity, it brings together a multi-disciplinary team and aligns their workstreams and allows team members to proceed with a focused understanding, clarity, and a decision-driven mindset rather than only being activity-driven. This ensures that resources, including funding, are allocated appropriately. 

Activity based planning is about logically sequencing and scheduling activities, without critically assessing the importance of each activity and without looking at the impact the activity has on the key decisions that have to be taken during the progression of an opportunity or a project.  The overall premise is that making high-quality decisions creates value and vice versa.  Decision based planning therefore, starts with the critical decisions and then prioritizes and sequences those activities that allow for high-quality decision making.   

A major benefit gained from the Opportunity Framing process is its use as the starting point for the team/group integrated planning process. The established framework from the Opportunity Framing workshop should be a “live document” and should be updated with new information and reviewed as appropriate throughout the lifetime of the opportunity.