Tag: Facilitation

A Primer on Working with Executives:Swim with the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive (Part 3)

Written by Richard Larson on November 21, 2019. Posted in Articles.

Parts 1 and 2 of this series dealt with communicating with executives and what is needed to influence them.

Now let’s move on to the 3^nd key to work effectively with executives, which is that executives make decisions. That may seem really obvious so let me explain why this is one of the keys to help you avoid being “eaten alive.”

I believe that good decision-making is the main value of executives to organizations. As BAs or PMs, we can add to their value by making good recommendations and serving as trusted advisors.

The recommendations we make don’t have to be elaborate business cases, but that is certainly one way. They could be simple solutions to resolve a project issue. Or solving an ongoing problem on a task force. Or any number of other ways.

Decision-Making

Since there are many ways and points for us to influence good decisions, I think it’s important to understand how decisions are made so we can best influence them. It’s helpful to have an effective, repeatable process to learn the right inputs for the decision makers at the right times. Let’s explore two complementary processes.

Decision-Making Process #1

First is a 7-step model published by UMASS/Dartmouth University[i] lists these steps. I included a few tools and techniques that are helpful at each step.

STEP	TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
1. Identify the decision	Problem/Situation statement
2. Gather relevant information	Data, root causes, environmental factors, costs, benefits
3. Identify the alternatives	Brainstorm, Collaborative games
4. Weigh the evidence	Weighted Ranking Matrices, Decision Trees
5. Choose among the alternatives	Recommendation, Decision Analysis
6. Take action	Implementation
7. Review your decision and its consequences	Evaluation, Metrics & KPIs

Decision-Making Process #2

Along the same lines, Watermark Learning has used for many years a simpler but similar model called SARIE. It stands for Situation-Analysis-Recommendation-Implementation-Evaluation. See Figure 1 for a diagram of the steps.

The steps leading-up to a decision are the Situation, Analysis, and Recommendation points. When I first learned about analysis, we called them “Findings and Recommendations.” But, having a clear implementation plan or strategy, and outlining how effectiveness will be measured will assist the decision. Those plans are actually part of the recommendation.

As a decision-maker at our company for years, I noticed it was easy for our staff to make recommendations, but that is the easy part. And very often they are subjective without the other steps. The hard but necessary work in this model is defining the problem and analyzing it, generating alternatives, plus how will implementation work and cost, and how will we know if it was effective?

For you blue-energy folks there are articles on the Watermark Learning web site to read about SARIE in more detail. The reason I also like that the Dartmouth process is similar to SARIE and expands it a little.

Figure 1: SARIE Process Steps

Trusted Advisors and Decisions

Let’s cover one more set of things affecting decisions by executives. Let’s say you go to the doctor’s office and step on the scale. OK, maybe not the best thought. When you use a scale, though, it’s hard to argue over weights. What I mean is some of the techniques for analyzing decisions will help us better determine acceptable recommendations. Standards like the BABOK® Guide and PMBOK® Guide list several types of decision analysis tools.

I have found two to be especially helpful and practical when making decisions in our company and with our clients.

Weighted-Ranking Tables

Weighted rankings allow for analyzing and ranking alternatives under consideration and to find the “best” alternative according to criteria important to decision-makers. See an example in Figure 2. The criteria are the key to making this tool work. Each criterion is given a weight – hence the name of the tool – and is used to compare and score each alterative in the left-hand column against each criterion in the rows across the top – Cost, Increased Sales, etc. The total scores for each alternative give the “best” one. Typically, this is the one to recommend and the one executives are most likely to accept all things being equal.

Another tool relies on what I would call “the power of four.” The color quadrants we saw in part 2 are another example and there are countless others. Many paradigms rely on combinations of two variables to explain complex issues and situations.

Decision Matrices

Decision Matrices, for instance, capture four categories of actions for solving any problem. They are useful because they help guide a team to think through different courses of action based on variables important to decision makers. See Figure 3.

They use two variables normally, and this example shows “Benefit” from high to low and “Implementation Difficulty” from Hard to Easy. I’ve seen other sets of variables like acceptance or cost, so use whatever seems to be relevant to, you guessed it, decision makers. The key is to peg alternative choices into one of the four quadrants, using some expert judgment. Normally this technique uses a continuum on both scales but this simple example is for illustration only.

Decision Matrices help us focus on business benefits over features starting with “Quick Hits” but including “Prioritize.” They are valuable allies to help executives think beyond the “low hanging fruit” or the “sexiest” choices. Last, the visual nature of this and the Weighted Ranking Table will appeal to executives too.

Figure 3: Decision Matrix Example

Summary

To summarize this series, when we work effectively with executives, we are serving them in a professional and consultative way as Trusted Advisors. By maintaining a “reversal of focus” and concentrating on the executive vs. our own anxiety we can reduce our nervousness and increase our confidence and value.

I hope you can use your new knowledge of communication styles to help you relate better to executives (and build self-assurance at the same time). Matching the communication style of an executive is a great way to mirror them and put them at ease.
The best way I know how to build confidence with executives is to make recommendations that influence them to make good decisions that lead to solutions with value. Remember the best “formula” for being influential is to build Trust, do our Preparation, and to show Courage when making recommendations. It is the essence of a Trusted Advisor.
Finally, settle on a decision tool or two to help you pave the way for good decisions. We explored two favorites of mine but there are other good ones than can help us work more successfully with executives.

I meant for this series to be simple, recognizing it is not necessarily easy. Hopefully you will find it so and you can use the ideas to help you “swim with the sharks” in your organization.

[i] Dartmouth decision-making process, https://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decision-making/process/ – downloaded June 25, 2019

Five Questions for BA John Fraser

Written by David Newstead on August 13, 2019. Posted in Articles.

John Fraser brings an energy and commitment to all his projects that truly compliments and builds upon his years of experience in strategic business process improvement.

In short, you know when John is in the room and today he joins me for five questions about his career and his insights on being a Business Analyst.

You bring a lot of enthusiasm to your work, what motivates you as a BA?

I am a BA Enthusiast that is committed to getting the job done. I do this by managing both expectations and project constraints, which results in an atmosphere where project members feel proud of the result and ensure client expectations are exceeded. Our Process & BA Capability Lead, Scott Rainey, always says “Our Business Analysis Team is directly connected to the problem statement and the value from business case to implementation,” and it’s the truth! What also motivates me is seeing BAs come into their own going from an Entry-Level to a Junior Role, to a Senior Role – to Thought Leaders in their craft!

What positive trends are you seeing across your BA community of practice? And how are you addressing the challenges that inevitably arise in BA work?

What is trending majorly is the skills for BAs to understand, Data Management, Data Visualization, and Robotic Process Automation to help streamline activities for organizations. To help combat BA Challenges, we meet bi-weekly and discuss challenges and come up with solutions to help address those challenges. In our Community of Practice, all the BAs have a voice. Our CoP’s purpose is to provide a forum for continuous improvement of North Highland’s Business Analysis skillset through collaboration, mentoring, and education.

Throughout your career, you’ve worked across several different industries. How has your BA role varied from one to another?

BA roles differ in organizations because some organizations want BAs to focus on one thing (i.e. Process Mapping) when that’s only a subset of a skilled Business Analyst. BAs should be involved in multiple areas to truly provide value back to any organization.

What’s your favorite technique?

My favorite technique is the Scope Context Model helps describes the intended business change by helping stakeholders understand:

How the solution contributes to the goals of the organization
The expected, provable measures that indicate solution success
When the solution is considered done
Who will be consulted for requirements information
Systems which might be impacted (or needed) by the proposed change
Users of the intended solution and how they will interact with it
Key assumptions, constraints and out of scope considerations

What project do you want to tackle next?

I would like to tackle a “game changing” effort that really pushes the needle for an organization that will benefit the industry and the BA’s role in its success.

Your Excellence Inspires Me

Written by Brad Egeland on April 17, 2019. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Your Excellence Inspires Me

I heard this the other day – can’t remember where.

But the concept of the statement is great. Someone is inspired to be better due to someone else’s excellence or perceived excellence. How would you like to hear this statement made to you? Especially from someone you know and respected. It would be great. What a boost. Perhaps almost life changing. If you agree then don’t be stingy with your compliments. You like how hard your kids are working on a task or chore? Tell them. The dinner taste great? Compliment your spouse or the chef at the restaurant. Service was good – tell the manager and single out your server by name. They usually get a bonus or gift card for that. A colleague puts on a good presentation. Tell them.

So back to being actually “inspired” by someone’s excellence. I believe we should all strive for this and work hard as if we might here those words at the end of a project. What is project management excellence? How would you define it? For me, excellent project delivery isn’t about a successful project as much as it is about our leadership of the project, team, customer and stakeholders.

As project leaders in the business analyst role how can we show excellence throughout the project and daily to inspire our team and our fellow business analysts and even our customer to raise their own bar of performance and quality? Consider these…

Lead by example.

First, lead by example. You will never inspire excellence in others if aren’t practicing what you preach. All the time we see this failure in fraudulent CEOs, our embezzling CFOs, our corrupt school leaders, religious leaders, and key political leaders in top spots throughout the United States and throughout the world. It’s frustrating, it’s unfortunate, and it makes it very difficult to know who to look up to and who to question. Don’t let that be you in a leadership role. I’m not saying I’m awesome by any means, but it’s always nice to tell my potential consulting and project clients that they can look me up on the internet anywhere and not find anything negative and that I’ve passed every background check and finger print check I’ve ever been through and there have been dozens as a resulting church leadership roles, background checks for adoptions and government project roles and for working in the hospitality and gaming industry. Be that business analyst who above reproach and people is won’t question your authority, your experience and your excellence. They will respect you for the leader that you are, they will follow you and you will inspire them.

Be completely transparent.

Always be transparent. Keeping information secret or hidden or unspoken that should be share makes you seem deceptive or duplicitous. It’s not the way to lead or gain respect. It’s not the same as lying but it sort of is. It’s deception by omission. If your team or your project customer finds out about something that is critical to the project and affects them by means other than your communication to them and you already knew about it, then they will always wonder what else you aren’t telling them. Losing trust is easy. Gaining trust is difficult. And keeping trust is hard when you are keeping important things and information from others. Getting trust back in some cases is impossible… then you lost that opportunity to inspire excellence in them forever. So be transparent. Share everything. I was once told by another business analyst working on a project with me that he really liked working on projects with me because he always felt like I was keeping him – and everyone on the team – as up to date as possible every day on the project. He said he received many more email updates and communications from me than he did from any other project team member or project manager on his other projects. I’m not completely sure he wasn’t telling me that I send too many emails, but over communication is good too and you ensure that everyone is on the same page, so I took that as a compliment. Be transparent. You will never regret it and it will inspire others to do the same.

Always plan well.

Exhibit excellent communication skills.

Communicate well and often. As with the above example, those working with you will appreciate knowing what you know and being up to date and will never feel like they don’t know the whole story. Effective and efficient communication – both outgoing and listening – is Job One for project leaders. It keeps information flowing for all, it keeps everyone on the same page, it is truly the best path to the successful project delivery and it earns and keeps the respect of others. By keeping your project team up to date at all times they will be accountable, feel appreciated, be a better project participant, and be more confident. They will feel respected and they will respect you for it. You will be inspiring excellence in them throughout the project engagement. And you customer will love it. No customer wants to feel like you’re keeping something from them. It grows frustration and discontent and you never want to go there with the customer. Or team member. Communicate well and often to inspire respect and excellence in others.

Summary

It all comes down to exhibiting best practices each day as we are conducting ourselves, leading our teams, leading our project customers, making decisions and leading our projects overall. Be a good leader, be honest and of high integrity, do what you say you’re going to do and keep everyone on the same page and you will have the respect of all those on the project with you. You will be portraying excellence by default.

Top 6 Process Modeling Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

Written by Edmund Metera on April 16, 2019. Posted in Articles.

There are many examples of very good business process models out there.

They can be found in textbooks, online, tutorials, and product demonstrations. However, in the real world …

Too many business process models fall short of expectations.

Despite significant investments of time and well-intended stakeholder effort, many business process models still end up being not very useful for their intended purposes. Too many don’t accurately enough reflect the business to be useful, or lack sufficient key stakeholders’ buy-in for real decision making, or don’t include the kinds of process information that the model’s readers are looking for, or even confuse their readers with complex or incongruous graphical notation.

Root Causes

None of these types of complaints should be blamed on environmental or project constraints like modeling tools at hand, the level the knowledge or capabilities of business subject matter experts who may be called upon to participate in the model’s development, or even time and effort constraints. Projects are by definition unique temporary endeavours, so these variables are present to varying degrees in all projects. Yes, they influence or constrain any process modeling activity, but a competent business analyst or process analyst is capable of managing and working with or around them.

The root cause of a business process model that does not fit the bill is a business analyst’s or process analyst’s own competence for producing the model while navigating through the typical project dynamics.

Business analysts and process analysts who prepare business process models using ad-hoc methods or past experience are prone to making at least some of these common 6 business process modeling mistakes and having to suffer through their symptomatic process model quality complaints.

The top 6 business process modeling mistakes:

1. Undefined Process Modeling Approach
2. Unclear Model Purpose
3. Not Asking the Right Questions
4. Weak Process and Activity Definition
5. Insufficient Key Stakeholder Participation
6. Insufficient Model Validation

If producing a high quality business process model is not key to your role or your project, then you don’t really need to a high level of process modeling competence. Leave that up to the project’s business analyst. But if it is, then you should be expected to bring a high level of process modeling competence to the table so that you can facilitate and achieve a model that is fit for its project’s intended purpose.

How to Avoid These (and most other) Process Modeling Mistakes

Here are the 6 skills or behaviours that demonstrate a high level of business process modeling competence. They will cause you to steer clear most of the common business process modeling mistakes:

1. Have a defined process modeling approach.

Like other types of analysis, process modeling is a journey of discovery. As a competent business analyst it’s up to you to identify the modeling activities you will perform to lead or facilitate your process model’s journey of discovery. If you don’t already have one then you should adopt and practice a defined process modeling approach.

2. Establish a clear mission for each model.

Process models are typically products of business process improvement/management or information technology projects and all projects are by definition unique, temporary endeavours. As a competent business analyst you deliberately identify the purpose of the process model within your project’s lifecycle and other key mission parameters. You use clear mission parameters to guide your process model elicitation and validation activities.

3. Know what questions you will ask.

It’s not nearly as important to ask a lot of questions as it is to ask the right questions. You should know what few but key questions you will doggedly elicit the answers to as you are eliciting your process model’s content. You should understand why you need to ask and answer those questions. You should be able to prepare and communicate your elicitation agenda in advance of engaging key stakeholders in events like workshops or interviews.

4. Know how to unambiguously identify, normalise and define all processes and activities.

You are able to consistently perceive business processes at any scale and degree of abstraction. You should also know how to normalise any candidate process and once normalised write an unambiguous definition. Further, you understand and have a process definition framework that reflects how today’s network enabled business processes work. You are able to perceive processes as assemblies of activities that are initiated by business events and deliver outcomes. This understanding leads you to define processes and activities that lend themselves as reusable services and you are able to explain why. In this way, you walk the service oriented architecture talk.

5. Know who, when and how you will engage key stakeholders

You identify who the key stakeholders in your process model are. You are clear and deliberate about when and how you engage them in process model elicitation and validation activities. You know how to deliberately engage key stakeholders in the elicitation of the model’s content. You engage key stakeholders in model reviews and resolve their feedback before completing your process models. As a result you are virtually guaranteed to have your models accepted by the business.

6. Know how you will validate your model’s quality.

You know how to identify what the most important quality factors for your model are. You know how you will measure them. You know what questions to ask and of whom to ensure they are sufficiently present in your completed model.

Establish or Improve Your Process Modeling Competency

The Universal Process Modeling Procedure is a step-by-step guide for producing a business process model that will meet its project’s intended purpose. It guides a business analyst or process analyst to establish a clear mission for every process model. It provides you clear elicitation agendas so that you can be asking the right questions at the right times in your model’s development. It tells you what to look for and how to accurately and unambiguously identify, normalise and define any business process and or activity. It includes a validation comprehensive and tailorable process model quality criteria. It informs you about key process model stakeholders and how to engage them in the model’s development. It also includes reusable BPMN modeling patterns for the most common types of process model refinements.

Why Don’t They Get It? Understanding Learning Preferences for Better Business Analysis

Written by Janelle Edge on February 8, 2019. Posted in Articles.

I am not a visual person.

This came to light early in my career when a stakeholder came to me with a beautiful diagram full of lines and colors and a few keywords. He handed me the picture and very proudly stated, “Here. This is what we want to do”, and then walked off. I stared at it for the longest time. There may have been tears. I spent hours translating that beautiful nightmare into written language trying to figure out what I was being told. My stakeholder was attempting to communicate with me the most efficient way he knew how, and yet I had a huge disconnect. There was no shared understanding. Eventually, I did figure it out, but it was a very frustrating process.

I never saw any value in images, so until this defining moment, I saw no value in including them in requirements. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but my question is, which thousand and what do you mean by them? For me, only words could answer that. Visuals just took up space and duplicated information that was already there.

Now I have much more empathy for those who rely on those symbolic representations. That one interaction started me on my search to incorporate all learning preferences into my business analysis processes. There was a lot of information on adapting teaching styles for each type of learner, but I could not find good examples of utilizing different techniques for different learning styles outside the classroom. Most people can absorb basic information through any method, but complicated material is easier to understand and retain when communicated in their preferred method(s).

Learning preferences can be categorized in several ways. However, for purposes of this discussion I will use:

Visual – Preference toward pictures, images, and spatial understanding
Auditory – Preference toward sound and music
Linguistic – Preference toward spoken and written language
Kinesthetic – Preference toward body, hands, and sense of touch

Most people have a combination of the above learning preferences. However, Business Analysts are a communication bridge for everyone on a project, so we don’t get to have a weaker area. We must learn to work within all learning preferences, regardless of our own personal style.

My first step was to take a free online self-assessment. My results were not all that surprising – Read/Write 13, Aural 8, Kinesthetic 5, Visual 1. That’s right. A one. No wonder mind maps trigger hyperventilation and all sorts of other stress responses! Unfortunately for me, visual is one of the most common learning styles. I needed to learn to speak that language quickly. I wasn’t going to become fluent overnight, but I at least needed to become proficient.

So, what’s a BA to do?

I now knew how crucial it was to start using visual aids. I created a guide to help me remember how to use several common diagramming tools. I started by using illustrations that were similar to my preferred linguistic style such as process flows and matrices, then expanded from there. I often refer to my catalog of visual aids for ideas on how to bring that aspect into my requirements as well as a reminder before joining large group meetings.

I’ve seen a lot of success since I consciously started considering diagrams and other images in requirements. I’m getting more feedback. I take that to mean more people are reading and approving the content rather than just approving to stop my nagging. I’m still not able to start with creating a visual rather than text, but maybe it is like a foreign language and I can get there with enough practice. I take consolation that I’m helping everyone get to that mutual understanding.

What are your learning style preferences? Are there any that you would like to improve?

Look for ideas in the lists below if you are struggling with a specific audience. Turn to your peers as well. If you notice someone skillfully incorporates a learning style, ask them for some ideas to expand your communication strategy or ask them to be a test audience when you try out a new technique. Once we’re aware of our own learning style preferences as well as those of our stakeholders, it becomes much easier to spot potential misunderstandings earlier or prevent them entirely – saving time, minimizing frustration, avoiding rework and helping us achieve a successful project.

Visual (learn through seeing)

Visual learners prefer:

Drawing pictures on the whiteboard
Organizing concepts into separate areas on the whiteboard to create “piles” that can be worked through
Color coding
Including diagrams of overall concepts in requirements documentation

How you can get there:

Allow yourself time to translate into a picture.
Arrive early for key meetings to create models on whiteboards or allow pre-meeting prep time to create images that can be shared virtually.
Write a legend for color coding and reference it as you write.
Review documentation to find areas that can be displayed pictorially.

Auditory (learn through hearing)

Ever had someone ask to discuss an email or an invite, even with a clear agenda? I had a Project Manager that was an egregious offender. Every email, instant message and meeting invite sent was followed by a call. Everything was discussed at length until she understood. She is a purely auditory learner.

Auditory learners prefer:

Earworms
Minimizing silence during meetings
Repeating things out loud
Meeting in person rather than discuss through email

How you can get there:

Keep and follow a meeting agenda so that you always know what to discuss next. (Always a good idea regardless of who is in the meeting.)
Incorporate music where appropriate, such as at the beginning of a workshop while people are finding their seats.
Ask the auditory learning participant to summarize the meeting or concept just discussed.
When creating an email, offer to be available for a brief call or meeting to discuss or clarify.

Linguistic (learn through language)

Linguistic learners prefer:

Clear & precise written documentation
Exactly the right word to express a concept
Lists

How you can get there:

Provide summary talking points or step by step instructions with visual aids and demonstrations presented in meetings.
Use illustrations with a verbal component such as grids and process flows.
Keep a glossary.
Use unfamiliar terms regularly to reinforce their significance.
Review pictorial documentation to verify all requirements in the image are also put in writing.

Kinesthetic (learning through doing)

User Acceptance Testing is a wonderful time to leverage the kinesthetic learning style.

Kinesthetic learners prefer:

Demonstrations
New skill practice
Content in bite-sized chunks
Frequent breaks and activities that provide opportunities for movement during longer meetings

How you can get there:

Add activities such as role-playing to meetings.
Use a prop that can be moved around (sticky notes, ball, modeling clay, etc.).
Incorporate real-life stories and examples
Try collaborative games.