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Will PMI Agree that BA Must Precede Projects?

Behold the world’s shortest BA column (well, for me so far, anyway):

We have been discussing the great challenges to BA that I listed a few months ago.

Last month I dumped my own idea – that of having professional recognition for BAs at the level of accountants and attorneys. Not having it or having it – either way it is a great challenge for the profession (for now, we hide, not knowing what to do).

This month, I make the following points about PMI and IIBA cooperation, the second great challenge:

Many PMPs, upon first meeting a CBAP (myself) say: “I wish they would turn you guys loose before management just dumps some of the “projects” (actual word was not projects) they dump on us!”

Point well taken – it is a lot easier to make project estimates and plans when decent scoping and some due diligence (requirements and stakeholder investigation) is done up front.

When things do change, they are likely to be less radical, or if radical, they tend to pay of way better for the trouble taken to discover them (always remember that every project is a “team PhD” research effort, and change can be good when learning leads the way).

It is not fair to dump on PMPs. It IS dumping when a list of what Ivar Jacobsen calls “requirements assertions” gets laid on a project manager with a budget and a deadline. I get to say this because usually the PM dumps it on me (the BA), so I know, I know.

I acknowledge that this approach does not violate the rule of “you can tell me how fast, you can tell me how much, or you can tell me how good – pick any two”.

It doesn’t, because management only tells how long and how much – they typically DON’T tell how good, they just pretend they did, so they can complain and blame when they don’t get what they “wanted”.

Finally – how the HECK does anyone do earned value, when they aren’t even sure what anything is worth?

I call on PMPs to acknowledge this pre-project “analysis” gap, and to support BAs in the important task of filling it.

Don’t go crazy – not every project is worth a business case, and doesn’t that say something right there?

Let me know if you agree.

A New Series about Requirements Management and Much More

calendar-deadline-aug15.pngMore interesting and informative articles and blogs again, this month! A couple of new articles, one of which is the first in a new four-part series. Our bloggers are back and there are a couple of news items in our IIBA section we’re sure will get your attention. 

Introducing the new BA Times bookstore and library!

We are pleased to announce that the BA Times bookstore and library is now live! You can review and buy books, suggest new ones to add to the library, and write reviews and ratings!

  • I Don’t Have Time to Manage Requirements; My Project is Late Already! Elizabeth Larson and Richard Larson take a look at how imposed deadlines can really have a negative affect to requirements management and, ultimately, the project itself. 
  • Documents; The Neglected Side of Business Information Automation. Many companies are working to acquire or develop high tech business solutions. Mark Crandall believes that people, processes, paper and technology must work together to achieve success. 
  • The Need for Speed. Adam Kahn worries about the fact that so many of us are having to do more with less, but he offers some practical tips to make your time go further.
  • Will PMI Agree that BA Must Precede Projects? It’s a lot easier to make project estimates and plans if a BA has been there first. That’s the view that Marcos Ferrer shares with us in his blog.
  • The Value of CBAP Certification and IIBA Monthly Webinars Start August 26, 2008. Two important announcements from IIBA that are well-worth checking out, especially if you’re considering CBAP certification.

ITIL v3 and Service Management

Back in April I introduced the subject of ITIL and its contribution to an increasingly successful BA/IT relationship.  At that time, most ITIL-based IT organizations were using ITIL v2, with implementations focusing primarily on operational IT efficiency.  The necessity of strong IT/business alignment is emphasized in ITIL v2, but ITIL v2 lacks a compelling framework within which that alignment can be understood and materialized.  This can actually be deduced from the organization of the ITIL v2 books and chapters, with the ITIL processes themselves (Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, etc.) as the main topics.

 

 

ITIL v3, introduced in May 2007 (you can find a good starting point for additional ITIL information here), not only subsumes the IITL v2 content but

  1. Reframes it entirely, presenting the material within the business life cycle phases of Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement
  2. Introduces Service Management as a generalization of IT Service Management (with very interesting implications for BAs – to be covered in my next article)

 

Have you looked into ITIL v3?  Do you work with an IT organization that is adopting ITIL v3?  Do you have plans yourself to become ITIL Expert certified, to complement your CBAP certification plans?

Where will BA and PM Professionals Come from? Next Steps

This is the seventh and final article in this series. The first six articles were:

#1 Is It Time for the BA and the PM to Get Hitched?
#2 Effective Requirements Gathering and Management Needs the Skills of both the BA and PM
#3 An Examination of the BA and PM Skills Profiles
#4 A First Pass at Defining the BA/PM Position Family
#5 A First Look under the Hood of the BA/PM Position Family
#6 A Second Look under the Hood of the BA/PM Position Family

These articles described the BA/PM professional, why we need such a professional, how the BA/PM position family and career path might be defined and what a professional development program might look like. This closing article focuses on the next steps that might be taken to bring the BA/PM professional into reality. In total then the seven articles lay out by example a blueprint for moving forward. Early in the 1990s, I had the opportunity to design, build and deploy a similar application for IT professionals. Many of the components of that application are analogs of the system I am proposing below. The technology is much more sophisticated now, but I have been there and done that. The following is my suggestion for the system that can provide for the career planning and professional development of BA/PM professionals. It is the logical consequence of the six previous articles.

A System to Prepare BA/PM Professionals

The project to design and develop this system will be a challenging project, but you already should have guessed that. Like every effective project manager, let’s begin this project with what I call a Project Overview Statement (POS). For the PMs this is similar to your PMBOK Project Charter. For the BAs this is similar to your BABOK Project Scope Statement. This POS will be the framework and guide for all project work to follow. For reference purposes, this project will be called the PDP Systems Design and Development Project. This article does not discuss deployment. Deployment of the PDP System is left for another project and is briefly mentioned below.

Project Overview Statement

The POS is the first document that describes a proposed project. It is a high-level description of a business situation and what you propose to do about it. It is a one page document with five parts. I have used it for more than 40 years with great success. For the PDP Systems Design and Development Project here is my version of the five parts of the POS.

Problem/ Opportunity
The project landscape is changing. Complexity and uncertainty dominate. Only rarely can requirements be completely defined and documented at the outset. An agile approach to these projects is highly recommended. To be effective in managing these projects the agile project manager must be fully skilled in both project management and business analysis.

Goal
Design and develop an internet-based career planning and professional development system to prepare professionals to be both project managers and business analysts at all levels of skill and competency so that they are fully capable of successfully managing projects at all levels of complexity and uncertainty. This new professional is called a BA/PM professional.

Objectives

  • Define the BA/PM position family
  • Define the BA/PM career paths
  • Identify the skills and competencies required of the BA/PM professional
  • Establish the minimum skill/competency proficiency profile of each BA/PM professional
  • Define the internet-based Professional Development Program (PDP)
  • Design the skill and competency assessment tools portfolio
  • Design the career planning module
  • Design the professional development module
  • Design the integrated PDP System
  • Develop the integrated PDP System
  • Document the integrated PDP System

Success Criteria

  • The PDP System will be a thin client internet-based system
  • The PDP System will be ready for deployment within 12 months of starting the project
  • The PDP System will be parameter-driven and fully support user definable PM and BA position families, career paths and skill/competency profiles
  • Using the PDP System will not require any training – it will be intuitive.
  • The PDP System will not have a User Guide.

Assumptions, Risks, Obstacles 

  • The need for a BA/PM professional will not be acceptable to the entire BA and PM communities
  • The project will be co-managed by a representative from the PM community and a representative from the BA community
  • Qualified technical resources will be made available when needed to design and build the PDP System
  • The BA and PM communities will be honest participants in reviewing and commenting on the PDP System
  • An agile project management approach will successfully deliver the PDP System
  • A sponsor can be found to financially support the project

Suggested High-level Work Breakdown Structure

Once the POS has been approved by representatives from both the BA and PM communities detailed project planning can begin. A high-level work breakdown structure might look something like the following:

Phase I   Scoping the PDP System

  1. Describe the PDP System Task Force purpose and membership
  2. Recruit the PDP System Task Force members
  3. Plan and hold the PDP System Kick-off Meeting
  4. Synthesize current BABOK and PMBOK position definition & documentation
  5. Document the requirements of the desired PDP System

Phase II   PDP System High-level Design 

  1. Define and document the PDP System deliverables
  2. Define and document the PDP System process flow
  3. Gain approval of the PDP System high-level design

Phase III  PDP System Detailed Design & Documentation

  1. Recruit the PDP System Development Team
  2. Design the documentation format and templates
  3. Construct the PDP System documentation
  4. Circulate PDP System documentation for review
  5. Revise PDP System documentation
  6. Gain approval of the PDP System detailed design

Phase IV  PDP System Development

  1. Recruit PDP System Development co-project managers
  2. Recruit PDP System Development Team
  3. Review the PDP System documentation
  4. Define the PDP System Technical Requirements and Architecture
  5. Prioritize PDP System Requirements
  6. Define PDP System Development cycles (plan, build, check) and time boxes
  7. Execute PDP System Development Cycles
  8. Demonstrate having met the requirements of the PDP System Task Force
  9. Discharge the PDP System Development Team

Phase V  PDP System Marketing

  1. Create the PDP System Marketing Program
  2. Plan and publish PDP System articles
  3. Design and produce PDP System promotional materials
  4. Distribute PDP System promotional materials
  5. Discharge PDP System Task Force

A Call to Action

So there you have it! The complexity and challenge of the PDP System Design and Development Project should not be underestimated. Its importance cannot be overstated either. It is my firm belief that having BA/PM professionals on your staff will have a significant impact on project success.

Testimonial data that I have gathered over the years from over 10,000 project managers worldwide suggests that over 70% of all projects are in the agile category. These projects are such that requirements identification and solution definition can only come about from learning and discovery during project execution. That requires that some form of iterative approach be employed. This is clearly the domain of the agile project and requires the leadership of the BA/PM professional. That they are needed is not debatable. The processes to develop them are by no means obvious or in place.

Through this and the preceding articles I’ve tried to build the case for formally recognizing the need for the BA/PM professional and for the systems to meet their career planning and professional development needs. I’ve taken a pass at the high-level work breakdown structure as the beginnings of the project plan to put the requisite PDP System in place to support those needs.

How might we make that plan happen? If your organization sees the importance and the need for such a system and suffers the pains of frequently occurring distressed projects and excessive project failure, perhaps they would be interested in funding a PDP Systems Design, Development and Deployment Project to meet their own needs. This would get us off to a fast track start. Could your employer be one of those companies?

Alternatively, a BA or PM product/service provider might be interested in adding the PDP System to their portfolio through a joint venture to design, develop, market and sell the PDP System. Do you work for such a company?

In any case the next step for me is to recruit a BA professional who would be interested in partnering with me to take a BA/PM advocacy position and then to begin working on the PDP System. If you and I are of like mind, if you are an accomplished BA professional, if you have name recognition in the BA community, if you have some time and would like to make a difference, I would like to hear from you. My direct email is [email protected]. I’m serious!


Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., has over 40 years experience as a project management consultant and trainer, information systems manager, systems and management consultant, author, training developer and provider. He has written fourteen books on project management and information systems management. One of his books, Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme,3rd Edition, has been a best seller and is recommended by the Project Management Institute for the library of every project manager. He has over 30 publications in professional and trade journals and has made more than 100 presentations at professional and trade conferences and meetings. He has developed more than 20 project management courses and trained over 10,000 project managers.

Getting Back to Basics – Fifth Fundamental-Choosing the Best Modeling Technique for Success

In April, I began a series of articles devoted to the basic practices of business analysis. With so much information now available, I felt it was important to go old school and make a case for the core principles of the discipline and why they represent the best path to success. 

Since beginning the series, I’ve talked about understanding business goals, creating a common vocabulary, identifying sources and choosing elicitation techniques.  Now, in this final installment, I’ll be discussing which modeling techniques are most appropriate for a given situation.

Why We Model in the First Place

They claim a picture says a thousand words, but, in business analysis, it’s the opposite. The thousands of words you elicit from your stakeholders make up one picture representing a summation of disparate information. Modeling is essential for drawing a clear, accurate picture of a given project’s true business needs. 

In addition, modeling helps you define your project’s scope and begin prioritizing the mountain of requirements you’ve gathered.  A well-drawn model is a concise model, which will allow you to clear away the erroneous, redundant information that inevitably clouds your view of the path ahead. The types of models you use may very well address the different levels of knowledge and means by which a stakeholder can best articulate his or her vision or needs. For example, if you’re dealing with highly systematic thinkers and are eager to both elicit and validate requirements, you may likely choose to develop a variety of tables and checklists. Or, for more creative, big-picture, visually minded stakeholders, you’ll leverage story boards and use-case diagrams.

Four Classes of Modeling

Those new to business analysis-and, frankly, those not new-often confuse the terms model and diagram. A model represents information at the highest level, and diagrams are the tools that make up a model. Think of a model as a newspaper, and the diagrams as the many sections within.

Speaking generally, we could put all models into four categories.  All four can and should be used to varying degrees for all types and levels of requirements.  However, a trick for distinguishing them and determining when one is more appropriate than the others is to align the classes with five questions: Who? What? When?  Why? How?

1. Structured Models
When the question is What?—as in, What is supposed to happen?–-developing a Structured Model is an effective modeling technique. An example of an applicable process could be: if an expense is approved via an online approval system, that request is then sent to a third-party payroll organization. The diagrams you could use to build your structured model in this case include a glossary of terms-which we discussed in the second article in this series-as well as domain and location diagrams. By using a glossary of terms, you can ensure the clarity of what is being used or what systems are involved.

2. Behavior Models
Behavior Models are the best tool for answering the Who?  Who’s going to maintain a company’s Intranet site?  Who’s going to act as a backup in the event that a technical expert is unavailable?  Who’s going to be responsible for ensuring that monthly attrition changes are made to a company’s payroll system? This modeling technique can also answer a second question: How?  How will a system be updated, manually or automatically?  How will progress be reported up the food chain, by e-mail or directly during conference calls? 

As the name indicates, we’re dealing with human behavior here, and, in the workplace, that usually translates to individual roles and responsibilities.  Therefore, diagrams include behavior categories as well as process maps and use-case maps.  Also, when creating a behavior model, don’t forget your stakeholder categories, which we discussed in detail in the third article in this series.

3. Control Models
Now, on to my three-year-old son’s favorite question: Why?  Control Models tend to focus most successfully on justifying why something needs to be done, or why it is valuable to do something a certain way.  And, quite often, the answers can be found in the business policies and rules that you’ve collected throughout elicitation.  An organization’s individual policies, for better or worse, often determine the course of a project.  For example: When an associate project manager makes a purchase request in excess of $10,000, that request will automatically bypass his or her direct boss and be sent to the head of the division.  Why does this have to be done?  Because, those are the rules, kiddo

4. Dynamic Model
Finally, Dynamic Models, although not used as often as the other classes, are all about When? When will reports be generated?  When will the first stage of the project be completed?  When is this article due to BA Times?  Dynamic Models will be made up of your most time-driven diagrams, which may include event tables or detailed timelines.

Best of Luck

And with that, our whirlwind back-to-the-basics tour has come to an end. I wish you luck in your future endeavors, and hope that you remember the value of our discipline’s basic best practices.

If, for some reason, you missed any of the four previous articles, don’t worry.  The film version of the series starring George Clooney will be hitting theaters worldwide this fall!


Glenn R. Brûlé has more than 18 years’ experience in many facets of business, including project management, business analysis, software design and facilitation. At ESI, he is responsible for supporting a global team of business consultants working with Fortune 1000 organizations. These engagements focus on understanding, diagnosing and providing workable business solutions to complex problems across various industries. Glenn was formerly a Director at Large for the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) where he was responsible for forming local chapters of the IIBA around the world.