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Tag: Communication

Analyse Your Stakeholders

Written by Richard Larson on . Posted in Articles.

As a business analyst, aren’t you a bit like a translator? Your job is not just to interpret data, but to interpret it from the perspective of a businessperson and for the good of a specific business project. You are the middleman between sets of data and stakeholders in a business, and no matter what their educational backgrounds may be, those stakeholders are relying on you to deliver information that they can use to inform their next move. It’s up to you to communicate what might be rather abstract information in a meaningful, relevant way. Remember that word — communication — because as a business analyst, you are a professional communicator.

If you want to be a great communicator, it’s of paramount importance that you understand your audience. Forget the numbers for a second. Think about your stakeholders. If your job is to communicate with them, then for you to perform your job properly, they’ve got to be able to communicate right back, and be comfortable doing so. That means you need to be able to share bad news and be capable of disappointing people gracefully. It also means they need to be able to take that bad news and that disappointment, so they can work with it and mold it into success. Without honesty and transparency, your title isn’t Business Analyst. It’s Yes Man. There’s a time and place for Yes Men, but this isn’t it.

Speaking of titles, let’s set those aside. Your stakeholders may be your employers, but they’re also people. Shocking, right? Just like you, they will feel much more confident communicating with someone they feel a connection to. So to prime yourself for a successful project cycle, be sure to know your stakeholders. Or, if you prefer, analyse them.

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Qualities of a Stakeholder

Think about the ground-level qualities of your stakeholder. Where do they live? This is important because you may need to account for time zone differences. Which medium do they prefer for communication — email, phone, video conference, in-person, or even text? What’s their experience like? Get a feel for your stakeholder’s level of experience, both generally and in relation to the specifics of your assignment. Have they been involved in similar projects in the past, and, if so, are they keen to offer their own insights? Don’t assume every suit is a novice with money; they may very well be just as knowledgeable as you, but, for reasons you’re not paid to understand, they’d rather not do what you’re doing. All the better.

Then comes the business side of things. How formal is your stakeholder? Not everyone is into casual communication in the workplace, especially when it comes to inter-hierarchical communication. Yet some will be put off by a rigid presentation. You have to get a grip on the amount of formality expected from you, if for no other reason than the need for you to be taken seriously and be understood as a communicator. While you’re at it, try and pinpoint exactly what level of authority a stakeholder possesses. While you must always be respectful to your employer (and they should be the same), you have to have some understanding of which decisions can be made by whom, otherwise you might find yourself unsure of who to turn to when project-halting issues rear their heads.

There’s always a shot-caller. Don’t shy away from a quasi-Machiavellian approach. Recognize that, in any profit-seeking organization, some parties are less dispensable than others, whether it’s due to their social standing within a group, aggression and energy, or sheer ability as a money maker. Identify the shot-caller and determine how their requirements of you may differ from their peers.

Peripheral Qualities

With the formality and infrastructural concerns out of the way, try a little bit to get to know your stakeholders’ personalities. Think of these as qualities you wouldn’t talk openly about in a work email, but that would still help you in how you decide to deal with your stakeholders.

Sometimes, your job might shift from translator to mediator. It’s not really in the job description, but, at the end of the day, you might be the only one in the room who can bridge the gap not only between information and business decisions, but between all the different arbiters of those business decisions. Stakeholders don’t always get along with each other or see eye to eye, and even those with deep, time-honed business relationships will bicker — sometimes childishly. Don’t be afraid to step in and resolve some differences, appropriately of course, if it means consensus can be reached and the project can pick up and keep moving. Of course, to do this the right way, listen to the room and note the relationships you see. Just like you analyse individual stakeholders, try to analyse the group.

You’ll find, after some time working together, that you can identify if a stakeholder is able to act on their feet confidently or if they are the type to ruminate before making big decisions. Keep in mind which one you’re speaking to, because it will have no small effect on how you proceed. Plan ahead for situations where you might get a committed decision later, or even sooner, than you had hoped.

And finally, this one’s important in today’s global, interconnected business world: culture. You will likely find yourself dealing with people from all backgrounds. People from different countries, different religions, and different upbringings. If you’re working abroad and you’re the odd one out, get a feel for the customs and norms of the native culture. That’s Traveling 101, isn’t it? If your stakeholders can see you’ve made even a slight effort to participate in their culture, it will be much easier to develop mutual trust and willingness to understand and work with one another. At the very least, you may avoid saying something embarrassing.

Do We Need A Skills Matrix?

Written by Christina Lovelock on . Posted in Articles.

The answer to this question is almost always no. Here’s why…

Drivers

The stated objectives for creating a person-level skills matrix are usually something like:

  1. “We want to match staff to appropriate work by understanding their skills.”
  2. “We need to identify skills gaps and shortages across the team/organisation and prioritise areas for individual and general improvement.”

These seem sensible enough. They sound efficient, future focussed and suggest it will help individual team members to engage in appropriate work and increase their skills as needed.

Reality

The skills matrix appears on the surface to help with these aims. Unfortunately, they rarely meet the intended outcomes.

Here is a typical process:

  1. Drivers 1 and/or 2 exist, and eventually someone says “skills matrix”.
  2. Key skills to include are discussed and agreed. (This takes much longer than planned; technical skills are over-represented, core skills [1] are under-represented and undervalued by this process).
  3. Realisation that we want knowledge areas not just skills. A very long list is produced…
  4. After much questioning and resistance (most) staff rate themselves against the skills and knowledge areas.
  5. This is on the whole unsuccessful due to the Dunning-Kruger effect [2] on the one hand and Impostor Syndrome [3] on the other. (Plus, the fact that most of us think we are self-aware and only 10-15% of people actually are [4]).
  6. Many difficult conversations are then required explain why Person A is not actually an expert in everything and Person B is better than they think.
  7. The people who would be “best” for a piece of work based on the output of the matrix are not available.
  8. Managers and team members are all quite bruised by the process.
  9. Matrix is not updated. It goes slowly out of date.
  10. Abandoned.

 

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Alternative Reality

The skills an individual has is one of many factors which need to be considered when assigning appropriate work. The factors include:

  • What motivates them?
  • Who do they work well with?
  • Who can build relationships quickly?
  • What kind of support/environment allows them to do their best work?
  • Where do their interests lie?
  • Who has these skills/who needs to develop these skills?
  • Is there an appropriate senior person/role model?
  • Who has earned an exciting opportunity?
  • Who needs to stick to the basics?
  • Who can juggle multiple assignments?
  • Who prefers to concentrate on one area?

It is not possible to model all these factors in a spreadsheet. This level of understanding comes from managers having good relationships with team members, being able to honestly discuss personal style, preferences and professional development needs. Managers also need good visibility of upcoming work and assignments to be able to plan appropriately and engage with team members about future work.

Training Needs And Skills Gaps

Good managers know this information without a skills matrix. Given a list of skills needed by an organisation, managers should be able to identify and quantify capacity and competency gaps. A skills matrix is a lazy substitute for good quality management and a distraction that creates the illusion of control.

Individual personal development plans which align to organisational objectives are a more motivating and effective way of establishing and then aggregating team-member level data.

How Can BAs Help?

Business Analysts may be asked to create or contribute to the development of a skills matrix or record our own skills. We can use our analytical skills to establish the drivers and intended business outcomes and suggest alternative methods of achieving those.

Is A Skills Matrix Ever Relevant?

If the answer to the question “Do we need a skills matrix?” is almost always no, then there must be exceptions. Very large, typically global organisations which operate across a number of sectors (such as retail, aviation, construction etc.) that need to quickly mobilise specialist teams need a way of “searching and filtering” on staff. This is more effective as searchable information, with some structured data (e.g., job title, location, knowledge domains) and bio information maintained by the individual (experience, preferences, etc.) to allow the right people to be identified. Implementing this type of system requires appropriate investment in technology and business change. The business case for the ‘spreadsheet matrix’ never stacks up.

Conclusion

The skills matrix is typically a misguided attempt to automate something which needs to be a human discussion. How they are implemented often demotivates staff, serves as a distraction from real work and genuine issues and fails to meet the intended outcomes.  Organisations that want the capability to understand the skills and experience of their staff need to encourage the right behaviours from managers, make appropriate investment in robust decision support tools and engage with staff to capture information which is accurate, proportional and timely.

References:
[1] Core Skills: C Lovelock, BA Times, 2019 https://www.batimes.com/articles/stop-saying-soft-skills/
[2] Dunning-Kruger Effect : J Kruger, D Dunning, 1999  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10626367/
[3] Impostor Syndrome: C Lovelock, BA Times, 2020 https://www.batimes.com/articles/impostor-syndrome-business-analysis-is-not-just-common-sense/
[4] Self-Awareness: T Eurich, Harvard Business Review, 2018 https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it

Time to Prune Your Social Media History

Written by Hans Eckman on . Posted in Articles.

Every week we hear about someone who has an embarrassing social post come back to haunt them. Even worse, this can lead to a loss of employment or being “canceled”. You need to actively manage your social image and reputation at all times. Wait! We have freedom of speech! Yes, but that does not mean freedom from accountability, judgment, and consequences. It’s up to you to set your risk tolerance. Here is guidance to help you decide and better manage your image.

Risks and considerations for having an expanded social presence

As I watched more and more people having to explain, delete, and apologize for past posts, I spent time considering my social trail, goals, and risk I was willing to take. Several major insights occurred to me:

  1. No one goes back to really old posts or sees what you like unless they are looking for someone specific or seeing who you are. When was the last time you scrolled through posts from 2 years ago?!
    1. Delete all old messages that do not have lasting value.
  2. What is acceptable now may be Cancelled in the future or understood under a different context. Imagine I posted about taking my niece to the zoo and how much fun we had. 10 years from now, what if zoos are considered horrible places of the past that unfairly incarcerated animals? There is such a limited value to having that post 10 years from now, that’s it’s just better to make it a point in time and delete it.
  3. Match your message and purpose with your platform: Social platforms are not a good place to sway opinions. I decided to focus on each location with how I could best reach my goal.
    1. LinkedIn – Professional image and content related to my current purpose and focus. Keep content timeless and safe to minimize professional risk. Don’t worry about history.
    2. Twitter – Pint in time notifications or very short updates. Delete all Tweets older than 30 days.
    3. Facebook personal account – Minimize personal account and lock everything down. Delete all posts after 1-3 weeks except for a few that are relevant to my public background or profile. Remove all tags to avoid conflict with comments or content changes later.
    4. Facebook Eckman Guides business page – Use as an extension of LinkedIn for professional posts, updates, and article sharing. Follow the same posting guidelines as LinkedIn.
    5. YouTube personal account – Get private except for low-risk videos I’m willing to have as public. (animal and dash camera videos)
    6. YouTube Eckman Guides – Use as an extension of LinkedIn for video content including presentation videos, podcasts, and topical playlists.
    7. Instagram – Use for professional photography sharing later. Minimize social interaction (likes, shares, comments).
    8. TikTok (or platform of the moment) – Just say no! Privacy risks are not worth it. This platform is not relevant to my content and purpose.
    9. Personal/Professional website – Use as primary professional marketing website and archive for support content, guides, presentations, videos, and recommendations.

 

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Advantages of having an expanded social presence

  1. It’s required if you want to be an influencer – If this is your path, decide on your boundaries ahead of time and manually curate your content as needed.
    Advice: Develop a risk mitigation plan in case your posts or content draw negative attention. Delete and apologize is NOT enough of a strategy.
  2. You need views and likes to qualify for advertising standards – Deleting your history reduces your social influence and ability to hit advertising requirements.
    Advice: Define your goal and risk tolerance. Create guidelines for long-term content.
  3. Reaching a broader audience – You may reach more viewers and followers with a wider net.
    Identify your audience who benefits from your core value.
  4. Additional views – For some content, especially videos and podcasts, the majority of your views could come weeks or months later as more people discover your channel.
    Advice: Decide what is core to your message and keep that content until your purpose changes or the content is stale.

Tools to streamline social media management

Trying to manage your content and history manually can be time-consuming and difficult. Fortunately, tools are available to make it a little easier. I’m sure there are others or new ones since this article was written, but hopefully, this will help get you started. Note, I’m not endorsing any of these tools or articles, just saving you search time.

How to elude the congruent mishap?

Written by Divya Kishore on . Posted in Articles.

It is summer! Time to get home improvement projects done. I came across a social media post that caught my attention. One of my neighbors shared pictures of their recently painted cabinets. The posting included before and after images plus the contractor name (XYZ Company). Impressed, I reached out to the same contractor and requested a painting estimate. In the interim, I reached out to my neighbor to check if I could look at the painted cabinets in person.

Me: The backsplash looks great!
Neighbor: Thanks! XYZ Company did a splendid job!
Me (Surprised): The contractor mentioned to me that they do not do a backsplash.
And the conversation kept continuing. More discrepancies popped up between services communicated to both of us. Nevertheless, we kept discussing the details like the colors, rates, and such.

Light bulb moment:
Me: Is the XYZ Company located in suburb A?
Neighbor: Oh no, they are in suburb B.
There you go! We were talking about two different contractors that have the same name (XYZ Company)!

Bringing this together in the business analysis world:

There are numerous instances when one term may have different meanings. The meaning of these terms can vary depending on the project/stakeholder/organization. Here are a few steps we can take as a business analyst (BA) to avoid going down a rabbit hole in a conversation:

1. Never make assumptions: At the start of a meeting, confirm the facts gathered are accurate. Take this a step further to define the terms or acronyms within the project context.
Example: Part and Product might mean the same for a project. A Part might be a component; A Product might be a finished product in another instance.

2. Ask the right questions: You hear a term come up multiple times in meetings. You know what this term means. Do not stop there! Ask questions. Use your BA skills to draw out contextual details during conversations. Build a complete picture of this term and its significance.
Example: Is this a term that is popular in your organization? Is this a term used in discussions relevant to a specific system? Is this a term used in day-to-day conversations?
In my scenario above, if only I had asked more questions at the beginning. If only I had confirmed the name of the contractor plus the address! It would have saved some time for both of us.

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3. Check-in: Introduce checkpoints to ensure all the team members are on the same page.
Example: Say you see a demonstration of new functionality for a system. A new term has emerged during the meeting. Add this to a dictionary with a definition (definition does not have to be perfect!). Encourage the stakeholders to validate this dictionary at regular intervals. Reviewing these terms towards the end of the project is too late.

4. Highlight it: When sharing meeting notes, include a section for terms and definitions. Add another section for acronyms and their abbreviations. Color code any new terms/words. Highlight updated definitions. Create a list of slang phrases used within the team.
Example: Who knew GOAT did not mean an animal but “Greatest of all time”? Same term but different meaning.

Conclusion:
Have you encountered a situation where the communication was relating to 1-2-3? But the team understood it as 3-2-1? What steps did you take to clear the confusion and get everyone on the same page?

Paraphrasing a quote based on my experience stated above:
XYZ Company was like two sites in the same business, but with different services. So different, yet so similar in their offering

Job Crafting for BAs

Written by Christina Lovelock on . Posted in Articles.

You don’t have to change roles or organizations to get more enjoyment and satisfaction from your work. There are many ways to make your current job work better for you.

Job Descriptions

The description of the BA role looks fairly similar from one organization to the next. Some ask for a bit of specialization, some are more technical, some are more strategic. Sometimes there are formal management responsibilities, sometimes informal support and mentoring. And yes, some organizations put in strange requirements and duties which make us wonder if they know what business analysis is… but, for the most part, it’s pretty standard. And yet, we all know that the practice of business analysis can be very different between organizations and roles. It is tempting to believe that it is purely the organization and culture which is causing these differences; in reality, the individual BAs often influence the role a great deal.

Job Crafting

Most organizations have many formal and informal ways that employees change or ‘craft’ their role. Including things like becoming a:

  • First aider
  • Mentor
  • Social organizer
  • Staff representative
  • Fire warden.

Most of the time people are either asked to volunteer for these roles or assume them by default, but these ‘optional extras’ often give them a feeling of purpose and wider contribution.
This is the essence of job crafting – looking for opportunities to gain or utilize skills in a way that gives pleasure or purpose. Maximizing the things you are good at and enjoy, minimizing those you don’t. The beauty of job crafting is that people enjoy and are good at different things, so no one is being disadvantaged by not carrying out their whole job description, or adding a few extra things in! And – allowing people to work in this way increases engagement, wellbeing, and productivity.

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Crafting Business Analysis

BAs often have a lot of autonomy; to apply the techniques we think are appropriate, to engage with different people, to create the outputs we believe will be suit the situation, and critically how we chose to frame the work we do.

Crafting the Process

The right business analysis approach differs from one assignment/project/product to the next. If we want to inject more creativity, we can do that. If we want more structure, we can do that too. We don’t have to stick in the narrow lane of business analysis consisting of only workshops and user stories. We can create outputs and diagrams which demonstrate the bigger picture, show how everything fits together, and offer value by creating a shared understanding. If you are interested in:

  • Creativity – use more visual methods
  • Variety – learn a new analysis technique and look for opportunities to use it
  • Re-use – create and promote templates
  • Challenge – ask for new opportunities and responsibilities

Crafting Relationships

Good relationships are what make good workplaces. BAs often know lots of people from many different departments and roles, as well as BAs in other organizations. It is possible to build meaningful working relationships, with people who bring out the best in us and motivate us. We can use different engagement methods, such as regular check-ins, newsletters, and surveys to build both engagement and relationships. If you are interested in:

  • Sharing knowledge – start or contribute to an internal community of practice or external conference
  • Developing others – offer to become a mentor or buddy for new employees
  • Learning from others – ask to do shadowing or meet for a regular coffee with someone knows about an area that you don’t
  • Socializing – create a book club/film club/special interest group at work

Crafting Purpose

The stories we tell ourselves are incredibly important for internal motivation. What brings you to work? How does your organization contribute to society or the economy? This is not limited to the public and third sectors. Financial services organizations allow people to buy homes, telecommunications companies connect families all over the world; making a profit does not preclude purpose. How does your role make people’s lives a little better? (whether they realize it or not). If you are interested in:

  • Helping people – consider how what your organization does to make a positive contribution, and how you play a part in that
  • Career development – be clear how the skills and experience you gain in this role is preparing you for the next step
  • A cause or issue – champion it through existing staff groups or start one
  • Fundraising – suggest a staff or team charity

Permission

Many of the ways to craft the BA role can be done with no consultation, permission, funding, or special training. A common reaction to job crafting is that “it wouldn’t be allowed in my organization” when the truth is, it is already happening, you just have to look for it.

Resentment

Going consistently ‘above and beyond’ should of course be recognized and rewarded by organizations, but sometimes it isn’t. Job crafting is not really about being noticed by others or seeking additional rewards. The motivation for job crafting should be that it will increase our job satisfaction, let us use or strengths and pursue our interests and improve our wellbeing. Once you start resenting your organization or boss, the main person impacted is you! Job crafting may not be enough to overcome it, but it’s worth a try.

Conclusion

BAs have many routes to crafting our roles available to us. By carefully considering the relationships we enjoy and want to invest in, by tailoring our approach to suit both the situation and our preferences, and by framing the contribution we make to our organizations and society, we can all be happier, healthier, and more effective business analysts.

Further reading: Rob Baker (2020) Personalization at Work: How HR Can Use Job Crafting to Drive Performance, Engagement, and Wellbeing