The first speaker was Lee Spelman, a managing director of JP Morgan Asset Management. Her talk was on the economic outlook and investment strategies. Her personal expertise is in the technology sector and she recommended companies building cloud computing solutions are a good investment. She noted that non-technology companies should not have to be technology experts to use technology. Cloud computing  allows users to have less hardware and infrastructure locally, instead accessing what they need via a cloud.

The second speaker was Michael Hugos, author of Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World, during the IIBA Books, Authors webinar series. Michael also predicted the rise of cloud computing, and subsequent outsourcing of corporate technical support call centers.

Both of these predictions make sense as mobile devices become the norm. Users don’t need to know where their data is stored, or where their application software is physically stored.

This, like every technology innovation, has implications for business analysis. I honestly don’t know a lot about cloud computing but am going to spend some time learning more about it. It is very likely someone will ask me about it and I want to be able to have an intelligent conversation. This is a good example of how BAs need to stay current with new trends in both technology and their industry. As BAs we must be educated enough to have a conversation about any new innovation and how it might better support our business stakeholders. As with all of our analysis work we don’t need to know “HOW” to build it, but we do need to know “WHAT” it is.

These are both important topics for project managers and business analysts. As Bill points out, the big software vendors like SAP and Oracle traditionally focused on large companies as their customers but are now realizing that small or medium size companies have the same needs. As a business analyst in one of these small to medium sized companies, you need to be prepared to discuss the costs and benefits with your stakeholders. Software vendors will sell to your business stakeholders, convincing them to purchase rather than build software applications.

BAs have not always been involved in software selection decisions so if you hear about an evaluation process in your organization, try to get involved. Requirements are critical for selecting the best package and should be done before vendor evaluations. When the business doesn’t have a clear, shared understanding of what they need, they will select a package which looks good and is well presented. The underlying functionality, design, and/or performance may be lacking. We need business requirements (data, process and business rules) along with high level functional requirements, non-functional requirements and transition requirements to make the best selection. The IT group should also have technical requirements for vendor packages. All of these requirements should be presented to the vendors in an RFP. Ask vendors to respond to your requirements rather than choosing the best sales demo!

I was recently talking with a project manager who insisted every BA must be a business domain expert. I disagreed, suggesting a strong BA can learn the business by asking the right questions and studying the work. As we discussed this further, he agreed the BA should learn the specifics of the business and doesn’t necessarily need to be hired with industry knowledge. We realized our disagreement was really over WHEN the BA learns the business. For the project manager, he expects the BA to come to the project with the knowledge already in hand. He expects business requirements are already understood and the collecting of requirements (PMBOK® task) will be very straightforward. He does not have money or time in his project budget for the BA to learn the business. He wants the BA to immediately begin the Product or Solution scope and functional requirements.

At another company BAs are also expected to learn the business before their project work begins but when I asked if they are given time outside a project to perform this analysis the answer was no. All of a BA’s time must be allocated to a project. They expect BAs to learn the business in their spare time or on their own time.

I believe these attitudes reflect a lack of understanding of the complexity of our business domains. When an IT manager thinks a BA can learn a business area in his or her spare time, the manager assumes the business processes are simple or straightforward. Very few are. As BAs we need to constantly be educating our management (supervisory and project managers) about the sophistication of our business users and their work. We need to help the IT organization appreciate both the complexity of the business areas and the importance of capturing this complexity in business models. Only our deep understanding of the business will assure our projects deliver true business value.

Learning the business and representing it in business models and requirements is a critical success factor for every project. Business models are reusable, increasing productivity on future projects. They also need to be updated as the business changes. I would recommend an IT cost center for BAs to spend time learning business domains outside projects rather than within the context of a specific project. BAs who spend time with the business people on a regular basis also see opportunities for improvements and may suggest new projects.

When are you given time to learn your business?

Download my interview at http://www.requirements.net/

Let me know what you think! Thx, Barb

“Kevin Brennan and I just concluded our 2nd Advisory Board meeting for the joint Business Rules – Business Process – Business Analysis conference to be held in late October-early November, location to be determined.  The discussion with the Business Rules Forum and BPTrends team was quite animated and we covered a few different topics.  One critical decision was made – the name of the joint conference:

Building Business Capability 2010 -Optimizing through process, rules & analysis”

Kathleen Barret

http://community.theiiba.org/profile.htm?mode=pvb&pid=28407&blogId=21

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?

I attended a panel discussion on The Developer’s View of the Value of the BA. Daren May from aspenware pointed out several important behaviors of BAs which improve the entire development process. As Brits often do, Daren used a couple of great phrases: BA’s maintain “solution neutrality”, making sure that the business needs are met while being open to various architecture/platform options. He also appreciates the fact that BA’s ask the difficult questions, without alienating anyone and that they are “absorbed in  the culture” of the business so they really understand the impacts of software changes to the business.

Tony Chen of Sielevel gave a great presentation on Agile which included a Lego Helicoper build exercise! He gave each group different requirements and we all saw the various results. My team got a textual description of how to build the helicoper and failed miserably!!

Afternoon sessions included BI, business case development and relationship topics. I am on my way to Day 2 so I’ll write more later . . .

Let me give you just a few of the reasons that I LOVE status reporting!

 1. BAs get the opportunity to “toot their own horn”. We all do hundreds of little tasks every week, in addition to our big projects but often only the big things are noticed. A status report is an opportunity for you to let your manager know about the other important, yet small tasks you are doing. For example, when one of your past business stakeholders calls to ask your advice and you spend a half of an hour doing some research for them you are improving your organzation’s business. Let everyone know!

2. Status reports are a great record/history of work done and time needed. I don’t know about you but I don’t remember everything that I did last year. When I want to go back to review the time needed to perform a certain task, or remind myself of what type of projects I was involved I always have a great, detailed record available. This is very useful at performance review time and when its time to recertify for your IIBA CBAP and PMP. Status reports are also a great resource if you have to update your resume.

3. Reviewing your list of assigned projects each week forces you to stay focused on your priorities. Your status report should include due dates so that you can measure your progress on large tasks. Describing the work that you did during the previous week also helps you to plan for the next week. The report reminds you to do things that had gotten pushed aside during a critical time.

4. Best of all, making notes about the work that you have accomplished gives you a good feeling. We sometimes get too focused on all of the things that we haven’t finished and forget about all of the work we completed. Pat yourself on the back at the end of the week and write a status report for yourself!

When we practice we need a coach or mentor to watch what we do. As we work they can encourage us on the parts of the work that we are doing well and correct us when we are heading down the wrong path. In other words, prevent us from practicing bad habits.

With work as complex as business analysis, I think that we should bring new analysts into the profession by having them work as interns for a number of projects, always being supervised by experienced BAs. This system should be similar to the medical profession where interns rotate through different specialties and learn from experienced practitioners. This will allow new BAs to practice on real projects with oversight and allow the new BA to learn about different types of projects and different types of analysis. They may find a particular area that will become their specialty.

These interns would be evaluated by their mentors/coaches and graduate when they are ready to work without oversight. They would then be assigned to mentor others.

The analogy to the medical profession is a good one for business analysis because there are such important consequences to the work. Business analysts can influence an organization to be more profitable or make a mistake that could waste significant resources. Both professions have a knowledge component (do you know the way that bones are connected to ligaments) and an experience component. We can easily test for the knowledge but the experience must be monitored and assessed by seasoned professionals to protect the integrity of our reputation.