According to the BABOK® v3 guide, the purpose of Analyze Current State is as follows:
The first step when assessing the current state is to gain a good understanding of why the change is needed. Most often, a potential change is needed when business problems or opportunities cannot be addressed without changing the current state.
Let's consider the following example:
A motor vehicle manufacturer has identified that there is a need to reduce the costs associated with the maintenance of its existing dealer management system. This system has been in use for 10 years and the vendor has almost doubled its licensing and maintenance fees in the last financial year. This, in turn, has caused increased dealership operational costs, which have an impact on dealership profitability ratios. The company has also received many more complaints in recent months from its end-user staff members. They are mostly complaining that the system is out of date and not meeting their expectations in terms of being able to serve customers well when using the system.
Based on the business need to reduce operational costs for the dealerships and manage ongoing system maintenance costs, a potential change in the way dealership management functions are managed and performed is being analyzed.
It is important to understand that the current state is analyzed and explored in just enough detail to validate and confirm the need for a change in a particular situation. As part of analyzing the current state, it is important to identify what changes would be needed and where in order to achieve the desired future state. Another important aspect is to identify a measure or method to use in order to assess whether the change that is implemented is effective.
The current state can be described at different levels, ranging from the entire organization to small parts of a solution.
It is also key to keep in mind that internal and external influencers, as well as other changes, can affect the current state in ways that force changes in the desired future state, change strategy, or requirements and designs.