Tag: Leadership

Approaches for Being a Lead BA

Written by Aly Cassam on January 27, 2022. Posted in Articles.

You’ve worked your way up the BA ladder – started as a Junior BA, then a BA, then a Sr. BA, and now you’re a Lead BA on a project working with other BAs. What do you do? This article focuses on some of the Do’s and Don’ts of being a Lead BA. Some of it is science and some of it is art.

Requirements Governance:

1. Who do you take direction from your PM or your BA Manager:

The first place to start as a Lead BA is establishing your own personal Requirements Governance. Who do you provide status updates to and who do you take direction on requirements from – PM or your BA Manager? The scenarios I’ve encountered are:

You as the Lead BA take your BA requirements direction from the PM and provide status updates to your BA Manager.
You as the Lead BA take your BA requirements directly from your BA Manager and provide status updates to your PM.
The third and most often scenario is where both the PM and your BA Manager are of the opinion that you take requirements direction from them and provide status updates to the other.

Tip: Right at the beginning of the project start the conversation with your BA Manager and clearly establish the relationship you’ll have with him or her and with the PM (in my experience coaching BAs too many Lead BAs don’t have the conversation upfront and then find themselves in a bind when scenario C) above becomes an issue during the project itself). If the answer is taking your requirements direction from them, set up a short meeting with your BA Manager and the PM to establish this relationship as PMs generally don’t like that arrangement, and it’s best to get them to discuss it face to face. If the answer is taking your requirements direction from the PM, then simply follow-up the meeting with a confirmation email to your BA Manager and just let your PM know that you’re effectively going to report to them and take, where appropriate, BA approach direction from them.

2. Establish your role as Lead BA on the BA team:

Make sure it’s clear to the BAs you’ll be leading that you are the Lead BA, and they will work with you in that capacity. A couple of ways to communicate this:

Ensure you’re called out on the project governance as the Lead BA and ensure the BAs you’ll be leading review the project governance
Where you’re taking your Requirements direction from your BA Manager have them send out an email to the BAs you’ll be leading that you’re the lead and that you’ll be guiding the approach etc. to the Requirements deliverables

3. Start by learning about your BAs:

At the beginning you’ll need to establish how experienced the BAs are with eliciting, documenting, and analyzing requirements, how familiar they are with the project subject matter, etc./ by scheduling quick little chats with the BAs you’ll be working with

If you’re dealing with Sr. BAs with lots of experience, then your focus with them will be on making sure things are going smoothly and that they working to the timelines for their requirements work packages; You can give them fairly large and complex requirements work packages
If you’re dealing with more Jr. BAs then you will be in a more guidance/ mentoring mode – periodically reviewing their requirements and providing feedback, mentoring on approach to different types of requirements such as documenting process flows and business rules, etc.; Initially limiting the scope of their work packages to small well-defined pieces of requirements; have little chats with them about how things are going

4. Develop a view of the requirements work packages:

Typically, a group of BAs is assigned to a project because the project is complex and there are multiple “groups/ categories” of requirements that need to be created to deliver the scope of the project. At the outset understand the drivers and objectives of the project and establish a view of the requirements work packages. Some examples of this are:

a. Achieving compliance with regulations or another compliance-related purpose:

1. You may need to look at work packages focused on complying with different sections of the regulations
2. If the compliance covers multiple departments or Lines of Business (LOB) you may need to focus on requirements for each department/ LOB to comply with the regulations

b. Developing and implementing a large technology system or platform:

1. 1. You may need to look at requirements work packages focused around different groups of users with the system – for example if it’s a workflow system you likely have work packages for customer-facing components, back-office-facing components, etc.
  2. You may need to look at requirements work packages focused on different functional features. For example, a customer-facing platform for a direct investing platform may consist of trading-related features, viewing account holdings, researching different securities, etc.

5. Managing the requirements work packages:

a. Establish a view of the project timelines with respect to the requirements work packages based on their complexity etc. I prefer a matrix like this to do so (using the direct investing platform as an example) based on the requirements lifecycle – plan, elicit, analyze, document, get sign-off (note do this in Excel or Project to track progress, etc.)

	Plan	Elicit	Analyze	Document	Sign-Off
Trading requirements	01/01/22 to 10/01/22	10/01/22 to 25/01/22	25/01/22 to 02/02/22	02/02/22 to 16/02/22	16/02/22 to 28/02/22
Security Research requirements	01/01/22 to 10/01/22	10/01/22 to 25/01/22	25/01/22 to 02/02/22	02/02/22 to 16/02/22	16/02/22 to 28/02/22
View account holdings requirements	01/01/22 to 10/01/22	10/01/22 to 25/01/22	25/01/22 to 02/02/22	02/02/22 to 16/02/22	16/02/22 to 28/02/22

b. Based on what you learned about the BAs you’re leading assign them to different work packages – and monitor their progress on their work packages against the. I’ve found the best way to keep track of this is using a matrix like this that I update on a weekly basis:

Legend:

P – Plan, E- Elicit, A- Analyze, D- Document, S- Signoff

	BA1	BA2	BA3
Trading requirements	P – Jan. 1/22
Security Research requirements		P – Jan. 1/22
View account holdings requirements			P – Jan. 1/22

With these 2 matrices, you can keep track of who’s doing what and how they are doing against the target dates so you can provide status reports to the project team as required.

6. Monitoring progress and connecting the BAs as a team:

The most effective approach that I’ve found to monitor the progress of my BAs is to hold weekly meetings – with a twist. Most people just do a status check-in during their weekly meetings – how are you progressing against your timelines. I believe that weekly meetings are a good chance for the BAs to inform and help one another. I encourage them to talk about challenges they are having – someone else in the team may have encountered this and have a solution/ approach to tackling it. I encourage them to talk about effective approaches that they’ve found to doing things that may be helpful to other members of the team. Finally, I ask each BA to give a brief overview of the requirements they are working on. As most projects with a BA team have a common goal – by talking about requirements it will quite often identify synergies or conflicts between requirements/ work packages that will help move the project forward more efficiently.

Conclusion:

Hopefully, these approaches will help you become a more effective BA Lead. There are lots more approaches and in future articles, I may expand on them.

Developing a “Sense of Purpose” for a Business Analysis Initiative

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on January 6, 2022. Posted in Articles.

Βusiness analysts can contribute in delivering the sense of purpose and worth concerning a business analysis initiative. This sense of purpose will contribute to the better effectiveness of the work that is performed between the BA team and the different stakeholders. As the business analysts are continuously communicating with different stakeholders and deal directly with their needs, they are the best source to contribute to the capturing and the diffusion of a common purpose that may also serve as a success criterion for the initiative.

The capacity to effectively lead a business analysis initiative is directly related to the pursuit of a worthy purpose. The purpose may be the most powerful link to join people and processes in a common effort. General/ Organizational purpose can be transformed and decomposed into more specific and detailed initiative purposes. The degree to which we pursue an ennobling purpose is the degree to which we attract others.

Purpose attracts and therefore serves as a unifying force. There is unity of effort and energy to the degree of shared purpose. Our level of satisfaction and our level of energy is directly related not only to our understanding of our own purpose but also to whether the organization and specific project to which we contribute, share that same purpose.

Below you can find four considerations for effectively managing the sense of purpose as a business analyst:

Big Picture

Being able to see the things holistically and the long-term value and effects of any task can help you embrace a worthy purpose that will give you energy and motivation but also distribute this sense of purpose to the other stakeholders

Respond to “Why”

In order to successfully spread a sense of purpose, you need to instill a sense of worthy purpose. It is to answer the why question, why should work overtime for this project? Why should I sacrifice? Why should I dedicate my time to achieving high-quality deliverables? The answer has to be something that is worthy, something that is ennobling.

Focus on the Perception

You may feel you have communicated effectively the purpose to the other stakeholders but do the others perceive the purpose as something worthy and important? Perception is reality. What people think they hear is the truth according to them. So, we have to think through our communications in a very deliberate manner, in a planned manner, thinking through how it’s going to be received on the other end and making sure that people are receiving the message that we want them to receive.

Align with the Organization Purpose

The organization’s purpose and the core values of your organization should be aligned with the project-specific purpose. Projects or initiative specific purpose may be derived and be a more detailed and case-specific purpose of your general organization purpose.

Effective execution of business analysis tasks requires convincing key stakeholders (both internal and external) that your analysis and your conclusions are valid so that you can transition from your analysis to implementation. As such, you must be able to summarize your findings in a message that makes a persuasive argument that aligns with the sense of purpose. An argument that mirrors progress towards the realization of this purpose. Therefore, defusing a sense of purpose and then communicating results towards achieving this purpose is an integral part of your effort in any business analysis task you are engaged with. One that is worthy of careful consideration.

Avoiding Communication Gaps

Written by Kristen Gandier on December 9, 2021. Posted in Articles.

Information is critical to successful change in organizations. How information is communicated can either significantly propel or break down a project. Business Analysts have a critical role in facilitating and influencing communication to impacted areas of the organization. Without a communication skillset, Business Analysts risk being the weakness in the linkage system organizations need for synchronized transformation.

Here are some communication gaps to avoid as a BA practitioner:

The “Barrel Ahead” BA

Each organization has its own pace and comfort zone. When working with stakeholders and business partners, it is important to understand all aspects involved in a potential change. This includes awareness of culture, capacities, readiness, and even other initiatives that are also on the move that may pose distraction or compete for resources. An essential aspect of communication for Business Analysts is listening. Effective listening includes reserving judgment and knowing your audience to form appropriate responses to encourage engagement.

A Business Analyst that is only focusing on pre-conceived outcomes of initiatives poses a risk to not only the stakeholders but to the ultimate success of the outcome. Rushing through steps can also create risks of knowledge gaps and missed requirements.

Pace is significant to initiative success, from framework to implementation. “Tunnel vision” and a too-rapid approach to simply reach the finish line can be easily identified by stakeholders in poor communication, which can then break down engagement and crack the important foundation of trust.

The “Non-Organization Structure” BA

Every organization has a different blueprint of business areas, information, and involved systems. Resources can exist in physical forms such as a database or library, or be integrated within individual knowledge or entire business units. It is important for Business Analysts to understand the organizational landscape so communication can be appropriately deployed. Being an effective Business Analyst includes being able to “bridge” organizational areas, and knowing their structure, purpose, and goals helps to create a solid base for communication.

Not taking the time to understand or learn about the organizational structure can be a risk to the governance approach of a project. Creating and sending communication to the wrong decision-maker can not only create problems within an initiative, but it can also create inter-organizational conflict.

The “Isolated Island” BA

Teamwork is essential to successful change. This is likely why “Elicitation and Collaboration” are paired together in the BABOK. Having stakeholders and business partners appropriately engaged moves the collective pieces of the organization successfully through changes. Having the correct approach to stakeholder communication can set the stage for continuous involvement and support.

While some organizations have Business Analyst roles in various layouts, whether you are on a team of same titles or spread out as a function within various areas, it is important to keep a level of connectivity with all business partners. Business Analysts do their best when they keep avenues of collaboration active with well-fed communication. Active communication helps to reinforce organizational awareness and also creates proactive project efficiencies. Approaching initiatives as a single-ownership can erode stakeholder engagement, as teams may see goals overshadowed by interest in individual portfolio rather than a true business need.

More Than the Destination

Informed stakeholders are comfortable stakeholders. From the start of planning the Business analysis approach to evaluating solutions, communication is essential for teams to successfully meet and satisfy business needs.

Facilitating a collaborative, informed, and trusted environment will help the organization get the most out of not only the outcome but the journey.

Critical Thinking – The Skill of Doubting With a Cause

Written by Giorgos Sioutzos on November 24, 2021. Posted in Articles.

As a business analyst, you will have lots of information from different sources. Your successful journey in the business analysis field heavily depends on continuous try to increase the quality of your thinking.

A critical thinking mindset will enable you to examine the information and determine the best way to move forward by knowing exactly how to assess the information you can trust. You need to access information quality and relevance. Critical thinking is a judge of what to believe. Socrates who introduced the idea of questioning beliefs, questioning authority, seeking evidence, and striving to live an examined life.

During different task, you will perform as a business analyst in your day-to-day work like requirements negotiation and solutions proposal do not underestimate the following points.

Recognize Confirmation & Cognitive Biases

When you’re trying to figure out what to believe without deceiving yourself or ignoring evidence you are in a path of recognizing your bias. Try to recognize beliefs, busting assumptions, and undoubtable truths that may have a detrimental effect on how you assess and evaluate information. Confirmation bias causes us to dismiss evidence that causes doubt and search for evidence that dispels doubt, regardless of the quality of evidence. Cognitive biases aren’t totally bad because their mental simplifier helping us process things quickly and easily however is common to leave us susceptible to poor judgment.

Benefit of Doubt

Believing something without any attempt to get closing to the truth can lead to bad decisions. Being comfortable with doubt but avoiding overthinking can have positive impact on your decisions. Reflective skepticism helps a team ask a series of questions, and then discuss how each could determine a critical thinking error. Asking better questions and creatively dispute helps foster critical thinking skills, boosts self-confidence, enhances your creativity, and improves your problem-solving skills. By asking better questions that derive through doubt, you guide the conversation in the direction you want it to go, eliminating confusion.

Slow Down

Fast pace probably means that sometimes you feel too busy to think. In a continuously running business reality, the time is not always right to analyze and to think deep. You are forced to execute. Fast-paced business can be a critical thinking killer. However trying to “pause” certain times during the day, protecting your focus time slots, and instead of instantly responding and executing, thing and ask, is a habit toward improving critical thinking skills.

Avoid Willful blindness

Although this is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability it can be also applied for the lack of the person to try to find different aspects for a matter that is going to take a decision. Losing the holistic view and intentionally ignoring ideas, concerns etc. can affect detrimental the success of your business analysis tasks.

Developing a critical thinking mindset isn’t easy. It is totally doable, especially when you practice by integrating critical thinking into your daily life. Remember that simple truths do not tell the whole story

How To Create The Best Business Analyst Resume

Written by Emily Henry on November 18, 2021. Posted in Articles.

A strong resume is important no matter what role you’re going for, but it’s especially important if you’re going for a business analyst position. It’s a competitive field, and you need to stand out and show the hiring team just why you’re the best fit for the job. That starts with the resume, so let’s see how you can create an excellent resume that will grab their attention.

Tailor Your Resumes

This sounds very obvious, but when you’re sending out resumes to multiple companies, it’s so easy to let them get bland and try to cover all bases. Each time you send a resume to a potential employer, you need to be writing something that’s just focused on them.

Focus on the skills that you can bring to that particular employer. As a business analyst, you can show them how you translate the business’ data into solutions that improve the way they perform. As you’re skilled at breaking down large data into small parts, that’s perfect for creating a resume.

Format The Resume Correctly

This is something that all resume writers need to keep in mind. Your writing may show that you’re the perfect person for the job, but if you can’t format correctly, then recruiters won’t take a second look at the resume itself.

A good resume has be clean and easily readable. A recruiter will be scanning your resume, looking for the points that make you a good fit for the job. You need to make it easy for them to find them. Ensure you’re using plenty of white space, and use italics, bold and upper case where appropriate to attract the eye.

Create A Business Analyst Summary

At the very top of your resume, it’s a good idea to create a business analyst summary. This summary will give the person reading it a quick overview of who you are and what you can bring to the job. It’s the first thing they’ll read, so it has to grab them right away.

What should go in the summary? It can be a number of different things, but remember that it does need to be kept short and to the point. You can cover things like your qualifications, achievements, and experience to name a few.

To start writing the summary, look at the job posting again. This will give you several keywords which you can use in the summary to ensure your resume gets picked out. Use this and your background to create the meat of the summary.

A good summary should only be one or two sentences long, so every word will count. Ensure you write it in an active voice, to make it more compelling to the reader.

Here’s an example of how your summary could look:

Experienced business analyst with five years in improving e-commerce profitability by 60%. Seeking opportunities to use analytic skills to improve efficiency and create customer driven solutions at MarketingX.

As you can see, it’s very short and to the point. It uses quantitative data to show how the writer improved profitability at their current role. Keep this in mind when working on your summary.

Create A Resume Objective

Sometimes, an objective is better than a summary. For example, if you’re a recent graduate, are switching careers, or switching from another industry, then this will be what you’ll use on your resume.

This objective will explain where you are now, and where you hope to be in the future. Again, it only needs to be a couple of sentences long, so you’ll need to get everything you want in that small space. A resume objective can look like this:

Senior product manager with 6 years of experience looking to move to business analyst position at MarketingX. Proven track record of improving sales performance up to 60%, using big data.

Here, see that you’re still focusing on what you can bring to the company, rather than what you want yourself.

Focus On The Employer

When creating your resume, make sure that you’re focusing on the employer and their needs. Remember that they’re looking for someone that can fulfil a specific need within their company. It’s your job to show you can fit that role, and give them what they’re looking for.

As mentioned above, you’ll need to use the job posting, with the key words in it, to write your resume. Research the company too, to see who they are and what they do. Will your skills bring more to them and help them grow? Make sure they know that.

Describe Your Business Analyst Experience

You have to show the employer what experience you have, and how it relates to the position that you’re trying to fill. The best way to do this is to break it all down and turn it into something that’s easy to understand.

Don’t use jargon, as not all recruiters will be as familiar with business analyst lexicon as you are. When listing duties you’ve had in the past, make sure you show how it’s applicable to the role you’re applying for. Again, you need to focus on the employer, rather than yourself.

With these tips, you’ll be able to put together a business analyst resume that wows recruiters, and gets them to pick up the phone and call you. Use this guide to craft your resume now, and make sure that you can get the job you have your eye on.

Emily Henry is a professional writer for OX Essays and Boom Essays. She’s an expert on resumes and resume writing. She’s also a tutor with Paper Fellows.