Tag: Team

Leaders, Followers and Trusted Advisors

Written by Christina Lovelock on December 2, 2020. Posted in Articles.

You may be interested in developing your leadership skills as a BA – but have you ever stopped to think about the quality of your followership skills?

We live in a world where the quality of leadership is considered to be absolutely critical to the success or failure of projects and organisations, but almost no emphasis is placed on the concept of followership. The role of ‘followers’ in organisations is often minimised, though clearly good leadership relies on good followership to actually get things done.

There are negative connotations with the word follower, no one wants to see themselves as a follower, we all want to emphasise our leadership skills and qualities. We seem to ignore the fact that being a leader almost always involves being a follower too. Everyone has a boss.

Types of Leaders

There are many leadership styles. Some are adopted consciously by leaders who understand their own values, reflect on their own behaviours and understands the impacts of their words and actions. Others are the product of default actions or inherited approaches. Leadership has been the focus of a great deal of academic research, thousands of books, millions of seminars, webinars, training courses and qualifications. The implication is clear: leadership is a skill that can be taught and honed. Where is the training on becoming a better follower? Who would attend that course?

Types of Followers

Being an effective follower does not mean always agreeing with those in leadership positions, it does not mean blindly going along with any idea or initiative which comes from leaders. It is about taking responsibility, owning problems, appropriately challenging things which don’t make sense or could be improved. Leaders need followers they can count on to tell them the truth in a professional, concise and constructive way.

Being a good follower is something we can take pride in as BAs, as it depends on two skills we already have. The first is critical thinking, the second is active participation.

Critical Thinking

Business Analysts must apply critical thinking skills all the time to be successful in our roles. The term ‘critical thinking’ encompasses the ability to systematically solve problems, construct and evaluate arguments, make logical connections, highlight gaps and inconsistencies. All of these skills can be applied in a positive and collaborative way and ‘critical’ should not be confused with ‘criticism’.

Leaders should encourage independent thinking from their followers, as leaders cannot provide all the answers and need input and scrutiny for the ideas and strategies put forward.

Participation

When we choose to act or not act, care or not care, volunteer or step back, we are sending clear messages about our levels of participation within our organisations. BAs often rail against the deterministic attitude of “we have always done it that way” or nods around the table leading to no action, and we must be vigilant about these behaviours in ourselves.

‘Activism’ may or may not be in line with direction set by leaders. It is the role of leaders to listen to dissenting voices, if they have applied critical thinking and are actively participating even if it is not what the leader wants to hear, and it is the role of followers to engage in a positive and constructive way even if they don’t like where the leader is headed.

Participation begins with the courage to speak up, and in particular ask good questions, which is something BAs should be well practiced in.

Trusted Advisors

Many BAs do not seek traditional leadership positions, but do want to have a level of influence, feel our voice is heard and make a positive contribution. This utopia is often described as becoming a ‘trusted advisor’. How can we become trusted, so that our advice is both sought and impactful? There is no single route to becoming a trusted advisor, as it is dependent on the organisational context, levels of knowledge and experience, relationships and hierarchies, our attitude and the approach of those around us. But it starts with two skills: making an active contribution and applying critical thinking and (in other words, being an effective follower!).

Conclusion

If we are able to move away from the negative connotations of being a follower, and see the role as equal but different to leadership, we can recognise the importance of both skill sets.

By considering the quality of our followership skills, and prompting conversations about the type of followers that contribute to the success of organisations, we can promote participation, celebrate critical thinking and achieve better outcomes together.

Further reading:

[1https://hbr.org/1988/11/in-praise-of-followers“>https://hbr.org/1988/11/in-praise-of-followers

[2] Goffee & Jones (2019) Why should Anyone be led by you?

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Released: Move on or Resume?

Written by Divya Kishore on October 21, 2020. Posted in Articles.

What’s next? If you are like me, then you are pondering the next item on your to-do list and you can relate to this question.

I end up planning for the next task while my current one is still in progress. Typically, a multi-year project is broken into phases. Prior to the completion of the first phase, discussions are already under way for the next phase. As humans, it is natural to get excited about the new features in an application and want to continually improve on those features. Yet, it is worthwhile to take a pause from “What’s next” or “What’s new”, so that the team can reflect on parking lot items and lessons learned to help define product value.

Here are a few action items that a Business Analyst (BA) or any team member can resume post MVP release:

Revisit the user’s wish list: I have worked on initiatives where we got so focused with the delivery of MVP that the immediate next step was to continue to improve the released MVP. In this process, the wish list of the end users or “nice to have” requirements that were tabled were permanently left off.

How can I help? Record, revisit and re-evaluate wish list items on the backlog once the dust settles down with the MVP release. Follow up discussions relating to these items act as a reminder and help discover new backlog items.

Address edge cases: Recall exceptional scenarios that came up in previous meetings? Often, these exceptions do not transpire on a regular basis and end up on the back burner because the goal initially is to just rollout the MVP.

How can I help? Schedule a discussion, create a project plan and address the one-off scenarios. Risk and prioritize these scenarios to determine which ones will be in the next MVP release and which ones will potentially never need attention.

Reiterate “New functionality vs value”: I was shopping online once, and the website met all the primary needs of an online shopper. However, it was when I had entered all the payment information, I was notified that an item was not in stock. As an online customer, I see more value in receiving live inventory updates for an item instead of the fancy features offered on the website. From the vendor’s perspective, MVP release could be “complete”, but did anyone analyze and evaluate what is truly valuable to an online customer?

How can I help? Perform value analysis. Collaborate with the business partners to define “value”. Value may look very different from the lens of a manager vs the lens of an end user.

Update glossary: I have attended meetings where participants call out terms and abbreviations. When it is a global project, there is an extra layer of chaos since there are a myriad of words and languages thrown all over the place. A lack of standard global terminology is an ongoing problem.

How can I help? Volunteer to author this list and get the definitions reviewed by business partners. Maintain a glossary as a living document in a central repository where everyone can review it after every MVP iteration.

Gather feedback: Are the users inundated with the new application or functionality? Are they forced to adopt the new application? Do they feel it is the same way of doing business but in a new application this time?

How can I help? A survey is a great option to capture the true sentiments of a user. It gives them an opportunity to vote on their likes and helps the team determine value for the next MVP release.

Have you resumed tasks that were placed on hold due to the MVP release? What are the action items you would like to pick up from where you left off? Think about it!! You do not want to keep improving the last MVP endlessly and overlook the features that never made it to the MVP release. The end goal is not to get so absorbed with the MVP that the tasks or action items post MVP release slip through the cracks.

“Strive Not to Be A Success, But Rather to Be of Value” – Albert Einstein

Becoming a BA leader

Written by Maksim Haurylik on July 29, 2020. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Becoming a BA leader

Being in the business analysis profession for more than a decade, at some point in my career I’ve noticed that many experienced BAs prefer to work alone rather than to lead a team.

They say it can be so difficult that it is easier sometimes to get the work done just by yourself.

But the business analysis profession keeps growing and getting mature. And developing leadership skills is one of the key things allowing an analyst not only to grow professionally, but simply to stay on track.

So, in this article I would like to share some thoughts about the specifics of leading a team of BAs, certain typical difficulties inexperienced BA leaders can face, and several ways to make leading a BA team more efficient and (what is important) less tough.

Talking about specifics of leading a BA team, we need to take into account the following key areas: people, environment, amount of work and solutions’ complexity. Well, everyone knows that, as a rule, BAs are bright, highly educated and enthusiastic people with broad mindset, environment BAs work in is usually quite creative, scope of work can be really huge, and the solutions can be quite complex so it requires some time to dive in and get to the details.

Now having that in mind, let’s take a step aside and look at leading a team of BAs from a different angle. So, perhaps the most important thing that you realize when you start leading other BAs is that now you are responsible not only for your own work and deliverables ‑ but for the way other people do their job and for the artifacts other BAs create. And many experienced BAs promoted to lead a team keep acting as they were still to do everything by themselves: diving into every tiny detail, or acting as a single source of truth when it comes to defining various BA processes or practices to be used.

No wonder, that these and many other difficulties can be faced in such situation:

Too many things to be done
The time is not enough
People do not always do what and how they have been told to

Taking into account the specifics of leading a team of BAs, it is easy to understand that quite often these issues come out as a result of not optimal way of leadership selected and leading/guiding practices used. For example, using authoritarian patterns may not always be the best idea in a creative environment of independent and well-motivated professionals. Or, as a person leading a team of several BAs sometimes you just cannot afford to spend time on diving too deep into every single detail.

Not even mentioning the possibility of delivering low quality results, these difficulties, if you are facing them long enough, can put you on a risk of burning down and, furthermore, getting disappointed with the profession. Hence, they should be addressed immediately. Good news is that these difficulties in BA leadership can be overcome!

But how to do it in the right way? How to avoid all these negative impacts? I think there are three key ingredients:

organize teamwork properly,
build productive working relationships,
spend time on educating and developing other BAs.

Organizing teamwork properly

Talking about organizing work of multiple BAs, it should be mentioned that it is always better to divide the scope of work and any regular responsibilities taking into account your fellow BAs preferable options and capabilities. Obviously, it would be better to start doing it from the very beginning of the project. But what is more important – try to do it in advance. That would help you to manage people’s expectations and hence keep your team more motivated.

Also, always discuss the processes with your team, and make a mutual agreement on them. That would unite people, make each of them feel as a valuable part of the team, and help them to grow professionally.

And it is always important to analyze your team’s actions and outcomes on a regular basis. It helps you to define the possible gaps at the earliest convenience and make the necessary adjustments when required.

Tips

Please note that it always takes some time for the people to get used to a process. So, expect that a single discussion may not be enough: setting up BA cooperation processes is a process in itself, and it will require you to make the necessary adjustments when needed.

Also, when setting up the processes and/or assigning responsibilities, please try to make sure there is always Second-in-charge – a person capable of taking responsibility for something in case the primary owner is absent, the one who can quickly step in and help out when needed. That is an important thing inexperienced leaders may miss 🙂

Make sure you are not all about the BA daily routine – note that now you should have enough time for the leading activities.

Building productive working relationships

Creating a productive working environment can be successfully achieved with the help of the following principles:

1. Make sure people can see the whole picture, so they will be able to understand the reasons behind your actions, and hence both work more productively and develop themselves more efficiently.

2. Be open for ideas. It is impossible for a person to always be right, always see the best way. So, be open to fresh ideas!

3. Encourage and motivate. Encourage your team members to come up with suggestions, to propose solutions. Remember that it would not only motivate them, but help them to grow and mature as well.

Educating and developing other BAs

Developing other BAs will allow you to make sure that your team performs as expected and provides the artifacts of high quality (and that is really important) without your direct participation, but just under your supervision. Plus, it can allow you to save your time significantly 🙂

Use this commonly known pattern proven to be the best practice: explain the subject in detail first, then do it yourself and allow your mentee watch and learn. Afterwards, let them practice it, then perform it under your guidance. And finally, your mentee will be able to do it on their own in time and in required quality:

Explaining
Shadowing
Practicing
Performing with guidance
Performing independently

Do not expect people to have a complete understanding by default, always explain Why (Why something is necessary, Why it is needed in this particular way, etc.) And at the same time, do not hesitate to play a mentor role – allowing people to find the answers by themselves but under your guidance can be really beneficial.

So, many typical difficulties that can be faced while leading a BA team are caused by inappropriate leadership practices used. And taking into account the specifics of leading a team of BAs, those issues can be successfully leveled with the best practices listed above.

BA Evolution: New Leadership for New Times

Written by Traci Onkst on May 14, 2020. Posted in Articles.

The pace of change has been a topic of conversation the last few years.

We talk about digitalization and our need to constantly innovate to meet the expectations of our customers. At some point, we are those customers and must learn how to consume that flow of innovation. Add in the financial facing component and our need to respond to that ever-changing landscape and you can see why change is the topic of many conversations. But, did you for one minute ever expect a pandemic? A crisis of this magnitude wasn’t even part of our wildest consideration as we started to think about the changes facing us in 2020. In hindsight, the magnitude of the changes we thought were going to overwhelm us almost seem trivial in comparison to what we face now.

The way people react to all this will vary substantially. Some will be stoic and persevere as if little has changed, some will panic, and others will see it as an opportunity. Maybe I’m more of the latter. Change is here and we will probably be forever changed in so many ways going forward. The families experiencing loss of a loved one will surely never experience their old normal again. For that I am sad to my soul.

As we respect the threat this virus presents to our health and lives, we do have some choice in our overall response. It’s been said that in a time of crisis you can identify the true leaders. We need and appreciate people that provide vision, organize tasks and help us move forward. But leadership is so much more, and I have forever maintained that BAs are leaders by definition.

At the heart, leadership is service. As BAs, our service is to help solve problems by applying creative thinking and analysis and present those insights through visualization so others can gain clarity and collaborate around the issue. As the questions about the future mount, we need that service now more than ever. As a BA we should be reflecting on the future. Analyze. Be creative. Think outside the box. Where are the new needs, what are the new gaps and what will we do to fill them? Every time in history, major threats and change left new opportunities to provide service. Where are our new opportunities to serve? What outcomes can we influence for the better? Where can we add value to people and their new way of working? How does the BA role evolve in response to all this? While our BA purpose has not changed, the way we execute the role may. How will you serve and demonstrate your BA leadership as we march forward into our new tomorrow?

Tailored Governance: including the right people at the right time

Written by Ali Raza on April 2, 2020. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Tailored Governance: including the right people at the right time

Inclusion is often used as a blanket term. In this article, I argue that there are different models of inclusion with their own advantages and disadvantages.

In a previous publication (1), I proposed a role for ‘Functional Communities of Practice (COP)’ in nurturing a culture of innovation within organisations.

I believe this COP cohort helps create the conditions for all members of an organisation to participate in strategy development. Crucially, this model of inclusion seeks to tie informal communities to the executive, thereby permitting decision-makers to harness the power of organisation-wide inclusion into concrete action.

However, it’s important to recognise the potential shortcomings of this model of inclusion. With voluntary membership, informal communities may not possess the relevant expertise to deal with specific threats (or opportunities) faced by an organisation at a given time. Hence, they may not be the most suitable reservoir of knowledge for leaders to draw upon in a crisis situation requiring a swift and considered response.

Another model of inclusion which has a unique risk/benefit profile is the permanent representation of particular demographics at board level. A very good example of this is patient representatives who sit on steering groups, providing a voice for other patients at the executive level. Representatives at board level may be empowered through possession of decision-making authority of their own. However, such models of inclusion can also be levelled with the charge of ‘tokenism’. This is defined as ‘The practice of making only perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from under-represented groups in order to give the appearance of…equality within a workforce’ (Encyclopedia.com as cited by Hahn et al., (2017) (2)). Board membership of particular demographics does not necessarily guarantee a fair representation of the wider demographic but can be empowering if representatives (and board members) prioritise the needs of the wider demographic over personal agendas.

One of the most effective ways of dealing with acute challenges and threats is through engendering what I like to call ‘tailored governance’. Tailored governance seeks to unite decision-makers, relevant subject matter experts and impacted stakeholders from across an organisation, to create specific and authorised action to address a new challenge, threat or opportunity. As the issue is likely experienced for the first time, there may not be a set process or governance structure already in place to permit the issue to be tackled or addressed appropriately. Unlike Functional COPs, which are open to all team members and are designed for permanence, teams assembled within tailored governance structures are disbanded once the issue is resolved. In addition to being transient, teams assembled for tailored governance are highly specialised to deal with novel challenges or threats faced by their organisations.

An example of a time when I employed tailored governance was when a third party (leasing space in our hospital) made a proposal for their new entrance into a hospital corridor. With my knowledge of the wider team, I anticipated their proposal requiring input from the in-house site soft services team, Trust branding expert and the site general manager. Table 1 highlights the considerations of these team members in respect of this unique issue.

Table 1. Team members assembled to consider a third party’s proposal for their new entrance into a hospital corridor.

	Governance Role			Other comments
Team member	Requester	Approver	Consulted/Informed	Other comments
Third party	Yes	N/A	N/A	Seeking approval for their proposal
Site soft services manager	N/A	Needs to approve material and dimensions of ramp	Needs to be privy to final proposal	A key member of the in-house operational team
Trust branding expert	N/A	Needs to approve entrance colour scheme and signage	Needs to be privy to final proposal	A key member of the in-house operational team
Site General Manager	N/A	Needs to approve the overall design of the new entrance	Needs to be privy to the final proposal and ensure buy-in from operational team	A key member of the strategic team

Instances of tailored governance can also be the harbinger for developing formal standard operating procedures. An example of this in my line of work was when I recovered fees owed by a third party for project management services provided by my department. The process for fee recovery was originally not clear, however I liaised with a colleague from Finance and eventually achieved this. As this issue was experienced systemically, I helped Finance create a guidance note for project managers, charting the process for fee recovery from external clients.

A comparison of the three aforementioned models of inclusion is provided in Table 2 below.

Table 2. A summary of three distinct models of inclusion.

Model of Inclusion	Summary	Pro	Con
Tailored Governance	Assemble a team to address a specific new challenge or task	Selects the most appropriate personnel for dealing with a specific task	Non-inclusive to the wider organisation; less suitable for innovation and long-term strategy development
Board level representation	A subject matter expert or individual from a specific demographic assists the board with its objectives	Board membership likely provides greater clout through direct access to other board members and executive decision-making authority	Possibly viewed as ‘tokenistic’ as permanent board membership of a specific demographic may not necessarily represent the wider demographic
Informal Communities (e.g. ‘Functional Communities of Practice’ (COP))	Seeks representation from staff at all levels of the organisation, to support innovation and change management	Inclusive of the whole organisation, creating a large bank for knowledge generation	Representation in the COP may not have the required expertise to deal with specific challenges, tasks or threats

Tailored governance relies on an important facet of leadership, which is the ability to identify disparate professionals dispersed within different teams and assemble them into a functional team, in order to address specific challenges. Such resourcefulness can be cultivated from an intimate acquaintance with and natural curiosity for the workings of the wider team.

References

PM Times (2020). All Aboard! Functional Communities of Practice: a collective model to inform strategy development. Available at: https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/all-aboard-functional-communities-of-practice-a-collective-model-to-inform-strategy-development.html
Hahn, D.L., Hoffmann, A.E., Felzien, M., LeMaster, J.W., Xu, J., Fagnan, L.J. (2017). Tokenism in patient engagement. Family Practice, 34 (3), pp. 290-295.