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Tag: Career

Know Who to Ask the Right Questions

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles.

Smartphones have made so many things easier in life. I don’t think I want to or can live without one. Besides all the benefits related to work, I am not sure I could go very long with a quick round on Candy Crush. At the same time we are letting smartphones stop us from doing the one thing that good analysis requires: connecting with others. What made me think of this was a trip on a shuttle from the airport to a conference. I was really excited because I knew we had at least a 30-minute ride. I entered the van with seven new people to meet and ready to start to get to know my fellow riders. Unfortunately, everyone but me had their head in their phone checking email, surfing the Internet or playing Candy Crush. Many of the riders were going to the same conference so it was a place I could start building relationships so we could stay in touch, share ideas and experiences — seven more people I could add to my list of meeting everyone in the world. Not so much.

This scene is not uncommon. Go to a lunch spot and you’ll see everyone on the phone. People no longer connect like they used to. And if connecting with others is not your strength, you have fewer opportunities to work on improving this skill. I recently gave a talk at an IIBA chapter called “Ask the Right Questions.” One of my points was, it does not matter if you have the right questions if you don’t know who has the right answers. As a BA professional, you need to connect with large audiences so you know who your go-to people are when you need them. This means you can’t wait until you need them to find them. There just is not enough time in the day when you are assigned to a project and have to find the right people to talk to. You have to have these relationships already so you can utilize them at the right time.

So how do you connect with others? First, take your headphones off and stop playing Candy Crush. Go have conversations with those you don’t know well and that may be needed in some form or fashion on a future initiative. When I teach my Improving Collaboration and Communication through Improvisation class, I have the class get to know each other. We do this because I want others to feel comfortable with each other so they can feel open to play the improv exercises I ask of them. To do this we play a game called Three Things in Common. Everyone pairs up and in two minutes they have to find three things they have in common. Now, if you think it is easy, it is until I add one more rule. The things in common can’t be things like, we are both men, we both have brown hair, we both wear glasses, we both work at company x, and, my favorite, we are both in this improv class. You have to get deeper than that. Find out what drives them, what their interests are, what gets them excited. Then you will start finding things in common that you both love, like the same author or movies, or you find out that you both have kids that play in the same sports league, or perhaps you share some of the same hobbies.

Why is this important? People love being around others who have things in common with them. So if you do, you’ll be more successful at getting the time with these team members in the future when you need something. Who do you pick up the phone for? Someone you know or someone you don’t? Come on, I know you see a number coming across your phone and if you don’t recognize it you let it go to voicemail!

Now, I want you to take it a step further. Find out the things they love about their job, why they work there, what skills and expertise they bring to the table, who they work with most and have good relationships with. Dig deeper into work-related knowledge and enthusiasm.

The more people you do this with, the more relationships you have with others. The more relationships you have, the more people you know when to reach out to when you are on an initiative. Set a goal to get to know at least two people a week. People excel more for knowing how to find an answer than knowing the answer to everything. Feel free to start with me. I am available for lunch most days!

All the best,
Kupe

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The Value of Business Analysis: Identifying Business Need

Written by Aaron Whittenberger on . Posted in Articles.

One of the critical roles of the Business Analyst (BA), or Enterprise Analyst (EA), in the area of Enterprise Analysis is to identify business need. Many business professionals make the mistake of thinking that since it is named Enterprise Analysis, that identifying business need can happen only at the enterprise level. Nothing could be further from the truth; Enterprise Analysis and identifying business need, can happen at the enterprise level, involve multiple lines of business within the organization but not the entire enterprise, and at the business unit level.

There are many factors, or many ways that the business analyst can identify business needs. It can be a result of market research or an identified new opportunity brought about by actions of a vendor or competitor. It could be derived from a strategic goal or initiative of the organization. It could have come from a business user complaint about a current system issue and/or the subsequent Root Cause Analysis. It could also be derived from an Enterprise Analysis activity that the BA performed, such as Capability Gap Analysis, SWOT Analysis or Product Feasibility Analysis.

If this vital role is not performed than the organization would not realize the benefits of identifying some business needs that need to be addressed, possibly gaining greater competitive advantage, possibly achieving strategic goals or taking advantage of an opportunity presented in the market. As you can see this can have a direct effect on the strategic success, and bottom line, of the organization.

Define Business Need

Once identified, the business need should be documented in the Business Case to initiate a project to develop a solution for this business need. This solution may, or may not, involve information technology software development; some solutions are completely a business solution. The business need defines the problem for which the business analyst is attempting to find a solution. The way the business need is defined determines which alternative solutions will be considered, which stakeholders will be consulted and which solution approaches will be evaluated.

Define Problem

Defining business need and defining the problem are two different things. The business need leads to the problem, but both the business need and problem statement needs to be defined and documented. Take for example that you have identified that sales have been decreasing for the past three years. So your business need statement could be “Need increased sales”. What is your problem statement? A root cause analysis uncovered an aging sales force using archaic sales techniques, no new products introduced to the marketplace in three years, competitors introducing products with innovative features, no new marketing campaigns in the last two years, rising costs, and production equipment in need of repair and upgrade.

Leads to the Solution

Now that the true problems have been identified, the enterprise can now initiate separate projects to find solutions for the sales problem, product problem, marketing problem, and production problems; rising costs and production equipment. The team assigned the sales problem can determine if they need to hire younger salespeople, provide sales training on newer techniques, provide better sales support, or implement a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Likewise, the other project teams will determine proper solutions to their defined problem statement.

One pitfall that many business analysts and project teams fall into is trying to define the business need by the solution. In practice, quite often the business stakeholders define the solution at the start of the project instead of defining the problem statement first. They start with the solution first instead of the problem first. This reduces the solution alternatives that receive consideration and may bring a lesser valuable solution to deployment than what could have been achieved. So starting with the business need, problem statement, and solution scope; then developing alternative solutions will bring the most valuable solution to the organization, and the business analyst’s recommendation, to light.
In our sales problem example above, the organization may have identified slumping sales for three years. Without proper problem statement identification the business team may decide to simply hire more salespeople to increase sales. Without proper root cause analysis, they may hire older salespeople, just like the rest of the sales force they have. None of the true root cause problems get resolved because the team jumped to the solution with identifying the true problems needing addressed.

We all learn from our mistakes, what pitfalls to developing the Business Case have you encountered in your career?

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Good Business Analyst, Bad Business Analyst

Written by Mike Lenz on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Good Business Analyst, Bad Business Analyst

Lenz Aug18A Good BA has a product management approach to their role, partnering with stakeholders to define the very best solution. A Good BA is the subject matter expert of the project requirements. They are viewed by both Creative and Tech teams as one of their own while in reality serving neither, only the client’s project goals. A Good BA has patience to learn from the client, educate the client, and push back when needed.

A Bad BA acts as a note taker, documenting what other people tell them with no vested interest in the quality of the product being built. A Bad BA is a gofer and assistant for the tech team. They document just enough for client sign off.

A Good BA pushes decisions and detailed design understanding early. They focus clients away from bells & whistles and back onto solutions that drive project goals, and when necessary are not afraid to remind the client of agreed upon scope. A Good BA communicates as well in written form as they do verbally. They create great requirements documentation that tells the story of the product. Their documents flow in a logical way from feature to feature, big idea to detailed specifications. A Bad BA is distracted by other people’s jobs (user experience or tech solutions) losing focus on their own (documenting the What).

A Good BA ensures all sections of their documents add value. They flush out and define detailed requirements organized and aligned to business goals and scope. A Bad BA fills out a template. They write down disjointed meeting notes from stakeholder interviews and call them requirements.

A Good BA defines accretive requirements. A Bad BA uses words like may, shall, and should. A Good BA includes notes and supporting information in their documents for increased reader understanding. A Bad BA does the bare minimum, forcing conference calls to explain written requirements.

A Good BA is organized and manages open item trackers for their documents. They can accurately communicate work remaining and blockers to closure. They anticipate design challenges and drive clarity through their requirements. A Bad BA lets the tech team do their work for them by flushing detail through tech design questions.

A Good BA partners with the Client to ensure they are prepared for User Acceptance Testing. They ensure the client understands what was documented and categorizes appropriate UAT defects as Change Requests. A Bad BA assumes the client is organized and prepared. They flood the tech team with duplicate, unclear, and as-designed defects

A Good BA is viewed as a critical member of the team’s success. They do their best regardless of whether or not someone is going to read the document. A Bad BA cuts corners and is a replaceable with well-annotated wireframes.

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Sticky Situations: How do Business Analysts Influence Ethics?

Written by Angela Wick on . Posted in Articles.

We’ve all found ourselves in sticky situations at work—those grey areas between right and wrong that really test our ethical boundaries. The nature of BA work, facilitating change and protecting stakeholder value, launches BAs into the middle of many sticky situations. We often know things before the masses, we are present when new ideas float for the first time, and we work projects before risks, assumptions and regulations are fully flushed out.

In many cases, decision paths are murky—right and wrong are not obvious. In other cases, greed or tight timelines tempt people to take questionable shortcuts.

BA ethics encompass more than just your own behavior and choices. They force you to stand up for the rights of others including your stakeholders, your team and your industry.

Risk is often rewarded in business, but how do you know when the ethical line has been crossed? How can BAs, with their limited authority, influence others to stay to the right? Let’s answer these questions by taking a look at 5 ethical dilemmas commonly faced by BAs.

Scenario #1: Office Space

The Ethical Dilemma: You remember “The Bobs” from the movie Office Space? Well, many BAs are “Bobs”—they identify and promote organizational efficiencies. When organizations get more efficient, people tend to disappear. So, if your project scope includes “position reductions/eliminations” due to technology or process efficiencies, what should you do?

What not to do: Don’t spill the beans before knowing the sponsors plans and intentions. Also, don’t assume too much—these are very complex situations with legal, compliance, and people/performance implications. The sponsor may not be able to be share details with you.

Suggestions: It’s quite common that BAs learn about organizational strategies and priorities well-before the affected employees. BAs often interact directly with the affected teams to gather information for the projects that will eliminate team jobs. Here are a few tips for managing this awkward scenario: 

  • Ask the sponsor how she is planning to handle the position reductions. Does she have other plans/jobs lined up for the affected employees? Does she have a compliance plan she needs to follow?
  • Understand the communication plan. Find out when/how affected people will be notified.
  • Run through a few scenarios with your sponsor to understand the key messages that should be communicated if questions arise while you interact with affected teams. You need to be equipped with the right information to treat people respectfully and ethically.

Scenario #2: Martha Stewart

The Ethical Dilemma: Technology, process changes, and/or new products accompany strategic moves in many organizations. BAs tend to be on the front line of these changes, helping companies understand business needs, building requirements, analyzing impacts, etc. This means BAs have insider knowledge—knowledge that could be used for financial gain or for minimizing financial loss.

So, what would you do if a close family member owned a significant amount of stock in your company and you were in a position to see great success or huge failure coming around the corner?

What not to do: Do not end up in jail like Martha Stewart. She received insider information about the negative results of an FDA drug trail and sold the drug company’s shares right before the news went public. Stewart was convicted in 2004 and served a 5-month sentence. (Allegedly, Stewart lost the prison’s holiday decorating contest.)

Suggestions: So, do not share insider information with family members, friends, acquaintances or even strangers. Make sure you understand the rules and regulations before you buy or sell any investments associated with your current company, client, or their vendors/partners.

Scenario #3: Competitive Advantages

The Ethical Dilemma: Competition is fierce! Companies use extreme measures to maintain even small bits of competitive advantage. Companies guard their secret recipes, their pricing strategies, their new product ideas and marketing tactics. So, what would you do if you discover knowledge of a competitor from a family member (or vendor) impacting the direction and assumptions on your project?

What not to do: Don’t act on your competitor knowledge without understanding the potential risks.

Suggestions: Your first step should be research. If the knowledge is public information, then you may be free to use it to benefit your project. If the information does NOT appear to be public, then proceed cautiously. Understand the potential impact to the project and consider seeking legal advice to protect your interests and the interests of your company.

Also be cautious of the reverse dilemma—As BAs we often have information stored in our heads, laptops, tablets, smartphones that our competitors would love to gather. Whether they are thriving or failing, don’t discuss sensitive projects in public forums. You never know who is sitting at the next table or who is friends with your friends on Facebook. Don’t hurt your company’s reputation or give your competitors an advantage.

Scenario #4: Global Solidarity

The Ethical Dilemma: Many BAs work for large global corporations. Offshore labor helps large companies reduce expenses and remain competitive. In the best situations, these offshore arrangements boost developing economies and offer training and opportunities where options were limited. But what if you were on a project where a solution on the table involved offshore labor in a country with a poor reputation for worker’s rights?

Suggestions: Just like the last scenario, avoid assumptions. Your fist step should be understanding how the solution originated and why the specific country was chosen. You should also understand the discussion stage—is this one idea out of 100 in the initial brainstorming session or is the solution in the final stages of approval?

After you understand the solution history/path, then, you should focus questions around promoting and protecting stakeholder value:

  • What is the risk/reward to the stakeholders?
  • What are the risks to the greater organization?
  • Can you minimize risks? Can your organization establish ethical offshore practices in this country despite the country’s reputation?

What not to do: Avoid making it personal. Your personal opinion is important, but it should not be the focus of your discussion and actions. Provide a context for evaluating the solution that is framed, preferably with good research and data, in the best interest of the sponsor/stakeholders.

Scenario #5: Copycat

The Ethical Dilemma: In this age of information, it’s hard to track the original source of many ideas, images, articles, and studies. People forward, share, retweet and repost. We know copyright laws exist, but they seem ambiguous and very hard to enforce. So what would you do if a colleague asked you to copy something from a book or presentation, written by someone outside the company, and use it internally?

What not to do: Don’t make a practice of ignoring copyright laws. It opens your organization to legal and financial risk; it also compromises your professional integrity when others see work that is not yours not referenced or protected. This is an easy way to unknowingly build mistrust as many will know the work is copied but not call you out on it. If you see work copied, you need to call the person out on it and remind them of copyright protection obligations.

Suggestions: Copyright laws might seem like a petty, minor concern. No one gets harmed physically, and consequences seem unlikely. However, illegally using copyright protected materials creates financial loss for their creator. For example, sharing bootlegged movies limits the total number of movie purchases and essentially steals money from the creators. On our project as BAs we come across vendor and consultant materials, training materials, educational institution materials, industry and conference materials; all of these even when paid for are likely subject to copyright protection. So, please respect copyright laws as follows:

  • Get permission. Contact the owner and ask for the rights to reproduce the materials.
  • Site your sources when you reference copyrighted materials.
  • Negotiate/Verify use agreements with vendors. Partnerships with third parties usually include contract language about use of copyrighted materials. If you want to reproduce vendor materials, make sure this language is included in the contract. If you are already under contract, verify the copyright language before you reproduce vendor materials.
  • Review basic copyright laws with your legal team or by visiting http://www.copyright.gov/laws/.

Maintaining strong personal and organization ethics are a critical part of the BA Role. As protectors of stakeholder value, BAs must consider a broad range of project risks including those associated with business ethics, regulations and laws.

Have you found yourself in any sticky ethical situations? 

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Business Analysts: Born or Made?

Written by Marcos Ferrer on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Business Analysts: Born or Made?

The short answer is both – shortest blog ever or ??? IF you know BOB F., please let him know he can claim his prize from me for his excellent answers presented in my last blog.

Back to our topic.  I for one have often blamed :)* my mother, Kathleen Ferrer (nee Morgan, September 26, 1923 – June 26 2014), the only person who both bore me and made me. I often thanked her for my life and her influence, and will miss her very, very much.

I thought I would try to investigate the common experiences or characteristics that lead one to an ongoing BA career.

So, here are some data from my life, left blank for the moment. Fill it in on paper or in your head if you wish, AND EVEN BETTER – Click here to link to the survey:

Then contribute YOUR experiences and characteristics (anonymously) to help all of us BAs and BA wannabes know – Born or Made?

All participants will receive a summary of the survey results if wished 🙂

Date of Birth: ______________

Gender: ______________

Age learned to read: ______________

Who first taught you to read? ______________

Age first fell behind in math: ______________

Who taught you most of your math? ______________

Number of houses growing up: ______________

Maximum distance between any two of these houses in kilometers: ______________

Minimum distance between any two of these houses in kilometers: ______________

Most advanced Business Analysis certification or degree achieved:

CCBA
CBAP
Other Business Analysis certification [give the acronym]: ______________

If your own experience suggests a new question relevant to your path to BA, please add it in the blog comments below. Nice to hear from you, readers are so rare in today’s world, and writers more precious yet 🙂

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:)* Blame, in my blogs, is always a joke. My true belief is that blame is a stone-age behavior in an information age culture, and is just as useful in that evolving culture as the sheet music to the song “In the year 2525” would have been during the Cambrian explosion. I could, of course, be completely wrong.

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