Tag: Training

BA Experience: Pay It Forward!

Written by Janet Walker on January 12, 2016. Posted in Articles.

As Business Analysts, we are always looking for missing information – making sure we have the whole story behind the business need, the truth about how we are doing things today and what our partners really want to do (No, really want to do.). We start with something to write on and hit the business with the big questions. Once we think we have it all, the truth and nothing but the truth, we start thinking about a technical or process solution. READY, GO!

What the Business Analyst often does is stop here, thinking they have the whole picture and are good to go. Analysis begins and then the task moves to IN PROGRESS.

What the Business Analyst seldom does is talk to other BAs about their challenge. They have a task to do, an aggressive, often crazy ETA and a story committed to THIS iteration so heaven forbid it should not be tasked out for success. Stopping to talk through the challenge is seldom seen as a valuable use of precious bandwidth. GET IT DONE!

Any of this sound familiar?

While mentoring some new Technology BAs, there were a few challenges where I assumed they knew what I considered to be basics. Why did they proceed without more information? Why did they think their requirements were complete when they were clearly (to me) not? The newbies went on to teach this oldie a lot when they said “Stop assuming we know this. We don’t think you know what you know.” What?

After chewing on that statement and some crow for a while, I came up with thoughts that may be attributed to experience – a lot of failures, trial and error and other learning paths. I will share them with you in case you too think every BA knows this stuff, and you don’t have anything special to offer. If you want to, pass this on (plus the things you didn’t know you know) to your mentees. I promise you will be happily surprised that this most basic knowledge share can make a difference in their growth and stress level whether the BA is in IT or in the Business.

Dear fellow BAs, What I didn’t know that I know …

Don’t assume Team Members (TMs) know what they are talking about when they ask for a change. They may be new users and new leaders. Help them out by diving deep. You may get some pushback, but either leave the meeting confident that your business partner is an expert or know who might be and ask that expert to a second meeting.

If you are dealing with changes to a previously automated processes, that automation may have been built with TMs who moved on. A thin understanding of an automated process can lead everyone down a rocky path. This means you will want to understand that current automated process, behind the scenes, to add your understanding to the “How It’s Done Today” discussion.

Start at the beginning and get to know your partners. As we are in an email, IM, HipChat, Conference call, Live Meeting world we have to work harder than in the past to get the whole picture. We don’t have the added advantage of body language to help us (the TM who looks down or away can speak volumes about not having a clue or disagreeing with what their Leader is saying) Don’t minimize the importance of reaching out and meeting your partners face to face or on one-to-one phone calls.

Expect your business to walk in the door with a technical solution. Everyone has a great idea, but requirements gathering needs Sherlock Holmes-type experience. Don’t be afraid of being the dummy in the room. I have been that dummy so many times I’m amazed the business still contacts me for help. Everyone started learning about your business at some time, and your partners will tell you everything about what they do and feel good about doing it.

Even if nothing else is clear, make sure you totally ‘get’ the business need. Why the heck are you in this meeting and not at lunch? What are you solving for? Wait! Hold firm. Tempted to talk solution? NO technical solution without requirements! We might be good at guessing, but without requirements, that’s all we can be, a good guesser. Actually, there might not be a technical solution. Maybe if your partners complete step A before step B, they won’t need an automated solution to find step A data while completing step B. Get it?

Who will be impacted can be a rattlesnake behind a rock. Assume your partners don’t know who else uses the same functionality. Ask. Send out a message to a wide distribution, if necessary, but watch out for those cool automated processes that other parts of your business jumped on for themselves and neither you nor your task partners know it You don’t want the noise from other TMs asking “Who changed our stuff?”

Now, the fun part, The Technical Solution!

There is a pro and con for every technical solution I have ever delivered. Remember to convey the ‘cons’ clearly for all parties and relay these cons when you officially announce the technical solution. Everyone knows what to expect. Right? Own it. The BA owns the solution, be prepared to explain the “why it is the right thing to do for everyone” – the business, technology, the company. P.S.: This is a great time to share a prototype or demo if you have something this early. Requirements may change (like you didn’t know that, but I had to write it down.), re-evaluate the technical solution when that happens.

Expect thorns in the roses. Knowing who needs to approve things can be tricky. Who really has the last word on saying the technical solution is good to go? Really. Nothing is worse that feeling you have a plan and find out someone read the email a week later and has the power to say “Well, I was thinking …”.

The same is true for when to start the tasks PLUS when technology prioritization says you can start. Don’t promise a start date until you have the date from the business and the date from whoever is tasked with making the changes. Everyone has different priorities and bandwidth.

I found that the sooner you can start talking to trainers and testers the better off you would be. Trainers and Testers, in my experience, are valuable commodities, and you want to pencil in their time early. Nothing is worse than making a big change and finding no one knows how to perform the new process. Don’t rely on your business to have training on their checklist. Have it on yours too.

ETA is the monster that the BA needs to battle. This is a truth. Once someone hears an ETA whispered over the wall, the BA is handcuffed.

Avoid verbalizing or writing an ETA if at all possible.
Since this is not possible, don’t act like a superhero. Be smart and keep a list of potential roadblocks (sunny days when everyone is always sick, etc.) on you at all times.
Be very clear about what will be accomplished by the ETA!

I don’t want to come off totally negative here, but more people than just the BA care about the start and stop. Even with the best planning software, the BA needs to tread carefully when talking about the ETA and be prepared for plan B and sound reasons for any delays.

Documentation – We hate it until we need it.

Simplify task names

Name your Project/Feature/Story/Task/Whatever using keywords that you can search on to find out why the change was made. Then, don’t forget to include the business need in EVERY task you create. The Why will make your life easier today and tomorrow.

Give a high-level explanation of what the task will do to reduce the questions you’ll get from interested, but not participating, parties.

Don’t forget to share your Task number(s) with all the business partners who will care about the changes. This MAY stop some noise about the status of your task(s).

Identify Go-To People and SMEs

Who asked for this change anyway? You know, that person now tied to you at the hip. Add their name to the list of Go-To people! Don’t forget to include a list of your SMEs too. Remember the tasks floating around yours. Is anyone working on a task that is needed by you or waiting for you? They deserve to be in your documentation. Keep them in the loop and you have a BA BFF.

One last thing about documentation – Know Your Audience. Write for the reader.

I admit I am Test Plan Challenged.

My BA friend, Marie, is crazy meticulous with her test plans, but for me, any test plan is better than none. Create a test plan and look at it daily while you are working on your task(s). You will be glad you did. You want to know when a step or task is “done.” Nothing feels better than getting to this moment so know how to recognize the moment!

If you make fancy test plans like Marie, you are special.

One more thing:

You know this documentation we were talking about here? Update it when you have any progress or road blocks. Be clear and concise. When things get hairy, your own notes will save you. I promise.

To make your Write Up the greatest story ever told. Here is the formula I wish someone told me about years ago:

Spend 1/3 of your time writing down the current situation.
Spend 1/3 of your time writing and re-writing why you are doing this.
Spend 1/3 of your time detailing the technical solution.

Lastly, if you found yourself saying “Duh” or “Pleeeeeze, everyone knows that” while you were reading my article, then you are a smart BA that assumes, as I did, every person with BA or Business Analyst after their name has as much experience as you have. Remember, some of our BA friends are just getting started (as I was kindly reminded) and can benefit from knowing what you didn’t know you know. Pay it Forward!

Implementing Change – Phase 6 – Reinforce New Behaviours

Written by Peter de Jager on December 4, 2015. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Implementing Change – Phase 6 – Reinforce New Behaviours

Doing something new means you’ll do it wrong at first. You’ll do it wrong until you learn how to do it right. This is period of low morale for most people.

There’s a sense that despite all the effort being invested, very little progress is being made. Being told you’re making progress motivates you. Even if it’s only a matter of learning what doesn’t work, that’s still an important form of progress.

Reward All Successes.

We all like to know our efforts in any endeavor are being rewarded with progress towards a goal. During the first stages of change, when we are learning to do new things, there is very little progress. Watch someone learn a new system and you will see them make error after error after error. At the bottom of the learning curve, progress comes slowly. At the bottom of the learning curve we make very few correct choices and many errors.

Reward All Attempts… and Failures.

During change, management needs to change their behavior from rewarding only ‘success’ to rewarding all attempts at progress. People need to hear their attempts to learn the new way of doing things are seen and appreciated.

Reward All Questions

When people ask questions during change, they are demonstrating involvement in the change process by seeking out additional information. Take the time, make the time, to answer those questions, no matter how busy you are. It does not take many instances of management not being around to answer questions, for people to get the message that management does not really care about the successful implementation of the change. Even, if that was not the message you intended to communicate.

Acknowledge those who Resist!

Sometimes the question will be ‘Why is this change necessary?’ This is NOT an indication of a bad attitude, nor is it an indicator of someone who is out to scuttle the change. The question ‘Why is this change necessary?’ is a legitimate question, by someone who is protective of the status quo they’ve already invested in. Do not mistake natural, normal, healthy resistance, as a subversive attempt to destroy what you’re trying to accomplish. Sometimes, a question is just a question.

Don’t Ignore those in Denial.

Denial can be defined as ‘the continued use of solutions, once appropriate to the task, no longer useful due to the introduction of the foreign element.’ It takes time for people to change old habits. Punishing people, because they learned the old lessons well, is not exactly a compelling incentive for them to learn new ones.

Editor’s note: We will be showcasing each phase of Peter de Jager’s methodology in weekly posts. Click here for phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, phase 4, and phase 5.

Check back every week to read the next phase.

6 Things You Can Do Today to Prepare for Leadership Tomorrow

Written by David Barrett on December 1, 2015. Posted in Articles.

Many of us are in what I call a pre-leadership position. We are in a role where we are managing people and making mid-level decisions on projects and initiatives that are important to the health and success of our organizations. Generally, we are looking forward to a future as a senior leader – here or elsewhere.

If you know me or have heard me present, or been a regular reader of this blog, you might know that I often refer to our Professional Strategic Plan: a process that creates an action plan for our professional future. Within the plan, we will find action items to get us from ’here’ to ‘there.’

So what if we are managing today and want to become leaders tomorrow? What should I find in the list of action items in my Professional Strategic Plan?

Actually, there are two parts to this list: one for immediate action and one that addresses parts of the plan that can’t happen overnight.

This week we start with the short term list. 6 things we can do today to prepare for leadership tomorrow. In my presentation “From a Good Manager to a Great Leader” I call this ‘act like a leader before you are one”:

1. Knock your responsibilities out of the park.

In everything you do, do it beyond expectations. Kill it – day in and day out. This level of performance will get recognized by your managers, your peers and especially the leaders in your current organization. This is one of the most important traits of any future leader. Show your stripes now.

2. Help your boss succeed

My Father-in-law used to say “make heroes out of everyone around you.” You do not have to be the star attraction to get recognized. The ‘supporting role’ is often the more important and many times the most rewarded.

3. Seize leadership opportunities, no matter how small.

Take on anything you can now to practice being a leader. Events, presentations, marketing campaigns, new product launches – anything. You won’t be left out there alone, hopefully. Use the experience to learn and to explore your new skills.

4. Don’t be a jerk

Jerks complain a lot but don’t contribute to any solutions. Jerks make life miserable for others and put our organization’s reputation at risk with behavior that is unacceptable these days. Jerks don’t believe in teamwork and don’t believe that paying it forward has any merits. Don’t go there.

5. Find role models

Find people whom you want to emulate, who are doing what you want to do in the future or stand out as examples of the kind of leader you want to be. If you know them personally, foster that relationship, feed it, nurture it and make lots of notes. If they are a public personality and inaccessible in person, read everything they write, watch them on Youtube or on Ted Talks and attend any event that gets you closer to their thoughts, ideas, and dreams.

6. Build Relationships

Now. Not later. Connect with key people in your life on a regular basis. Set dates in your calendar to touch base every few months. Find new relationships that might be able to connect you with key people some day in the future or who are authorities in their own right. The relationships in your professional life are probably the most important asset you have. Now is the time, when you don’t need it, to seek out and establish your professional support system so that it is there for you when you really do need it.

The Harvard Business Review (Fall 2014) said, “If you want to become a leader, don’t wait for the fancy title or the corner office. You can begin to act, think, and communicate like a leader long before that promotion. Even if you are still several levels down and someone else’s calling all the shots, there are numerous ways to demonstrate your potential and carve your path to the role you want.”

Are you planting the seeds today for your new leadership position tomorrow?

Come see David at the Toronto Workshop Series December 7-8, 2016

How to Optimize Your Agile Team

Written by Judith Mary Khan on November 23, 2015. Posted in Articles.

Leaders, be they program managers, executives, or directors, need to support this team. A simple guiding principle for leadership is to understand that the people who work in an Agile environment want to perform. From that, good leaders need to understand each team member’s unique skill set, talents, and career goals.

And to make it a human experience, understand what the team member ‘likes.’ I put this in quotes because I believe it was one of the best interview questions I ever was asked. The top executive asked, ‘what do you like…?’ It was an opportunity to respond quickly with a professional answer, but to also connect in a human way. I answered promptly and got the job offer. On the first day, I felt the upper management had both insight into my skills, and an understanding of what made me tick.

Good leaders are able to exercise this insight and then work from a place where they have enough information to make sure the right people are in the right roles. And, to complete setting up the environment for people to express their talents and interests, the leadership needs to set the bar for respect and professionalism. This will vary from organization to organization, but an insightful leader will know how to meet the unique cultural and individual needs of the team. This is especially accessible in an Agile team, the work moves so quickly, and the team works so closely together, good leadership with clear vision expresses itself readily.

Optimizing the Agile BA and all of the Agile Team

In order for leads to gain a clear understanding of the BA team’s capabilities, it is crucial that the leaders know each of their BAs. Take a pH test and ask yourself questions about those whom you direct:

Do you know your BA’s backgrounds? Strengths? Weaknesses? Aspirations?
How long have they been a BA
Why are they a BA?
What are their career goals?
Are they CBAP certified? If not, do they want to be?
Are they happy with their role?
Do they feel productive at the end of the day?
Do they come in with new ideas in the morning?
Is there something they want to do on the team, but haven’t had the chance to?
Do they have an idea they want to share? A concern?
Do they have kids? If so, how many?
Do they have pets? If so, how many?
Where would they like to go for lunch if you asked?
What do they like to do besides work?
What makes them tick?

Other questions to ask yourself or ask your team members:

Have you provided a framework for your team to perform? Not a rigid, over-worked process but the essential structures to support an efficient workflow.
Have you published this info? Examples are IT management 101’s like: ‘Do you have backups? And do people have a way of knowing who are backups?’ or ‘Do you capture and publish knowledge with an efficient tool that is available to the team?’
Very importantly, for the sake of continuity amid changes: ‘Do you have an exit plan for team members leaving and onboarding?’
Do you treat contractors with equal interest and respect as FTE’s? Do they feel like valued members of the team?
Do you listen to your team?
Do you listen ‘between the lines’?
Do you ask team members what they think? Do you listen to their answers and empower them to usher their ideas?
Are you sensitive to the cultures and multi-cultural dynamics among team members? Do you know about the cultures your team members may have come from?
Perhaps most importantly, are you available to your team members? Do they feel they can talk to you?

With this kind of increased knowledge of the team’s dynamics, managers can be empowered to make decisions that provide the infrastructure to optimize performance. This is a win-win situation for the individuals involved and the eventual output of the project.

Related Article: Want a Successful Agile Team? Include a BA!

Another possible method to gain insight into how your Agile and BA team is performing, and to understand where BA energy is going, is to use a BABOK-centered tool that I once had the chance to put to use. In a large organization where I worked, the BA team was disheartened by their workload, but even more so, the type of work tasks and activities that occupied most of their days. One BA shared with me that he barely felt that he worked as a BA! The management and directors felt the team was weak in its performance. They were oblivious to the root causes of mediocre delivery. Their idea was simplistic: to put more pressure on the already unhappy BAs. I needed to make a persuasive case to management to reorganize and re-delegate how work got done.

In order to capture exactly how the BA team was under-utilized, I constructed a calculator that was based on the Key Processes Areas of the BABOK. The instructions were as follows:

Step 1: At the end of each week, BA’s should enter the percentage of time that she/he had spent in each of the BABOK KPA’s listed. For work that did not fall into one of the KPA’s, it should be entered as a ‘non-BA activity’. Ten percent would automatically be allocated to administrative time.

Below is a sample:

Note: Be sure that BA’s have autonomy in this data capture, and that it does not become ‘hourly’ time tracking.

Step 2: Capture the percentages for a month, then summarize in one graphical representation.

Step 3: Capture this information for 3 months (1 quarter), summarize, and present in a graphic presentation.

Step 4: Collect what activities constituted ‘Non-BA Activities’ and describe it in the presentation to management.

Step 5: Present this information to management and executives involved in decision making.

Step 6: For management, use this information to plan for greater use of BA talent and skills, use this information to support BA team members in strengthening their weaknesses and planning education for the teams. For leadership, use this to diagnose a project’s weaknesses or challenges to delivery. Incorporate this into strategic thinking and decisions.

This is one tool, one way to gain insight into the true dynamics and functioning of a team. The set of questions can be very useful, especially for the out-of-touch leader. An Action plan could be derived using these, and including more, customized to your unique team. By using information in a meaningful way, leaders can be empowered to make truly innovative decisions. Over time, this will build the framework for an Agile team to be optimized, and for a success story all around!

Enterprise Leaders are Crucial to Success

Written by George Konstantopoulos on November 16, 2015. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Enterprise Leaders are Crucial to Success

An enterprise mindset is defined as the ability to balance the goals of your business unit along with the broader interests of the enterprise. Naturally, to be considered an enterprise leader one must hold an enterprise mindset.

An enterprise leader does not think nor operate in silos. In alignment with their ambitions for collective progress, these leaders demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the organization and how the various components of the firm all contribute and operate together. As well, these leaders devote their time to help develop the right capabilities for the firm and share their resources and knowledge across the business.

The 3 traits that I believe define an enterprise leader are listed below.

A Sense of Purpose

An enterprise leader has a deep sense of purpose. They are passionate about their careers and the companies they serve. These leaders truly desire to enable and realize transformational change within their organizations and the communities in which it serves.

Most importantly, these leaders view their purpose differently. Enterprise leaders understand the impact of their actions on people’s lives. For example, they consider their role as the enabler of job growth for a community and nation versus a means for expense management.

Additionally, enterprise leaders have a sense of belonging and acceptance with their organization. They accept the company culture and build time within their strategies to help preserve, expand and improve organizational culture. They lead by example and help others understand the importance of purpose.

Daring to Disagree

Enterprise leaders use a structured, diplomatic and professional approach fully equipped with facts and not dogmatism to challenge conventional wisdom. They are driven by an altruistic, noble and purposeful intent and are not fearful to challenge conventional wisdom for the greater good of the firm.

Early in my career through the use of research, statistics, and actual client feedback I respectfully disagreed with a politically charged business decision my employer at the time had made. My data and challenge were accepted, and the decision was reversed. Shortly after the decision was reversed market conditions and industry growth forecasts drastically changed. The unexpected and negative change in conditions and forecasts proved that by not moving forward with the original decision the firm avoided a significant financial loss and negative impact on the client experience.

Related Article: Poor Managers Thwart Good Organizations

Margaret Heffernan in one of her brilliant TED talks discusses a more severe example highlighting the importance of challenging conventional wisdom.

“Alice Stewart, a female scientist at Oxford University in the 1950’s, was a very talented scientist who dared to disagree. She was branded as odd and a troublemaker. Alice empirically proved the correlation between children born with cancer and their mothers who had been x-rayed while pregnant with the same children. Her research and studies were immediately rejected by the medical community at Oxford and beyond. It took 25, a lot of children dying and purpose driven courage from Alice to have her findings finally accepted. Her findings and recommendations were accepted worldwide, and the use of medical x-rays during pregnancy and early childhood were stopped.”

What would have happened if Alice simply remained quiet or was scared to disagree?

Develop and improve

An enterprise leader constantly seeks opportunities to help develop and improve themselves and the enterprise which they serve. This leader is not scared of the unknown. In fact, they attract and find new, difficult yet thought provoking and enlightening ways to increase the strength and competitiveness of the enterprise. They are lifelong learners who proactively stay ahead of their competition by being addicted to knowledge and progress. They are innovators who thrive on disrupting their industry and exploiting competitor idleness.

An example of a collaborative developmental exercise is the creation of formal, internal peer-to-peer support networks. Open and safe forums where enterprise leaders can discuss key challenges with others as well learn and develop together.

The siloed leader’s mindset has expired.

Developing enterprise minded leaders is crucial for organizational success.