Author: Heather Mylan-Mains

Business Analysts – Be Aware that Change Requires Grief

Written by Heather Mylan-Mains on March 13, 2017. Posted in Articles.

Business Analysts, as change agents, are the heartbeat of change. Everything we are part of is a change. We implement new data, new process, new system, new teams, new objectives, and a new strategy.

We retire old data, old processes, and old systems, disband teams, complete objectives, and collaborate on new strategy. This change demands space to allow people involved a grief process.

There are many models for successful change. Consider Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change:

Create a sense of Urgency
Build a Guiding Coalition
Form Strategic Vision and Initiatives
Enlist Volunteer Army
Enable Action by Removing Barriers
Generate Short-Term Wins
Sustain Acceleration
Institute Change

The first step sets a foundation. People need to understand there is something wrong and change is needed. They must see there is an urgency to change and seize an opportunity. The second step is to get a team of diverse experience together to collaborate and lead change. This team is passionate, credible and persuasive. The third step is to create a vision. A leader needs to have the vision to steer the team through the change. People need to see where the change will lead them. The fourth step is to entice people to join you on the change journey. Gain an army of volunteers to get involved. The fifth step is to enable that army to change the processes and systems that are impeding moving to the future vision. The sixth step is to create short term wins with that army and the change they are making. Measure and track success for those wins. Sharing the facts and showing the value of the accomplishments. The seventh step is to continue with more changes to accelerate the successes. Continue to expand the army with more people who will implement the change vision. The final eighth step is that the change becomes the new norm. It is part of the institution. The cycle begins again. These steps create buy-in for the change which is critical.

As buy in is happening so is grief. Accepting something new requires accepting something lost. Anything different in our life causes us to feel the loss. Change begets grief. Ignoring this human element to change is a risk many companies often ignore. This is a costly mistake. As champions of change are running around excited and building teams, there are people grieving the loss of their old life. Any change requires grief management.

Grief is acknowledged as five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Each of us handles grief differently; it is a very personal experience. Like our business analysis work, grief ‘just depends.’ It is not a scheduled task: Denial will be 10 days followed by 7 days of anger, 3 days of bargaining, and three weeks of depression and then you will accept, and your grief will be over. There that’s done now let’s get back to our vision for change! It does not work like this. Each change event will cause us to have a different grief process. We may revisit stages of the grief cycle before or after we get to acceptance.

Acknowledging that grief exists and should be considered is essential to organization change success.

Do you remember reaching the end of your primary education? At graduation, I looked around and thought about all of the humanity I had been close to in one way or another for 12 years. After that moment I would never again share the same space in the same way I had with these people. It was surreal. This has been repeated for me with every project team I am a part of, with every job I have had, and with any shared experience with other human beings. The loss of this creates grief. There is sadness when the journey is over. I look forward to the change for the new opportunity ahead; however, I need to process the grief. I grieve when a book series I have invested in is over. Those characters and their story is no longer part of my life. I miss that. I miss the wonder of their progression and long for when the characters were new, and I just learned their stories.

In our careers, this loss is occurring each time we discover a problem, an urgency to change. Suddenly people will be working in a different way, perhaps with different people or tools. Some people are excited and eager for the change and move through grief lightening quick ready to move forward. Others remain transfixed in their current state and fight the change dragging their heels as you move them forward. Be sensitive to the grief they are experiencing. Acknowledge it. Let them feel the anger at the change and be depressed as they work towards acceptance. Don’t discount their feelings and insist ‘Just get over it’ or ‘Time to move on already.’ Be kind and offer support to teams experiencing change. People are impacted by the smallest of changes, the seasonal change, daylight savings time, the end of a holiday celebration, the New Year, a team assignment change or physically moving desks. They are also impacted by the largest of changes; reorganization at work, promotion, leadership change, marriage, new business, divorce, and especially the loss of a loved one. I can remember crying my eyes out when the TV show MASH ended or when Johnny Carson retired. How strange it seemed to be so sad about a TV show ending.

However, that show was around for as long as I could remember. I missed it! I had grown to love those characters and their story. The same is true for our work lives.

Business Analysts are in the people business. We should be considerate of the human element of the technology we are impacting. Don’t skip acknowledging grief in the change process. Plan for grief support in your projects and time to allow for the grief process to work. The plan will depend on the complexity and severity of the change. Professionals may need to be engaged to help people work through the change. Leaders and employees may need some additional training to help through the process. It is possible to be stuck in grief, and we need to move people forward. This requires empathy, compassion and lots of listening! Having a vision will be instrumental in moving people out of grief, getting them to see the bright future ahead is a motivator to move forward. Like everything else, it’s art!

I am a fairly resilient person and have dealt with many significant changes and losses in my life so far. Coping has become part of who I am. I approach change with an ‘OK, what’s next, bring it on!’ attitude. I support others as they work through changes and remind others, this is hard for people. We can never forget the human element of change. These skills will help us to become better analysts!

What is a Senior BA Made Of?

Written by Heather Mylan-Mains on September 21, 2016. Posted in Articles.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that’s what little boys are made of. What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s’ what little girls are made of! A familiar nursery rhyme that makes me smile. So, what are business analysts made of? Thought and words and making connections are what business analysts are made of. What are senior BAs made of? Confidence, context, and thinking, that’s what senior BAs are made of!

Senior business analysts are not born, they evolve!

The journey to becoming a business analyst is different for everyone. There is no single education, job experience, or career path. There are traits that distinguish a junior BA from an experienced BA from a senior BA. There comes a point in time that the senior BA exhibits confidence, understanding of context, and critical thinking that separates them from other BAs. These traits are what skyrocket visibility for a BA that ‘gets it’ from someone that needs direction to ‘get it.’ A business analyst that is confident to make connections quickly, decompose complexity to simplicity, and can apply critical thinking to problem solving is a senior BA.

Confidence is a complex trait.

Confidence comes from taking risks. It starts with confidence in yourself and your abilities; knowing that you can try things and learn. Learning comes through failure or success. Confidence in yourself is demonstrated through speaking up, trying something new, leading. Confident business analysts start conversations based on the information that is available right now. Create a straw man diagram, a problem statement, ask a question. Often, the BA that starts the conversation may not have the problem, diagram or question finalized. The response is some variation of ‘No! That’s not right’. It takes confidence to be willing to start something knowing it may not be correct, or there will be some criticism of your work. That ‘No’ response is the start to getting it right. Senior BAs are willing to be the sacrificial lamb that structures the conversation.

Confidence is gained in knowing you have the tools and experience to help teams see and understand the right problem and determine solutions. Confidence is built step by step as you learn to listen, assess and communicate. Keep at it and you will see this trait expand until you burst with the ability to lead. Every journey starts with a single step and sometimes that step feels like it’s off the edge of the Grand Canyon! The team will see you as a leader to help them on the journey, and they will trust you to deliver.

Why is context a trait for a senior BA? Dictionary.com defines context as ‘the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.’. Without this understanding, analysis will be focused on the wrong things. A senior business analyst must organize the context for analysis. Context is a combination of the problem, scope, assumptions, and constraints. It is not a single thing, but a mix of many things. Ask a BA a question and the answer will often be ‘it depends.’ As annoying as this answer is, it is true. The answer is dependent on the context of the question. In order to understand where I need to focus my time, I have to understand the context. I can do anything, but I can’t do everything! The business analyst that stops the team to clarify purpose and understand the components of context before diving into the details of a solution is a senior BA. Determining the real problem and understanding assumptions and constraints is essential to how the team will approach the solution. Often organizations don’t attribute this work business analysis. It’s not ‘gathering requirements.’ Clarifying context is the essence of business analysis. Context is like the edge of a jigsaw puzzle. It is the foundation to putting the details together in an organized cohesive picture. Once context, the edges or outline, is understood, the rest of the pieces of the puzzle will fit together much more easily.

Understanding context involves a shift in thinking. It is a high-level understanding across an organization, before diving into the details. It requires training your brain to stop, think, and define a problem. As analysts, we want to move to the details to solution. Context is starting high level and then breaking down into details. Context takes practice!

Business analysis is a thinking profession.

Thinking about the process, data, business rules, and external agents is what we do. Writing the requirement is an entry level business analysis skill. The thinking behind the analysis that informs the correct requirement is not entry level. Critical thinking ability is something we are born with. The evolution to apply it to problem solving happens with experience and practice. Business analysts need time to sit and think; to ponder the impacts of changes in every aspect of the process. Thinking at the speed of light then making decisions on how to move forward. The start of an effort can feel like a swirling tide pool. The tide pool whips you around, and you feel like you will not survive. Critical thinking pulls teams out of the swirl. Making a decision to stop swirling and decide on a direction to start with is a senior business analyst trait.
Thinking impacts a business analysis approach. How do I break down the work? Which elicitation or requirements techniques do I use? Who do I talk to? How long will it take me? Thinking and more thinking then decide to move forward! It starts with the idea, then the confidence to voice the idea to clarify the context.

Be confident and know you can learn as you take risks. Understand the entire context and then connect the dots to define the problem. Constantly think and evaluate what you know, what you don’t and decide what you need to know. Confidence, context, and thinking, that’s what senior BAs are made of!