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Tag: Skills

Embedded BI Changes the Strategic Role of the Business Analyst

Written by Marcus Hodges on . Posted in Articles.

The world of business intelligence (BI) and data analytics has existed for decades; what started as simple Business Analysis reporting in the late 1980s has evolved to today’s near real-time querying.

Departments rely on BI to make daily decisions, and at the highest-level organizations turn to BI and data analytics to make strategic business decisions that can dramatically affect a company’s bottom line and future direction.

Business intelligence is going through a transition. Its evolution combined with new capabilities provided by embedded BI empowers Business Analysts to serve a more direct, visible and strategic role in delivering analytics to organizations. As technology evolves to meet new market demands, departmental, and organizational needs, the functionality offered by BI and data analytics is dramatically evolving. This extends to change who manages BI and data analytics.

As organizations mature and become more sophisticated, business leaders realize that mining the data that already exists within the organization affords them opportunities to influence more effective strategic decision making.

With BI innovations, including new features, functions, and end-user capabilities, Business Analysts can also drive efficiencies with more timely data analysis.

BI Use Comes from Disciplines, Departments Across the Organization

Traditionally the information technology (IT) department was responsible for deploying and managing the BI solution, as well as fulfilling requests to produce reports and delivering them to end users, departmental level managers, and the executives who needed them. Once IT deployed the BI solution, the Business Analyst became the intermediary for end users and IT to develop reports and dashboards that met business objectives. Unfortunately, the process to meet user requests for new reports could take weeks.

Beyond serving as the IT and end user-intermediary, the Business Analyst historically had the pivotal role of dictating the processes and developing business systems, so the organization achieved its business goals. The role of the Business Analyst included:

  • defining business needs through detailed functional requirements
  • evaluating potential solutions to business problems
  • analyzing and evaluating business systems and user needs

Evolving Business Analyst Solutions Changing Roles

While the Business Analyst always worked with end users to understand and prioritize business goals and information needs, that role has now evolved to include understanding the analytics methodology for their organization. The Business Analyst translates critical objectives into the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics.

In many organizations, IT teams are resource constrained – having to do too much with too little, especially time. The evolution of BI hands more responsibilities to end users, who require greater and immediate access to real-time data.

With this shift, the Business Analyst has moved from the role of facilitator or gatekeeper working with the IT department and end users to a more strategic role. Business Analysts can now directly influence how business applications and their outputs are used by organizations to meet specific needs. In our fast-paced world, end users expect much quicker response times, and now the Business Analyst has become responsible for getting them analytics they need in real time.

Today’s Business Analyst is responsible for the following roles:

  • administrating the analytics experience for all users
  • managing data sources and access rights
  • creating and distributing reports, dashboards and data visualizations
  • performing complex analysis and implement change to improve organizational performance.

The Power of BI Today in Form and Function

Solution providers sensing this shift have responded by offering capabilities that make BI more than just a stand-alone platform. They are embedding BI capabilities in their applications to allow for self-service analytics. Available purpose-built embedded BI capabilities are becoming intuitive functions that end users access as part of their daily workflow.

An administrative graphical user interface (GUI) allows the Business Analyst to customize the BI and data analytics functions, enabling them to set up user roles and permissions. Through the GUI, the Business Analyst tailors the user’s analytics for departments and individual users.

The Business Analyst can also define data sources and blend data from multiple sources, other tasks previously handled by IT. Rather than relying on a database administrator (DBA), the GUI allows the Business Analyst to alias data fields as business-friendly terms – making analytics more approachable to the business user, thereby increasing adoption.

A powerful GUI and embedded BI functionality equips end-users with self-service capabilities to produce the reports, visualizations, and dashboards, which previously required engagement from the IT team and Business Analyst. The evolution of BI and organizational changes shift report writing and dashboard creation from the IT team to the end user.

Self-service BI empowers end-users and enables the Business Analyst to work as a true analyst, freeing them to create reports and dashboards to ensure the company follows its business model and makes effective strategic business decisions based on real-time data analysis. The Business Analyst can take learnings gleaned from analytics to better forecast and plan for the effects specific actions might have on the business. This makes the Business Analyst’s role more powerful, helping them play a pivotal role in strategic decision-making.

BI’s Evolution Makes These Skills Important for the Business Analyst

As the amount of analyzable data continues to grow, current and future Business Analysts may want to consider strengthening or adding to their skillset. There is certainly no shortage in the growth of data creation, capture, management, and analysis that will require such skills as:

  • Business Acumen – Understanding the industry and its KPIs to create value for the organization
  • Application Proficiency – Mastering the organization’s business application and its BI solution
  • UX/UI Design – Knowing where users need to utilize analytics within the business application
  • Report and Dashboard Design – Understanding what data and reports are relevant to the end user and utilize their eye for storytelling and knowledge of charting to identify the most appropriate visualizations, tables, and charts to help users find insight
  • Methodology and Business Process – Understanding the processes of the organization to identify opportunities to redesign for improvement and apply analytics to improve operational performance
  • Automate Decision-Making – Analyzing and determining which reports and alerts can be scheduled and automated to move users toward additional data discovery and insight

Embedded BI Aids BUSINESS ANALYST’s Strategic Role

The demand for interactive data has helped BI to evolve from a rigid technology managed by IT to a business requirement. Today’s Business Analyst deals with BI as a business function, not an enabling technology. The continued growth of solutions that empower the end user allows the Business Analyst to further cement their role as a strategic asset for the company. Where the Business Analyst once took on the role of a project manager, embedded self-service BI empowers the Business Analyst to shift that role Business Analyst to strategic analysis.

8 Things I Learned from Being a New Business Analyst

Written by Elsa Ephraim on . Posted in Articles.

I was not very sure about what my role as a BA would look like, what was expected of me and how I needed to go about things.

But reading so many articles online, especially from the BA times (I start my day with the BA times; it’s like my morning newspaper) has helped me gain lots of knowledge which I would have otherwise gathered only with experience. As a newbie BA, I don’t have too much to contribute (yet), but I would love to share my experience on my first project process mapping. I hope this helps other newbie Business Analysts on what and what not to do.

Okay, so my task was to map out the current supply chain process of the company, identify loopholes/ gaps or areas of improvement and suggest fixes. Sounded simple enough – till I actually dived in.

1. Be Confident

Being new to the post and industry, I had lots to learn and gathering information just by observation was not going to help me. I had to conduct one on one interviews. Everyone was busy (or claimed that he or she were busy), and they were not very keen on going out of their way to make time out for me (I don’t think they even knew what I was doing there). So after politely asking them to make time for me, the first few days I ended up sitting at my desk waiting for people to get free. Obviously, I was not proactive or firm (that does not mean you need to be rude). Instead of “Please could you let me know when you are free,” make it “Kindly give me a time and date so that we can set up a meeting to discuss the process.” See, more professional and more chances that they are going to take you seriously. Even better, get that into an email with your boss in cc. Now he knows you are in action.

2. Always Confirm Information Collected from More Than One Person

I made the mistake of gathering information from only one person per department. Big mistake! It is not necessary that the information that he or she is giving you is accurate, so you need to double check. After I realized this and began double checking, I faced instances of getting different pieces of information from different people of the same team! Initially, this was puzzling, and then it started to get hilarious. This pointed out a big gap in their process: lack of complete process awareness.

3. Probe and Probe Further

I loved the part where I could interview people but overlooked the very important part of creating unambiguous questions. I realized that when I interviewed them unless I probed further about something, I would not get all the information. Just by sticking to the questions that I had prepared for the interview, I would not get a 360° view of the process. So I learned that after I ask a question, I need to ensure that I cover the who, what, why and how of it too, before moving on to the next.

4. Focus on the AS–IS and Be Objective About It

It was exciting to improve a process but I needed to remember to focus on the as–is first. Many times as I was interviewing them, I would immediately jump to finding gaps and faults in the process. The conversation now steers in that direction and rest of the interview would be a mix of what is and what is not and what could be. Result? At the end of the interview, I was not sure if I had the as–is process or the to–be process or a combination of the two. So just listen, be objective and ask questions about the information that you are collecting, but do not jump into being Sherlock Holmes just yet.

5. Document Your Journey

I am aware that the least amount of time should be spent on documentation, but I must say it actually helped me to document as I gathered information. This helped because by wording out the details as I collected, I found that there were incomplete pieces of information gathered. For instance, I would document part of the process as “The yard foreman informs the warehouse about the collected items” – whoa! Hold on there. How was the information passed? Who was informed in the warehouse? Coordinator? Supervisor? The little details give you a much better idea about the process flow and information flow. So after I gathered my information, my sentence looked like this: “The yard foreman verbally informs the warehouse coordinator about the collected items.” No ambiguity and absolute transparency. Please note that at this stage of documentation the focus should not be on the font and alignment of your document, but content.

The other frills can be looked into at the last stage of documentation and review.

6. Ask!

As a newbie, I found it a good practice to ask the person concerned what problems they face. Handling the same process on a daily basis, they will already have identified loop holes that the management would have ignored or not seen. Also, you need to analyze whether their concern is actually worth taking note of and if it fits into the big picture.

7. Enjoy the Planning Phase

I had jumped right into the project, but what I have realized is, before you take the big leap, take a few days just to plan the entire thing out – who you are going to interview, who is going to read your document, what needs to be included in your document, etc. I think the BABOK v3 chapter 3, covers this nicely. You might have to change your plan along the way, but it’s better to dive in half prepared than not prepared at all. In my next project, I am definitely going to be better prepared. Plus planning is always fun –executing your plan is the problem!

8. Open Your Mind, Be Creative

The person I replaced had been a senior BA who left for a better opportunity. I felt little vulnerable at the beginning and wondered the rationale for hiring me the fresher and not a senior analyst. When I expressed my concern to my project manager, he replied, ”Oh! We decided we needed a fresh mind so that we can have some creativity around here”. All that time I was searching around the net for solutions to problems I had found in the process never once realizing that maybe being creative and thinking for myself was actually is what is more important. With that being said, I valued all the information I gather from the net – it’s taught me a lot (thank goodness for Google). Sometimes all we need to do is take a good hard look at the problem, get our creative juices flowing, get excited about creating something new, and for all you know the solution will be real simple. You don’t have to be worried that you don’t have the experience yet.

Sure, some of your ideas are going to get rejected but it will definitely spark up an interesting conversation, and it will make work pretty interesting. I don’t think it matters at what stage of your BA career you are at. We BA’s have a chance to be creative in our jobs, and that excites me.
Well, I really hope that this helps someone out there. I’m excited about being a Business Analyst. I’m looking forward to a lot more experiences that I can share! Cheers!

5 Competencies that help Business Analysts Connect the Dot

Written by Elizabeth Larson on . Posted in Articles.

What do detectives, entrepreneurs/innovators, doctors, lawyers, and effective business analysts all have in common?

Larson 032817 1Among other things, they all have to connect the dots1 to be successful. Like detectives sorting through objects at the scene of the crime, or doctors sorting through sometimes disjointed information provided by patients, business analysts need to sort through information—lots and lots of information—in order to identify problems and uncover requirements of the solution. This process requires the ability to connect the dots.

And although the phrase “connecting the dots” has been around for a long time, it has crept into our popular culture, thanks in part to Steve Jobs. He talked about it in August 2011 when he described what connecting the dots meant to him. He said, “You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that somehow the dots will connect in your future.” 2

Well, that sounds good. But what does it actually mean? How do we go about connecting the dots? Here are some prerequisites:

  1. Experience. We cannot look backwards if we don’t have the background or experience to make sense of the new information we’re taking in. That does not mean we need to have specific industry or project experience. But it does mean that we need to have learned from similar situations. We need to apply appropriate business analysis skills to new situations, guided by what worked and what did not work in the past.
  2. Understanding context. We need to understand the context of the current situation. “Context” is one of the core business analysis concepts in the BABOK® Guide 3.0, an important concept indeed. Understanding the context provides important information about such things as the culture of the organization and the stakeholders, values and beliefs of the organization and the stakeholders, processes followed, conditions that affect the situation like weather (think shoe prints in the snow, or clues washed away in the rain), terminology, and technology—just about anything that can affect identifying the problem and the creation of the solution.
  3. Ability to recognize patterns. Recognizing patterns requires an ability to take in information from a variety of different sources, to synthesize lots of disparate information and make sense of it, to rearrange it, to understand what is important, to stay focused, and not get distracted by the irrelevant. Larson 032817 2The ability to recognize patterns is what allows us to understand which “clues” are relevant, because we’ve seen them, just in different situations. It’s about the ability to see a problem and say with confidence: his particular solution will work (and this one won’t and here’s why).
  4. Using both the rational mind and intuition. BAs need to use both their rational minds and their intuition.3 Several years ago there was a heated discussion on a social media group about which would serve the BA better—being “analytical” or being “intuitive.” Most discussion participants saw it as an either/or. Effective BAs were either more logical or more intuitive.
    We do need to be analytical. We need to break down information into smaller pieces and determine which pieces are needed. We need to use our analysis to uncover the root causes of a problem which helps separate facts from hearsay, gossip, and opinion. But we also need to use our intuition if we have any hope of being able to think critically and conceptually, as well as to be able to synthesize a lot of information quickly and be able t make sense of it.4
  5. Ability to thrive in ambiguous situations. We often hear about the need for BAs to tolerate ambiguity. I think that effective detectives and business analysts are those who not only tolerate but actually thrive in ambiguous situations. The ability to thrive in uncertain situations allows business analysts to create structure from chaos. When business analysts can synthesize all the information they have accumulated during elicitation activities, put it together in meaningful ways, and are able to create understanding and gain consensus—that’s a true thing of beauty.Larson 032817 3

Having these competencies does not necessarily mean a BA will be successful. But these skills are necessary to connect the dots and connecting the dots is necessary if we BAs are going to do our jobs of finding problems and recommending solutions that provide value to stakeholders (BABOK® Guide v.3).

About The Authors

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA is Co-Principal and CEO of Watermark Learning and has over 30 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth’s speaking history includes repeat presentations for national and international conferences on five continents.

Elizabeth has co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation. She has also co-authored chapters published in four separate books. Elizabeth was a lead author on several standards including the PMBOK® Guide, BABOK® Guide, and PMI’s Business Analysis for Practitioners – A Practice Guide.

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, President and Founder of Watermark Learning, is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on business analysis and project management topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.

Rich loves to combine industry best practices with a practical approach and has contributed to those practices through numerous speaking sessions around the world. He has also worked on the BA Body of Knowledge versions 1.6-3.0, the PMI BA Practice Guide, and the PM Body of Knowledge, 4th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation.

References
1 “To draw a conclusion from disparate facts.” http://www.dictionary.com/browse/connect-the-dots?s=t
Originally a form or puzzle involving drawing lines between numbers to form a picture, as in “To draw connecting lines between a seemingly random arrangement of numbered dots so as to produce a picture or design.” http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr07uR75Qk0 4:41 minutes in

3 The term “intuition” has a variety of meanings and is used differently in different contexts. Although there are different nuances, the term basically is “There are a variety of definitions of intuition. This is from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/intuition?s=t “direct perception of truth, fact, etc. independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension; a keen and quick insight.”

4 Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action from The Critical Thinking Community, http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
Conceptual thinking “…make sense of large amounts of detailed and potentially disparate information.” Conceptual thinking is applied “to find ways to understand how that information fits into a larger picture and what details are important, and to connect seemingly abstract information..” BABOK® Guide 3.0, 9.1.6.

How to Avoid Confrontations at the Office

Written by Christine Sato on . Posted in Articles.

Office politics may be more confusing and confrontational than nationwide politics.

Sure, there may not be as much at stake, but a terrible relationship between two employees can hurt the productivity and morale of an entire company.

So, how do you make sure that you’re not in the midst of one of these feuds and what can you do to ensure that your coworkers aren’t tied up in any negative relationships?

Examples in History

With all of the negative political discourse present in the modern era, it’s difficult to imagine leaders of two parties being good friends. But, Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, the Democrat speaker of the house and Republican president, respectively, established a great relationship that led to increased productivity in Washington, D.C. How did they reach this point?

Tip and “the Gipper” were able to find common ground and get a lot done in terms of compromising and meeting halfway on legislation. They sought to find commonalities and embrace these similarities instead of focusing on and exploiting differences in their ideologies.

So, how do you use their example in your life at work? The answer is simple: avoid topics that can stir up the emotional pot. There used to be a simple rule for polite conversation: don’t talk about politics or religion.

Stick to the Basics

Until you know the lay of the land with regard to your coworkers’ political and religious views, tread lightly. Eventually, you’ll develop a rapport with certain employees, but don’t push the envelope. And, if anything ever gets contentious, or is heading down that road, ABORT. It’s always better to take the high road when it comes to office disagreements.

Try saying something like: “I get your point of view on this; I just would prefer to not talk about it here at work.” There’s nothing that someone can say to that! It’s easy and smart to hide behind the cover of “being at work.” Also, it’s easy to portray a middle-of-the-road viewpoint, regardless of what you actually think.

No one likes the person at work who thrusts his or her views upon everyone else. The world could use a little more compromising and pleasantry, so try to be positive about everything and don’t take an entrenched position on anything.

Common Ground!

Another tactic is to actively seek out the interests of your coworkers and really stick to those topics of conversation. If they like sports, try to talk about their favorite teams and players. If they have a hobby like gardening or reading, maybe take an interest in what they are doing or reading.

It’s not that hard to be civil and social with people—everyone has things that he or she likes, and it’s easy to at least feign some level of interest in one of these activities. Talk about current events, pop culture, or what is happening in your local area. Trust me; it’s just easier to stick to the safe subjects than to wade into the waters of contention.

Above all else, just try to be kind to one another. That may sound like something that an elementary school teacher tells their students, but it still rings true at the office. There’s no point making enemies in the place in which you work. There’s nothing worse than hating going to work because you are in a major disagreement with a coworker.

Finally, and this may be tough for some people, if all else fails, be the one who meets in the middle, the one who says, you know what, I’ll suck it up and be wrong about this thing. If you concede a point or simply give in when it comes to an unimportant work issue, you won’t notice an hour after the given interaction, and it will score you big points in the long run.

Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Written by Richard Lannon on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Often when working with clients on a strategic business analysis, planning or roadmap engagement I look to see if they are teaming with success.

I learned the importance of this from my time at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then later working with clients across various industries. This was recently reaffirmed, not by a business engagement, but through working with a group of songwriters and musicians. The engagement was to facilitate (share), document (write), integrate (edit), and present (perform) a song to be video recorded for a major sponsor (influencer). The outcome (song) was a tribute to a lawyer, business leader, and musician, whose struggle with cancer became a catalyst for people engagement and a reminder, we all serve somebody. In some way, I believe we can all relate.

Here are the 7 reminders from an unlikely place that makes for great business analysis:

1. Never be the Lone Ranger

I am guilty of this one. Love my independents and autonomy. As someone who is into senior business analysis type work, it is easy to become the lone ranger, trying to do everything yourself. The interesting thing you learn when hanging out with a group of musicians (who are sincere) is everyone has different talents and a contribution to be made. The best part is you are not alone. So don’t be. There is always someone available to help. All you need to do is belong.

2. It Takes a Community

It takes a community to be successful. That means a team. I learned this when I wrote my first book. You think I would have learned it with all the teams I worked on throughout my career. However, no I did not. You see, in my mind, writing a book meant you went off somewhere, in isolation at some remote cabin and the book was magically created. Pouf! When you write a song or a book, you need a team to succeed. It turns out to be the same way for when you write a requirements document. It should become a team effort to make sure it is great. Within the Business Analysis career, we need to break down the barriers of work competition and work together to create successful communities, teams.

3. ‘Cheers’ Had an Important Message

Now, I do not expect you remember the TV show, Cheers. The opening song, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, by Gary Portnoy (https://youtu.be/h-mi0r0LpXo), serves as a good reminder for something we all secretly desire. Most people will recall Norm, one of the main characters. When he walked into the establishment, everyone would yell, NORM. In our profession, there is an opportunity make like everyone welcome. As a professional leader who facilitates sessions, you can create your own ‘Cheers’ opportunities. I have seen it in other businesses, and I experienced it myself.

4. Acknowledgeable Goes a Long Way

During my experience with the group of musicians, the song written was presented. I was just one person among a larger group of people and was asked for my feedback. As an analyst and writer, I cannot help myself but analyze the written words. I had marked up the paper and reluctantly shared with the group. To my surprise, my remarks were well received. Several days later, at another professional event, the writer sat down beside me, leaned over and said he had incorporated my suggestions and the song was better. I was shocked and humbly thankful. My point is being willing to share your thoughts can be intimidating.

Maybe you are concerned about what people think. In business analysis, we are leaders. It is important to acknowledge people on your team for their contribution. Great communities share and acknowledge one another’s contributions.

5. Know What You are Working Towards

This is something I have learned to be extremely important. In business analysis we generally refer to having a clear definition of the problem or opportunity. Ideally, we get this from leadership. However, that is not always the case. The ability to clearly articulate the challenge/opportunity is 150 words or less is not a gift or a skill most people have developed. My Dad had an expression; I have more years behind me than in front of me. He is 95. He has been saying this for a long time. Something I noticed though everything he did was based on not knowing what tomorrow will bring. So he would work towards something. It was the innate understanding and answer to what ‘what’ and ‘why’ (what is the focus, why is it important). Business analysis needs to be focused the same way. It is important to treat things as if there is no tomorrow, so you need to know what you are working towards, why and get it done. It could be your last chance. So don’t have regrets.

6. Believe in Yourself

This last twelve months I had the opportunity to get to know and work with someone who I am sure their tag line is ‘let’s do it.’ We would be discussing an idea and if it made sense, he would say, let’s do it. When I am wearing my business analysis hat, I can be critical, skeptical and candid. Not because I am a negative person but because I am engaged to ‘question everything,’ be factual and present ideas for decision making. There are times I do wonder though if within business analysis we (you) can hide behind our (your) insecurities. Working with this musical group, I was sometimes reminded you need just to put yourself out there, to believe in yourself and allow others to support you. In management consulting I use to have a sponsor who would say, do first and ask for forgiveness later. Sometimes that is all we need to do. It is great lesson learned.

7. Communications is Key

Recently I was in a meeting with a sponsor of a large financial investment organization regarding a senior business analysis contract opportunity. Like anyone else I have to make a living. They asked me what makes a professional successful in business analysis. I told them the story about the former Australia Business Analysis Association now part of the IIBA. They had this door lock diagram I always liked. I still reference it in my business analysis training programs today. The diagram was of a lockset with all the tumblers around it. Each tumbler represented a skill set; facilitation, modeling, financials, decision making, etc. In the middle, where the key is placed to unlock the business analysis magic kingdom, was one word, communications. Whether verbal or written, formal or informal, the key to success is mastering your communications skills. Something I think we can all do better.

Final Thoughts

No doubt the musicians applied the hard and soft skills of business analysis; the facilitation, documenting, integrating, and presenting requirements with a final outcome, video recorded song. In this case, a tribute to an important sponsor (Pearl River), someone who is a connector of people, a supporter, who influenced the lives of many people professionally and personally, and knows how to get things done. A dream sponsor.

It is easy to talk or write about tools and techniques you can use in business analysis. It is harder to communicate those professional and life experiences that make you a better professionally and personally. I love the business analysis career, people development and diversified initiatives with opportunities to incorporate what you learned in all you do. Working with a group of creative people from all walks of life and professions reminded me of the things that make teams great.

When you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, there is an endless opportunity to build your skills. You just never know when you are going to learn something you can apply to your business, career, and life to serve others. In the end, I think that is what it is all about.
Remember, do you best, invest in the success of others, make your journey count, Richard.