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Tag: Best Practices

4 Things Every Healthy and Motivated Team Does

Written by Dmytro Moroz on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 4 Things Every Healthy and Motivated Team Does

It is easy to forget this, but your team is the measure of your success. If your team is healthy, your business probably is too. So often we only look at the numbers.

Attracting and hiring brilliant people is already a big enough challenge, but what’s harder is keeping your employees. Gone are the days of money as the strongest tool for employee retention. In a study by American Psychological Association, 51% of surveyed people stated that their team is one of the factors that keep them in their job and 56% said they stay because they feel connected to the organization.

However, how can one keep their team engaged, linked to the organization and easily keep it healthy? Somebody once said: every happy team resembles one another, every unhappy team is unhappy in its way. So here are the simple secrets of happiness that successful teams share.

1. Empower by Collecting Feedback

Spend time with the people you manage to collect direct feedback from them. It is usually from the individuals in the trenches who deal with the faults of the systems and processes where you can gather your best feedback. Let your employees know they do have their say in how things operate in the company. Create the atmosphere of trust and when you start receiving constructive criticism, take it seriously and act on it. If more than two months have gone by without a one-on-one meeting with one of your employees, you are doing something wrong.

Acting on the feedback directly and in a positive way will continue to help you build trust with your team. Follow-up with team members on the feedback they provided you and provide a status. Great ideas will come from team members, but only if you show that you are taking their feedback seriously.

Retrospectives or project close meetings are additional ways of gathering up the good, bad and confusing things that are happening on your team. They are a little bit more formal in nature but gather up good ideas and strategies for future projects. What is lost most often however is the follow through on making sure the ideas are acted upon. Spending an hour in a meeting generating ideas but not having any of them acted upon can be a morale buster for your team. Retrospectives and project close meetings can generate a ton of ideas. You will need to have the team prioritize which ideas are the best. Create a top 5 to 10 improvement ideas list. Don’t lose the rest of the ideas or throw them away. Your team members spent significant time writing those ideas so show them their ideas have value by keeping them around and referring to them from time to time.

2. Track and Celebrate Successes

Simple, right? No matter how much we talk about it, it will not make a difference until you start doing it. Teach yourself to pay attention to and recognize small victories your staff accomplishes every day. In fact, just saying “I have noticed you have improved in this” when you mean it can do miracles to your team’s sense of encouragement. If you do not do it, you will incur a lot of management debt and end up losing someone valuable.

Milestones and goals can also help in tracking success. Set dates where major deliverables or end dates for phases. Track those dates visibly and publicly. Don’t hide them from your team’s sight. When your team accomplishes those milestones or goals, make a point to update the list to show the milestone or achieved the goal. Celebrate the success!

Celebrations do not need to involve a marching band, confetti, and champagne. They can be very simple. For individual contributions, a simple handwritten thank you note or card hand delivered is a nice touch. Shooting off the email does not have much value when your team member gets a thousand emails every day. For team successes handing out a small token of your appreciation in a team meeting is a great way to show your team appreciation. Don’t have anything else on the agenda. Set aside the time and focus on saying “Thank You” thoughtfully and meaningfully. Although food and money are big motivators, it does not have to be part of the celebration. Look them in the eye and say “Thank You.” That will always leave a long lasting impression than a doughnut.

3. Eliminate Waste from Meetings to Reports

No, I am not suggesting you ditch meetings and reports altogether. However, is it sensible to keep people in a 3-hour meeting just to say something you could communicate in a few lines over email? Split up lengthy meetings into daily standups to avoid data overload and typical meeting drag bottlenecks. When it comes to reporting, just choose a set of clear and relevant metrics and automate the generation of their recurring reports – easy!

Think in terms of minimally viable. What is the least amount of work needed to produce the biggest results? Approach this carefully, some deliverables are required for legal or regulatory reasons. Other deliverables help in clearly communicating with other teams. It may not be cutting the deliverable out entirely but rather looking at a different approach to presenting the deliverable. Having a design walk through with the quality team might just reduce the need for significant amounts of design documents. Always ask your colleagues and partners what information they need to be successful and then figure out how to deliver it as efficiently as possible.

4. Promote Personal Development

No matter how great and motivated a person is, unless they grow, their enthusiasm will slowly fade away. Give your people opportunity to grow both within their field and beyond. Send them to appropriate seminars and professional conferences. Start giving bonus remuneration to those who read books or take online courses and share this knowledge with their team. Investing in your staff will make them invested in their career and your team.

Often we tend to think of formalized training as a way of career development but attending conferences like Business Analyst World or Project Summit gives your team the chance to interact with others in their field to gain perspectives on how another approach the problems you are having at your organization. Give some homework to the attendees of a conference. Tell them to network with 5-10 other conference goers on your top 5 issues and get their perspective. It is amazing to see the ideas the come back from the conference.

Strategy Spotlight: 6 Ways Analysis Produces Strategic Insights for Business Success

Written by Richard Lannon on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Strategy Spotlight: 6 Ways Analysis Produces Strategic Insights for Business Success

This is one of the topics I have struggled with over the years.

Not because I don’t feel I understand it but because I meet professionals in the business analysis and project management fields who say, I don’t create the strategy or provide insight; it is given to me. What a load of bull. The reality is you create strategy and insight just by the nature of what you do. Here are 6 Ways Analysis Produces Strategic Insights for Business Success.

1. Stop It!

Strategic thinking is an individual’s capacity for thinking conceptually, with imagination, systematically and opportunistically as it relates to the attainment of future success. There are many times through the application of business analysis, and project management approaches that you use your spidey senses to engage your ability to think strategically naturally. To think someone else is more strategic than you is nonsense. To quote one of my favorite lines from an old Bob Newhart Show on YouTube – Stop it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw

2. Past, Present and Future Insight

Every organization I have ever worked with needs the same three things no matter at what level you are working. Those things exist at the senior, middle, and operational level of every organization and are written clearly in the various industry’s body of knowledge. They are the present state, the future state, and insight into how to bridge the gap between the present and future. That is about it. You are doing problem-solving at its foundation. Chances are you do think about the present and ask yourself what the future should look like. Then somewhere your mind says, OK, what needs to happen to get there. Wow, a strategic insight that can provide value to the organization. You just applied the IIBA Body of Knowledge Chapter on Strategic Business Analysis.

3. The Brain Finds a Way

I completely believe the human brain will always find a way when a problem is presented to be solved. It sometimes comes across as a flash like a camera taking a picture you can post on social media. There is a whole neurological science around the brain that has suggested we need to balance thinking with detachment to create insight. I’d have to agree. I think when you are emotionally connected to a subject matter it is far more difficult to provide objective insight. So that is why when you are too connected to a topic you should hand it off to someone else or at least talk to someone who is less emotionally connected. It might help. From business analysis consider the standard approach prepare, define, capture, analyze, integrate, refine and present your insights. Create a feedback loop. It helps.

4. Know What Insight Looks Like

I guess you can say good insight in business has some common traits. I think there is some truth to that statement. I know you can create a list of what insight might look like and then see whether your thinking holds the test at the time. Consider whether your insight has an impact, are practical and relevant, are based on facts, data and other evidence, deliver a picture beyond the surface, and there is little room for interpretation and people can easily understand them.

5. Personality Traits Matter

I was once asked by a CEO whether some personality types are more strategic than others. I said “Yes” and went on to explain I believe some people are more “What and Why” and others are more “How To” or tactical. That does not mean the latter does not have strategic insights. If everyone on your team were strategic all the time, nothing would get done. So it requires a balance of people with the right combinations of traits and personality to work together to have impact and team with success. There is another part of this puzzle. The ability to apply their expertise, have a purpose, be analytical, use intuition where needed, be willing to experiment, listen and drill deeper when needed. I do think it is also important to not think you should always have the answer. The answer should come through discovery.

6. Gain Insight into Purpose

Strategy insight is done to achieve a purpose. No clear purpose, poor insight. It is that simple. It becomes the “Fish on Land” syndrome. Sad but true. So this means you must have a focus or provide a focal point. I think this is where good leadership and definition of a problem comes in. Are you looking to implement a new system, expand your market, save on the bottom-line? There is a lot of literature providing approaches to help you gain strategic insight and develop a clear purpose for the organization, for a team and even for an entity of one, an individual. The greater the understanding of purpose, the better the strategic insight, solution, and implementation.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those topics that puts the hair on the back of my neck up a bit. I see so much potential business brainpower not being tapped in organizations. Even this morning I was reviewing career posts for an organization curious as to what people were saying. The pros were salary and benefits, and the con is that it was a death sentence of the brain. All I could think is that if you are looking for the strategic insight, it was not going to come from within this organization. If strategic insight were presented, nothing would move forward. People need to be strategically engaged in their thinking it is how we solve problems. Insight happens at all levels, not just at the top. As a professional know the ways you provide strategic insights.

Remember: Do your best, invest in the success of others, and make your journey count.

5 Trends in Business Analysis, Project Management, and Agile for 2017

Written by Elizabeth Larson on . Posted in Articles.

Since 2009 we have enjoyed reflecting on what’s happened the previous year on projects and making predictions for the upcoming year. To summarize the `trends” we saw in 2016:

  • Emergence of the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) to maximize value
  • Agile successes, challenges, and use beyond software
  • Trends in business analysis and project management certifications
  • Implications of a changing workforce

Here are five industry trends we see happening for 2017. We’ve added two brief bonus trends at the end of the article.

1. Business analysis as a focal point for scaling Agile

Many organizations are delighted with the results produced on Agile projects, but are struggling with its application on large, complex projects, as well as its adoption enterprise-wide. Many of the discussions focus on which Agile framework works best for scaling Agile. Some of the common frameworks often discussed are scrum of scrums, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), and Nexus.

  • Large, complex projects. While there is a great deal of contention about which framework is “best,” there seems to be an agreement that there is a need for coordination, integration, and communication among Agile teams related to the solution being developed. Regardless of the title of the person doing this work, it is business analysis work. And it’s work that has always been needed on large, integrated projects—the coordination of dependencies, security, business and technical impacts, and version control.
  • Enterprise-wide Agile. Many large organizations have adopted Agile in a hodgepodge of ways, and these different areas have become quite fond of doing Agile “their” way. Adopting Agile across the enterprise will require skills of people not only familiar with Agile, but also with understanding the Agile current state and working with stakeholders to reach consensus on a unified future Agile state. This will involve being able to influence, resolve conflict, and to think both creatively and critically—skills well suited to experienced BAs.

2. Digital Transformation: Profound Change for Business Analysis…or is it?

The “digital transformation” movement means we must change the way we handle business analysis and requirements. Or does it? Consider two trends commonly mentioned today.

  • Cloud Computing. Security is a bigger concern when storing data in the cloud than if it is on-site under “lock and key.” Considerations for recovering data must be employed over and above normal backup and restore. Access rights are also more complicated than with traditional applications.
  • Mobile apps. Mobile applications provide data for sensitive banking, investment, or insurance applications. Security is a bigger concern on mobile devices given they are, well, mobile. It is much easier for a thief to access a bank account from a mobile device than a desktop. Modern apps need to have “mobile responsive” features and usability.

What we conclude is that these two technical trends will continue to affect business analysis. The trend, though, is not so much with functional requirements as it is with non-functional requirements (NFRs). The two examples above feature important NFRs including security, accessibility, recoverability, and usability, including user experience. NFRs are traditional aspects of business analysis, and any profound effect on it is that we will need to pay even greater attention to them with digital transformation.

3. Freelance BAs and PMs in the Gig Economy

Currently 40% of the US workforce is part of the Gig or on-demand economy1 and that number is growing. Intuit breaks this on-demand economy into 5 groups.2 We describe these groups below and briefly discuss how they apply to the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA). Here are the 5 groups:

  • Side Giggers (26%). These are PMs and BAs who want to supplement their existing income. Examples include PMs and BAs who take vacation, days without pay, or who work off-hours to do training classes or short-term consulting gigs.
  • Business builders (22%). BAs and PMs who are tired of working for others and want to be their own bosses fall into this category. Many of these will create their own companies and hire others. We can expect these companies to be based on the owners’ experience in project management and business analysis. Examples include consulting and training companies.
  • Career freelancers (20%). These PMs and BAs love their work, love working independently, and want to use their skills to build their careers, not to build a company that hires others. These folks usually establish themselves as independent contractors with their small own company, usually an LLC.
  • Substituters (18%). PMs and BAs who want to work in the gig economy temporarily. Whether laid off from their former organizations or for other reasons they view “gig” work as temporary while they look for full-time employment.
  • Passionistas (14%). PMs and BAs who love what they do and are primarily motivated by their desire for greater flexibility than is usually provided by a more traditional organization.

4. The shifting sands of the BA and PM roles

Many project professionals find their roles changing so rapidly that it feels like the earth is shifting below their feet. Roles are being combined (BA and PM or BA and QA) or being torn apart (formerly hybrid PM/BAs are now full-time PMs or BAs). In some organizations BAs thrive on Agile projects working hand-in-hand with product owners (POs), while in others become part of the development team doing testing because there are no BAs,. PMs become scrum masters as do BAs. Sometimes the BA becomes a product owner, but one without the authority to make decisions.

In addition, both BAs and PMs are working strategically, doing business cases and recommending enterprise-wide solutions. And more and more organizations recognize the importance of the business relationship manager (BRM), to maximize value and help set the strategic agenda.

So what is the trend? For the foreseeable future, roles and titles will vary widely from organization to organization. Equally certain is that both project management and business analysis work, both strategic and tactical, have always been required and will always be needed, regardless of the role or the title or the role.

5. Generalists helping teams to self-organize

If descriptions of job openings are an indication, specialization seems to have wide appeal. But breadth of capabilities will continue to provide the flexibility that organizations need to respond to the hyper pace of change. BAs who code. Engineers who do project management. It’s the number of arrows in the team members’ quivers that defines an organization’s competitiveness – and contributes to the team’s ability to self-organize. Not only do organizations need self-organizing teams, but the teams themselves also need the flexibility to pick up tasks that are ready to go, so the more diverse the team members’ skills, the more work can be done in parallel and completed sooner.

Although varied work appeals to many younger workers, this isn’t just about attracting millennial talent. Self-organizing teams provide the structure organizations need in order to react quickly. Self-organizing teams and the ability of team members to wear multiple hats and get things done as they see fit will continue to become the best way for organizations to respond to external influences. The self-organizing team is not a new thing, but it is going to increasingly become the norm.

Two bonus trends

  • Short business cases and quick value. The trend is to provide business cases on slices of the initiative, slices that can bring quick value to the organization, rather than spending weeks or months detailing out costs and benefits and a return on investment showing a multi-year payback.
  • Dev Ops3 This trend relates to the first and fourth trends, scaling Agile and the shifting project roles. BAs and PMs now find themselves participating as DevOps Engineers on Agile teams that emphasize collaboration not just between the customer and development team, but also among such areas as development, operations, security, infrastructure, integration, etc.

Footnotes:
1 Forbes, January, 2016
2 Intuit Investor Relations, February 3, 2016, http://investors.intuit.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/The-Five-Faces-of-the-On-Demand-Economy/default.aspx
3 Dev Ops is “a cross-disciplinary community of practice dedicated to the study of building, evolving and operating rapidly-changing resilient systems at scale.” https://theagileadmin.com/what-is-devops/. Ernest Mueller, Aug 2, 2010 – Last Revised Dec 7, 2016. He attributes this definition to Jez Humble.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA is Co-Principal and CEO of Watermark Learning and has over 30 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth’s speaking history includes repeat presentations for national and international conferences on five continents.

Elizabeth has co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation. She has also co-authored chapters published in four separate books. Elizabeth was a lead author on several standards including the PMBOK® Guide, BABOK® Guide, and PMI’s Business Analysis for Practitioners – A Practice Guide.

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, President and Founder of Watermark Learning, is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on business analysis and project management topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.

Rich loves to combine industry best practices with a practical approach and has contributed to those practices through numerous speaking sessions around the world. He has also worked on the BA Body of Knowledge versions 1.6-3.0, the PMI BA Practice Guide, and the PM Body of Knowledge, 4th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation.

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, is the Director of Project Management at Watermark Learning. She has 20+ years of experience in project management and related practice and training. She writes and teaches courses in project management, business analysis, and influencing skills. She has long been involved with the PMI® chapter in Minnesota where she is a member of the certification team. She has a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and is particularly interested in the cultural aspects of team development, as well as the impact of social media and new technologies on organizations and projects.

Attain Your Goals and Reap Your Rewards

Written by Clinton Ages on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Attain Your Goals and Reap Your Rewards

On our journey towards an amazing life, full of achievement and satisfaction, we are covering the last leg of the Coach Clinton 7-Steps to Accomplishment Methodology.

Before we talk about this step, let’s summarize the previous steps, very quickly:

Step 1 – Appraise: An analysis of your current actions and habits, followed by elimination of the unproductive ones.
Step 2 – Ascertain: An in-depth thought process to develop your goals and set their priority.
Step 3 – Approach: Development of a comprehensive execution plan to achieve the previously set goals.
Step 4 – Avert: Formulation of a unique Motivation Affirmation to set your brain up for success.
Step 5 – Actualize: Doing the actual work to realize your goals. Know the important difference between ‘Self-Leadership’ and ‘Self-Management’ where the former is all about setting and prioritizing your goals the latter guides towards the discipline of executing those goals.

Step 6 – Attain

Once you are through these five steps, you are almost done – free to bask in the glory of your own achievements. This step is all about appreciating, rewarding, and even a little pampering yourself for your strenuous efforts which contributed to your reaching the summit.

No matter how towering or how small your goals were, achieving them is a big win. There’s no greater feeling than that of being able to utter the words “I did it!” This simple declaration births tons of positive emotions running through our psyche: satisfaction, pride, self-importance, thankfulness, and joyfulness. In fact, your accomplishment doesn’t even have to be spectacular. It can be as mundane as finally getting the laundry done, or the garage cleaned out, or assembling that piece of furniture you purchased from Ikea!

We all love the feelings of achieving our goals, the feelings of winning, of the feelings of mastering something. These feelings add to your sense of competence and self-worth. They let you know that you are capable of doing what we set out to do. That you have persisted in the face of countless difficulties while you could have easily fooled yourself with lame excuses – like the majority of people around you. This single feat deserves a befitting celebration. In addition to celebrating your success, it is imperative that you reward yourself with something that you value. The reward can range from a small gift like your favorite chocolate bar, or a vacation to your favorite destination! Yes, why not? This is your debut achievement after all. Now you know that you are developing the habit of chasing your dreams, day in and day out. After getting your first goal, you should be able to imagine the heaps of achievements you will collect in this lifetime!

Why reward yourself?

It is very important to reward yourself after an achievement. Rewarding should never be treated as an accessory or a luxury, because this simple act helps you not only recharge your depleted energy but also to prepare you for the next challenge. Gretchen Rubin, a best-selling author, highlights the importance of rewards succinctly with these words: “If I give more to myself, I can ask more from myself”.

Here are a few positive ideas that can help you decide your reward for yourself. Feel free to be creative with these ideas make up your own but make sure that it is something that is really meaningful to you, otherwise the basic purpose would not be served.

How to reward yourself?

  • Take a little time off – It’s a good idea to take a breather right after you completely attain a major goal. A little rest is always recommended but with the caution that it should not be too long or else your engines will cool down – making it more difficult to get back on track again.
  • Give yourself a gift voucher – This one is a little bit slippery because there are chances of going too far in spending once you start shopping. One solution is to give yourself a certain amount or a shopping voucher of a limited value. Another better way to spend for satisfaction is to give that amount to someone who really needs it. Charity is a guaranteed way to give you instant gratification.
  • Buy yourself a useful gift – You can also buy something for yourself but again, you need to set a limit for that. A great tip is to give yourself something very useful. For example, if you are an entrepreneur, you can invest in a workshop or a coaching program that can add value to your entrepreneurial processes.
  • Celebrate with your loved ones – Even if it is nothing fancy or expensive, sharing your success with family and friends is always a very satisfying experience. Arrange a small get-together with people you care for and thank them for their support and love.
  • Treat yourself to a delicacy – This is something that we normally don’t do. Treat your taste buds with something very special and enjoy the flavor in your own company.

Like I said, these are just a few ideas. Think of something that you value and is meaningful to you and you’ve got your plan for rewarding yourself.

Think you’ve failed?

For those of you who followed all the five steps religiously and didn’t reach your target, please stay assured that it is still a success. Why? You are a success because you broke the spell of lethargy and procrastination. While billions of people are wasting their time running after small, worthless pleasures, you are carving a life of fulfillment and achievement for yourself and even for others around you. Does this sound anything like failure? Not to me.

Remember that one day, you will thank yourself for this failure as this is the opening which will lead you into a lifelong series of achievements. I like Henry Ford’s quote about failure where he says that, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” So I urge you to be more patient with yourself and not to start the stream of self-belittling thoughts. Start again, avoid repeating the same mistakes and I’m sure there is no chance of failure – provided that you try enough times.

To sum this up, I feel like sharing the last stanza from the famous poem “Don’t Quit” by Edgar A. Guest – I always find great encouragement in these words:

“Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.”

After this step, we are only one small step away from completing this magical journey. Although we are almost done here, don’t forget to read the last article of this series, which discusses a very strategic aspect of this process.

Stay tuned!

Top 6 Critical BA Skills for the Future (and today!)

Written by Angela Wick on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Top 6 Critical BA Skills for the Future (and today!)

As we cruise through the last days of 2016, it’s important to peek in the rearview mirror. Reflecting on the past reveals patterns and trends in our travels that we can use to predict future destinations.

When I look in my 2016 review mirror, I gather insights from deep conversations with industry leaders, real world problem solving with clients, and sharing ideas with students. These insights drive my thinking about the future of business analysis.
Can you guess where we are going? Do you know what skills you need to pick up along the way?
Regardless of title (BA or not) and approach (traditional, agile, or hybrid), everyone in the business of discovering, defining and delivering value can prepare for the future by developing the following skills:

1) Data Insights

Modeling and data relationships are moving to the back seat while data insights take the wheel. This means that we will be asked dig deeper into our data to discover insights that our stakeholders are not aware of and would be difficult, if not impossible, to elicit.
Data insights start with a comprehensive understanding of our customers and our business. Using our customer and business understanding we can look at data differently and analyze the customer patterns and behaviors. These patterns provide insights to where end users experience value in the product/solution itself and it’s features.

2) Requirements Anthropology

Data insights are critical, but data does not always give us the full picture. Requirements anthropology asks us to go beyond the data and the information we elicit from stakeholders. We need to develop an empathetic mindset that allows us to enter the world of our users and identify their behavior patterns. When we approach our requirements like anthropologists, we take a deeper look at the role the product or solution plays in the end user’s life, work and habits. It’s about observing behaviors and understanding where value is derived for a variety of user types.
An anthropologist’s work would not be complete with out looking at the entire ecosystem of how the user behaviors and patterns impact the preceding or resulting business process. Can business model or process changes improve the life of the user and ultimately the value the user receives? This is what requirements anthropology is about!

3) Visualization

The ability to create effective visuals has always been important, but the purpose of visual communication is changing. In the past, we used data in a visual form to prove a point or simplify a decision. Modern visuals are about concepts, exploring, and learning rather than the typical inform & declare process of the past.
We have a giant amount of complex information at our fingertips, so we need to think harder about the purpose of each visual. Effective visualization skills (with the help of many new visualization tools) help our teams make sense of the vast and complex information, and help us along the learning journey to gather insights about where value lies. The complexity of today is making this learning journey an imperative! Insights regarding value are no longer obvious, they are the “needle in the haystack.”

4) Forensic Thinking

Forensic thinking helps teams get to the root of complex problems by applying a scientific approach. Forensic thinkers use a logical process to confirm the problem’s cause by direct observation, examination and/or objective measurement. This approach helps BAs gather meaningful, accurate requirements rooted in facts rather than stakeholder perceptions or assumptions.
An important focal point for our forensic thinking is the customer experience. Modern teams use forensic thinking to explore customer patterns. Forensic thinking also aligns well with solutions that prevent and investigate fraud and digital/cyber crimes.
So, what does forensic thinking look like? It involves going far beyond what stakeholders say or think they want or need and truly looking at various resources, tests, data, and connections that build upon one another to get to the learnings that ultimately provide insights.

5) Data Security

In the past, data security skills fell on the shoulders of our techie teammates. Now BAs need data security skills too! We need to understand which data assets are most valuable to the organization, and help the organization weigh decisions about protecting this data. If teams protect data too fiercely, they may compromise business performance. Think about the customer who abandons a purchase because the app wants too much data or takes too long to authenticate. Or think about the internal user who abandons core systems to use an “unauthorized” program to meet customer needs and business goals faster.
As BAs we need to understand these dynamics and be prepared to discuss the impact data decisions have on solution requirements, solution design, user/customer experience, and risk to the organization. We need to understand the value of data and the possible risk/reward trade-offs.

6) UX – User Experience

UX is changing and new UX skills are coming into play in this digital era. The huge migration to mobile and tablet devices over web/PC screens will grow as we rely on our devices more and more. This means more UX-related projects and product development for BAs. Responsiveness, modular design and service design are key. BAs with UX skills understand how the UX design features play with all technical layers.
Other key areas of UX include customer experience mapping and rapid UX work. This means understanding the business model and processes very well in order to design a UX that supports the strategy, business model, and flow of the most critical pieces of value.
Formal wireframes are fading out in favor of quick hand-drawn lo-fidelity sketches that go straight to the build process for quick feedback from users. It means more collaborative design sessions instead of reviewing wireframes. BAs who want to keep up with UX will also need to acquire persuasive design and user-centered design skills.

Are you seeing increasing demand for these six skills in your organization? They shine a bright light on a giant shift in our thinking about business analysis. In many organizations, BAs focused largely on analyzing internal systems and processes. Based on my discussions with many of you this year, BAs are increasingly looking outside. They uncover value by analyzing the end user’s environment, thinking, patterns and behaviors.
Don’t get left behind! Develop skills that fuel the future.
Please leave your comments below.