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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.

Top 5 Considerations When Choosing a Business Analyst for the Complex Tech Project

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Top 5 Considerations When Choosing a Business Analyst for the Complex Tech Project

Anyone who has ever worked on a technical project understands the critical nature of the business analyst’s role in the success of the project.

Sure, the project manager is the project leader. But the technical leader? The technical liaison? No, not really…not if the project is large, complex and you are hoping for any degree of real success.

On the truly technically driven projects with a team full of competent tech developers and analysts, the project manager needs some technical know-how to pull off the leadership role with this group. But even more than that, he needs a good business analyst with the right skills and experience to make it truly successful. Specifically, there are four key considerations when selecting the right business analyst for the next big tech project. These four are…

Knows the material and technology.

Learning curves can be the downfall of a project. So can rework. And poorly defined requirements. All these things can happen if you have business analyst who is not up to the challenge of the technical material at hand and the chosen technical solution for the project. That’s why it is imperative on a technical engagement that is long, complex, visible or all of the above, to a have a business analyst assigned who is technically up to the challenge and not just “ready to learn” or “fake it till he makes it.” That could be disastrous to the schedule, budget, project manager and team…and to the customer.

Knows the tech staff.

A business analyst that has already worked with some or all of the technical staff assigned to the project would be a good idea. Why? Because there is always a “comfortability curve” that happens when the BA starts to interact with the tech leaders on the project and liaison between the project manager and technical lead. Remember, the BA is often the right hand man to the project manager and the most trusted confidante of the technical lead. That’s a tough dual role to fill and sometimes it can be a very fine line for the BA to walk throughout the project. A comfort zone with both the tech lead and the rest of the team is helpful to get everything running on all cylinders from the start and a history – a good, positive history – with the project manager is also very helpful.

Confident enough to make key tech decisions when no one is around.

There will come a time on a complex technical project when it comes down to a crunch time and the business analyst must make a “stop-go” decision or a “this way or that way” tech decision. Sure, they may get tech lead input, but may not have the project manager available to take the heat or the CIO around to lend input to the decision-making process. It’s during those times when the business analyst that you really need in this role can rise to the occasion and say “this is the way to go” and do it with confidence…. or at least fake confidence if that’s what it takes. No one really wants to take the bullet… but being willing to is half the battle. That’s what you need from the good BA on a complex technical project.

Has connections in the organization.

As important as it is to have a project manager who is well connected so that he or she can get roadblocks knocked down, financial information for the project promptly as needed and input for key decisions fast from leadership. Not surprisingly, it is just as important for the business analyst to be well connected. In the technical BA role, the business analyst needs to be well connected to people like the CIO or CTO, development managers and other technical team leads and analysts who have “been there, done that” so that information can be shared quickly and decisions won’t get delayed. A good tech BA already has 90% of the knowledge needed, it’s that coverage and assistance on the other 10% that can sometimes keep a complex project from running off the rails.

Works well with the project leadership.

Finally, finding a business analyst who works well with the project manager on any given project – not just the complex, technical ones – can be extremely beneficial to the success odds of the project. Communication comes easier, leadership roles are tried and true and already understood. The honeymoon phase is over and the real work can start from Day One. And that’s a very good thing for the project, timeline and customer. Those awkward moments when they step on each other’s feet are avoided or already out of the way on another project in the past and the team can gel under this sort of co-leadership functionality. Because let’s face it, when decisions are happening and meeting and communication with the project team and client are in progress, the project manager is the leader. When the technical requirements are being defined and the business processes are being understood and interpreted, the business analyst is more of the leader at that point and the project manager is often very happy to be relegated to “note-taker’ status.

Summary / call for input

When you read this list you can see that “experience” and the right experience is the common theme. The experienced business analyst will know the technology, will have worked with the tech staff before, will be comfortable making critical decisions on his own, will be well connected in the organization and will have worked with the project manager before on another project, most likely. I should probably add “get along with everyone” but that’s sort of implied here. The BA doesn’t need to be everyone’s friend, but may need to act like it at times to get things done on the complex tech project.

Readers – and business analysts – how do you feel about this list? Do you agree? What would you change about it or add to it? Share personal experiences that help generate discussion if possible…we can all learn from great discussions!

Project Managers: 7 Things They Want Their Business Analysts to Excel At

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Project Managers: 7 Things They Want Their Business Analysts to Excel At

I decided to perform a bit of a survey or experiment or whatever you want to call it.

I decided to ask several career project managers I’ve personally worked with and a few that I’ve connected with online as to their thoughts on what they wished, wanted or were grateful that their business analysts excelled at on the projects they managed with them. After rummaging through their wishful and rambling responses, I’ve come up with these 7 general themes…

Customer interaction.

The project manager is the key customer facing individual on the project. No question. The PM leads the initial project activities with the customer including kickoff, weekly status calls, and ongoing – potentially daily and sometimes hourly – communication with that project client. But having a business analyst who knows their way around the customer is a huge benefit to the project manager, the team and the project in general. When I’ve had business analysts who felt comfortable conducting meetings and requirements definition sessions with the client on their own, it’s freed up my time and mind to handle other activities on the project, charge less to the given project thus keeping the budget in good health for when issues need to be addressed (and there will be issues!), and perform other work on other projects.

Being technical.

This could also read “being familiar with whatever processes necessary given the industry the project pertains to.” I said “technical” because I’ve really only ever led technical projects. Having the right industry and technology knowledge will smooth the communication process with the project team that the BA really needs to have in order to be properly effective.

Tech documentation.

When the project manager has a business analyst who knows their way around a good project document deliverable, it is truly a great thing. I realize experienced PM’s and good BA’s probably take this skill for granted, but it is not a given. Nor is attention to detail which can lead to error-prone deliverable documents. I know, I’ve had it happen. It resulted in me and my team going to peer reviews on every deliverable going forward due to one business analyst producing three consecutive error-prone versions of the same documentation deliverable.

Being organized.

The organized business analyst contributes greatly to the project engagement without needing close supervision and oversight that a less experienced and less organized business analyst otherwise would. When the PM has confidence in the BA’s ability to just take the ball and run with it on decision-making, project team communication, and customer interaction, the freeing affect for both is incredibly productive.

Handling project budget issues.

I think most business analysts are pretty smart when it comes to expenses on the project. They think more like PM’s who are accountable for such things than tech team members who expend the hours that are in the budget and need to show 100% (or close to it) utilization. In other words, most business analysts – unless they are tech leads dually acting in the business analyst role – know they are considered more “management” than not. I’ve always said that keeping the project budget within 10% of target makes it much easier to stay on track in terms of dollars and budget. Staying in the 0-10% range means you’re always in the zone of “acceptability” and it isn’t likely to go crazy and leave you with a 50% budget overrun to try to fix…which you won’t likely ever be able to do. Having the business analyst who can understand that and help manage that budget and keep it on track is win-win.

Leading meetings.

This one is more than just customer interaction, of course. The business analyst, in many cases, is like the team lead. Interacting very, very closely with the tech lead on the technical projects in the requirements definition process and translation of those requirements into functional design documentation and a technical design document from which a viable project solution can be built. The BA must be, then, a trusted and accurate and effective project communicator. One who knows how to plan for, facilitate and followup on meetings with the team – and the customer, of course. Knowing how to run a status meeting, take notes, put together a meaningful agenda and project status meeting goal and how to follow up afterward with participants to ensure everyone has landed on the same page. Also, as important, is knowing how to put the right people in the seats at every meeting they conduct. It doesn’t do any good to call the right meeting to discuss the right topic if no one shows up. if you can run a good meeting that makes people want to attend and participate in rather than avoid, then you are golden. Someone who can get 100% attendance and participation is critical to project success.

Understanding PM processes, practices and tools.

Finally, yes…they may not be dually acting in the role of the project manager, but knowing how good project management executes and delivers is very helpful. That way they understand what the project manager is doing, is responsible for and probably will need help with. The more the PM and BA know about each other’s roles, the easier and more productive that relationship will be. And that’s a good thing. Think Batman and Robin. And the PM is not always Batman – it depends on what the responsibility is at the moment. They work well together and help each other out. Not quite like completing each other’s sentences…that would be weird. But close. BAM! POW!

Summary / call for input

The project manager and business analyst should work hand in hand together in a perfect world. Nothing is perfect, but my most successful projects have certainly been spent working with a business analyst who could take the ball and run with it. And most I’ve ever worked with have been able to do that – it seems to be in their nature and work ethic and it certainly makes the project run more smoothly and has always resulted in a more confident and satisfactory delivery team to project sponsor relationship.

Readers – what’s your take on this list? If you weren’t included in my small survey…and yes it was a very small pool…then now is your chance to share your thoughts and experiences. Do you agree with this list? What would you change about it? Please share and discuss.

6 Tips in preparing for your CCBA recertification

Written by Sally Craik on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 6 Tips in preparing for your CCBA recertification

When it comes to recertifying, the past 3 years have absolutely flown. It’s time for me to re-certify my CCBA® and I thought that 3 years would give me plenty of time to earn enough CDU’s for recertification.

I still can’t believe that it was almost 3 years ago that I sat and passed my exam. I remember looking at the ‘Pass’ that popped onto the screen after taking some time for me to actually click the Submit button.

This is the first time to recertify for me and I have learned a few lessons that I would like to share with you.

The CCBA status must be renewed every three years from the anniversary date of earning your initial certification. All the recertifying requirements are listed on the iiba.org website under Certification and Recognition > Re certification.

Refer to it often!

Here are my 6 most important tips

  1. Read the re certification guidelines carefully and early – Make sure you read the re certification guidelines and expectations early on and thoroughly. If you don’t understand the rules, then ask on forums or email IIBA directly. Soon after I passed my exam I looked at the re certification handbook, then I put it in the ‘too hard’ and ‘I’ll get to it later’ basket. Big mistake!
  2. Ask – Ask if you don’t understand the rules in the CCBA Handbook. The first time I read it, I was confused and found that I didn’t really understand it. On that note I put it to one side. Take my advice and if you need clarification of something then ask and the best place to ask is contacting the IIBA – the contact details are right there in the book! No surprises. I finally got around to doing this and received a response the next day. Easy as! I will add that it does appear that the website has been updated with better information regarding re certification.
  3. Keep track early – Start keeping track of your webinars, BA work hours, professional development hours and track them early. The IIBA site has a tracking spreadsheet similar to the one you have to fill in for the pre work prior to sitting the exam. Note down every piece of BA work that is aligned to the BAbok and performing business analysis, every webinar you attend or watch from the archived section, any course you attend. If you record it as you go then it will be less stressful at time of re certification. I have already set up a folder with the spreadsheet ready for my next 3 year cycle. Yes, I have very much learnt this lesson and sticking to it.
  4. Investigate other ways to earn CDU’s – There is a category of professional development where you can attend courses and earn CDU’s. I found this one difficult as it was hard to find new courses to attend at endorsed providers and also found it difficult getting time of work to attend them. After late discussions with other BA’s in my wider network it was suggested to me that I could actually do some online training via an endorsed provider. Too late for this recertification cycle but I will definitely be investigating it for the next time.
  5. Volunteer – I have only just discovered this one. Yes, read the recertification handbook several times, it’s all in there. It’s always good to give back to others what you learn and experience. Especially in our BA profession. I share my knowledge indirectly with my BA network, and with my work colleagues but I will now be doing it on a more formal basis. It’s always good to give back and it’s a good way to earn more CDU’s.
  6. Engage with your BA network often – Keep up to date with the BA profession regularly using BA forums and groups. These can be online or attending meet ups. It’s a great way to discuss re certifying and also to find out how other BA’s are going with their CDU’s. It’s a time for sharing thoughts and progress on how each of you are tracking plus it is a good reminder to get started!

I hope these tips will help you once you have passed your CCBA exam and on the way to re certifying. I wish I had have done each one of them starting the week after I passed my exam. At least I will be able to do it for the next 3 year cycle. Good luck to all of you studying for the exam!

Strategy Spotlight: 8 Things You Must do Better to Make Better Decisions

Written by Richard Lannon on . Posted in Articles.

I have been thinking lately about what it takes to make decisions. Just recently I was presented with a situation where some major decisions will need to be made.

Ones that impact changes in business and careers focus and could mean going into a whole new direction. So you have to make the best decision with the information at hand for your organization. From that perspective I think there are eight things you must do to make better decisions.

1. Invest in decision making skills.

This is something that holds true today as it did ten years ago or more. I see this as a foundational skill that people need to learn, practice and apply. There are many approaches or methodologies that can be applied in the decision making process whether you are a traditional organization, project based, a committee environment or driven by the board of directors. Often the fundamentals of decision making are missing. Look at the environment and create an appropriate decision making structure.

2. Create time to think ahead.

Time, time and more time is something we don’t have. It has become a luxury that most people can’t afford. Yet making good decisions requires time to reflect and look at the road ahead. What if you are considering changing careers and decide to go in a whole new direction? This is a big decision. This applies to a business venture also. Change and transformation are difficult to do on a whim, often you are required to think and plan ahead. But don’t over think long term plans as things change around you quickly.

3. Know who you serve.

This is an important point to answer. I know a lot of business leaders and professionals who I am completely confident in their ability to get the job done, to move forward and make things happen. But, they lack an important insight and clarity of who they serve. Decision making is a whole lot easier if you know who you serve whether it is a specific target market, an organization or something else. I think it provides opportunities to make mindful decisions and improve innovation and creativity in solving problems due to clarity and focus. It does not matter if you upset the market because you know who you serve.

4. Question everything, especially the business.

I often get asked how I would approach a specific problem. I am in a meeting and someone sets up a scenario and wants to know my approach. Any good business analyst, trainer or consultant will know the basics; define the problem, evaluation solutions, implement the approved solution, and measure the results. Part of the process is to question the business model. Recently I had this happen in a meeting with an executive director. I was presented with a question and responded but within that response I placed questions to better understand the business model of this organization.

Turns out they are looking for a change and the business model is suspect. It is always good to question, even when answering.

5. We can all think in a straight line.

Straight line or linear thinking is the a, b, c, of decision making. With so many organizations talking about innovation, creativity and being intentional I wonder what’s the point. There are many theories about what approach you should take. I still think the best approach to decision making and initiative integration is a mix between predictive and adaptive planning. These two approaches provide the best of both worlds, and when blended, often provide an organization an approach that works beyond the mere linear.

6. Create a story around decisions.

Life is a story and you write it yourself. With every decision there is a story that comes from people discussions, thinking, making assumptions, determining impact and communicating the decision. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create a decision narrative that is beyond the old boring business report? People want to be part of the decision story that makes a difference thus bridging organization gaps. You should create decision making stories.

7. We are all moving at the speed of a click.

Over decades my career has been part of the professional consulting and service economy which has accelerated at lightning speed in recent years. When I look at the professions’ value stream I think we need to make better decisions around the downstream business environment. Clients no longer just order or buy stuff they engage now in a very different way where it becomes difficult to determine the ROI on business activities. Margins wither as the need to provide valuable free content increases making business decisions a challenge to make. No matter the business you are in, the accelerated service economy is impacting your business.

8. Find a tool, reduce your risk and get costs under control.

The strategic business analyst looks at the past, present and future of a strategic plan and approach and use financial analysis of NPV, IRR and ROI within your business case. But it is important to go further and look at risk with uncertainty analysis. This is something that I learned over time from various economic adjustments (ie: dot com bubble burst, corporate and accounting scandals, subprime mortgages issue, and resource industry collapse) I think uncertainty needs to be determined better. Business intelligence and uncertainty reducing tools can be used to assist in this analysis. My point, the business analyst can play an important part in helping organizations make decisions through embracing uncertainty analysis approaches and tools to help deal effectively with unpredictable times.

Final Thoughts

Big decisions are tough to make, especially when you have invested so much time and effort on your business or focus area. When you work in a space where you are building skills and helping businesses define their future, you start to realize that there are certain truths that exist. One truth, everybody wants to survive and be around a long time. The second truth, that there is always a purpose that needs to be achieved. Third truth, good decisions and core competencies take you a long way to creating a profitable future thus achieving the first two truths.