Tag: Training

Make Sure Done Means Done

Written by Brad Egeland on October 19, 2015. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Make Sure Done Means Done

You’ve come to the end of a long technical project, and you’re rolling out the solution to the customer and their end users. Perhaps it’s a handoff; perhaps it’s a training session or some sort of demo dog and pony show.

But you’re looking for final signoff so that you can proceed with final billing and closure as you switch from delivery to support of the engagement. The last thing you want to do is find out four months from now that you have an open invoice because you failed to finalize a particular project deliverable by not obtaining an approved signoff. For the project manager and business analyst – who often leads the actual development of documents and preparation for things like user acceptance testing (UAT) standpoint – that can be a bit embarrassing.

Anything left unfinished can give the appearance that you are anything but in complete control of your project. That’s bad because any items not complete may give the customer cause to be concerned about thoroughness in other areas of the project. You want this client to be confident that you and your team have done your jobs. You have tested and delivered the solution the client is expecting, and that everything will work when you wave good-bye and flip on the switch. In short, you also want full final payment. I know, I’ve been on one of those issue-filled projects when the client was concerned to call it done because so many issues had come up near the end that they were certain there would be more. Gaining final acceptance and payment was excruciatingly painful.

To ensure the project is done, here is my list of four key areas to cover and actions to take as the project is closing down.

1. Review all invoices for payment in full. The Project Manager likely will need to lead this task – with the help of the Business Analyst. Review all invoices with accounting and ensure that all that were sent to the project customer have been paid in full. If any invoice is left unpaid, check with the customer to see if there was any reason for this. Was there a problem with the deliverable? Was it just an oversight? I had this happen on one project and there were no issues. The project sponsor had just failed to pass an invoice along to his accounting department for payment, and once I contacted him, they promptly paid. On very large projects, this is not all that uncommon to have happen.

2. Review the project schedule to ensure all deliverables show complete. The Project Manager and Business Analyst should carefully review the project schedule to ensure that all tasks have been properly updated and show as completed in full. Review any question marks with the resource or resources assigned to those tasks. The key here is that you want to be sure you can hand over a revised project schedule to the project customer that accurately depicts all tasks as 100% complete and signed off.

3. Contact the client to see if they have any concerns about remaining outstanding issues. The Project Manager and Business Analyst need to conduct a meeting with the client to discuss the project at a high level and find out if the client has any concerns over any outstanding issues or uncompleted work. This meeting is not the same as a lessons learned session – the purpose of this meeting is just to ensure agreement on the completeness and verbal acceptance of the final solution. While verbal acceptance is good and something you want as you’re working on this final check of project done-ness, never overlook that formal final signoff and acceptance by the customer. It could end up being the most critical document on the entire project!

4. Review acceptance test documents. One huge sign of final acceptance is final customer signoff and approval of user acceptance testing. The customer handles test cases and test scenarios. The Business Analyst and other tech staff on the project can help them, as needed. But the Business Analyst can’t do it for them. If the BA did, it could cause a conflict of interest because the delivery organization – as the developers of the solution – may have be biased when it comes testing. The real testers needed are the future end users of the solution. When their testing is complete we’ll know the project is ready to be accepted and signed off (as long as there isn’t a gap between the documented requirements (approved and signed off by the client) and what the end users need). If there is a gap, then you’ll be drawing up a very large change order. The project customer needed to have ensured that their end users were on board with acceptance of the documented requirements and project scope way back at the beginning of the engagement. Any work on that now will be expensive.

Summary / call for input

There’s never a guarantee that you’ve covered everything. I once closed out a year-long agreement with a client and then realized that I had agreed to a two-part billing on a deliverable to give them additional time to pay. Instead, I completely forgot to bill part 2 and collect it – remembering it only when I was ready to invoice new work at the end of that first engagement. The client knew they owed it. However, it was my sloppiness at handling the billing that caused delays. While I did finally get the 2nd portion of the invoice paid, it took awhile because it was not a small amount. At least, in that case, I hadn’t dropped the ball on a deliverable, just an invoice.

What about our readers? Have you had any embarrassing rollouts where you realized – or the customer pointed out to you – that something had been skipped? Possibly a deliverable was never produced, or a document was never revised following feedback and delivered in its final format?

The 7 Wastes in Your Business – Finding Kaizen Opportunities

Written by Richard Lannon on September 21, 2015. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on The 7 Wastes in Your Business – Finding Kaizen Opportunities

As a business, you are either efficient and effective, or you are not. It’s quite likely that there are things in your business environment you’d like to see work more smoothly, more efficiently. There are many reasons for poor processes and less productive business environments ranging from:

Lack of clarity on the part of the business leadership and senior management,
Performance management system structure and the way people are rewarded,
Poorly implemented initiatives, and
Business leaders who micro-manage (not letting people under them do their thing and make decisions).

Any one of these can be affecting your process and productivity. One helpful way of looking at process and productivity is in terms of finding Kaizen opportunities. Kaizen refers to a philosophy or practice that focuses on continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, similar ideas.

When applied to the workplace, Kaizen involves all employees from the CEO to assembly line workers and refers to activities that continually improve all functions. It also applies to processes such as purchasing and logistics, which usually cross organizational boundaries.

Related Article: 7 Candid Questions That Need to be Asked

Generally, Kaizen looks at waste in some key categories with Seven Lean Approaches. These include:

Waste of Motion
Waste of Waiting
Waste in Transportation
Waste in Storage
Waste in Defects
Waste in Processing
Waste in Over Production

There are many examples of where the Kaizen approach can be applied from a staff driven perspective. From the manufacturing line of bottle cap disposal, making toast in the kitchen on a train, the health x-ray requisition approval process, to the location of office supplies storage. All these can be streamlined and standardized.

By improving standardized activities and processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste, thereby making your business more productive. And, as the Kaizen approach seeks to improve processes, productivity then is the yardstick by which you can measure your success.

If you can find ways to improve your processes, to become more efficient and effective, you will be more successful in your business.

Question: What work process can you focus on to improve to create better flow and enhance productivity?

8 Tips for the Newbie Business Analyst

Written by Racquel Ellis on September 14, 2015. Posted in Articles.

For many of us, a new experience comes with varying degrees of anxiety and nervousness. This is particularly true if we have lingering doubts as to our ability to do what is being asked of us – even if such doubts have no basis. Moving from a job where you knew what to do like the “back of your hand” to one where the learning curve is steep is one of those nerve-wracking moments that test the mettle of any business analyst. Of course, the extent of your anxiety is minimized given your years of experience and success stories as a business analyst. That said, it is critical that as a business analyst entering a new role or job position you showcase confidence. Let your stakeholders know that you know that you can deliver the results they need even if you do not know their business like the “back of your hand”. Your work will speak for itself! It’s only a matter of time before you too become a domain expert.

I want to give a few suggestions to any business analyt who might find themselves in the “newbie business analyst” position.

1. Come to the job armed with a set of tools and techniques that you can readily transform into something of value to immediately show your stakeholders that they made the right decision when they chose you for the job.

The very first assignment should be done so well that it not only pleases your team leader but demonstrates to stakeholders that you possess the ability to clearly detail the business needs and value-added approaches to deriving a solution.

When I changed my job of over 18 years to take up a job in an institution that I knew little about, one of my first assignments was to assist the insurance arm of the business in implementing an electronic document management system. I started by understanding the process from existing team members, then went on to observe the process to prepare a presentation with best practice information to show team members time and cost savings they would achieve by implementing such a system. I also provided high-level process flows and steps showing the integration of the document management system in the business’s workflow.

I will not tell you that it was smooth sailing, but the quality of my work was apparent, and the stakeholders were able to use the information to present their case to the Board of Directors, who approved of the electronic document management system.

2. Be prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty.

While completing the task of assisting with the online document management system, the business was thinking of having clients complete and submit a form online, which they would use to give the client an estimated insurance quote. So I took the opportunity and did the additional work to show the business how an online insurance quote system would provide clients with even greater value instantaneously while obtaining contact information that the business could use to follow up and sell their services.

3. Be of no reputation.

Do not surrender your dignity but adopt an attitude where you care more about serving your stakeholder than explaining to people why you are a business analyst. Your work will speak for itself. People sometimes do not see the importance of a business analyst until they have a task to accomplish and realize how the work of the business analyst brings structure, organization, as well as diagrams that give a better understanding of the issue. When you hear negative feedback, analyze the truth of it, strip away what you can learn from it, apply the learning and disregard the rest. Every experience will make you a better business analyst and sometimes the feedback, though negative, is true and is an opportunity for you to change something about your attitude or approach. Believe me, I know. During the document management project, I learned that the importance of clear communication and the power of an organization’s culture is not something to be taken lightly.

4. Complete company sponsored courses that will help you to understand more about the business.

You will have a lot of work to do but in the midst of it find the time to complete any company sponsored course or read up on the business to understand how it works.

My new job was with an investment company with a banking and insurance arm. My previous company was quasi-government and dealt with mortgage financing. To say I knew little about the operations of my new job was being generous. However, I jumped at the opportunity to complete a securities course that opened my eyes to the nature of the business. This knowledge served me well in my next assignment that mostly had to do with the core business.

5. Become genuinely interested in team members and their roles at all levels.

Get to know people – from the security officer to the CEO (to the extent that you have the opportunity to) – and understand how their role contributes to the bigger picture of value and profits. People will willingly share their knowledge if they understand that you genuinely care about making their work simpler and easier, and are there to improve the business. The best ideas or feedback come from the people who are engaged in the work on a day-to-day basis. Getting the feedback is so much easier if you form a good relationship with fellow team members and never adopt an “us against them approach”. A business analyst should assist in making it easier to implement change, not turn people off by dictating change.

6. Know when to keep silent and start by asking questions.

Never assume or use preconceived notions as a basis for interacting with your stakeholders. Silence does not mean “dumbness”. When you’re new, you learn a lot more through listening and asking questions than by just talking. Don’t just talk with the intent of letting people know that you know. You’ve already shown your expertise because you’ve been hired. Even if you got the heads up about stakeholders, use that to guide how you present information to them, not to develop a negative attitude towards them.

7. Accept when you’re wrong.

You are a business analyst, not a perfect human being. You won’t get it all at first, and you will make some mistakes along the way. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Don’t explain your error away – even if you have an explanation, accept where you’ve erred, apologize if you need to and move on. In apologizing, state what went wrong and what you have done to not repeat the error. Misunderstandings will occur – we can’t help ourselves. However, a placated stakeholder now can be of great support for future tasks. Leave your stakeholder believing that you are still the right person for the job.

8. Be appropriate, functional and relevant.

Every working environment is different. Yes, you have a plethora of templates, tools, and techniques but they should operate as the universe from which you choose based on your environment. Don’t overwhelm your stakeholders with everything. Tweak your templates so that they address the needs of your current environment.

My previous job was very structured and formal. My current job is less structured with some aspects of informality. Here, stakeholders want to immediately see what you’re talking about, not get lost in concepts, theories, and templates. It was my duty to look at the templates I had and modify them in such a way that made it easier for stakeholders to make decisions. Don’t get boxed into template thinking. Sometimes, all that is required is a simple email! You don’t want to use a sledgehammer to kill an ant!

When I wrote my first requirements document, the IT department was so appreciative of it and the IT business analyst decided to use aspects of its layout in the preparation of her requirements. At another time, in order to get a decision from a stakeholder at a senior level, all I did was sent an email succinctly detailing the issues, pros, and cons. The executive confirmed that the email correctly captured our discussions and used it to communicate a decision.

As I said at the beginning of this article, being a newbie business analyst is temporary. Soon you will become an expert. Just keep doing well what you know and keep reminding your stakeholders why you are the best person for the job. All the best! Looking forward to your comments.

Leadership Lessons: No Holy Grails, Silver Bullets, or Panaceas

Written by Peter de Jager on August 20, 2015. Posted in Articles.

We’re addicted to the search for THE answer to our problems. Good answers aren’t good enough. We want THE answer that will solve a particular problem in every situation. A suite of solutions that can solve the problem most of the time is judged as grossly inadequate.

To make things worse? THE answer must be easy to implement. If it takes effort, deep thought, or lots of work? Then it can’t ‘by definition’, be THE answer.
The problem arises when someone, especially an expert, responds to our query for THE answer, with the disconcerting, “No such thing exists!”. This isn’t acceptable. They’re the expert, they should know THE answer. Especially if we’re paying them to solve our problems. (Can you spot the irony of our response? If they’re the ‘expert’? Maybe they know whereof they speak?)

It’s both easy and embarrassing to be able to point my finger at everyone in this discussion, including myself, you, and the grump sitting down the hall. We all seem to have this annoying tendency to believe that someone must have THE answer, and for reasons we don’t understand, they are keeping their wisdom from the world in general and us in particular.
This crystallized for me after a presentation on ‘Dealing with Difficult People’, this time I was not the presenter, but I was an active spectator. An audience member asked what to do when they have to deal with someone who is impervious to all of the identified techniques. The speaker reiterated all of the various things we can do to affect someone’s behaviour, or to find common ground and the response was, “Yes! Yes! I know all that, and I do all that! But this person is still a problem. None of this works. What else can I do?”
The speaker replied honestly, “Sometimes nothing is going to work to fix a people problem, when the person at the core of the problem, is determined not to be fixed. Sometimes there is nothing we can do to arrive at what we want.” This answer was unacceptable to the audience member, and I’ll admit, as a self-professed problem solver, this answer also rubs me the wrong way. Yet, I have been asked similar questions with respect to Change Management, and my ‘expert’ response is exactly the same, “Sometimes there is nothing we can do to arrive at what we want.”

An example of such a Change Management question? “How can we get people to go along with this Change, even though it’s not in their best interest – and there’s nothing we can do to make it be in their best interest?” An example of such a situation? Laying off 300 people. Short of giving all of them a full salary until their retirement there’s not much we can do to make them like this turn of events. There’s no ‘solution’ to this ‘problem’ because the problem isn’t where we think it is. (more on this below)
All of these objections to searching for THE answer does not mean we should not constantly be looking for BETTER answers. There’s nothing wrong with searching for better solutions to replace solutions already in use. In some circles that’s called Kaizen, Japanese for the ‘continual improvement of processes’. Being satisfied with any one solution is the first step towards stagnation, but the notion that there exists a perfect solution to any problem, one that we never need look at again, is the final step towards madness, or at least a waste of good resources.

A simple technique to continually improve a process is to examine constantly how other organizations are doing what we’re doing. Chances are better than good that they’re not doing it the way we are, and equally good that either our choice of action or their choice of action – is better. If we examine ten other organizations, it’s very likely that one of them is doing it better than we are – we can then, if we wish, decide to improve our process accordingly.
Incrementally better solutions are always within our grasp. One of the problems with this notion that perfect solutions exist, is that we ignore readily accessible, though less perfect solutions while searching for THE answer. When dealing with difficult people speak softly, make no sudden moves, don’t argue, don’t interrupt, etc. These are all good techniques, worth practicing, even though they’re not perfect.

Part of the Silver Bullet issue, this search for the perfect solution, is how we’re perceiving what is going on. It’s not so much that there’s ‘no silver bullet’ to fix the problem, it’s that there isn’t really a problem – except in our perception and expectations. In our Change Management layoff example, there’s nothing fundamentally ‘wrong’ with how people react to being laid off, or any other Change for that matter. If there’s anything wrong, it’s that we think there’s a way to make them feel different about losing their job.

Likewise with the original, “Dealing with Difficult People” situation, it’s the entirely possible that the person who’s being difficult has all the right in the world to be difficult. Consider the following; If you were working for Gaddafi, would you be a ‘difficult’ employee? Would you have a right to be? What could he do to make you more submissive/compliant? I hope your answer was ‘Nothing!’.

Many of the quests for Holy Grails, Silver Bullets, and Panaceas originate in unrealistic expectations. There is no way to make everyone like us (what gives us the notion they should?), there’s no way to calm someone down who’s angry about abysmally poor service (should they enjoy poor service?), there’s no way to get someone to embrace a Change that’s not to their benefit (being laid off isn’t something we’d choose to have happen). Sometimes THE answer is to change our perceptions. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Leadership Lessons – Problems! Glorious Problems!

Written by Peter de Jager on August 17, 2015. Posted in Articles.

C. K. Chesterton penned a quote that I’m especially fond of, “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.” It’s one that constantly reminds me that there is always, without fail, an opportunity lying around somewhere. I just need to find a way to find it.

That wasn’t a typo, I meant to type ‘opportunity’, I didn’t forget that this discussion was about ‘problems’. A problem is an opportunity disguised as a thorn in your assumptions. Fix the problem and you’ve moved yourself forward in some manner, large or small.

Because of how I earn my living, I get lots of feedback – more than a person normally gets in other lines of work – file folders filled to overflowing with feedback. The good feedback is great, I love it (great reading when I’m down in the dumps), it’s what keeps me motivated to keep going. But it’s the negative feedback when people point out a problem, that’s the true treasure. Becoming aware of new problems, if we have the motivation to respond to them, is what motivates us not only to keep going but to start going in a new and improved direction. Problems are always doors to something better.

Organizations don’t like problems. We shy away from them; we shoot messengers who bring them to us, we surround ourselves with 800lb gorilla problems no-one dares talk about. We have terms describing cultural approaches to problems – ‘wilful ignorance’ comes to mind- and we have to legislate whistleblower laws to protect those who make problems public. Organizations let problems fester until there is no other option but to lance them like boils.

When I originally wrote this article, Wikileaks announced that in January 2011 it would release documents disclosing a pile of ‘problems’ in a major US bank. Of course, every ‘major’ bank worried that their ‘problems’ would see the light of day and scrambled to either hide these problems more deeply or hopefully fix the problems as soon as possible.

The irony is that whatever organization got their knuckles soundly rapped by Wikileaks… all of the organizations knew of these issues before Wikileaks, before someone else decided to take action. Organizations ignore problems that obviously need fixing until they are forced to act.

Not all problems fall into the category that Wikileaks exposes. Most of the organizational problems that readers of this article might encounter are more mundane, with less serious consequences. More in the line of “our projects are always delivered late; it takes an inordinate amount of time to get things approved; our meetings are a waste of time; our customer service needs improvement etc.”

Even these can become so much a part of the work environment that we become blind to them, hence my fondness of Chesterton’s quote. We are typically blind to most of the problems around us. We need some way to heighten our awareness of the invisible problems so that we can then, if we choose, correct them. If only we could place a bounty on problems, and in so doing, get everyone looking high and low for them!

Many organizations have some type of suggestion program where they always encourage, and then sometimes reward, employees for bringing new ideas, usually in the form of ‘solutions’, to management’s attention. It’s a step in the right direction of constant improvement, but this strategy contains a hidden flaw. It usually, not always, requires that an individual identifies a problem and then comes up with a viable solution – often on their own. That’s a lot of work for someone who’s already overworked in these tough economic times.

Here’s another idea – instead of requiring a solution – how about just identifying a prominent problem? The individual tagging the problem doesn’t have to solve it, just recognize that it’s worthy of solution. The problem is then passed along to a group of people who love solving problems, people like myself who see all problems as a personal challenge, even as an affront to our sense of order in the universe.

The challenge is still the fact that many problems just hide deep inside the “we’ve always done it that way!” bushes. It takes either a new set of eyes to see these opportunities, or a quickly annoying habit of constantly, incessantly, persistently asking “Why?” about every business process until inefficiencies (if they exist) are exposed.

Borrowing a new set of eyes isn’t too difficult to arrange. Just make it part of the organizational culture to have people from one department work in other departments for short periods of time and report back what they see. The hurdle is for everyone to grasp that the observations, while they will sound like criticisms, are intended – from the very outset – as a way to get better at whatever it is we do for a living.

As to the Why? Why? Why? Why? Why strategy? That requires someone with a peculiar personality. They must have both an analytical mind and a very very good sense of humour. The Why? Why? Why? Why? Why approach – especially about things that everyone takes for granted, takes some getting used to – a sense of humour can take the edge off just a little bit.