Author: Kupe Kupersmith

The Three Most Important BA Factors

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on October 13, 2009. Posted in Articles.

“Location, Location, Location” is a phrase used by Real Estate experts regarding the three most important factors in determining the desirability of a property. I have a phrase for the three most important factors in determining desirable business analysis, “Iteration, Iteration, Iteration.” This thought hit me yesterday when I was facilitating a meeting. There I am up in front of 20 people in a conference room and I see someone sleeping. Eyes shut, head bobbing…out! It happened to be my PM…yikes. Side note – I don’t worry if one person falls asleep in my meetings. When two or more start crashing I know I need to switch things up!

“Sleeping Beauty” reminded me of my requirements reviews earlier in my career. Participants did not fall asleep, but they told me those meetings were a bear to get through and mentally checked out 20 minutes into them. In the past I would wait until I had everything documented before having a review. The old throw it over the fence mentality. Knowing the importance of having key stakeholders review the requirements, I adapted my approach and started reviewing small chunks of requirements at a time. Then when all the requirements are complete a final review is painless.

Here is an illustration of a basic flow to explain the process.

Click for larger image

There are two huge benefits with this approach in addition to avoiding people falling asleep in your meetings.

You validate that you are headed down the right path. By reviewing a draft you ensure you are headed down the right path. If you wait until the end to review what you captured a lot of time will be wasted if you missed the mark.
Stakeholders can absorb small chunks. It is very hard in one sitting to absorb and consume an entire project’s requirements. By reviewing in iterations, it allows the stakeholder to focus on one area and really review the document.

When I speak to BAs about this approach a common reaction is, “I don’t like showing a customer something that is not perfect.” My response: “Get over it!” Requirements do not need to be perfect. They need to be accurate and enough for the team to build the right solution. It is better to find any issues early and make corrections.

I have also run into QA analysts and developers who don’t want to be bothered reviewing requirements before they are “complete”. You know what I tell them? Right, “Get over it!” Requirements definition is a team activity. All team members and business stakeholders need to work together to elicit, clarify and communicate requirements.

If you want to be a desirable business analyst …iterate, iterate, iterate! You’ll stay on track, and you’ll have a higher rate of success, making sure the entire team understands and agrees on the requirements, which will lead to successful projects.

All the best,

Kupe

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Jonathan “Kupe” Kupersmith is Director of Client Solutions, B2T Training and has over 12 years of business analysis experience. He has served as the lead Business Analyst and Project Manager on projects in various industries. He serves as a mentor for business analysis professionals and is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) through the IIBA and is BA Certified through B2T Training. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone! Contact Kupe at [email protected].

Business Analysts are Set-up to Fail

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on September 29, 2009. Posted in Articles.

There is so much talk about business analysts not getting the respect we deserve; no one knows what we do, not enough people know the value we add, and on and on. Some camps even go so far as to say we do not need business analysts. What are we to do? I say we stand up and fight and show our value on the “playing field.” The better we do our job (show results), the more respect we will get. The better we do our job, the more our team members and customers will realize the value our role adds. The better we do our job, the more responsibility we’ll be given. Let’s be honest, if we prove our value the money will follow. Does all that sound good to you?

To make this a reality, the people we work with need to have the “BA Experience.” The “BA Experience” is when a person playing the business analysis role elicits the true needs from the customer and communicates those clearly so the right solution is delivered. You’ll know there has been a BA experience when everyone involved with a project yells, “Wow that was great! I need that BA on every project!” The problem is my unscientific research shows that most business analysts are set-up to fail, which prevents teams from having the BA experience. The way organizations have their business analysis organization set-up is the number one reason business analysts are fighting an uphill battle.

The skill set necessary for analysts is wide and deep. Take a quick look at the IIBA’s BABOK and tell me you mastered all of those techniques. I have been doing this for many years and still learn things everyday. Due to the large skill set needed there is talk within the IIBA to start special interest groups, or niches, for BAs, like process analysts, data analysts, or analysts for a specific industry.

Even though it is not easy to master business analysis, how do many companies organize their BAs? They have a group of BAs that individually get assigned to projects. Each BA basically has the same responsibility for their project regardless of their skill set. A more senior BA has for the most part the same role and responsibility on projects as a junior BA. What happens is the projects that have the more senior BA are very happy and want that BA on every project. They had the BA experience. The more junior BA struggles a little because they have less experience and/or less training. These teams that have the junior BA often have an unfavorable or bad experience. Often, due to that experience, team members will claim they don’t need a BA on their team.

This flat organization structure (see Figure 1) causes a situation where teams want certain people (the senior BAs) on their team, but the company as a whole is not seeing the overall value of business analysis.

Figure 1 – Flat BA Organization Example

The main reason for the junior BA’s struggle is a lack of support. Many BA managers don’t have the time or the experience to be mentors to the junior BAs. The senior BAs have the experience, but no time. They are booked full time on projects.

Let’s look at this from the customer’s point of view. Would you want a person with little hands- on experience performing your heart surgery? No way! This is what junior BAs are up against. I want the doctor who can perform heart surgery with her eyes closed. I am more than happy having a new doctor assist the experienced doctor, but I want to know the experienced doctor is running the show.

This is why I promote a tiered BA organization structure. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 – Tiered BA Organization Example

Here are three main components of the tiered structure.

Senior BAs kick-off projects (“run the show”). In this model the senior BA kicks-off the project, gets a good understanding of the project purpose, and develops a plan for the business analysis effort. During the project the junior BA will take on tasks that fit their skill set.
The senior BA is a mentor. In this model the senior BA is not 100% dedicated to project tasks. The junior BA needs to grow, so the senior BA will help guide and mentor the junior BA during projects. This allows the junior BA the opportunity to try new techniques in a safer environment.
Promote the work of the junior BA. As the junior BA gets more experience, they can be given more responsibility. When you are in heart surgery do you know how much work the new doctor is doing? No, you are knocked out. This concept applies to the tiered structure for BA organizations. Once the project begins, the team may not be fully aware of how much is being done by the junior BA. For the growth of the junior BA, it will be important to communicate what that individual is doing so the team gets more comfortable with the junior BA.

What this does is give the team the comfort level of having that experienced BA involved in every project. What will happen is companies will start to see the value of business analysis.

I know at least one question you may have. How do you distinguish between a senior BA and a junior BA? Good question. We’ll have to address that in another blog post! I’d love to hear how your BA organization is structured, what is working and where you see room for improvement.

Keep up the great work,

Kupe

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Improv Comedian Turns Business Analyst

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on September 15, 2009. Posted in Articles.

If you want to separate yourself from other BA professionals in the market, please read on.

Here is a quick background to the story. In the early 1990s I was working as an accountant and bored to tears. My father was proud because I was using my college degree to earn a living. As you all know using your college degree is not necessarily the reason you should stay in a career. To help with the boredom I started going to see a lot of stand-up comedy. One night I caught one of Jimmie “JJ” Walker’s shows. You remember him, right? He coined the phrase “Dy-no-mite” on the show Good Times. I could not believe it…he was terrible! That night I turned to my girlfriend, now wife, and said “I can do this.” I started working the open mic night circuit in Atlanta then auditioned for an Improv troupe. When I was selected for the troupe after the audition, I never went back to stand-up.

Throughout the 1990s I rarely missed a weekend being on stage and practicing two to three nights during the week. Over that time, I transitioned from an accountant and subject matter expert for PeopleSoft Financials into a business analyst role working on PeopleSoft implementations.

I no longer perform with a troupe, but I use much of what I learned as an improv comedian every day to help me succeed in my role as a business analyst.

Why should you care? The skills I am about to share with you focus on the most important skills to elevate your career as a business analyst. It has nothing to do with 99% of the skills most people discuss like use cases, workflow diagrams, etc. All of those are important, but most BAs can learn when and how to use those techniques. In my opinion, learning those techniques is the foundation for being a great BA. You need to separate yourself. The skills learned from my improv days will help you break free from the rest.

First, let me give you a little background on Improvisational Comedy from wikipedia.

“Improvisational theatre (also known as improv or impro) is a form of theatre in which the improvisational actors/ improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously. Improvisers typically use audience suggestions to guide the performance as they create dialogue, setting, and plot extemporaneously. The basic skills of listening, clarity, confidence, and performing instinctively and spontaneously are considered important skills for actors to develop.”

Here are five lessons from my improv days that if you work on will help you be a better analyst and separate you from the pack.

1) Over-Prepare then Go with the Flow

To be spontaneous on stage, my troupe would practice relentlessly so that we could relax on stage and let the scenes take shape as we performed. Since there are no scripts in improv we would practice being comfortable not having scripts. The more we practiced, the more prepared we were for any situation on stage. In business analysis the more prepared you are for a meeting with stakeholders the smoother it will go. Make sure you know what you are trying to accomplish with every meeting and have a list of questions you want to cover in an interview. Then when you have that meeting, go with the flow. Don’t go down your list of questions one by one. Have a conversation with your stakeholder. Let your stakeholder speak about the topic you want to learn more about and ask clarifying questions to make sure you touch on all the points you wanted to cover. You’ll get your questions answered and then some.

2) Never Deny

Never say no. In improv if someone walks into a scene and exclaims “Wow, I love that you colored your hair yellow,” you never say “it’s not yellow.” That denial instantly puts the burden back on the other actor to come up with something else. It kills the scene. If you did it enough the other actors wouldn’t want to “play” with you anymore. In business analysis, our business stakeholders come to us with changes in scope. This will always happen, so accept it. If you always say “No, sorry that was not in scope”, your stakeholders won’t want to “play” with you anymore. After clarifying the need I’ll say something like “we can definitely add that feature, let me work with the team to see what the impact on the cost and schedule will be. Then we can discuss if you still want to include it in this release.” Doesn’t that sound so much better? You keep the dialogue moving forward. You come across as a team player. By not denying you help make an informed decision on how to move forward.

3) Always Give 100%

I can still remember a scene where I had to come in as a boy from England. One thing I was never good at was accents. But, I had to go for it. I could not leave the other actors out there. I squeaked out a few words in an English accent and then fell into my standby Latino accent. I came across so believable because I did it with confidence. I worked into the scene somehow that I was a long lost cousin that came to live with family and never lost my accent. The crowd loved it. As business analysts we need to be confident when presenting to an audience, facilitating a requirements workshop, in a one on one interview, and all other interactions we have with our team and business stakeholders. Confident, not cocky! In what ever you do give it 100%. You can always look back later and see how you can improve. I still can’t get an English accent right to this day!

4) Don’t Anticipate

In improv you can not anticipate your lines. You need to listen intently on what the other actors are saying and then develop your lines as you go. The minute you stop listening to come up with a line, you are done. Most likely your line will not make sense. When you are eliciting requirements you need to actively listen to your stakeholders and not anticipate their answers. Many of us have industry knowledge and assume we know the answers to some of the questions. Remember you are not the subject matter expert. There is a reason you are talking with the stakeholder. Listen to their response and then clarify their response by developing follow-up questions.

5) Include Your Audience

Improv is all about including your audience. We would get suggestions for topics to incorporate in scenes, we often went off stage and continued scenes in the audience, and we even brought some audience members on stage. By including your audience in this matter we would break the fourth wall, as they say in the biz! So many people love improv theatre because they feel part of the act. As analysts you need to break the fourth wall with your audience. Requirements elicitation, analysis and communication are team sports. Don’t sit in your office and document requirements the way you think they need to be documented. Get everyone involved in your planning and consistently include your audience in reviews, let them know your status. This will make everyone feel a part of the effort and take responsibility for its success.

Best of luck with your next improvised day.

Kupe

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Pro Sports and Business Analysis Come Together

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on September 1, 2009. Posted in Articles.

Let me share a little about me. I love my family, the business analysis profession, professional sports, Rocky Balboa, and Bruce Springsteen. When my loves blend I couldn’t be happier! It happened a few weeks ago when the Dallas Cowboys unveiled their new $1 Billion; yes that’s a “B”, stadium. Pro sports and business analysis came together for me. Let me explain.

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who I do not love since I am a NY Giants fan, had a pet feature for this stadium…sixty yard long, high definition screens that are 90 feet above the field and run along the side lines.

Man, and I thought my 47″ HDTV was cool.

Prior to having the screens constructed the Cowboys allegedly showed the specifications to the NFL, National Football League, and obtained sign-off to move forward. The screens were built and installed. Although I have not been to the stadium they look really cool.

The hype around the screens was all positive until the third quarter of the first pre-season game. The opposing team’s punter kicked a ball right into the screen causing a do-over. Just like that the stadium “project” went from a success to a big concern in some critical stakeholders’ eyes. The NFL is now reviewing the situation, the height of the screens, the impact on games, etc. A decision will be made soon if the screens need to be moved, who has to pay for the work and when they can safely be moved, if necessary.

So, what does sign-off really mean? Does sign-off of a requirements specification mean anything if the end solution does not meet the needs of key stakeholders? In the case of the Cowboys, they’ll most likely argue to the NFL that they received the necessary approval on the plans. This may result in the NFL picking up the tab for the move of the screens, but there is still an impact to everyone involved. In my opinion only having this type of sign-off is worthless. If you stop there, all it does is allow parties to place blame on other parties. Why do you think so many customers are skeptical about signing off on requirements documents?

Now, let’s talk about the right way to obtain sign-off. The Indianapolis Colts, who I am impartial to because they play in a different division than the NY Giants, were planning on a similar screen set-up when they were building their new stadium. To verify the screens would not impede the game, they built a “prototype” of the screens and had their punter try to hit the mock screens. He was very successful in hitting them which resulted in the team changing the design and placement of the screens due to this simulation. Now that’s what I call sign-off you can be confident about.

In addition to my disliking the Cowboys, the moral of the story is you need to make sure you obtain the right level of approval throughout a project. At different stages of a project you need to take the opportunity to ensure you are headed in the right direction. I think the Cowboys did the right thing about getting the plans approved. The issue was they stopped there. By simulating the scenario with their punter, the Indianapolis Colts were able to obtain the right level of approval.

I’d love to hear your sign-off stories, good and bad!

Have fun simulating,

Kupe

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You Won’t Die … I Promise!

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on August 18, 2009. Posted in Articles.

Kupe’s Korner

We are all human; at least I think we are, so it is in our nature to get comfortable in a routine. I wake up around the same time every day. I have a consistent workout schedule; eat breakfast at a certain time; get to work and leave work around the same time.

We tend to do the same thing when it comes to business analysis. We use the same techniques to elicit requirements, analyze requirements, and present them. It makes sense. The more we do it, the better we get, and the more we want to keep doing it. All of this sounds great right? Wrong! I say this a lot so I apologize if you’ve heard me say this 100 times before. Every project is different. Every stakeholder we work with is different for each project, even if we have worked with them for years. A stakeholder’s involvement and excitement for projects may be different. Their availability may be different, the list goes on. If every project is different we need to approach each one differently.

“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never
does anything.” – Denis Waitley

As analysts we can’t stick with what we know. We must find ways to add more tools to our tool box. If we stick with what we know, that’s what you’ll be known for and be called on when those skills are needed. What happens when you stop getting called? You need to stay in the mode of constant growth and learn new techniques. I’ll be the first to admit, I am still growing and learning.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

The fact that we need to know so many different techniques goes to the core of why it is almost impossible to develop consistent job descriptions for BAs; why you can’t just say a Business Systems Analyst position at company “A” is the exact same job at Company “B”; why it is so hard to distinguish between a junior level BA and a Senior BA; why companies struggle with career paths for BAs.

So how do you continue to grow? The easy answer is to take training classes, read books and read the check the reams of information online. Anyone can do that, and I know you don’t want to be doing what everyone else can do. That’s the easy way. You want to be in the top 10% of people that every company wants.

RT @ PaulVHarris If Columbus gave in to his fears, no one would have blamed him. Of course, no one would have remembered him either.

Every now and then you need to jump off the easy road and take risks. I promise you will not die. Yes, it’s scary sometimes just going for it, but what is the best way to learn? Right, by doing it over and over again.

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” – Pablo Picasso

The mindset to have is like a politician not running for re-election. They start saying it like it is because they are no longer worried about losing their job. When you know a certain technique will be best for a situation, do your homework, then go for it.

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” – H. Jackson Browne

Another thing you can try is volunteering for projects in relatively unfamiliar business areas. Will it be as easy as the business area you have worked in for five years? No, but think of how you added to your knowledge base. Now you can be the one they’ll call on for other business areas.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

How far you can go is up to you. You can sit back and enjoy the ride. Or you can take the more difficult path now and then.

“Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed.” – Lloyd Jones

Enjoy your ride,

Kupe

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