Tag: Best Practices

Business Analysis Skills in Action

Written by Victoria Hill on March 22, 2017. Posted in Articles.

Business Analysis skills in action were key to the success of an infrastructure transition project.

To support Department of Defense major site realignment initiatives, I was assigned as the sales and proposal team business analyst. We had an application we thought could help with visualizing and managing hardware, applications, data, and processes that were site infrastructure elements. Under individual agency transition plans, for example, hardware assets were to be moved, reused or eliminated. But hardware assets were linked to other elements of the infrastructure – applications had users, who had responsibility for workloads essential to the mission. We had several things going for us – an existing contract, a lot of experience with DoD infrastructure architecture, and many contacts pleased with our previous work.

Our company valued the business analyst role. In most of the big enterprise architecture projects I worked on, I concentrated on the business sub-architecture. I used many business process analysis tools and created business models to drive system implementations. Business models on their own served important functions. Models clarify because business requirements from important players are captured in the tool and put into standard formats documenting user roles, activities, and data. Teams could then play “what if” as well as clearly define requirements for implementation. But model-building is not for the faint of heart and usually involves a major time and personnel commitment.

My role as explained to me in the realignment opportunity was to listen and record since our agency contact was very close to a decision. However, during my first teleconference, a different story emerged. The customer, it turns out, did not understand what our application had to do with their problem of managing large and complex transitions.

Here is where business analysis skills in action came to the fore. There was no time for theory or illuminating discussions that could form the basis of a full-blown business process model to guide implementation. From many years working with CIO-level clients, I knew that only action and quick results would suffice to allay customer concerns. I’ll describe the steps I took, all based on firm business analysis principles honed in many previous projects, but with the focus on skills in action – ones that were applied successfully.

Skills in Research and Increasing Domain Knowledge

The first two key skills needed to be to obtain accurate domain knowledge quickly and to deploy an effective and timely research approach. Our gap in knowledge seemed to be at the core of the customer’s concern – but how to amass enough of the right domain knowledge quickly? This challenge is always crucial for business analysts – clients, of course, prefer existing domain knowledge of their field, but a business analyst should have the skills to come up with speed for almost any domain quickly.

The priority was to find information generated by the agency on the topic at hand – infrastructure transition. This assertion may sound somewhat silly – why wasn’t this done in the first place, and why not just ask the customer? This is where a business analyst can really shine because agencies are concentrating on other things, and frequently don’t have the experience or time to adhere to all needed business definition and documentation activities, especially in the early stages of projects that may or may not go forward.

The client agency, as most DoD agencies do, had already documented most of their goals and plans. The trick was to gather this information into a form understandable to the team and to scope it into a manageable size. The other side of the coin was to put the technical solution into a more understandable context, and we had a team of specialists on the West Coast ready and willing to do that once they had more insight into the real business problems and goals.

A huge amount of domain knowledge was not needed – just enough to ensure that the key concerns of the client were documented, in their language, in a way that was understandable to the team. This goal was met and exceeded all expectations – using creativity, persuasion and facilitation skills in action.

Skills in Creativity and Persuasion

How to create and share with teams and managers the scoped-down body of knowledge and specific action plan we needed? A business analyst, faced with complex and accelerated project timelines, must come up with novel solutions. Our communications at this stage had to be highly accurate and accessible – we had to define the basic business model and early project implementation information (roles, activities, data, timelines, outcomes) in an easy-to-digest but convincing format. The first presentation to the customer (and to the would-be project implementation team) would contain research results highly massaged and analyzed for accuracy and brevity. It also contained a very high-level scenario showing the how the project would work – a depiction of managers with our application able to detect excess hardware and transferal to another site in need of that exact asset.

After sales team approval, we held our breath when we showed our creation to the customer. We had tried our best – would it be accurate; would it be relevant? Yes, it was. Even over the phone, we could sense we had met the first challenge – persuading the client that we understood the problem and were poised to solve it quickly. We got a vote of confidence – permission to use live customer data to create mini-prototypes along the lines of the high-level scenario.

Skills in Virtual Facilitation and Team-Building

A dynamic period of virtual team facilitation ensued. A business analyst is a key resource between management, technical and client roles. The technical team on the West Coast started asking the right questions; our East Coast BA and management team answered them, using our experience with DoD infrastructure customers and research following our initial thread. The positive outcomes of this collaborative cross-country effort, facilitated by regular teleconferences over about six weeks, continued to accrue. By the end of the vastly enhanced sales pitch, we had to classify our presentation because it held live data – a measure of our client’s trust. For our part, we exceeded expectations and demonstrated how our application could address infrastructure rationalization and other enhancements. For this highly important project, we were invited to submit detailed implementation solutions.

This project was also a demonstration of how key Business Analysis skills, inserted at the right time, at the right level of effort can integrate and expedite project tactics to achieve team results greater than the sum of the parts.

Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Written by Richard Lannon on March 21, 2017. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Often when working with clients on a strategic business analysis, planning or roadmap engagement I look to see if they are teaming with success.

I learned the importance of this from my time at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then later working with clients across various industries. This was recently reaffirmed, not by a business engagement, but through working with a group of songwriters and musicians. The engagement was to facilitate (share), document (write), integrate (edit), and present (perform) a song to be video recorded for a major sponsor (influencer). The outcome (song) was a tribute to a lawyer, business leader, and musician, whose struggle with cancer became a catalyst for people engagement and a reminder, we all serve somebody. In some way, I believe we can all relate.

Here are the 7 reminders from an unlikely place that makes for great business analysis:

1. Never be the Lone Ranger

I am guilty of this one. Love my independents and autonomy. As someone who is into senior business analysis type work, it is easy to become the lone ranger, trying to do everything yourself. The interesting thing you learn when hanging out with a group of musicians (who are sincere) is everyone has different talents and a contribution to be made. The best part is you are not alone. So don’t be. There is always someone available to help. All you need to do is belong.

2. It Takes a Community

It takes a community to be successful. That means a team. I learned this when I wrote my first book. You think I would have learned it with all the teams I worked on throughout my career. However, no I did not. You see, in my mind, writing a book meant you went off somewhere, in isolation at some remote cabin and the book was magically created. Pouf! When you write a song or a book, you need a team to succeed. It turns out to be the same way for when you write a requirements document. It should become a team effort to make sure it is great. Within the Business Analysis career, we need to break down the barriers of work competition and work together to create successful communities, teams.

3. ‘Cheers’ Had an Important Message

Now, I do not expect you remember the TV show, Cheers. The opening song, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, by Gary Portnoy (https://youtu.be/h-mi0r0LpXo), serves as a good reminder for something we all secretly desire. Most people will recall Norm, one of the main characters. When he walked into the establishment, everyone would yell, NORM. In our profession, there is an opportunity make like everyone welcome. As a professional leader who facilitates sessions, you can create your own ‘Cheers’ opportunities. I have seen it in other businesses, and I experienced it myself.

4. Acknowledgeable Goes a Long Way

During my experience with the group of musicians, the song written was presented. I was just one person among a larger group of people and was asked for my feedback. As an analyst and writer, I cannot help myself but analyze the written words. I had marked up the paper and reluctantly shared with the group. To my surprise, my remarks were well received. Several days later, at another professional event, the writer sat down beside me, leaned over and said he had incorporated my suggestions and the song was better. I was shocked and humbly thankful. My point is being willing to share your thoughts can be intimidating.

Maybe you are concerned about what people think. In business analysis, we are leaders. It is important to acknowledge people on your team for their contribution. Great communities share and acknowledge one another’s contributions.

5. Know What You are Working Towards

This is something I have learned to be extremely important. In business analysis we generally refer to having a clear definition of the problem or opportunity. Ideally, we get this from leadership. However, that is not always the case. The ability to clearly articulate the challenge/opportunity is 150 words or less is not a gift or a skill most people have developed. My Dad had an expression; I have more years behind me than in front of me. He is 95. He has been saying this for a long time. Something I noticed though everything he did was based on not knowing what tomorrow will bring. So he would work towards something. It was the innate understanding and answer to what ‘what’ and ‘why’ (what is the focus, why is it important). Business analysis needs to be focused the same way. It is important to treat things as if there is no tomorrow, so you need to know what you are working towards, why and get it done. It could be your last chance. So don’t have regrets.

6. Believe in Yourself

This last twelve months I had the opportunity to get to know and work with someone who I am sure their tag line is ‘let’s do it.’ We would be discussing an idea and if it made sense, he would say, let’s do it. When I am wearing my business analysis hat, I can be critical, skeptical and candid. Not because I am a negative person but because I am engaged to ‘question everything,’ be factual and present ideas for decision making. There are times I do wonder though if within business analysis we (you) can hide behind our (your) insecurities. Working with this musical group, I was sometimes reminded you need just to put yourself out there, to believe in yourself and allow others to support you. In management consulting I use to have a sponsor who would say, do first and ask for forgiveness later. Sometimes that is all we need to do. It is great lesson learned.

7. Communications is Key

Recently I was in a meeting with a sponsor of a large financial investment organization regarding a senior business analysis contract opportunity. Like anyone else I have to make a living. They asked me what makes a professional successful in business analysis. I told them the story about the former Australia Business Analysis Association now part of the IIBA. They had this door lock diagram I always liked. I still reference it in my business analysis training programs today. The diagram was of a lockset with all the tumblers around it. Each tumbler represented a skill set; facilitation, modeling, financials, decision making, etc. In the middle, where the key is placed to unlock the business analysis magic kingdom, was one word, communications. Whether verbal or written, formal or informal, the key to success is mastering your communications skills. Something I think we can all do better.

Final Thoughts

No doubt the musicians applied the hard and soft skills of business analysis; the facilitation, documenting, integrating, and presenting requirements with a final outcome, video recorded song. In this case, a tribute to an important sponsor (Pearl River), someone who is a connector of people, a supporter, who influenced the lives of many people professionally and personally, and knows how to get things done. A dream sponsor.

It is easy to talk or write about tools and techniques you can use in business analysis. It is harder to communicate those professional and life experiences that make you a better professionally and personally. I love the business analysis career, people development and diversified initiatives with opportunities to incorporate what you learned in all you do. Working with a group of creative people from all walks of life and professions reminded me of the things that make teams great.

When you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, there is an endless opportunity to build your skills. You just never know when you are going to learn something you can apply to your business, career, and life to serve others. In the end, I think that is what it is all about.
Remember, do you best, invest in the success of others, make your journey count, Richard.

Business Analysis as a Practice

Written by Gareth Jones on March 20, 2017. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Business Analysis as a Practice

Business analysis is a broad subject that can cover anything to do with innovation, people, process, and technology—and this is on top of supporting the six knowledge areas that underpin both large iteration and Agile approaches.

It stands to reason that, given the complexity and growing streams of business analysis, no single individual can be an expert in all areas.

So, what can an organization expect when it goes to market for a business analyst? What capabilities do you need to look for? Where will the applicant’s strengths lie? Will their weaknesses be in areas critical to your project’s success? How will you know? At what point might you find out?

More often these days, BAs specialize in a particular aspect of business analysis. They might be an Agile BA, Digital BA, Technical BA, Strategic BA, Finance BA, software-specific BA, SAP BA, Oracle BA, or EDRMS BA. But your organization has budgeted only for a single business analyst, even though you might need assistance in strategic alignment and benefits identification for a web-based initiative to be delivered in an Agile environment.

When you need different areas of business analysis expertise but can’t afford to hire several BAs, which areas should you compromise in? The answer is none.

Why work with a business analysis practice?

Although no individual can be an expert in all areas of business analysis, a business analysis practice can foster expertise. A practice supports a number of business analysts with capability and experience across all the business analysis knowledge areas. By engaging a specialized practice, not only do you get an experienced consultant, you get the sum of experience from all the other members of the practice, the practice team, and service delivery team in the background. One person’s experience will complement another’s, and practice can deliver expert business analysis services and outcomes because of the people and experience it can draw upon. As an organization, you may interact daily with a single BA consultant, but you can have confidence in the support they have behind them.

Finding the right practice

For an individual business analyst, the content of what they do is very important. If they want to develop in their career, they need variety, and they need mentoring. A supportive practice whether internal, external or a blend within an organization provides the breadth and support that propels business analysts to achieve at their best. A supportive practice helps clarify the approach, method, estimates, and necessary detail required to achieve the desired outcome. Individuals may over-document and complicate business analysis, while a supportive practice encourages just enough agility, speed, and quality. Because of its breadth of knowledge and experience, a practice can also be proactive in providing support (i.e. the support is provided without affecting any project delivery timeframes). Practice is structured so that all BAs experiences are continuously fed back into the practice, so all consultants are constantly developing which in turn provides additional benefit to your BAs and your projects.

A Business Analysis practice should always have the following key elements to be successful:

Approaches, methods, techniques, templates, and tools—the ability to adapt to different delivery approaches, customized methods depending on the selected approach, a wide range of techniques to suit a variety of stakeholders and situations and customizable templates and tools for the requirements of analysis and estimation.
Service and quality—services are defined, and a review process is managed, so the quality of business analysis is validated and verified.
Career development—there is a career pathway for this role within the organization if performed internally.
Training and development—business analysts should be continually developing so they can achieve excellence in business analysis.
Organization—across the organization business analysis maturity is developed, and any external BA sourcing strategy supports this, so there is growth in business outcomes.

So, why risk your project by putting all your eggs in one basket? Engage a practice and share the risk. Work with a specialized business analysis practice and enjoy the outcomes. Remember: It is impossible for an individual to know everything about business analysis, but a specialist business analysis practice can cover all areas.

The Art of Measurement and Business Architecture

Written by Daniel Lambert on March 14, 2017. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on The Art of Measurement and Business Architecture

Building a Business Architecture model without measuring any of its key elements is a pure waste of time.

This article examines the need for strategic and tactical measurements, how to have effective measurements (KPIs) in place, presents various measurement diagram examples, and finally, names two sources of KPIs lists for various industries.

The Need for Measurement

Business Architecture will only contribute in driving Information Technology (“IT”) and Business Alignment if key business and IT stakeholders promote a “metrics-driven behavior (devising KPIs and incorporating them into the performance appraisal process).” Failure of Business Architecture initiatives and project is often the fact that C-level management hasn’t taken the time to set the Key Performance Indicators (“KPIs”) properly, as mentioned in Jason Bloomberg’s article .

KPIs can be defined at all levels of a business architecture model, including objectives/strategies, capabilities, value streams, organizations, initiatives, stakeholders, products/services, information, physical and IT assets, requirements and processes and especially all the actions and relationships that link the various parts of a business architecture together.

Some business strategies may truly be ill-advised and extremely risky. Showing the difference between strategies using chosen KPIs is what differentiates the best enterprise/business architects from others. Good business architecture will allow identifying the gaps between the current architecture and future state options by comparing architectures against KPIs and quantify the risks, using impact analyses and decision trees among others, as indicated in an article written by Tim O’Neill.

Measuring Effectively

The set of possible measurements for Business Architecture is very large since Business Architecture is the link between strategy and execution. Business Architecture measurements can be grouped into strategic, tactical and governance values.

Strategic Values

Business Architecture is the missing link between strategy and execution. KPIs for Strategic Values should stay focus on measuring some cohesive business goals, including business strategy execution progress measurements, business culture index(es), productivity, business communication effectiveness, business growth opportunities, and cost structure optimization.

Tactical Values

At a tactical level, the purpose of practicing Business Architecture is to improve the efficiency of your organization’s operations. Measurements of efficiency, costs, time will vary based on the nature of your organization’s business.

Governance Values

Governance is the other key area where Business Architecture can deliver value, by determining costs variances, examining detailed impact analyses and establishing balanced scorecards associated with risks.

Defining measurements/KPIs can be challenging. Good KPIs must have a target value and a way to be accurately measured and reported. Ideally, good KPIs should include the following characteristics, as mentioned by John Parker :

Aligned with the specific organization’s vision, strategy, and objectives.

Optimized—The KPIs should be focused on providing organization-wide strategic value rather than on non-critical local business outcomes. Selection of the wrong KPI can result in counterproductive behavior and sub-optimized results.

Measurable—Can be quantified.

Realistic—Must be cost effective, coherent with the organization’s culture and constraints and achievable within the given timeframe.

Attainable—Requires targets to be set that are observable, achievable, reasonable, and credible under expected conditions as well as independently validated.

Clear—Clear and focused on avoiding misinterpretation or ambiguity.

Understood—business and IT stakeholders and relevant organizational units should know how their behaviors and activities contribute to achieving the KPI.

Predictive—The KPI may be compared to historical data over a reasonably long time so that trends can be identified.

Agreed—All stakeholders should agree and share responsibility for achieving the KPI target.

Reported—Regular reports are made available to all stakeholders and contributors, so they know the current state of the business architecture model element and take corrective action if required.

There are numerous ways to design measurement/KPIs diagrams. In this article, you will find 5 diagrams, including the 2-dimensions pie and donut charts, the 2 or 3 dimensions bar chart, the 3 dimensions bubble chart and finally the 4-dimension radar chart.

Sources of KPIs

There are numerous sources of KPIs lists. It’s easy to get lost. In the Business Enterprise Architecture world, I will limit myself to two. First, there are the KPIs lists for each of the four IT Values Streams defined by the OPEN Group; especially the KPI list regarding the Strategy to Portfolio IT Value Stream . Second, there is the APQC’s Process Classification Framework that contains hundreds of processes , including detailed definitions and thousands of key measures for numerous industries. In particular, the APQC’s Process Classification Framework includes a section about developing and managing Business Capabilities

Definitions and Key Measures that can be very useful for Business Architecture . As for the latest version of BIZBOK, surprisingly it often mentions the necessity of measurements/KPIs but does not elaborate further than that.

Conclusion

This article has examined the need for strategic and tactical measurements, how to have effective measurements (KPIs) in place, presented various measurement diagram examples, and finally named two sources of KPIs lists for various industries.

Strategy Spotlight: 5 Design and Decision Thoughts that Impact Your Business Success

Written by Richard Lannon on March 8, 2017. Posted in Articles.

I believe you can design your business, career and life for your success. You and your business are the architects of your existence.

The total sum of all the decisions you have made. With that in mind, I think you have no choice but to accept or reject the present situation or state of your organization.

Related Article: 8 Things You Must Do to Make Better Decisions

From a business analysis perspective design is rational with explicit reason behind decisions for creating a system, a solution, an artifact. It is the augmented-base that is meant to be a collaborative process addressing problems and providing solutions.

Interestingly design happens in many ways, from what’s perceived to be haphazard, to the intentional. There are many design styles that we can apply to our business. The question, which one is being applied to your business.

Build It and They Will Come Design

Right from the movie Field of Dreams. This sometimes works. There is a vision of success, someone has a gut instinct, they build something and it sells, solves a problem or satisfies a dream. At one point in my career I spent five years within the entrepreneurial incubator space helping business leaders take ideas and determine the feasibility and success likelihood. I witnessed a lot of designs go nowhere. Some were brought to market only to discover that no-one wanted the product. One such business made a 500K error and it hurt. Most of these mistakes are made due to ego and with no one fact checking to see if there is a market for the product. Always check to see if the solution makes sense.

Feather on the Wind Design

This is another movie reference, this time from Forest Gump. We are like a feather in the wind, floating around, we might choose our destiny or maybe it’s a bit of both. I think this is like the unintentional design thinking. You build something or take some action without consideration of what will happen when people try your solution. This is a roll of the dice and maybe you get snake-eyes or things work out. It is all chance – like the feather on the wind. You just never know where you will end up.

It’s Mine NOT Yours Design

I consider this one selfish. You are working in your team and you create a database to track maintenance schedules. A bunch of low level decisions were made. Other teams could use it, but it’s yours and you won’t share. We see this with the endless amount of data that end up in spreadsheets. There are many systems in a business that were created out of a self design need. Generally they solve a perceived isolated problem that really exists with other teams. The key is to get a team using it to improve it.

Creative Innovative Design

I think this is something in business analysis that we seek to use a system to do. Part of business analysis is to answer the question where have we been. It is about documenting and analyzing the past to explore creative innovative solutions for the present and future. From my perspective, it is the fun. For example, in the short news feature, “A Deep Dive” a design company uses on-site observation to watch how people shop in a grocery store. Their purpose is to create an innovative new shopping cart design. An experienced team took on the task. The interesting lesson learned is it’s all about the process. A process that can be used step by step to create a solution based on a business problem to be solved and information from the business worlds’ stakeholders.

Tasks that People Do but No Activities for You Design

Years ago I taught a course in process and model development. The students always wanted to learn how to do a work flow diagram right away. Rarely did the learner know anything about where process modeling came from or process levels and the way systems connect in an organization from a structural perspective. In a basic 5 level organization structure you would learn that there are different process levels and maps used at each level that must link to create an organizational whole. The telecom industry’s business process framework, e-TOM explains this well. In level thinking there is a distinction that can be made between tasks and activities. A team should embrace an understanding of process levels and designs using a combination of models to ensure they are gaining important systems insight to make better decisions and designs.

Facilitated Focus Group Design

In my 3 Day Gathering and Documenting Requirements course I cover some common important skills for the business analyst (Facilitation, Documentation, Integration and Presentation). I spend time on the different methods of gaining insight into the stakeholder’s perspective. Stakeholder focused groups are a great way to generate discussions and a lot of great primary research information for user-based design. I like the terms used in the Atlantic Systems Guild’s Volere Template that addresses the importance of understanding the goals, needs and contexts of the stakeholders (users) to drive design decisions. During a group session you might discover that people use a system to routinely review other’s work to determine how they might do their work. Recently I experienced this myself. I was asked to provide a program outline for a new client using their outline requirements. I needed to see someone else’s work and outline to deliver what they needed. Unfortunately the client did not make it easy since the information was not readily available. During a focus group the issue was raised and we were able to address an improvement we could make. A new function within the system was created from the input of the users.

Final Thoughts

Design and decision making are entangled. You literally can’t have one without the other. I do believe there are different levels of design and the way that items get integrated into the fabric of an organization. I have stopped counting the number of bottom-up projects that I have been involved in where a user created something for their use and over a course of a decade it ended up on the strategic or tactical agenda of the organization. I do think there is a better way to design and make decisions but I also know that people and culture are a big part of the system, the process. Finding standards that work in your team and your organization goes a long way to helping you solve business problems and coming up with great design solutions. If you can identify the design approach that is being taken by an individual, team or organization maybe you can help slide the organization along the continuum of creating better designs and decisions.

Good luck.

Remember; do you best, invest in the success of others and make your journey count, Richard