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Author: Giorgos Sioutzos

Giorgos Sioutzos is an experienced business analyst currently working at Netcompany in the social security sector. He holds a BSc in Management Science and Technology from Athens University of Economics and Business and Msc in International Business & Management from ALBA Graduate Business School. Numerus articles about business analysis have been published in most reputable Greek and foreign media. He has created educational videos for IIBA Knowelge Hub. Also he has contributed as an SME for Global Business Analysis Survey creation from IIBA. Certifications: CBAP, PMI-PBA, ITIL, PRINCE2, CPRE Advanced
BATimes_Sep14_2022

The Importance of Creativity in Business Analysis

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on . Posted in Articles.

Being creative may seem contradictory to an analyst structured approach to everyday tasks but this is far away from truth. Creativity is something required in every aspect of our life. Although, a deterministic approach is synonymous to analysis and decisions are being made using careful research, still there is much room for creativity.

In the business analysis field, the aim of developing creativity as a skill is to provide value to the whole business analysis lifecycle and to contribute not only to better outputs but also to significant outcomes.

Below are just some occasions when creativity can be required from a business analyst:

 

  1. Creativity is required in finding the best way to elicit the actual business needs. You may modify and tailor an elicitation technique in order to achieve the most accurate and helpful results from elicitation activities. A creative business analyst will pose “clever” questions in order to better understand the customer. Will continuously modify predefined techniques in order to tailor them in accordance with the context and the special needs of the stakeholders.

 

  1. In case there is not a predefined product that will be used, and the solution is built from the scratch, creativity is detrimental in order to find feasibly solutions that will provide value to the end users.

 

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  1. Business analysts advocate for the business while communicating what can be achieved with available technology. The way business analyst will transfer the information from one side to another requires creativity. Providing a bridge between technical and business viewpoints is sometimes challenging. Unorthodox ways of presentation and communication of the information may be the key.

 

  1. Drawing out additional meaning from the elicitation results requires creativity resulting from a creative dispute mindset. Asking what the actual need of the customer is and how might the end user has defined the success imply sometimes filling information gaps using creative thinking.

Creativity skills can be learned and improved throughout professional life.  What you first need is a desire to explore your unique creativity and a spirit of curiosity. Just ask yourself and try to come up with creative ideas in your everyday tasks.  The most important is to be critical against conventional wisdom and try always to take into consideration the context in order to tailor and use wisely the conventional wisdom.

BATimes_Aug11_2022

The Importance of Creativity in Business Analysis

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on . Posted in Articles.

Being creative may seem contradictory to an analyst structured approach to everyday tasks but this is far away from truth. Creativity is something required in every aspect of our life. Although, a deterministic approach is synonymous to analysis and decisions are being made using careful research, still there is much room for creativity.

In the business analysis field, the aim of developing creativity as a skill is to provide value to the whole business analysis lifecycle and to contribute not only to better outputs but also to significant outcomes.

Below are just some occasions when creativity can be required from a business analyst:

  1. Creativity is required in finding the best way to elicit the actual business needs. You may modify and tailor an elicitation technique in order to achieve the most accurate and helpful results from elicitation activities. A creative business analyst will pose “clever” questions in order to better understand the customer. Will continuously modify predefined techniques in order to tailor them in accordance with the context and the special needs of the stakeholders.

 

  1. In case there is not a predefined product that will be used, and the solution is bult from the scratch, creativity is detrimental in order to find feasibly solutions that will provide value to the end users.

 

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  1. Business analysts advocate for the business while communicating what can be achieved with available technology. They way business analyst will transfer the information from one side to another requires creativity. Providing a bridge between technical and business viewpoints is sometimes challenging. Unorthodox ways of presentation and communication of the information may be the key.

 

  1. Drawing out additional meaning from the elicitation results requires creativity resulting from a creative dispute mindset. Asking what the actual need of the customer is and how might the end user has defined the success imply sometimes filling information gaps using creative thinking.

 

Creativity skills can be learned and improved throughout professional life.  What you first need is a desire to explore your unique creativity and a spirit of curiosity. Just ask yourself and try to come up with creative ideas in your everyday tasks.  The most important is to be critical against conventional wisdom and try always to take into consideration the context in order to tailor and use wisely the conventional wisdom.

4 Tips that can help you in your new job as a Business Analyst

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on . Posted in Articles.

You have just been hired as a business analyst in a new organization. Many new processes and unknown business terminologies can make you feel confused and feel stressed. This is absolutely normal, and time is required to understand how the things are working.

Below are some tips in order to successfully adapt to your new role.

#1 Understand the approach towards BA

Try to learn the approach of the company toward business analysis field and the attitudes of your team towards the tasks of a business analyst. Search and ask about standard processes your company is following when it comes to business analysis. It is vital to know what your organization is perceiving as good work and what is valuable. You need to take your time and dive deeper and not to be misled by the first impressions.

#2 Understand the Context

In the first period erase if possible, from your memory the way things were done in your previous job. As it is widely stated there is no one size fits all. Give some time to understand the context and how the context is affecting the way the things are done. Try to find the usefulness and the why behind the approaches that are used in your new environment. Most probably the context will give you some answers.

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#3 Understand the Business Domain

Try to figure out the characteristics of the industry your company provides solutions for. Try to learn as much as possible for the specific industry, trends, rules ,processes and standards. You can ask for information more experienced colleagues or search in previous artifacts that may exist in company’s knowledge hub. You may also request from your manager a short training in basic industry related topics. When you like your job and you are passionate about it learning is not actually so hard.

#4 Understand the Τools and Techniques

Try to figure out which are the techniques more commonly are used in your new job. Then try to gain knowledge and practice on mastering those techniques. For example, you can understand that a business process diagram is commonly used. Spend some time to develop your mastery in creating this kind of diagram. You may attend a short e-course or check previous such diagrams prepared in the past from the team.

In a new beginning you need to figure out first the as-is situation. That needs time and willingness to learn. Try to understand, make your own homework, and then ask question. Do not underestimate the need for comparing the information you receive with other sources of information. Moreover, remember not to propose a change if you have not understood first the context and the reason behind some approaches that are established in your new team.

The Business Analyst’s Approach to Problem Solving

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on . Posted in Articles.

As a business analyst you will have to understand your clients’ needs and constructively provide valuable solution options. You will have to find the real roots of the needs and approach problems in a way that will enable change.

Your task is not just to collect requirements. It’s to elicit requirements in order to ensure long – lasting change. It is common for clients to come up with the solution in mind. For example, a client may request an addition of a step to the process. Diving more and trying to figure out the actual need behind this request may reveal that there is another way of treating the actual need.

The following stages are commonly used by Business Analysts when problem solving is required.

1) Problem Definition

Τhe first step in the approach is the problem definition. Gathering information, ascertaining its validity against other sources of information, and analyzing the available information are key at this stage. The way a problem is identified first and then defined can have a significant impact on the alternatives that may be emerge. Identifying the problem will also delineate the goals and objectives that the alternative solutions should cover. The more complete a problem statement is, the easier it will be to identify alternatives, selection & evaluation.

Common pitfalls in this stage include:

  • Too wide or too narrow definitions of the problem can impact the quality of the solution. Analysts are asked to find the balance between small and large range so that there are several alternatives.

 

  • Focusing on the symptoms rather than the causes is a common mistake in defining a problem. Of course the subjectivity involved in characterizing the symptom often makes this mistake inevitable. Many techniques such as the “5 Whys” can help in avoiding this pitfall.

 

  • Choosing the right problem means that while there may be parallel problems we must choose with a systemic approach the problem that is most possible to some extent another problem. Systemic thinking is of paramount importance as there is usually an interdependence between seemingly unrelated problems.

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2) Alternative Solutions

Once the problem is identified, the analyst, should, together with the technical team to search for possible solutions.

Solution options has to be aligned with the project scope, the overall business needs and the technical feasibility. Solutions options must be realistic from business and technical side and of course valid in the eyes of the stakeholders.

A common mistake in this step is to abandon an alternative too quickly. This often happens under the pressure of time and other circumstances. However, because an alternative seems convenient, this does not make it ideal. It may have harmful side effects, or it may be less effective than other alternatives that would result if given enough time at this stage.

One way to limit the error of the incomplete “pool of alternatives” is to involve key stakeholders in discussions of identifying different solutions. It’s a good way for different perspectives to be presented and contribute to different solution alternatives.

3) Identify the best solution

For every solution option an assessment shall be done against the other solution options. The business analysts in collaboration with the key stakeholders identify the criteria that will be used for this comparison.

A cost-benefit analysis is commonly used for each solution option in order to figure out the benefits against the costs. However sometimes the full benefits or costs cannot be monetized, and indirect benefits or costs may be derived by the implementation of a solution. So, it is not a good idea to compare different options based strictly on a cost – benefit analysis as it is not easy to think about all costs and benefits and give them a value.

An analyst understands the cognitive limitations of human information processing capabilities and the difficulty of making optimization decisions. It is worth noting that the best alternative is choosing an environment of delimited rationality. An environment of delimited rationality is created as the limits of the decision-making process are set by the available information and the context.

Problem solving is vital in all aspects of business from people problems to technical problems and from short-term to long-term problems. And problem-solving involves two completely different, possibly conflicting thought processes: creativity and decision making. A business analyst shall continuously try to improve problem solving skills by implementing in practice useful techniques and approaches and continuously following up the outcomes.

Problem Definition – The foundation of Effective Problem Solving

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on . Posted in Articles.

The problem identification task is about really asking the question, what problem are we solving and we’re looking to try to answer.

But before we can identify the particular problem and really understand that we first need to understand how does this gets initiated? How does the problem identification task get started? What causes us to start looking into this? Well, there are really two ways that this can be initiated. Number one is through the organization or client. This is done through some type of request. The other source of problem identification there from a self-initiated discovery and kind of move forward to understand, is there value in fixing that or adjusting for that potential change?

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Below you may find four tips for the most effective Problem Identification

  1. Don’t Start with the Solution

It’s very important to only focus on the problem and the structure of this problem at the step of problem identification. Just naturally, as we hear a problem, we start brainstorming and thinking through the solution. However, in that way probably fail to identify the real problem.

  1. Find the root cause

It’s not only about identifying the problem but it’s about identifying the right problem and really getting to the root of the problem. What I mean by that is one problem may actually be the effect of another lower-level root problem. A common technique used is the 5 whys. The method is remarkably simple: when a problem occurs, you drill down to its root cause by asking “Why?” five times

  1. Keep it Simple

Simplicity does not mean a lack of understanding. It may mean a good solid understanding. Try to approach any complex situation by breaking it down into more simple elements.

  1. Exploit the collective wisdom and synergies

None can go far alone. We need collective wisdom and accepting different perspectives. It’s the only way a complete understanding of the problem to be achieved. Don’t forget to leave yourself open to different ideas and perspectives that may be contrary to your established beliefs and thinking patterns.

As a business analyst, there are many cases where the customer comes up with claims on changing something, like changing something in a standard process by inserting an approval step. Instantly we naturally try to find a solution contrary to trying to identify the real problem. Instead of instantly focusing on the solution alternatives trying to figure out what is the real problem can really provide a path towards meaningful solutions that will provide value to users.

Identifying the real problem and determining it in the most effective way is the fundamental step for having an effective solution. Problem identification is the first step of the rational process of problem-solving.