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Business Analyst: The Strategic Implications

Written by Phil Ventresca on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Business Analyst: The Strategic Implications

The new role of the BA is far more strategic in both the organizational sense as well as at the project level. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the BA, when appropriately leveraged, represents a liaison between business, project and customer teams. This shift in responsibilities identifies two areas that need to be addressed by any organization seeking to expand this role:

  • The organizational structure must support the actions of a “strategic” BA position.
  • The BA candidate must have wide skill sets, encompassing many generalmanagement competencies.

As organizations shift to become “projectized,” the roles and responsibilities that have supported projects within a traditional matrix structure must shift as well. Over the years we have seen organizations struggle with the following challenges related to shifts in both structure and culture:

  • Broken or disjointed cross-functional communication channels.
  • Uncertainty around roles and responsibilities within the project structure and beyond.
  • Quality concerns at the point of project delivery.
  • Skewed scope statements and thus implementation plans due to early stage breakdown.
  • Overall loss of productivity on project teams due to lack of continuity and methods

The items noted above are tell-tale signs that several strategic components of a best practice project management environment are missing. In earlier articles, we addressed the discussion around project office and methodology, the topic of BA is an integralcomponent to bring both of those items to life in the “real world.” Forward looking or “best in class” organizations have aggressively embraced the concept of the BA role. What sets them apart from the old school thinking associated with this job title is the escalation and expansion of the roles, definition and responsibilities. Not too many years ago a BA may have been confined to a very technical role within an IT environment working on specifications, functionality and even some quality and testing related to one or more project life cycles.

Today we are seeing BA positions filled from across the organization and expect that this trend will continue, as it should. Let’s address these points built in the context of how they can be leveraged to meet the challenges:

Broken or disjointed cross-functional communication channels

A BA should be in front of any project communication produced from the point of team inception to the close-out phase. This interaction does not mean that the BA takes on the role of project manager (although we have seen organizations combine the two roles), as it is not effective on larger and longer term initiatives. Our experience shows that an independent BA position can help to promote better communication, align protocol and help the project manager to extend
his/her reach into the project teams.

Uncertainty around roles and responsibilities within the project structure and beyond

The BA functions as a tour guide through the project plan ensuring that all of the moving pieces are touching at the right points. We call these critical communication points and they can be built around time, budget or deliverable expectations. The BA will be assigned a protocol map within the project structure to enable them better access to expectations and provide for a proactive way to reach team members.

Quality concerns at the point of project delivery

In reality, the BA is monitoring quality points through the project life cycle thus producing a quality product at the close of the project. Very much like the thinking around proactive quality control, the BA is in front of each deliverable and monitors the progress against the project plan.

This allows for immediate communication between the project manager, customer and associated teams.

Skewed scope statements and thus implementation plans due to early stage breakdown

The planning stages of a project are obviously critical to the implementation plan and ultimate quality. A BA should be assigned early in the process and work hand in hand with the project manager to ensure the highest level of intimacy with the plan. Just as important, they need to have a direct connection to the internal and external customers in order to ensure collaboration and proactive attention to emerging issues.

Overall loss of productivity on project teams
Due to lack of continuity and methods

A strategic BA assists the project manager and PMO with the execution of best practice within an organization’s project management structure. The BA has a unique opportunity to guide the process through an existing methodology and
essentially help the project to operate in better alignment. This is accomplished by having a dedicated individual who is consistently working against the deliverables and is not distracted by the operations management associated with the project manager’s job.

By taking the above steps you have begun the shift toward the organizational structure needed to take advantage of the BA position. With that said, we still have one more change to make in order to secure success.

It is obvious that the BA role as defined in this article will require wider skill sets than the more traditional BA position, still driven from the IT departments of yester-year. To that point we have begun to see a trend where the BA position can spawn from either business or IT. This is an interesting point as it speaks volumes to an organization’s maturity around project management.

Imagine, for just a moment, an organization that has no boundaries within in its functions and everyone on the team collaborates against a common goal. I like to call this organizational desegregation and cultural morphing. As we at AMS begin the next phase of benchmarking the project management industry and clients, we are beginning to see this shift as a representative of the next wave of advancing thought in the project management space. It was not too many
years ago that I published an article on the emerging role of the project manager as the CEO of his/her project. I am confident that the BA role will take a firmly positioned spot in the upper hierarchy of any world class project organization within the next few years.

In order to succeed the BA will need to have a competency profile that meets the following criteria:

  • Excellent understanding of both business and technology within the project environment.
  • Be a leader, communicator and professional.
  • Understand the skills associated with internal consulting techniques.
  • Be proficient in project management skills as well as a complete understanding of the internal process.
  • Epitomize the essence of a collaborator and team player.
  • Understand and be able to navigate your organization’s politics and structure.
  • Be able to manage without having authority via negotiation.
  • Understand true stewardship-based service.

So, the BA role probably looks a little different than a traditional structure may have dictated.

Yet, this is the trend and I believe will become the norm. As organizations look to enhance productivity and quality while reducing cost they are finding this role to be ultimately important.

Additionally, project managers we spoke to during the research for this article all stated that having a BA on the team made their job easier and allowed them to focus on deliverable based activity.

It is important to note that this type of structure is recommended for mid to large size projects, but on the smaller initiatives we found that these attributes were part of the project manager’s role.

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Why Your Idea is Probably Bad, and That’s OK

Written by Duncan Watts on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Why Your Idea is Probably Bad, and That’s OK

I’ve noticed that people often become very attached to their ideas, and don’t like having any flaws pointed out, or even questioned. That’s ok when it’s your own personal interest, but it’s a big problem when you’re part of a team working on a large and expensive project with a lot at stake. A key part of being a good Business Analyst is developing the habit of questioning everything so that you can sort the good from the bad.

Disclosure

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that before I started working as a consultant in IT I studied physics to a pretty advanced level. When you study one of the fundamental sciences you find that it’s really, really hard. And because it’s so hard, you learn to get used to being wrong most of the time, and not to become too attached to your ideas or be too fearful of criticism. You also learn how to go about testing ideas, and develop a healthy scepticism of silver bullets.

The reasons your idea is probably bad

The number one reason why your idea is probably bad is that there are simply many more ways to be wrong than right. In the space of all possible ideas the chances of hitting on a good one are improbably small. Of course you can have good ideas, but it’s likely that you’ll have many bad ideas before you hit on a good one.

The number two reason your idea is probably bad is that there are no really new ideas – only variations on existing ideas. The chances are good that somebody else already had your idea but then discovered it was bad, so it wasn’t pursued.

Why that’s ok

A good idea is only recognised as such after it’s been tested – and that means letting others criticise them. A vital part of the scientific process is peer review. This is essentially the process of putting your ideas in front of other people and allowing them to shoot. Einstein wasn’t lauded for his theories of relativity until after they had been pulled apart and survived experimental testing. At the time they weren’t obviously right.

Most entrepreneurs have many bad ideas, and fail many times, before they hit on the formula for a successful company – and become famous for it. You can’t expect to move into a new field and suddenly solve all the existing problems that others have failed to solve. You need to develop a deeper understanding before you’ll be able to spot why ideas are bad and then come up with good ones.

So don’t worry about it

Most of the time you’re wrong, and it’s really ok to be wrong because if you’re not prepared to risk being wrong you’ll never be right. The path to a genuinely good idea will take you through uncharted territory and take in many false turns. But don’t listen to me, take it from Einstein:

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert Einstein

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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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Planning is Not a Solo Activity

Written by Duncan Watts on . Posted in Articles.

Planning is something I have a love/hate relationship with. Done properly it is a thing of beauty: The team working together to plot a common path through a thicket of issues. An initially vigorous debate that eventually settles down as objections are countered and agreement is reached. Done badly it’s a dreadful sight. A Project Manager sitting alone at a computer cursing Microsoft Project.

Related concepts

It’s important to clearly distinguish a number of related concepts:

  • Planning is an activity in which the actions to be taken are developed in advance;
  • A Plan is some form of documentation that communicates the result of the planning activity;
  • Microsoft Project is a useful tool for producing some of the components expected in a plan, such as a Gantt[1] chart.

It should be clear from these descriptions that planning must come before a plan, and that entering scheduling information into Microsoft Project does not substitute for having an actual plan.

What’s in a plan?

A plan should include everything you need to communicate how your goals will be achieved. It should not contain unnecessary boilerplate as plans may change regularly and need to be easy to keep up-to-date.
Importantly, not every plan needs the same level of detail nor to cover the same timeframe. The project team requires a plan that goes into detail about the current stage, but can be vague about future stages, so they can coordinate their work. This kind of plan should be updated regularly as the team gains more experience and progress, or lack thereof, becomes apparent.

The project board needs a simple plan that shows a schedule of major milestones and deliverables for the whole project, and a high-level indication of how these will be achieved with the available resources. This kind of plan should be light on detail – because the detail isn’t generally known yet – and should only be updated at the end of a stage or in response to an exception.

A classic PM mistake is to try to have both these levels of plan combined together into a single document – or worse into a single schedule in Microsoft Project. The problem with this is that the project team is never allowed to change “the plan” because the PM fears the project board will think that “the plan” has changed.

It hasn’t of course, because in reality there are different plans with different purposes, and at different levels of granularity. But now the PM is stuck, and planning, if it occurs at all, is now off the record.

Who does the planning on your project?

On many projects it is assumed that the Project Manager does all the planning. This is a grave error[2]. The people who should be planning the work are the ones who will perform it. There are at least there reasons for this:

  1. Even a Project Manager with extensive experience of all the tasks to be performed is unlikely to be able to estimate accurately without knowledge of the capabilities of everyone else on the team[3];
  2. A team member who was not involved in planning her work cannot reasonably be held to a plan devised by someone else. Buy-in to the plan requires participation in creating it;
  3. Except in the simplest case, a plan is not a list of independent tasks, and therefore everyone involved must plan together to identify dependencies and gaps.

The Project Manager owns the plan, and should ensure that the results of planning are captured, documented, and can be used to monitor progress. But planning itself is a team activity. Get everyone in a room and work through what needs to be done together. Drill down until the key tasks are clear to everyone. Question assumptions. Repeat.

Plan well and prosper

Planning is not a solo activity. If you join a project and are given a detailed plan (or more likely a schedule) with your name next to various activities, ask when the next team planning session is.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart
[2] In mature industries this may not be the case, but IT is not a mature industry. If you don’t believe me ask yourself what other industry accepts a 60-70% failure rate for projects.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/projectfailures/study-68-percent-of-it-projects-fail/1175
http://www.versionone.com/assets/img/files/CHAOSManifesto2013.pdf
[3] In some organisations the same team works together repeatedly on similar projects. In which case the project manager may be justified in doing all the planning. This is the exception.

7 Business Analyst Lessons From The Godfather

Written by Bruce Harpham on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on 7 Business Analyst Lessons From The Godfather

harpman Aug18Business analysts have plenty to learn from “The Godfather.” Whether you’re the head of the Corleone crime family or leading an IT project, analysts and mobsters have a lot in common. Don Vito Corleone may not have used Excel and Microsoft Project, but he knew a lot about delivering projects and getting results.

Read on to learn important career lessons from The Godfather. I will be sharing key points of the story, so stop right now if you are concerned about spoilers from the movie!

1 – Why You Need To Build Your Reputation For Results

When you first think about the mafia and organized crime, you probably think about violence. Certainly, violence is part of the mafia toolbox. Interestingly, violence was not the ONLY tool that the Godfather employed.

As The Godfather went through his career, he built up a reputation for results. Whether it meant helping out the local grocer or a tenant, the Godfather delivered. His reputation gradually grew to the point where violence was rarely needed.

Persuasion and diplomatic tactics were enough for him to reach his goals.

Lesson: What is your reputation at the office? Do you have a reputation as a complainer or someone who delivers results? It’s a difficult question that needs to be answered.

If you’re unhappy with your reputation, don’t panic. You simply need some focused advice to improve. You need a trusted advisor for perspective.

2 – Recruit A Trusted Advisor

Everyone in the family respects the Godfather for his long experience. You could say that he is the subject matter expert in many aspects of the family business. Yet, he also knows that there are gaps in his knowledge. Running a mafia business entails confrontations with the criminal justice system. So, the Godfather wisely sought a dedicated lawyer.

Tom Hagen, lawyer and consigliere to the Corleone family, advises the Godfather on a range of matters. I also find it interesting that Tom is one of the few non-Corleones admitted into the inner circle. His trusted advisor status combines expertise with the detachment of being a non-family member. Business analysts can learn from Tom and the Godfather’s relationship. They are close enough that Tom can share difficult truths without few of reprisal.

Lesson: To grow your business analyst career, find a trusted advisor outside your organization who can give you an unbiased second opinion on challenges you face. It could be someone in a different firm or perhaps a friend from college who went to law school.

3 – Start With Subtle Communication

Communication is one of the most important skills that business analysts possess. Understanding technology deeply and the practical objectives of the business require empathy and careful consideration. Bluntly denying a user’s request for new features may be the right move, but it matters how you communicate that fact.

Surprisingly, the mafia world also requires subtle communication skills. The careful viewer of The Godfather will observe that bullets are rarely the first means of making a point.

Early in the film, the Don has to make a point to a movie director. He starts by sending his advisor, Tom Hagen, to make a subtle request. Unfortunately, that initial attempt at persuasion is unsuccessful. The Godfather has to turn to radical methods in order to make his point. Knowing when to escalate a situation into a confrontation is a delicate art that the Don mastered in his long career.

Lesson: When you face a conflict, consider your communication strategy. Start with smaller gestures – such as a short phone call to a colleague before you consider escalating a problem to senior management.

4 – Have A Succession Plan

In the life of a business analyst, people come and go. The Corleone family is no different. When the Godfather dies, his son Sonny takes over the family in a moment of crisis. This situation is a textbook case of succession planning gone awry.

In my view, Sonny is not ready to transition to leading the family.

Nominating the eldest son to lead the organization is the succession principle used by the Corleones. In the corporate world, the analogous situation would be automatically promoting the most experienced employee to management in the event of manager departure. This approach has the virtue of simplicity. Unfortunately, promotion based on years of experience doesn’t consider individual skill or leadership ability.

Lesson: when you are involved in long term projects – anything over a year – succession planning cannot be ignored. Don’t be afraid to bring up the topic, even if you are not formally assigned to a management role.

5 – Know Your Strengths

Taking on new tasks and responsibilities can be dangerous. In an effort to impress management, you can offer to automate a process only to realize later that doing so requires programming knowledge you don’t have. Ultimately, you need to focus on your strengths to succeed as a business analyst.

Don Corleone faced a similar challenge in deciding whether or not to expand his empire to include illegal drugs. Despite the profit opportunities offered, the Don refused to enter the business. In the eyes of some, this made him a traditionalist who was behind the times. In his world, I would argue that the Don made the right decision – expansion into the narcotics trade would attract too much unwanted attention from the authorities.

Lesson: When you encounter an activity that requires new skills, think carefully about deciding whether it makes sense to learn it. Repairing your weaknesses rarely pays off compared to investing energy in your strengths.

6 – Understand The Challenge of Change Management

Many business analysts work on projects that include a change management component. This kind of change includes training stuff on a new process, introducing new habits and altering reporting relationships. Even long overdue change and improvement can make stakeholders feel uncomfortable. Without the right preparation and approach, poor change management will doom a project.

In the Godfather film, Michael initially looks at ways to move away from his family. Early in the story, he is proud of his accomplishments in the military which sets him apart from his siblings. Ultimately, Michael’s efforts to escape from his family’s traditions are unsuccessful. He ends up running the crime family’s operations rather than reforming them.

Lesson: Sometimes, you will fail at change management. Be prepared for that eventuality.

7 – Give Favors To Build Relationships

When was the last time you gave a favour to someone? It could have been a small gesture – getting coffee for a colleague or teaching a technical skill to a new hire. Giving (and, occasionally, asking for) favors is a key aspect of building relationships. For the best results, set yourself a goal to make give favors to your colleagues a few times a month.

My favourite example of the Godfather giving someone a favor is one of the least well known. At one point, an elderly woman is having difficulties with her landlord. The Godfather steps in and helps her out. In this case, it is unlikely that the woman will be able to help the Don.

Lesson: Sometimes, you give a favor simply to make the world a better place.

Now you’ve learned about the Godfather’s techniques, it is time to put them into action. This week, choose one of the lessons from this article and put it into practice.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.