Tag: Best Practices

Effective Presentations – The Basics of Telling Your Story

Written by Jason Kelly on June 21, 2017. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Effective Presentations – The Basics of Telling Your Story

Regardless of the delivery tool, you utilize to engage and share information within your meeting/workshop there are some basic components required for a good slide deck.

Some of the information below may seem obvious; it has been observed over time that we are skipping the obvious.

What is Presentation?

A presentation is defined as the process of presenting a topic/subject/activity to a preselected audience. Within a business context, you are typically demonstrating, introducing, sharing or discussing a project activity. Each presentation will contain its purpose and objective, and this will be reflected within the main body of the presentation content. One thing that can be consistent is the framework structure to your presentation slide deck.

What Should Be Included in All Presentations:

Title Page Slide – Reference the project/program this presentation is part of, plus the topic of today’s presentation. Presenters names and date of presentation are important for the title page. The title page is especially important if you consider this presentation might get physically or electronically shared throughout the company.
Objectives / Purpose Slide – The objective can also be identified as the meeting goal. Why is everyone getting together? The purpose is more granular and focuses on the elements that will support your objective. Just a couple of bullet points are fine for this slide.
Agenda / Contents Slide – Breakdown of the key topics and presenters (if different) in the sequence of presentation delivery.
Contents – main content of the presentation. This is dynamic based on the objective of the presentation.
Agenda Progress Slide(s) – If the presentation goes on for longer than 20 mins it is a good idea to re-insert the agenda slide with an indication of progress as the presentation moves through different topics or speakers. This allows the audience to understand what is coming next and how much the presentation has progressed.
Wrap up Slide – When the presentation is close to conclusion, you need to recap on the key topics discussed and review any action items generated during the presentation.
Contact Details Slide – Provide a slide with your name and contact details. Again someone in the future might want to reach out to you to discuss the presentation.
Where to find the file Slide – If you are sharing information within the project team, make a reference slide who show the file share repository location for the file. That will allow attendees to share the file quickly amongst their team.

Editor’s Note:

We have all been in the room with an endless boring series of slides being flashed in our eyes. I have enjoyed a good many naps that way. The section below further illustrates and elaborates on the writer’s article above. If you want to see presentations done right, check out TEDTalks. The best presentation I attended was on the topic of paper towels. Check out Joe Smith’s TEDTalk on “How to Use a Paper Towel.” You will never dry your hands the same way again.

7 Approaches that Business Analysts Should Use to Get Out and Network

Written by Richard Lannon on June 20, 2017. Posted in Articles.

I received a phone call from a peer in another company, asking me if I had ever written anything on how to network.

She mentioned that she had reviewed my blog and couldn’t find anything thing on the topic. They were particularly interested in the idea of business analysts networking and going to events. The sun was out, spring was in the air, and they liked golf—great reasons for getting out of the office.
Their interest got me thinking about the importance of getting out of the office and building a network.

Go with a Purpose

It never made sense to me to go anywhere without having a purpose for being there. As a professional, I have to go to networking events. Because I build a career in the consulting profession, networking has been somewhat mandatory. Honestly, for the majority of these events, I would have rather been somewhere else. That is where purpose comes in. Now when I attend events, I set a goal (nothing big) and focus on how I can help someone else. Try creating a purpose beyond just meeting people, collecting cards and speaking.

Managing Time

I am terrible at setting time aside to attend events. If I don’t mark my calendar with vacation time, long weekends and events, chances are I will forget them. I will work. It is the way I am wired. So I had to learn the skill of looking at my calendar annually and setting time aside at the beginning of the year when I am not available to work. A business associate and friend who’d noticed that I never put time aside, challenged me to book events so I wouldn’t have to be in the office all the time. It’s hard to avoid distractions, but unless you plan your time for when you are going to attend events, there is a good chance you won’t go to them. So set the time aside now.

All by Yourself

We tend to go to professional events with the same people. Your friend at work is going, so you attend also. During the evening or day, you hang out with the same people. Why not go alone? You can add a purpose. For example, maybe you want to meet someone; a decision maker, recruiter or vendor so you can have a private or personal conversation. If someone in your network introduces you to that person, seek that person out and have a conversation without peers around you. More importantly, set yourself up, so you are not always with the same people. Expand your network and make new friends.

Become Part of a New Team

I try to do this when I am going to a professional event. In the introduction, I stated that my peer mentioned attending an Association golf event. This would be a great opportunity to meet new people. I once did this and ended up on a team with two CEOs and a CFO from three different companies. We all had a great time. Throughout my career, they have helped me to connect with a lot of other people. Maybe golf is not your thing. That is fine. There are lots of ways you can become part of a new team. Just be willing to step out there and make it happen.

Be Informed Through Research

If you’re attending an event where you are meeting people, you have a limited amount of time to make an impact. It is important that you be informed about an event before you attend it. This includes checking out the host’s background, the sponsors, the types of people attending the event and determining who you want to meet. Get the information you need from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the professional association’s website. For example, I am a music buff; I play the guitar, and I listen to rock stations on Spotify. There was a CEO I wanted to meet. I noted on Facebook that he played guitar for fun and loved to jam with other musicians. So I decided to meet him and talk to him about music. We had a great discussion and created a relationship. You don’t have to research business-only things. Your research should be about finding and sharing common interests. I guess that’s another lesson learned.

Dress for Success

Can’t say I have always liked that term as it means different things to different people. Clothing is such a personal thing. In the context here, I think it has to do with knowing the event and dressing accordingly. I often contact an event’s coordinators and ask what the appropriate attire is for the event. Some events are formal, while others are downright casual. I have done a lot of work in the ICT industry (information, communications, and technology) where the standard of the organizations is a T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans and no shoes. I have to admit I feel at home in these organizations. Periodically I have to wear a suit and play the part. Still, you can find a signature piece to wear; something that creates conversation. Try a unique, colored shirt, or a hat or pin. I am a man of many hats; from baseball caps to fedoras with different styles for different seasons. I initially wanted protection from the sun, but as things progressed, I started to wear different styles. Interestingly enough, they have become conversation starters. I think you can dress for your success and be unique at the same time.

Have Your Coordinates Ready

Years ago (and maybe today) they are teaching to always bring business cards with you to events to give out to people. In my mind, this is very traditional and is important for a certain generation. Now we have so many options when it comes to sharing our coordinates as a means to connect with people. Still, it is important to pre-plan how you are going to share your information with your new friends. First, consider business cards since they still have a place at networking events. Second, if your company is no longer providing business cards, consider having something unique to hand out. If can be small. For example, I am an author, so I carry bookmarks with me that have the 10 Steps of Strategic Planning written on them. You could easily have something like that for your business; a small keepsake to hand out when you need to provide your coordinates to someone. Third, chances are you have your smartphone. Don’t be afraid to get someone’s email or cell number and text them your coordinates. It is the easiest way to connect with people. Follow up quickly and share information.

Final thoughts

Personally, just like a lot of people, I struggle with going to networking events. So I had to create a process around attending events; setting the time aside, going with purpose and being prepared. Sitting in your office all the time is not good for your long-term career and business. You have to get out and meet new people to share information with, get new ideas and have fun. I think the truth is that people want the same things from networking that you want: enjoyment, meaningful conversation and to create relationships. All you have to do is pick your events and go do it. Good luck.
Remember, do your best, invest in the success of others and make your journey count.

Richard.

Meeting Facilitation Boot Camp

Written by Caprice White on June 14, 2017. Posted in Articles.

Meeting facilitation is a soft skill that is a vital part of your business analyst toolkit. It is rare to be a business analyst and not facilitate meetings.

Over your Project Management or Business Analyst career, you will attend, schedule, plan, many, many meetings.

As a facilitator, you must remain a neutral party. You are responsible for meetings and works shops that uncover and reveal requirements, are productive and provide an environment that fosters open communication and enables all stakeholders to reach agreements and consensus. You can do this, Of course, you can! YOU are a superstar when it comes to meetings.

Even superstars need a refresher once and a while, so it’s meeting facilitation boot camp time!

1. Plan Your Logistics

Logistics are the who, here and when part of the process. The list below should assist you with your logistic preparations:

Who are your participants? Ensure that you invite the correct stakeholders to your meeting.
Where will your meeting take place? Make sure your meeting space is the appropriate size for the number of stakeholders who will be in attendance. Do not make the rookie mistake I did in my early days and book a meeting room suitable for 8 when I had 15 attendees. You want to make sure your stakeholders are comfortable and have enough room for any presentation materials.
Are there time zone considerations? Does your company have people working remotely offices located in various time zones? If so, you need to take this into consideration when booking the time for your meeting. Make sure it is at a reasonable time where all parties can attend.
Pre-book any resources required such as shared conference call lines, meeting room, projectors, laptops or web-sharing software.
Ensure you familiar with all of the equipment you will be using during your meeting. Just to be on the safe side, schedule a dry run before your meeting so you can address any technical issues to ensure things don’t go pear-shaped.
Print out any documents or handouts required for your stakeholders. If your meeting requires pens, paper, post-it notes or larger writing sheets ensure these supplies are on hand and ready to go before your meeting.
Who will be taking notes? If you are facilitating the meeting, will you have time to take notes or do you need assistance from another Business Analyst or Admin? Arranging this beforehand can help with the efficiency of your meetings.
Will you be serving food or coffee? If so, ensure these are pre-order for your participations. I find a box of donuts and coffee goes a long way in eliciting requirements from early morning stakeholders.
Always have a backup plan in place. Sometimes resources fail, or rooms get double booked. Ensure you have a backup plan.

2. Set the Agenda

Once you have your logistics sorted, it’s time to send out meeting invitations and set the agenda.
Have you ever received a meeting invite and had to contact the organizer because it was unclear what the meeting was about and what the expectations were? Any confusion can be avoided by sending your stakeholders a clear agenda that includes the following:

An objective for the meeting
List of discussion topics
Need your stakeholders to do some homework? Don’t forget to include attachments or pre-reading for attendees to review.

3. Ice Breaker and Introductions

Once your stakeholders have arrived and are settled in, take the first 5 minutes of the meeting for people to introduce themselves and what their roles are on the project. This allows your attendees to understand other’s roles and responsibilities on a project, creates context, and gets them comfortable and ready for the meeting.

If there is time, I like to throw out an icebreaker question, unrelated to the project or meeting to get people comfortable in the right headspace to communicate. A few sample icebreaker questions for the group are:

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
What is the longest you have ever stayed awake and why?

4. Review the Agenda and Get This Party Started!

Now that your participants are settled, take 5 minutes to review the agenda. This establishes meeting guidelines and context, which will make the meeting a lot more productive.

Review the objective of the meeting and the agenda
Restate the project objective as a refresher to the stakeholders.

This demonstrates that the meeting or workshop you are holding is relevant and aligns itself with the project objectives and priorities.

5. Facilitator Not a Participator

Remember, you as a meeting facilitator are a neutral party. Your job is to lead the discussions, and drive out requirements by engaging your audience. You are the liaison between the project sponsors, stakeholders, and software development teams. Remember to remain neutral and allow your stakeholders to make decisions required to move forward.

6. Manage Distractions

If your stakeholders are holding or being distracted by side conversations or are getting way off topic, it’s your job as the facilitator to bring their focus back to the agenda.

7. Parking Lot items

Sometimes it seems that your group may wander off topic or wish to discuss items not on the agenda, or have questions and concerns that will not be addressed during your limited meeting time. I have found the best way to address this is to create a “Parking Lot” list of items. This lets your stakeholders know that you are listening to their questions and concerns and that they will be addressed in the future but not during this meeting.

8. Use Visual Business Modeling Tools

Using visual business modeling tools during your meetings and workshops can help drive out requirements or uncover processes for your stakeholders. These assist with identifying and analyzing user requirements, system requirements and capture business rules.

9. Conclude with next Steps and Action Items

Once your meeting is complete or if you run out of time, it is a good idea to wrap up your session by reviewing the following:

Parking lot items
Action Items
Next Steps

10. You are not done yet superstar…follow up with your stakeholders

Just because your meeting has concluded, it does not mean your work has ended.

Distribute your meeting notes including action items. It is best practice to do this within 24 hours of your meeting.
Set deadlines and follow up on any action items
Set up and send out invitations for the next meeting if required
Remember to thank your stakeholders for attending. A simple thank you can go a long way.

You Desire Success? Learn to Manage Daily to Your Top 3 Priorities

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on June 6, 2017. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on You Desire Success? Learn to Manage Daily to Your Top 3 Priorities

Managing daily to your top three priorities is crucial to your professional success. However, my experience is that most people in our craft do not manage their to-do list effectively.

This article will show you how. Doing so can boost your effectiveness, reputation, and career.

Instantly Identify Your Top Three Priorities

If I were to put you on the spot and ask you what are your top three priorities or problems at work right now—by the way, priorities and problems mean the same thing to me in this context—and you could not rattle them off within three snaps of the fingers then you are not a consistently effective leader. You might be thinking how dare I judge you by so little information; that if I would give you a few minutes, then you could come up with your top three priorities. But if you need time to identify them then I restate my assertion that you are not a consistently effective leader. Instead, you are managing your day by the plethora of interruptions that come your way; by the noise and the minutia that fall over you. You are allowing your day to be managed by others instead of you taking charge and managing to the most important priorities. You are too soft if you are not seizing control of your domain of responsibility and primarily managing to your top three priorities each day.

To-Do List

Let’s talk about how to do this. Most of you likely start your day with a to-do list of work items. That’s good. You should. However, what I do—and perhaps some of you do as well—is create the list the night before. Why? Well, I already have had a busy full day, and I know where I want to hit the road running when I come into work the next day. Therefore, the night before is a great time to populate the list. But another reason I’ll create the list the night before is to focus on the top three items on the list—the top three priorities. Let’s say the list has ten items: the top three and a bottom seven. Now, most of you will likely have lists with more than ten items, but I want to make the math simple for illustrative purposes. When I go to sleep at the end of the day, my mind—my subconscious—is working on solving or moving towards the solving of one or more of these top three problems. When I wake the next day, these problems are either solved or well on their way to being solved; I have a better grasp of what I need to do moving forward. All of us have this ability to help resolve problems when we sleep. Regardless, if you, instead, choose to take 5-10 minutes of quiet time at the start of your work day to create your to-do list, that’s fine.

Focus Predominately on Top Three Priorities

Now, let’s say that you are traveling home at the end of your work day and you recognize that you have not made headway on any of your top three priorities, but you have managed to cross off all of your bottom seven: Do not feel good about your accomplishments that day! Why? Because you worked on the wrong things. If, instead, when you head for home, and you have not worked on any of your bottom seven but managed to make significant headway on just one of your top three, you should feel very good about your accomplishments for that day. And here’s why: Your efficiency to work on your top three priorities defines your value—your contribution—to your organization, it defines your career; not the bottom seven.

30 Minutes or More Available, Work on Top Three

You might be thinking: Neal, it sounds like you don’t care if I work on my bottom seven. You’re right. I don’t care. In the big picture, they are insignificant. Look, if you have five minutes between meetings and you can eliminate one of your bottom seven, then go for it. But if you have 30 minutes or more between meetings, do not work on the bottom seven. 30 minutes is what I call significant time. You should be working on your top three priorities—they define your career.

Work Off Top Priorities within 2-3 Days

Your top three priorities on the list should be worked off the list typically within 2-3 days. If occasionally you have a top-three item on the list for up to a week that’s okay. What’s that? You say that the items that make up your top three typically would take weeks or months to solve and you would not know how to remove them from your list in just 2-3 days. Okay. I’ll show you how. Let’s say one of your top three priorities will take you six weeks to solve. Then put a six-week plan together. Identify the activities, their dependencies, their durations and who owns them. Then get agreement from all the people necessary to make the plan whole and fully committed and track the six-week plan like you do any other plan. Now replace that priority item from your to-do list with a new one.

What’s that? You say the six-week plan hasn’t completed and, therefore, the problem is still open? That you think the problem should remain on your list until it is solved? Look… You now have a good working plan to get it resolved. It’s being taken care of. You will track its implementation with the frequency you feel it justifies. Remove the item from your top-three list and replace it with another very important item that now needs timely attention.

Occasionally, Not Working Top Three Is Okay

What if you come to work occasionally and find you are not able to work on any of your top three priorities because of that day’s firefights and “please handles”? If this happens only occasionally, that’s okay. You work in a complex, dynamic environment. However, if it happens routinely, it’s not okay. If you cannot routinely work off your top three priorities, then you are the problem. If you are not working them off, no one else will—this is your domain of responsibility. You need help. You might be overloaded with work and need some relief; you might be poor at managing time, or it could be something else. Whatever. You need to seek and obtain the appropriate help.

Number One Reason Why Projects Fail

This is a good time to share with you what I believe may be a profound assertion. We have all seen lists touting the top 10 reasons why projects fail. The usual suspects include weak requirements, scope creep, lack of user involvement, unreliable estimates, incomplete staffing, poor communications, weak senior stakeholder support and others. However, from my experience, these lists miss the biggest reason—the number one reason—why projects fail: Because the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis. This is so important that I’m going to repeat it. The number one reason why projects fail is that the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis.

You might be wondering how come I’m so smart to get this while it appears that others haven’t? Well, I’m not that smart, but I am an old guy who has been around a long time. Longevity and persistence helps me pick up things. For example, over the years I have performed reviews on hundreds of projects in trouble. When I do, I always conclude with identifying the top three problems—the top three priorities—that the project manager needs to address immediately. When I examine these top three lists, the ah-ha moment presents itself. The top items on the lists almost always should have been resolved not days earlier but weeks or months earlier—sometimes years depending on the duration of the project. The lists show that the project managers were not effectively focusing on their top three priorities on a daily basis; otherwise, these problems would have been resolved or under control. So, again, the number one reason why projects fail is that the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis. This is a fundamental fact that knowing and adjusting your behavior to can significantly increase the success of your projects—and your career.

By the way, the article might have appeared to focus on Project Managers, not Business Analysts. Everything said here also applies to Business Analysts. The number one reason why Busines Analysts fail is that the Business Analyst does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis.

Now, become your imagined self!

Being Agile

Written by Libby Pelham on May 19, 2017. Posted in Articles.

In the past 20 years, I have seen our ITS department develop systems that were never used.

Maybe the stakeholder opened it once, tried it, said, “Nope,” and it just went to the annals of forgotten systems. The developers thought they knew what the users wanted – turns out, they sometimes didn’t.

I have also seen systems rejected when first developed then after a learning period users claimed they could not live without. These were our success stories! However, whether a project would be a success or not was often up in the air and never predetermined.

Three business analyst positions in 2015 were created to try to avoid the first scenario. We had little idea of what we were doing. I came from a tech support/teaching background while my two cohorts came from a developer background. One thing our leaders all agreed on was that we were “people” people.

We went to a few classes, took a few webinars, and googled a lot. We quickly learned that while these activities could help us build our business analysis foundation, there was no class or series of classes targeted at our education needs. Our higher education organization focus was on a medical school and health science center.

So, we dove in head first and started figuring things out ourselves. We learned how to schedule a meeting of a large group of people, many who were not yet vested in the project. We learned how to stop talking and start listening. We spent countless hours trying to get to the very essence of what users wanted in a system. We learned how to draw up a SIPOC, create process maps, and document user requirements. We even fought an internal battle against developers who questioned aloud whether our existence was necessary. Fortunately, our executive director assured us we were instrumental in helping solve the campus’ computing issues.

We decided to use the waterfall methodology. Conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, production/implementation, and maintenance – ah, sweet maintenance – was the path for us. We now felt armed with a plan for projects. No more time wasted delivering useless systems that weren’t well thought out.

We noticed our most successful project was different. We met weekly with several users, got their thoughts, and the developer, who attended the meetings, went back and update the system with their requests. After only a few months of this, we delivered a system that cut our users process time from two weeks to two hours.

I thought the success of this project was based on customer engagement and in part, it was. However, we soon realized it was our different approach to this project that sped it along. We cut away a lot of the fat and got to the meat of the problem.

After other projects had begun to drag on, we realized we had pages and pages of user requirements and process maps, but the amount of time we were taking to gather all this caused customer interest to waning. We also weren’t sure if all this paperwork we had contained anything of substance to turn over to the developers.

Our team lead suggested the agile methodology. Remembering that highly success project, I realized that, even though I did not realize it at the time, that was agile and I was on board.

Switching was not without its own pain. I had spent an enormous amount of time on a project using the waterfall methodology – the user requirements were complete and signed. “I am done,” I thought. Then the team lead wanted me to get user stories.

Something strange happened. I drew up user stories (since we had been meeting for so long, I felt I knew what they wanted exactly), but when we met with the users, a new idea came out. Things I thought I knew for sure were scrapped.

While it took a year of meetings to get the user requirements hashed out, the user stories only took three meetings. I turned them over to the team lead, and he was pleased with the results. I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We are still new to Agile, and I am sure we are going to make mistakes. However, we continue to learn and grow from our mistakes and the more we do that, the more tools we will have to help our users meet their end goals.

At the end of the day, that is all we need.