Tag: Communication

The Hidden Cost of Side Quests: How BAs Can Protect Their Time

Written by Adrian Reed on October 3, 2024. Posted in Articles.

Back in the late 2000s, I started a new job, having worked for my previous employer for a long time. It was a really weird feeling—I can still remember entering the building, being assigned a desk, logging in and there being virtually no email for me.

I was already assigned to a project, and I was introduced to a key stakeholder. It was a fairly small project, albeit with some hidden complexity. Working with the project team, we got it done, and the analysis work was done pretty quickly.

Partly, this was because I was new and keen to make an impression. But, on reflection, another reason I was able to get the analysis done quickly was (as a new team member) I didn’t yet have the overhead of a whole number of ‘side quests’ that tend to accumulate over time.

What Type of “Side Quests” might a BA be drawn into?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been drawn into a whole range of other activities. Often there are good reasons for this, but sometimes I can’t help but think that what I’m really doing is filling a gap in the organizational structure.

Examples might include:

Providing production support to production systems: (“You wrote the requirements, you know how it works…”). This might be genuinely useful and necessary in a transition period, but I suspect a few people reading this are still supporting some elements of a system they worked with years ago, and that sounds like gap filling!
Quality assurance: BAs absolutely can feed into testing. Yet, as much as I’ll give some (very limited) testing a go, I know that I am not a professional QA engineer, I have a different skill set. In fact, I love working with QA colleagues, as they will often help me sharpen my game by reminding me that quality assurance is about a lot more than testing, and they can provide useful peer reviews on requirements artifacts too.
Messy workarounds: If there’s a ‘temporary’ workaround, it might make sense for a BA to help operationalize it. Yet, issues occur when the organization decides that workaround isn’t ‘temporary’, and three years later somehow you’re still lumbered with the task of deciphering operational data via an unmanageable spreadsheet with macros…and everyone is shouting that they need it ‘today!’

In all of these cases, it can be valid for BAs to be involved for a limited amount of time. Context is everything. Yet, being drawn in for too long, or finding that it becomes a permanent part of your repertoire could be damaging.

Put differently: If a BA ends up providing perpetual informal production support for every system or process they are involved with changing or deploying, then they have less capacity to do business analysis after every project. There will come a time when their role is more support than analysis.

Saying “No” by giving options

The challenge, though, is that these ‘side quests’ often are important to someone, and might be crucial to the organization, which makes them hard to say no to. A key question here is around prioritization: are they as important as the project work. Or put differently: should the project work be delayed, to create space for the side quest. If a project is the priority, then this might mean saying no to a side quest or two… but that can be hard.

So what approaches are there for saying “no” constructively?

I live in the UK, and if you’re not familiar with our culture, it’s somewhat indirect. In fact, when I say “somewhat indirect”, what I actually mean is “completely indirect to the point I literally don’t know how non-native English speakers decode what we are trying to say most of the time”. So, as you can imagine, a curt “no” can be tricky. What follows is written through the lens of a UK citizen, things might be different where you are.

With regards to saying “no”, I once had a fantastic manager who gave the following advice which has always stuck with me:

“Try not to say ‘no’ outright, unless you really need to. Instead, find a way of saying ‘yes’ by giving implications and options”

This might sound like:

“Yes, I could absolutely take a look at that production support issue. That’ll likely take around half a day, which will delay a core project deliverable. Shall we go and speak to the project manager to ensure that’s OK? If it isn’t, perhaps I could ping you over some documents that might help, and I’ll be on hand for any quick queries?”

“Yes, I can certainly continue to help with the manual workaround. However, I’m likely to be a bit of a bottleneck, due to project work, which is always going to take priority as it’s my core role. I wouldn’t want to delay you. How about I train one of your team? I could also make a quick video of the process, so they have something to refer to. Then you’re in complete control”

Sometimes It’s a Hard “no”

While the approach described above will work in many situations, there will be times when a hard ‘no’ is necessary. In those cases, in my experience, it’s best to be direct (however uncomfortable that is). I have been amazed that often when I say no, and give the reasons, people are actually extremely understanding. Even if they aren’t, it’ll be some short-term discomfort while the issue is discussed, instead of long term pain (if you’ve ever taken on too much work, you’ll know how painful that feeling of overwhelm can be!).

Ultimately, whether to say ‘no’, and how to say it varies depending on context. You have to do what’s right for you. I hope this blog has given you some food for thought!

Transition Requirements – The Key To Adoption

Written by Tiffany Wiley on September 18, 2024. Posted in Articles.

The key to adoption. Don’t forget the obvious.

As a Business Analyst at heart, requirements play a part in my everyday life. Much to the annoyance of those closest to me, I’m wired to think of everyday activities in terms of requirements 😊

However, transition requirements are sometimes elusive, even to those of us with a couple of decades of experience. But – they are the key to adoption!

A quick little story time…

When my daughter went to her first school, we spent weeks preparing; we got her a backpack and matching lunchbox, new school clothes, new shoes, and a sleeping mat, and we even planned a lunch and snack menu! I even read the school handbook, multiple times! At 3.5 years old; she’s spent her entire life with just the three of us. She never went to a daycare, so this was her first school-like experience, and we were ALL excited! Nevertheless, in all that preparation, we neglected a key piece of information – WE would not stay with her at school.

As we unbuckled her, with excitement beaming from her eyes, she stated “Mommy, we are all going to have so much fun today!”. At that moment, I knew I missed a key piece of information that was going to completely change how the rest of the day went. Oops! And it did…she was distraught! Then I was too!

In all my functional preparation, I neglected to operationalize her new school experience. I completely missed considering my key stakeholder’s transition!

Even with over 18 years of requirements management experience, I forgot the obvious. This is your call to action – don’t forget the obvious!

What are transition requirements?

Transition Requirements (or Transitional Requirements) are like NFRs (Non-Functional Requirements), in that they are often missed in the design and development processes.

As the name suggests, these are the requirements that will ensure a successful transition from the current to the future state.

Why are they important?

Without a plan to transition from the current state to the future state, adoption will surely slow if not stop entirely. You as the Product/Project Manager may be excited about this change, but excitement alone doesn’t cross the finish line!

A transition (or migration) will likely impact other business units and processes. For example, a customer may need to upgrade a current licensing agreement to transition to a new solution. Do you wait to transition them? What is the impact of waiting? Are there legal implications? Is additional training required?

Additionally, on the softer side of a transition, is understanding the change curve. Especially when it comes to process or culture-related changes, transitions can be very difficult. People are creatures of comfort – i.e., creatures of familiarity. And change is unfamiliar….it is uncomfortable. Having a good understanding of change management can help ensure there aren’t gaps in the transition plan and requirements.

How does that tie into overall value?

Value is realized when the solution is adopted. A single transition requirement alone does not generally provide quantitative value. However, the overall plan and requirements’ existence provides a qualitative value by ensuring a successful transition can happen – leading to better adoption and ultimate solution value realization.

Technique for gathering Transition Requirements?

Transition requirements should only be defined once the final solution is known. It doesn’t need to be fully implemented, but it must be known.

Unlike functional (or stakeholder) requirements, these are typically not willingly disclosed or stated by the business or users. Because of this, my favorite technique to start with is questions; to elicit information to then derive the transition requirements from that information. It is important to have a listing of questions to start with, but also being present in the discussion will help uncover additional questions to minimize gaps and assumptions.

Some sample questions and follow-up questions are noted below:

Are there any user skill gaps that need to be filled to operationalize the new solution?
- Is this a training we can provide, or do we need outside help?
- What is the cost of this effort?
- What type of internal messaging is required?
Is there any data that needs to be migrated from the current to the future system?
- If so, how can that be done?
- Migrate all data? Only some data?
- Does data need to be transformed?
- How long to prep? Migrate? Validate?
- Are there any regulatory requirements for transmitting the data?
- What are the ideal timelines?
What is required to retire the current solution?
- Can it just be turned off/eliminated?
  - Do user accounts need to be deactivated?
- Is there a cost associated with terminating (or ending early)?
- Will data need to be deleted? Can it (contractually) be deleted?
What processes need to change to implement the new solution?
- How/when will this process change happen?
- How/when will it be communicated?

Additionally, think about the differences between the two solutions/states. Then identify some questions, even if they seem silly, to help elicit information. Listed below are a couple of sample projects with a few starting questions:

Set your launch up for success by not forgetting the obvious – Transition Requirements.

Best of: 10 Soft Skills You’ll Need To Be A Successful Business Analyst

Written by Lee Templeton on August 21, 2024. Posted in Articles.

You might already know the technical skills you’ll need to be a great Business Analyst (BA) but do you know the essential soft skills? The role of a BA is deeply rooted in working with people. You’ll often be coordinating with stakeholders, running workshops, or presenting documentation to teams. To be a successful BA you’ll need the following soft skills to compliment the technical ones.

Rapport Building

You’ll need to build rapport with your stakeholders early in a project which you can do in many ways. While you’re waiting for a meeting to start ask your stakeholders questions like, “how is your day going?”, “what are you doing in the weekend?”. I’ve been in meetings where everyone is silent until the workshop begins. Take advantage of this time to build rapport by finding common interests, showing empathy or complimenting them on something such as a tie, a picture in the background of the Zoom or their promptness. This may seem trivial, but it will set you up to succeed as the project rolls out. Your stakeholders will be more likely to attend meetings/workshops, feel more comfortable contributing and start to champion the project and the changes you’re making within the organization.

Empathy

The Oxford Dictionary defines Empathy as ‘The ability to understand and share the feelings of another’. This is an important soft skill for a BA because we need to put ourselves in our stakeholders’ shoes to understand the problems we are trying to solve. To have empathy means to understand the pain points within the organizations Current State which is essential when we’re trying to fix them. Try to imagine how frustrating it must feel to have outdated, manual process at work when the technology we use at home is so advanced these days. Use empathy to speak to these pain points and get stakeholder buy in and drive user adoption.

Enthusiasm

Depending on the scope of your project Stakeholders may be attending a lot of workshops and meetings so it’s important to be enthusiastic and positive about what you’re doing. Let’s be honest there’s nothing worse than a dull or dry workshop consisting of people talking at you with slides of written content. To get people to come along for the journey we need to engage them and be enthusiastic about what we’re doing. Speak positively about the benefits and outcomes of your project, show visual diagrams and ask questions to get people involved. Having a positive and bright disposition will pick people up when they engage with you, help them focus on the content and be more likely to contribute.

Active listening

When we’re working on current state or establishing things like user journeys, user personas, use cases or processes a key soft skill you’ll need is Active Listening. Active listening is a pattern of listening that means listening to verbal and non-verbal cues without judging or jumping to conclusions. When you’re active listening you’re not thinking about what to say next you are completely focused on the person communicating. Don’t interrupt them or propose solutions at this stage, instead paraphrase and reflect what you’ve heard back to the person. This will ensure you don’t miss anything, don’t misinterpret anything and help you understand the paint points your users are experiencing in more depth.

Creativity

When making changes to the organization such as processes, we need to find solutions that work for everyone. For this we will need to think outside the box because realistically we may not be able to meet everyone’s needs, or some people may just be averse to the changes. To facilitate the transition, we can use creative visualizations to get everyone on board the journey; Miro, Figma and Visio are great tools for creating visual diagrams. You can do role plays during workshops, online or in person to outline the steps of a new process. Be creative and use your imagination to make it fun and engaging for your stakeholders.

Adaptability

As a BA you may find yourself on new projects for new businesses often and every situation will be unique. You will need to assess each business’s unique culture, ways of working and environment. Some businesses may be very formal and highly governed while others may be casual and more agile in their approach. To be successful in all these environments you need to be able to adapt, this means finding the right language, terminology, pace, document structure and hierarchy. Recently I worked on a project for a very successful company that still had a startup mentality. They embraced agile ways of working and feared having their autonomy taken away, because of this the word ‘Governance’ was a trigger for many of the staff. We had to adapt our language to suit the client and instead of ‘Governance’ we used ‘Guidelines’. Be adaptable and understand the culture you are working in, don’t work against it, work with it.

Communication

Clear and concise communication is important to be successful as a BA. When working with people things can get lost in translation, its our jobs as BAs to ensure they don’t get lost! Be willing to speak up and ask for more detail if you don’t understand something or when you notice others aren’t understanding it either. At times you may need to control the pace of a discussion, to speed it up to keep people engaged or to slow it down if it is moving too fast. There are times when you will need to paraphrase what someone has said to communicate it more effectively to the broader audience. You can use terms like “what I’m hearing is…” or “To put that another way might be…”. Utilizing your communication skills will ensure workshops and meetings stay on topic and you get what you need out of them.

Patience

You may find yourself in a situation where you already know the journey ahead for your stakeholders for example a company is implementing an out-of-the-box solution. You’ll need patience to assess their current state to find gaps and bring the stakeholders along for the journey so they can get excited about their new technology and processes, even though you already know the outcome. Another example of using patience is in workshops where different participants repeat information to you, you need to actively listen so they feel heard, but it could get a little boring for you. Lastly, not everyone you encounter is going to be a great communicator, some people talk for too long, some people get off topic, some people are hard to understand, and you need to listen to these stakeholders trying to communicate ineffectively and decipher what they’re saying, this takes patience.

Improvisation

You will find yourself in meetings with technical people, non-technical people and people from all different units of the business. Analogies are a great way to explain complex strategies or technology to people that don’t understand what you’re talking about. If someone doesn’t understand something a great way to describe it to them in terms they can understand may be using analogies. You can improvise and tell them about “One time I went to the supermarket and at the checkout this happened…. Which is like this technology system that does this…”. You will get better at this over time and come to understand what works for stakeholders from different Business Units.

Conflict Resolution

Often our stakeholders may disagree on things like current state or how future state should be. We need to manage both points of view and bring the team to a consensus where possible. Consensus may not be possible in all situations, but we still need to handle the conversations constructively so that everyone agrees upon the next steps. Some pointers for conflict resolutions are

Defuse Anger and facilitate communication
Separate people from problems
Listen first, talk second
Set out the facts
Explore options together

Using these tips, we can find a way to move forward together and keep the project on track.

People Process and Tooling (The PPT framework) is a great way to approach IT changes within an organization. I believe the most important aspect in this framework is people because the technology and processes are no good if the people within the organization don’t use them. You can use these soft skills as a BA’s when engaging people to ensure organizational changes are adopted and in turn, you will be successful too.

Decoding Stakeholder Signals: Beyond Formal Feedback in Business Analysis

Written by Adrian Reed on July 31, 2024. Posted in Articles.

If I asked you how often you get feedback from your stakeholders, what would your response be?

I suspect many people reading this will actively solicit feedback quarterly or annually for a formal appraisal process. That is very useful, but consciously created feedback of this type is only one source of valuable insight. Feedback is all around us, but it often requires us to look for it. However, it is well worth being vigilant, as when we spot feedback we can reflect on it and adapt.

Feedback as a Signal

Rather than thinking about feedback as something that has to be formally solicited, let’s imagine stakeholders let us know their thoughts, feelings and intentions through a series of signals, and those signals can be consciously or unconsciously given. Sometimes they’ll say something directly, other times we might need to read between the lines and observe their actions.

This is similar to driving a car. If you’re in the driving seat of a car, you’ll be scanning the road for turn signals (indicator lights). These tend to indicate another driver’s intention to turn or maneuver. However, we all know that not all drivers use these lights! We’ve probably all experienced situations where you notice a small change in another driver’s trajectory, so you hold back a bit… and instinct serves you well as they cut over multiple lanes of traffic. There are many subtle cues that indicate what a driver is about to do, although on the road rarely is it possible to validate our instinct. You can’t ask the driver what they are about to do: it’s necessary to wait and see.

A similar analogy can be drawn with organizational stakeholders, however we have the advantage that we can ask them what their intent is. Let’s examine an example:

Example: The Absent Stakeholder

Imagine you have a stakeholder who is crucial to the success of your project, and they are regularly ditching meetings or arriving very late. They always arrive unprepared, and rarely make decisions as they are too busy. You have sympathy for them, they seem to be spread so thinly.

Arguably there is a wider organizational issue here, as the stakeholder has too much work to do. However, assuming the person is effective at managing their workload, then there’s an unpalatable truth to swallow here. By saying “too busy” they are actually giving a subtle feedback signal which could be interpreted as “this is not a priority for me right now”.

This last sentence might be a difficult one to read, and they might say (and genuinely think) that the project is important. But if they are not prioritizing their time in a way that supports the project, they are unconsciously signaling that it isn’t significantly important for them to spend their limited time on.

This is no criticism, they may well be doing the best they can in difficult circumstances, and we should absolutely do what we can to make sure we support them and respect their schedules. Yet, left unchecked this might lead to a project that limps along, with other stakeholders getting increasingly resentful that progress isn’t being made.

Sadly, there’s no easy solution to this, however it’s important to address the issue head on. Ensuring the stakeholder knows why they are so important and valued, the benefit of the project to them and the implications of their non-participation is crucial. Offering to do what we can to lighten the load for them will often be appreciated, and it is worth asking if they have a delegate who can help. Ultimately, if they are truly crucial and can’t delegate, then perhaps delaying the project is a better option.

Indeed, openly saying “would it be better to delay this project to a time when our crucial stakeholders have enough bandwidth to support it?” could potentially prompt a useful (albeit often difficult and emotion-filled) discussion!

Interpretation Is Hard

Once you start looking for feedback signals, they are all around us. However, interpretation is hard. It’s important to speak to stakeholders to understand what is going on for them, rather than assuming. The key is to start looking, and make any adjustments early. That way we can make things better for our stakeholders and our project teams—and who wouldn’t want to do that?

Contribution as a Form of Professional Development

Written by Adrian Reed on July 17, 2024. Posted in Articles.

As practitioners of change, we are probably all acutely aware that we need to continually develop. There is always more to learn, and there are countless ways of learning it. The fact that you are reading this article now, on a business analysis website, shows that you are interested in your professional development—and kudos to you for doing so! After all, it is those that develop and keep up to date that will thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.

However, professional development is often seen as a consumption-based activity. Ask a typical BA what development activities they have undertaken recently, and they’ll likely respond by telling you about articles they’ve read, training they’ve been on, webinars they’ve watched and so forth. All of these are fantastic ways of hearing different perspectives, and it is great that there are so many cost-effective (and free) options out there.

From Consumption to Competence (Through Practice)

Yet consumption alone rarely enhances a skill. I could ‘consume’ (read) a book about how to fly a passenger jet, yet you probably wouldn’t trust me to fly one if that’s the only experience I had. In fact, even if I’d been on a one-day course and we’d done some group-work simulating flying, you’d probably argue that isn’t enough. And of course you’d be right, pilots (presumably) need lots of time in the simulator, and hours flying generally, before they are qualified to fly a commercial airliner.

Although you or I are unlikely to be racing to the cockpit of an Airbus A380 any time soon, it’s likely that we will need to learn new skills, techniques and concepts. The broader point here is that just reading about them, or watching a YouTube video about them isn’t enough. Actually using them is crucial. This is where the ‘rubber meets the road’, where even more learning happens, as the technique or concept is put into practice within a particular context. It’s often the case that some adaptations are necessary—a technique that works just fine in the classroom may need some finessing to work in the real world. And that’s just fine, deliberate and selective adaptations to the nuances of the world are precisely what we should do as analysts.

From Competence to Contribution

It’s often been said that if you want to really test your knowledge of something, try and explain it to others. There is a strong element of truth in this, as anyone who has ever created a presentation or training course will tell you! Putting together an article or presentation tends to highlight any gaps in thinking, and it’s an opportunity for reflection.

This is where contribution to the BA community can become part of a deliberate professional development strategy. Perhaps there’s a technique that you’ve mastered: that would be a fantastic topic for a ‘skills exchange’ session with your colleagues. Perhaps that would involve a short presentation and a Q&A. Your colleagues would learn about the technique, within the context of your organization and by creating the presentation (and responding to the Q&A) you’d likely learn more too. A real win/win.

It’s possible to go even further. While we may be members of a Community of Practice within our organizations, we could also consider ourselves to be members of a global Community of Practice of interested BAs. You and I are connected via this article and this website. Others are connected through social media networks such as LinkedIn.

This provides us with the opportunity to write, blog, create videos and share experiences with people outside of our organizations too. Of course, it’s crucial not to share anything confidential or commercially sensitive, but sharing ‘how to write a user story really well’ or ‘how I used use cases to clarify complex requirements’ is unlikely to be controversial! It also has the advantage that it helps us all to connect with other interested BAs around the world. Hitting the ‘publish’ button can be scary, but the act of creating something is hugely worthwhile, and others will benefit from it.

Incidentally, if you’re reading this thinking “I’m too inexperienced to write or create anything” or “I don’t have anything worth writing about”, in my experience you are probably doing yourself a disservice. BAs tend to be somewhat modest, and everyone has an interesting professional story to tell!

Take a Blended Approach

Community contribution can be part of a blended professional development plan. Alongside consumption and practice, it can be a great way of reflecting, while also sharing experiences and building BA networks. The nature of the blend will vary depending on practitioner, but considering the options is key.

And if you do decide to create and share something, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know about it!