A tough challenge for our profession is getting true management support for business analysis work. Many BAs are caught in a “catch-22″ where their management does not understand the value of business analysis and as such, don’t give BAs time to analyze. When we don’t have time to analyze, management doesn’t see the value of the profession.
In talking with managers in many organizations, the problem is often caused because the managers have never seen good business analysis work and its value on their projects. As we all know, reading about business analysis work or listening to a lecture on it, doesn’t really give a person a true understanding. We have to experience it. Our managers need to have the experience of being involved with a project where strong analysis work is done and the project success is demonstrated.
As a BA working for a manager who doesn’t understand your value, what can you do? Remember that change happens slowly but it does happen when people see how they benefit from the change. Take any opportunity to show your manager the value of performing analysis. Schedule a meeting to talk about your project where you develop a list of probing questions and have your manager help strategize about where to find the answers. Have him or her talk with you about the business risks and response options. Use a few minutes in a team meeting to discuss stakeholder issues and brainstorm about tactics. People learn by doing, so actively involve your manager in analysis tasks whenever possible and he or she will start to understand the value.
Other suggestions?
4 Comments
Hi Barbara,
This is an important topic and has some good suggestions. I’d add that you can also use a one-on-one meeting, if you have one, to talk about some of the challenges you’ve faced or overcome. I think by sharing some day-to-day stories of what you are doing and why you are doing it you can help your manager understand the value of business analysis. Be sure to characterize you ‘why’ in terms that are important to your manager to make sure he or she sees that you are trying to achieve something important in the big picture and not just create perfection in you “BA world”. If you don’t have a one-on-one, consider dropping by once in awhile with a story in mind or simply to ask for your manager’s input on what you are doing.
Laura Brandenburg
I can’t agree with you both more. The good news is I am seeing more people with BA experience being promoted to management positions. These individuals get it and obviously support the efforts of BAs.
Definitely, very true. My experience is quite similar when working with a family run business, where trusting BA’s effort (or knowledge) in camparision to theirt family members who are the managers (just because they belong to the family and knows nothing about analysis or the domain).
As a BA you know things are not going in the right direction, and being helpless inspite of talking to the managers and company heads, emailing them about the scenarios and the drawbacks in the system study. However as you mentioned changes happen slowly and we need to keep trying and make every effort to present the drawbacks or questions whenever a situation arises.
It can be a long slow road to build the trust you need from your manager to get the support you need. In my personal experience I was most effective when I avoided all mention of process, templates and such. Instead, I would ask questions and offer suggestions – questions to understand what my manager was trying to achieve, and suggestions on how I could help him or her achieve it. Of course, I knew that I was following a process and using templates – but I didn’t need to tell them.
Thanks for the post – you’ve inspired me to wax philosophical over on community.theiiba.org (http://j.mp/4mNSS7).