B2T Training » business analysis

Who’s in your Community of Practice?

Paul Mulvey — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:20:59 +0000

You’ve put a lot of time into getting approval for your Business Analysis Community of Practice (CoP) or Center of Excellence. Hours spent creating presentations. Hours spent proposing its value to management. Hours spent researching the good that it has for your organization. So now you have a green light; you have to figure out who is going to lead it as the CoP rolls out into the organization. You need people that can take the message to the masses and make sure that it succeeds.

First, you want people who have volunteered for the role. By letting people choose to be involved in developing and rolling-out the CoP, you will get people who are passionate about it. Since they have chosen to become involved, and want to do it, they will do whatever is necessary to make it succeed. If that means working through lunch to post an article on the CoP, or coming in a little early one day to research a BA issue, they will do it. I’m not saying all of the work needs to be done over lunch or outside normal working hours, but by volunteering, those in the position will feel ownership.

Second, you want people who are passionate about business analyis, and will communicate and take the message to the organization. These may not be your best BAs. Operationally, you may have BAs who are really, really, good at being BAs, but have no interest in moving the CoP forward. They are doing a great job as BAs in the organization, but these are the folks you don’t want on your CoP team. Your organization is best served having them continue to operate where they are. The people in the CoP are those who are motivated to bring and promote new, more efficient techniques, new ways of doing things, and advancing business analysis within the organization. Who are they? They are the people who are trying to advance their BA skills even without the CoP in place. How do you find them? Look for those BAs:

who are attending the IIBA local chapter meetings
who are proposing new ways of process modeling
who are on the internet researching new tools to help them perform business analysis
who are mentoring and coaching others on business analysis

Third, you want the BAs that have the best communication skill and know how to navigate the various levels of management. Again, these may not be the most technical BAs in your organization. You need this skill for BAs heading up the CoP, because they will have to sell the CoP to upper management. Management will need to know the ongoing value in the CoP, and what return they are getting for their investment. BAs will need negotiation skills to sell the organization on the standardized processes that the CoP is rolling out. Again, selling the consumers on the advantages of the new processes may be a tough sell. People in the organization may not want to do things the new standardized way, and the BAs in the CoP need to negotiate with upper management to get their support, and work with the consumers to “sell” the new processes.

So, those BAs leading the CoP surprisingly may not be the best BAs in your organization. But, by choosing from those who want to be part of it, you will get BAs that are passionate about it, have skin in the game and will do whatever is necessary to make it succeed. Also make sure that those that are part of it are excellent communicators since they will be doing that at all levels across the organization.

Have you examined who’s in your CoP lately?

Business Analysts…FYI

Paul Mulvey — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:10:16 +0000

As Business Analysts, we need to be one of the best communicators on the project team, if not the best communicator on the project team. For this reason, I feel that “FYI” should probably be stricken from a BA’s communication vocabulary. Why? It provides virtually no value to the reader.

Think about an e-mail thread that is delivered to you. Simply clicking the “forward” button and entering “FYI” and then sending it on does little to help communcation. You have put the onus on the reader to figure out why you sent the thread. The recipient then has to navigate through the thread and figure out why the e-mail thread has been received. In this case, you (as the BA) have not provided any value in the communication stream.

Consider an alternate strategy – explain why you are sending the communication to the recipient. Perhaps it’s because you want other people on the project team to be aware of a decision that a stakeholder has made in the thread (and they were not copied on the e-mail). So, say that in your e-mail. State, “I’m forwarding this on to the project team to make you aware of a decision Mr. Stakeholder X has made in his e-mail dated Jul 10, 2011.”

If you are forwarding a communication to your manager, and the only reason is that you want to keep that person informed, state it. “I am forwarding you this e-mail because you stated that you wanted to be aware of every communication with the sales department and I did not see your name on the cc: list”. Done.

And, one final tip. If the recipient needs to take no action, mention that as well. If you think that there may be confusion, be proactive and answer that unanswered question. “I wanted to inform you of the alternate direction that stakeholder X has suggested. You do not need to take any action at this time.”

Do you feel as a BA that you don’t get respect? Well, start earning respect by making sure that every on of your communications contain value. Be clear about your intentions and what you expect people to do when they receive one of your communications – don’t make them guess. Try it – I think that your receivers will be well-pleased.

FYI,

Paul

How can sales tactics help with BA communication?

Paul Mulvey — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:06:16 +0000

In the world of sales, there’s a technique called “Feature Benefit” selling. At a high level, it is a selling technique in which the seller ties every feature with an advantage or benefit that the customer wants or thinks is desirable. We can use this to our advantage as BAs in dealing with stakeholders.

How does feature benefit selling work? Suppose that you are purchasing a car. If the salesperson told you that the features are side-curtain airbags, fuel-injected cylinders, and a gas tank door on the right-hand side of the car, he has just explained the features. But what do you care? You care about the impact (or benefit) that it has for you. So, to sell you the car, the salesperson is going to tell you that the side-curtain airbags make the car safer if you are hit from the side. The fuel-injection makes a car’s acceleration smoother and has more dependable response – great for when you need extra passing power getting onto the highway. And a gas tank door on the right hand side? Safety minded for when you break down on the side of the road and you have to refill your tank – you are away from traffic (this was seriously the way that it was sold to me when I purchased my last car!)

How can we use this information to our advantage as BAs? If you explain how something that you are doing as a BA benefits the customer, you are far more likely to get buy-in from that stakeholder. Think of those items in your processes in which you experience stakeholder push-back. What are they? Now think about how those items provide value to your stakeholders. That is the benefit to them. When they understand the benefit that the item has for THEM, they are more likely to comply with your process.

For example, you need to have stakeholders review a business requirements document prior to your final review. Think about how having them review the document prior to the review benefits THEM. Does it make for a better quality document and a better delivered product for them? Does it make the best use of their time in the review session? Will it help uncover misunderstandings prior to the final document? Probably a combination of these.

Make sure that you keep track of your successes. By understanding the benefits and values that “sell” your “features” to your stakeholders, use that to build upon your stakeholder analysis. By understanding the business, and what provides them value and benefits, you will be more successful in getting them to align to your processes.

So, do you explain the benefits of a feature to your stakeholders, or do you leave it with “because that’s the process, that’s why”?

The Things We Can Control

Kupe — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:28:03 +0000

2009 was a tough year in many ways. If you were not personally impacted by losing your job or being furloughed, you most likely knew one or more close family and friends that were impacted. In the wake of the economic crisis companies have received a huge wake-up call, and if they are still in business, are much more diligent on what and how they spend their money. Executives around the world are developing strategies to survive during these times and be in a position for growth as the economy rebounds. The positive in all of this is we, Business Analysts, are in a place where we can have a direct impact on the successful implementation of the company’s strategies and goals. In life there are things you can and cannot control. The collapse of the economy happened. There is nothing we can do about that now. The future success of the companies we work for is something we can definitely control. Let me explain.

Executives develop strategies and overall goals for success. These strategies and goals get realized through implementing projects. Business Analysts have the critical role and responsibility to ensure the solution implemented via the project meets the company’s goals. Are you feeling it?

Besides having a good grasp of the techniques available to you as a BA there are two strategies of your own you should employ to make a positive impact.

1) Lift your head out of the details and look where you are going. Every now and then make sure your project is still aligned with the company goal(s) it is supporting. If it is not, raise a flag to make the PM, your manager, and the business sponsor(s) aware. You and your team should make adjustments to get the project re-aligned or push to have it canceled. Stopping a project that no longer supports a company goal is a success, not a failure.

2) Use the support network around you. In the fast paced environment we work in there is not enough time for you to come up with solutions to the challenges you will encounter on your own. You do not have to do this alone. At your company you are surrounded by an endless number of subject matter experts, other BAs, project managers, and a wealth of technical knowledge. That is just the beginning. Look outside of your company and join and participate in local professional organizations like the IIBA. There is no need to stop there. Why stay local, when you can go global? There are so many online communities where you can connect, interact, and learn from like minded people around the world. Communities like BA Times, Modern Analyst, and a number of LinkedIn groups are great place to get answers to the business analysis questions you need answered. Think about how valuable you are to a company by not only bringing your knowledge and expertise, but also bringing expertise from around the world.

Being a part of the future success of your company is wonderful. Even though there is a lot of pessimism with the current economy it is an exciting time to be a business analyst.

To our success,

Kupe

So Many Stakeholders, So Little Time

Kupe — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:02:11 +0000

Most of us out there today are up against tight deadlines. I usually sit in my office on Friday singing the line from a Beatles song…”8 days a week.” I wish I had 8 days some weeks. Yes, it can be frustrating trying to fit it all in. We have to be thinking of better ways to approach what we do. My grandfather, who worked in a wine bottling plant (sounds good, but they were bottling Manischewitz…yum) would always say , “Jonathan, work smarter not harder.” Growing up I never realized the wisdom of my grandpa, I just thought he had one glass of Manischewitz too many when he started talking like that!

On my current project I had to do exactly what my grandpa said. I had to come up with a plan to work smarter, not harder. I am analyzing 145 business processes and have over 30 stakeholders, scattered over 6 offices, to elicit all the information I need. Based on my deadline, if I tried one-on-one interviews or requirements workshops I would be working very hard. Many hours of meetings and follow-ups. With everyone’s busy work loads trying to schedule the meetings would be a heroic effort. To increase my efficiency I turned to surveys to help. What a great way to elicit a lot of information from a large group.

With the list of questions I intended asking in some form or fashion in an interview, I created a survey. This approach allows me to analyze and elicit at the same time. While I am analyzing a group of surveys another group of stakeholders is completing surveys. Brilliant!

Here is an overview of the approach I am taking:

Create the survey – I am using SharePoint to create and store the surveys. This is the preferred collaboration tool of the client that I am working with. Along with the survey questions I put help text to really clarify what I am asking the stakeholder to answer.
Distribute the survey – This is fairly easy. I just send an email with a link to the survey to the appropriate people.
Prepare the stakeholders – I am holding “kick-off” meetings for each of the offices to go over the survey, explain what I am looking for and show an example. This will ensure I get the right level of detail in the answers.
Complete the survey – I just sit back, sip some Manischewitz and let my stakeholders work their magic! I’ll be available for questions of course.
Review and Follow-up – Once the surveys start rolling in I’ll start my analysis. I’ll follow-up with the stakeholders as necessary and make updates.
Track progress – One of the items on the survey is “status”. I have a great PM that will be working closely with the stakeholders to ensure the surveys are getting completed on time so I have a healthy back log to review.
Compile project deliverable – One of the project requirements is to produce a deliverable of all the process details. From SharePoint I can export the data to my MS Word template. Thank goodness, I would hate to type all of that information again!

I’m looking forward to this adventure. Let me know if you have specific questions. I’d also love to hear your experiences of working smarter, not harder. Leave a comment so we can all improve.

Kupe