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A Brave New World for Business Analysts

Written by Suzanne Burgess on . Posted in Articles.

Change is always with us, in both big and small ways. As business analysts, we should embrace this constant feature in our work by looking for ways to help understand it and use it. All too often we see the change only as a project in which we elicit and document requirements. We need to think further than the project. We need to know the reason for the change – what problem is being addressed and what are the forces behind the reason for change?

Thanks to technology, today’s companies must change constantly or die. Research shows that the average lifespan of a company is much shorter than previously thought. For example, on the Standard & Poors Index the average lifespan of a company is 15 years compared to previous generations. Companies like Kodak, which were once world leaders are now footnotes because they did not see how to use changes in technology. Although Kodak invented the digital camera, they set it aside so it would not impact on their main business of selling film. Kodak did not take advantage of this possible disruption – a digital camera – and is now history.

The disruption change brings to an organisation can be seen as an opportunity for that organisation to innovate and reinvent themselves. The same opportunities apply to BAs. BAs are better positioned than most professions to understand these types of change by analysing the underlying reasons for them and reinvent themselves based on the environment they find around them.

I believe that business analysts must adapt by developing expertise in the following areas:

  • strategic thinking,
  • customer-centred design, and
  • data presentation and communication.

To a lesser extent, all three of these areas are already listed in the IIBA Body of Knowledge Underlying Competencies. Competencies such as learning, communication, and leadership should be expanded to better understand the changing technological environment and provide value to our organisations.

One lesson from Kodak’s mistake with the digital camera is to think strategically and not to try and hide from new innovations. Business analysts have been told time and time again to not “jump to solution”; however, that may not fit with the new environment of organisations using already developed or outsourced IT solutions and applications in the cloud. Mark McDonald said it best in a Gartner Blog on “Amplifying the role of the business analyst” when he stated “Increasingly, enterprises and CIOs do not have the resources or time to continuously create new solutions. This changes the role of business analyst from introducing new solutions to solve issues toward a greater emphasis on redeploying existing solutions to new issues.“ 

While organisations are attempting to understand the technology changes, end users or customers of their products, they are also trying to keep up with these changes. Business analysts have always included the end user in the stakeholder lists and analysis, but now is the time for them to recognise that customers are THE stakeholder. In my opinion, good design and usability of an end product signals the success of a project. Customers today have many platforms to voice their disapproval and affect the organisation. Good design comes from including users in the design process and experimenting with them to see what works. This user-centred approach works well with our requirements elicitation.

The change businesses are experiencing means that they will look for answers everywhere, including all the data available to them through websites and social media and other means. The Harvard Business Review recently declared: “The steady invasion of hard analytics and technology (big data) is a certainty.”  And business analysts should be equipping themselves to understand what this means and more importantly, how to present data. We need to understand what exactly the stakeholders are looking to the data for and how to present it to them so they understand it to make a decision. I disagree with this article in Slashdot stating that big data means the “death” of business analysts. No, I think the change coming from big data provides a great opportunity for BAs.

As organisations face change and decide how to respond, we BAs face the same need to change. How we respond to change and whether we change also and in what ways will determine whether we are successful. I believe our profession needs to start focusing more on strategic thinking, customer-centred design and data presentation and communication. What are your thoughts?

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Start Up with a BA

Written by Lee Paddock on . Posted in Articles.

When you think of the who’s who in a startup organisation you’ll often come up with a list that doesn’t include the title “Business Analyst”. But does this mean that there are no BAs in startups? Is it that there’s simply no room for this role in the small confounds of the windowless rented office amongst the pizza boxes, coffee cups, and static buzz of the young business?

Typically, when I think of the positions within a web startup, I come up with the following:

  1. CEO: Founder, Visionary, Product Owner, Business Development
  2. Designer: UI/UX Design, Product look/feel
  3. Engineer/Programmer: Backend product developer
  4. Developer: Front-end development

No mention of a Business Analyst…

Startups, like businesses of any shapes and sizes, must develop something that is aligned with what customers need so there must be an analysis of that need, backed up with a translation of the need in order to make it a reality. But where does it come from? Let’s take a closer look at the formative stages of startups with a couple of examples.

Take Brian Wong of Kiip as an example. He knew there was something in the structure of games that made them so appealing, so popular (dare I say ‘addictive’?), therefore so successful, and needed to dig deeper to find out what it was that draws the crowds in and keeps them entertained. After hours of deconstructing and analysing the DNA of games, his focus was drawn to one thing: rewards. Those little moments of achievement that start off easy and become harder and harder to attain as the game progresses – you want to receive more rewards and you’re hooked into trying to win them. Brian’s eureka moment came when he converted in-game achievements into real-world rewards, such as free coffee at Starbucks, and built the Kiip platform for game developers to deliver real goodies to their gamers.

Nick Swinmurn of Zappos had a hunch that people would buy shoes online and set out to prove the concept. He went into a High Street store, took photos of shoes, and posted them online at the same price as the retail store, and he found that people bought them. He knew that the real requirement of a shoe shopper was not to “go to a shoe shop and purchase a pair of shoes”, it was more simply “to purchase a pair of shoes”.

These two examples of innovation came about providing solutions to the “right” business use cases: how to turn virtual rewards into real-world tangibles, and how to deliver shoes in the size, colour and brand that they want. Brian and Nick played the role of Business Analyst in these high-level needs analyses.

After asking the right questions and identifying the real need of the customer comes the task of translating the vision into something that enables it; the product. Even startups (the highly successful ones) that were originally built by their founding CEO require a separate technical team to deliver the vision into the product. These CEOs find themselves playing the role of BA once more as they translate the requirements to their development teams. Presenting requirements may take many forms: sketches on whiteboards, post-it notes on kanban boards, some may document their specification in more ‘traditional’ formats such as use cases or workflows. CEOs also have to impart their concepts of design, functionality, and usability onto the team in order to maintain the look and feel of the vision and brand whilst meeting the needs of the business use case.

Looking further down the process of product development we find more examples of where the BA role is played out. Many startups seek feedback of their product early and often to enable them to adapt and deliver something that suits the needs of the market. Presenting an early prototype of the product provides the opportunity to elicit feedback and additional requirements in order to refine the product in the next iteration. Techniques all too familiar to BAs such as workshops, brainstorming, and interviews will ensure that feedback is as structured and insightful as possible, thus providing the best possible chances of developing specifications that will result in richer, more usable products.

Whatever the chosen model of development, be it agile, iterative, or waterfall, and whatever the mode of the business, whether startup or established, the need to translate requirements from the visionary, the clients, the end users, is a constant across businesses. Some people are fulfilling the role of a BA and they just don’t know it.

So is there room for a BA in startups? You might find the answer sitting at the desk with the title ‘CEO’.

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Business Analysis Pathways

Written by Natasha Ramsey on . Posted in Articles.

State of the Business Analysis Field

Many organizations are phasing out titles and work descriptions such as, “Business Analysis”, and “Requirements sessions” and replacing them with combined tasks under the Agile and Scrum project methodologies. Some are asking developers, architects, and business users to define the scope, requirements and functional requirements without the guidance of a person with the title, “Business Analyst” as they are confident that other team members such as developers and architects can fill both the technical and business-based roles, while others simply do not have the resources to staff both types of positions and are asking employees to do double duty. While this may be frustrating for some employees, namely Business Analysts, it’s good news for those with a development or programming background who are trying to break into the business side or those trying to leverage their knowledge into a field of business analysis to provide value to an organization other than through their coding genius. This may also be a good thing for Business Analysts who want to take on more responsibility or advance in their career.

Programmer to Business Analyst Path

Now that you know you are ready call upon your years of experience as a developer and know that you are more than capable of not only functioning but providing value to a project team with your skill set, your first task is to find the right team in which to fit. Why not just go out there and apply for a BA job at a company that’s hiring? Sure, you can do that; however, chances are you already know quite a few people in this field already and a referral with networking is always more profitable than a cold call. Tap the connections you already have. They may include your team’s Business Analysts (if they will be open to it and not see you as a threat to their positions), satisfied clients for whom you’ve toiled over code and obstacles to create the best possible product that they currently enjoy, online avenues such as LinkedIn, etc. and even your manager. Maybe there’s a potential staffing opportunity within your group or another team that your manager can recommend you for or find someone to help groom your business analysis habits.

Business Analyst to Project Manager, Strategic Analyst, and other Analysis Paths

Now, to the Business Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, Project Analysts, etc. who are left performing boring maintenance duties bestowed upon them since they were the subject matter experts on that once upon a time, cutting edge product/application that they were instrumental in dreaming up and creating, as well as to those who can churn out “As Is” and “To Be” process flows with the precision of a butcher who can divvy up the best petite filet from that prime rib.

This group not only includes the creative types who want to continue feeding the creative desire, they know that their input based on extensive organization knowledge will be helpful and welcomed in other aspects of an organization and are ready to join a team that would benefit from their years of expertise in analyzing how and where to trim the fat, how to improve upon manual processes through automation or through policy changes. Typically, these employees yearn to be a part of something bigger than them and they have proven experience (products, services and applications) that their vision for the end stage of a product or application, as well as their ability to effectively gauge advantages and disadvantages of a process or approach will enhance any project or management team tasked with the “intrapreneurship”, expansion of business, etc.

Why should a programmer be considered for a business analysis role?

Programmers with excellent communication skills know many of a company’s systems and can articulate the pros and cons to several business questions such as whether to build or buy a solution or product, as well as integration efforts needed with regard to Third Party tools. This pool of talent can also help allocate development resources based on their years of experience. After all, these are the same individuals who in the past, have fulfilled the request of many users for various applications and products and some have been the programmers who pulled at their hair and mad-typed their way well into midnight to force a fit when a vendor application or product did not seamlessly fit the organization’s architecture. Rely on their knowledge and background. Grow them in the analysis role and you will not only have a happier employee, but a well-rounded and valuable asset on your team.

Why should a Business Analyst be considered for a Project Management, Management Analyst, or any other Analyst role?

Let’s think about the core aspects of a Business Analyst or Business Systems Analyst role. A successful Business Analyst fosters mutually beneficial relationships between multiple facets of an organization, envisions applications and products in full use at the end stage of the process even when it’s just a twinkle in the business owner’s eyes. A successful analyst is astute when it comes to his/her customers’ needs, processes, obstacles and aspirations for a particular department/team. Additionally, this person is skilled in finding ways to minimize or eradicate wasteful processes and can often see the “big picture” of where an organization wants to, or needs to go. After all, they have racked up hordes of details on efficiency and process during the years of crafting “To Be” process flows, mapping out user needs and experiences through user stories, scenarios, and usability studies. This is a skill set that not only a project team with a specific set of deliverables can employ business offices such as a project management office, strategic planning or research and accountability offices will benefit as well. After all, who best to draw up that Cost Benefit Analysis, Gap Analysis or ROI when planning to take on, or expand business? Business leaders no longer need to rely solely on current team members who are thrown into the role of business owner, sometimes begrudgingly, when someone with proven experience as a successful analyst will excel in such a role.

At a senior level, a Business Analyst exudes confidence and calmness during chaotic processes as the analyst role requires patience and the ability to wade through the muck and mire to get to the root cause of an issue, system change, or process overhaul. So, if you are looking for the next big thinker or architect to pull together a team that will plan out your organization’s next big thing, or need that creative thinker who can energize and encourage work teams, don’t hesitate to take a look at, and consider that experienced Business Analyst!

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The Top 10 Business Analysis Skills for 2012

Written by Angela Wick on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on The Top 10 Business Analysis Skills for 2012

I like to think of the BA role as a broker of information, getting big picture and details from many different people, groups, executives, subject matter experts, vendors, technical resources, etc . . .

what the BA does with all this information and how it gets communicated and repurposed for each audience is opportunity for a BA.

Today’s trends are pointing towards the following themes for BAs:
– Business Agility
– Innovation
– Engagement of stakeholders to drive agility and innovation

The needed skills to meet these trends in 2012:

1) Conceptual Modeling Skills
Engage your stakeholders with more meaningful dialog!  Conceptual Modeling of the business view of the solution has always been a critical tool to help bring business, technology, and delivery groups together in defining solution scope.  I have had many BAs tell me that they do this and show me their conceptual models.  What I find when reviewing the models is more of a technical architecture or data context diagrams.  Technical architecture and data context diagrams have their place, but the critical skill I am seeing as a gap in BA skill sets is the business view (vs. technical view) of the solution scope, this will be critical to engaging stakeholders and setting the stage for innovation

2) Communicating Details and Concepts
Similar to the conceptual modeling skills is communicating various levels of detail appropriate to the audience.  This can be especially difficult when you have various stakeholder needs on the team or in the meeting, and many times multiple views is needed to ensure the right message is communicated to all audience needs.  Where I see the gap today is details are not organized to be digestible and understandable to many audiences and there may be a lack of conceptual and context to accompany the details.  Without the concept and context information, the details – even when well organized – may not be understood or thought of in with the frame of mind that the BA needs from the stakeholders.  Rethink requirements packaging, does the same document need to go out to everyone?  Or, can each audience be given a guide as to which pages/sections are most pertinent to them?  Just a few ideas to help stakeholders consume what is important to them.

3) Curiosity
How curious are you as a BA?  This has always been a critical skill for BAs.   Ensuring curiosity in finding the root cause of the problem or opportunity, getting the  right audience, usage, context, purpose for requirements requires a strong level of curiosity in BA work.  Curiosity will go far in 2012 for BAs wanting to build competency and skills in the world of mobile apps, cloud computing, and continuing agile trends.  Curiosity will make some of the unknowns of today easier to work within, a curious mindset will take BAs into communicating the unknown and help organizations innovate.

4) Decomposing the Abstract into Details
I have to call this out separately from Conceptual Modeling and Communicating Details and Concepts.  The same themes are in play, but yet executed a bit differently and in different scenarios.  Decomposing the abstract into details is also referred to as “critical thinking” and sometimes “system thinking”; taking something large, ambiguous, and abstract and breaking into smaller pieces, patterns, and views.  It is about helping others see the details and big picture from different perspectives, helping stakeholders with varying points of view and priorities see where their details and others fit into the bigger picture.  It will also help BAs better estimate and work with PMs on the status and risk of requirements.

5) Mentoring and Coaching
As the BA role becomes increasingly more valued in organizations, two things will happen:  1) Organizations will need a career path for Sr. BAs, and 2) Organizations will need to develop internal strategies to develop more talent in the BA role and Sr. level skill set.  Mentoring and coaching skills are key for Sr. BAs in both of these strategies.  Mentoring and coaching done by Sr. BAs will develop leadership competencies in the Sr. BAs while developing BA competencies in new or more inexperienced BAs in the organization.  Sr. BAs who have the opportunity to mentor and coach will develop further leadership competencies needed to elevate the competencies of the BA team as a whole.

6) Communicating Risks
Project Managers focus on risks to the project budget, schedule and scope.  A BA needs to focus on risks to the business value of the solution and communicating the risk.  BAs are in a prime position to see the details and big picture view; this includes seeing the risks to the project, delivering a solution that does not maximize business value.  I find that BAs have an intuitive sense of this, but often struggle to communicate the risk in a way that gets leadership attention.  In order to get leadership attention to the business value at risk, BAs will need to develop skills in communicating the true business impact of the risk.  This means going beyond communicating in terms of the features and functionalities of the process or software, and going beyond that, there is not enough time for requirements to be done right. It means communicating the impact it will have on the business operation or strategy.  For example, when the functionality of a point of sale application has a requirements conflict in the process of accepting payment from customers, the focus needs to turn to the impact of the conflict on the customer service representative’s ability to serve the customers and the customer experience vs. the technical details at risk of the requirement.  In the heat of requirements and design details, we often let the details drive risk discussions and never get to the bottom line impacts that can really propel leaders to make the right decisions.

 

7) Leveraging the “parking lot”
Are you running your meetings or are meetings and stakeholders running you?  Many BAs get into tough situations in requirements meetings and feel that other agendas and personalities are driving their meetings astray.  Using a “parking lot” (simple visual list of items that do not fit into the meeting agenda to be followed up on or scheduled into another meeting) to manage and control the meeting agenda, content, level of detail and difficult personalities is a key strategy.  Most importantly, make sure that the parking lot is visible to everyone in the meeting.  Having the parking lot in your notebook or on your laptop does not show others that you have their ideas and concerns captured to discuss at a later time.  Be empowered to take control of your meetings!

 

8) Change Management
Embracing the BA role as an agent of change will continue to show the value the organization the value the BA role brings to the organization. Projects are about business change; the BA role is about bringing the most value possible in a solution to address the business change.  The role of a change agent in the BA is critical to ensuring all impacted parties are ready for the changes needed to accept the solution.  Understanding how changes and solutions impact the stakeholders operations, processes, attitudes and behaviors is a key skill in maximizing the success of the new solution and the business value it brings.

9) Asking WHY?
I love the word “Why”, but hate to use it.  My challenge to readers of this blog is to help one another find ways to ask “Why”.  Many times using the word “Why” can come across wrong to the other person, it can seem defensive and the other may wonder why (no pun intended) you are asking.  Finding different ways to ask “why” can alleviate this dilemma.  My favorite ways to ask “Why?”:  Tell me more about what is behind the need for abc?  What does success look like?  What would happen if this project does not get implemented? What are yours?

10) Impromptu Whiteboard Drawing
In 2012 when innovation, agility, and engagement are the trends, being able to spontaneously draw will lead to stakeholders to a deeper level of engagement.  Getting up to draw shakes up the flow of boring meetings, engages others to focus back in on the discussion, and brings out humor – let humor be a friend. You don’t have to be an artist to draw concepts on whiteboards that generate great dialog, discussion, creativity and innovation.  It also does not have to be you that does the drawing; ask someone else to draw what they are thinking and your meeting will benefit in many of the same ways.  When the drawing yields powerful and meaningful discussion, be sure someone takes a picture with their phone.

No matter that type of BA, no matter what the industry, these skills in 2012 will set your projects up for deeper engagement, innovation and agility.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

 

Meet Your Business Analysis Influencer

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Meet Your Business Analysis Influencer

Kupe_Mar_6_2012_32083524_XSMy goal in life is to meet everyone in the world.  I know that goal is not SMART (specific, realistic, etc.). It is not reaching the goal that is important; it is the effort I go through to try and meet the goal that counts. The goal goes deeper than just “meeting” people. I try to meet everyone I can and establish a relationship. Building strong relationships is a constant, consistent goal of mine. Some grow deeper than others, but I don’t discriminate. I meet and engage with people sometimes without knowing how I will add value to that person or how they will add value to me. For some this is a hard concept to grasp. Some feel so busy and can’t fathom spending time getting to know someone new without knowing why you should get to know them.
 We work in a highly collaborative work environment. You don’t have to do everything on your own. If you build strong relationship people are more willing to help you. So if you are too busy to build relationships it is because you are not building relationships.

If you still need some convincing regarding building relationships, here is one big reason you should bother. Build relationships to ensure your message is delivered. This thought popped into my head after seeing an interview with Bono, lead singer of U2. He is a huge advocate to reduce or eliminate the AIDS virus. He has helped raise money and awareness that is dramatically helping the cause. But Bono is not a doctor. He does not work for the Center of Disease Control.  He is not trained to do the research, administer tests or provide medicine to patients. What he does do is use his influence to help raise money to support the cause. He uses his influence to convince lawmakers they should allocate funds and resources to support the cause.  He delivers the message.

I speak with many BA professionals that get frustrated when they can’t convince their management that they need more focus on the BA practice. I speak with many BA professionals that realize projects are not going well, but are not sure how to get their message to the right person. Sometimes you don’t have the influence necessary to get your message across. Does that mean you should stop? Of course not.  You need to detach the message from the delivery of the message. The point is not who delivers the message; the point is that the message gets delivered. 

Most likely Bono won’t be stopping by your office anytime soon trying to convince your management that they need to fund your effort to start a Business Analysis Community of Practice. Go out and meet some new people in your company at all levels.  Who knows, maybe they’ll be delivering a message for you.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.