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 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 other one says, “Your finger?”

“One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean [anything]”

“But, what is the ‘one thing?’”

“[smiles] That’s what you have to find out.”

The scene is from the movie City Slickers, and the conversation takes place between Jack Palance and Billy Crystal. While they are talking about life, I use this scene as an allegory for BA communication. I have often been in the role of a mentor to other BAs when they express their frustration at not being able to obtain the information that they need from stakeholders. BAs explain that they just can’t get the stakeholders to answer in time. I respond that they have not found the “one thing” that will help the communication with that stakeholder.

There’s a recent discussion going on at LinkedIn regarding key strengths of a BA, and out of 104 responses, at least 25-30 discuss communication. From my opinion, the BA is the lynchpin of communication on a project, and needs to be able to find that “one thing” that enables effective communication. As a BA mentor, here are some tips to facilitate effective communication and find that “one thing”

1. Make it about the stakeholder. Remember, your role as a BA centers around the bridge between business and technology. Talk to your audience about what is important to them, not to you. Don’t start off talking about what you need from them, start off by finding out what they need. Talk to them about their business problems and their “pain points.” They understand the difficulties that they face in their line of work, but may not necessarily be aware of all the aspects of what it takes to do your job as a BA. It’s your job to facilitate that discussion.Example – when I train BAs, I ask two questions: “What do you want to get out of this training?” and “What are the problems and ‘pain points’ that you experience in your job?” When I ask about which question is easier to answer, they always tell me that it’s the second one. I explain that it’s logical because the first question targets the instructor and the instructor’s needs while the second question targets the students and their needs. By making it about them, they can answer the question much easier.
2. Switch to their best mode of communication. Not everybody prefers the same mode of communication. Some like the phone, others prefer face-to-face interaction, and still others like e-mail. When trying to elicit information from stakeholders, and it’s not working, try switching to a different communication method. If you cannot get someone to answer your repeated e-mails, try a different technique. Try a phone call instead – that channel is considered more personal than e-mail, and it may just work better. Or try a face-to-face meeting with them. The important thing is that you are contacting them in the way that they need to be contacted. Sure, sometimes it may seem like you are stroking their ego, but ultimately remember that your mission is to facilitate the conversations and communications. Doing it in whatever way that you can to make the project successful will only ensure your success as well as the project success.
3. Look for that connection that makes you a trusted agent. Since you are in a position to elicit information from stakeholders, you need to get them to open up and see you as someone who can help them get their job done. How do you do that when they see the statement “Hello, I’m from IT and I’m here to help” as ironic? Well, aside from making the communication about them, you need to establish trust as quickly as possible. So I suggest that you look for something that has nothing to do with the project, and open up with a connection that you can find with the stakeholder. How do you know what they are interested in? One way is to look at what they have hanging on their wall, or a picture on their desk. If they put something like that on display, that is what is important to them.Once, I had to elicit information from a high-powered commercial real estate broker. This was not the first time that he was involved in CRM elicitation, and the time that he would spend with me would take away from his sales time, and I was only allotted a  30-minute meeting. So, I expected a very negative session. Upon walking into his office, I saw a large photo on his wall of a tropical island that I recognized as Trunk Bay in St John. Instead of getting into the elicitation, I told him that I recognized the photo. He asked if I had ever been there, and I said yes, and I asked him the same. Well, for the next 20 minutes, we discussed his scuba diving experiences there and I talked about my snorkeling. Instead of the 30 minutes that I had been promised, I had 90 minutes with him. By talking about his needs and his interests, I became someone that he could trust. We had opened the line of communication from what I initially expected to be a negative session.

As BAs, we have to constantly be on the lookout for that “one thing that helps facilitate communication between you and your audience, and establishes you as a trusted agent with your stakeholders.

©2009 David Ewing and World of Stock.

I had a discussion recently with a client about how the role of a BA in many organizations was traditionally thought of as a scribe in meetings. Thankfully with all the recent focus on business analysis as a discipline, the many different skills provided by a business analyst are just beginning to be understood by many industries. Why does a business analyst make a good scribe?

Business analyst professionals develop excellent listening skills, especially for details, throughout their career. One of the critical competencies of a business analyst is to provide clear, concise, and complete communication in many forms. The ability to record the critical elements of a project meeting is a walk in the park for an experienced BA. It is not the most challenging or glamorous thing we can do but concise minutes and clear agreements save a project team valuable time not having to revisit old issues and really help in getting new members up to speed.

Should BAs always be expected to scribe? No, but we can do it better than most. The good news is that clear, organized minutes are just a tiny aspect of the true value the business analyst role brings to a project. If you find yourself occasionally being the scribe, I have a few recommendations that I have used:

1)     Use a standard meeting template to keep the minutes organized.

2)     Provide context for the minutes by providing pertinent details, such as the meeting purpose and agenda, the date, time, length of meeting, location, invitees, attendees, and absentees.  Listing attendees will help with the next item. Be concise in all your descriptions.

3)    Keep a running log of decisions instead of trying to record every conversation that took place during the meeting. Project teams spend precious time revisiting topics with people who were not present or who forgot the results. Minutes reflecting decisions as well as the decision rationale will prove invaluable.

4)    Provide details about any open or new action items assigned during the meeting. Include a clear description about what is expected, who is accountable for the action, as well as agreed-upon deadlines. People who are responsible to complete an action must agree to the task and timeframe to be truly accountable.

5)    Include any associated documents needed by the reader to understand the meeting content. If during the meeting you reviewed a requirements package, attach it to the minutes, or if someone provided a presentation, include the PowerPoint slides. Even better if your project has a shared area for file posting and sharing - provide the document location in the minutes. Leading people to the appropriate document will alleviate the reader frustration by giving them quick and easy access to the necessary information and will prevent you from clogging up the email system with large files.

6)    Send out written meeting minutes and documentation in a timely fashion, usually within 24-48 hours and request feedback about any corrections. If you have regularly scheduled meetings you may want to start each meeting by asking people to approve the previous meeting decisions and actions.  

7)    If you have a shared directory, or project wiki or some other document manager available where you can post the weekly minutes and project documents – this helps the entire team stay in sync. A shared site also makes it convenient for team members to collaborate and to pull information as needed.

In summary, although BAs have many valuable skills that benefit the project. They are also likely to be among the best, if not the best communicators on the project. No matter how well respected you are as a BA, you are occassionally going to take minutes. So let’s be a team player and go for it! If any one has any good tips for meetings or a good meeting template to share, please write.