Most application software development team members are aware of and work within the framework of Project Scope, but few are aware of the importance of Solution Scope. Project Scope is usually defined by the Project Manager and defines the boundaries of the IT business solution project. It defines what areas will be in scope and what is out of scope for the project. Project Scope may also document the assumptions and constraints noted for the project. For example, an organization, with manufacturing facilities in Cincinnati and Dayton, is considering an enhancement to its customer invoicing application; the project scope could state that “this enhancement is to change the cosmetic look of customer invoices produced by the customer invoicing system”. It could state that this enhancement will affect only one, or a set, of customers and not other customers. The project scope statement should also declare what is out of scope for the project. Such as, “this project will not consider Order Entry and other Customer Service or customer complaint systems, as well it will not consider Accounts Receivable and other financial systems”.
The Solution Scope defines the new capability that the IT business solution will contain. The purpose of the solution scope is to conceptualize the recommended solution in enough detail to enable stakeholders to understand which new business capabilities an IT business solution will deliver, or in other words Create Shared Vision. By creating shared vision concerning the IT business solution at this point in the project you can decrease focus of the project to that solution scope, reduce scope creep, that can reduce project timelines and free up project resources sooner, increase stakeholder satisfaction at the end of the project. This increases the probability that the project will be deemed a success.
Take our example above, the solution scope will state exactly what is changing about the cosmetic look of invoices, such as “the company logo at top of the invoice will change to the newly adopted logo, the bill-to customer name and address will print to the right of the ship-to customer name and address on the invoice as well as the date printed will change to Day, Month, Year format (i.e. 15 August 2011) from its current Month, Day, Year format (i.e. August 15, 2011)”. Just as Project Scope declared what was out of scope for the project, the solution scope declares what is out of scope in relation to the IT business solution. “This enhancement will not change any calculations as to price or discounts that customer receives. This enhancement does not change how data is displayed on the invoice or how it is retrieved from the database except for the changes defined in this enhancement, meaning that item descriptions, quantities, unit of measures displayed will not change.”
So engage the Business Analyst early in and throughout the project to define and manage solution scope to keep the focus of the project, This helps the organization gain the many benefits stated above.
One of the strategic roles that the Business Analyst (BA); Enterprise Analyst (EA) or Enterprise Architect (EA), can perform for the organization is the maintenance of an internal knowledge base, often called an internal Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. This would be a centralized, electronic repository of artifacts concerning the organization and the environment in which it operates. This is not a task defined in the IIBA® BABOK®, however would fall under the knowledge area of Enterprise Analysis.
This repository should describe not only the organization but the environment in which it operates. It should include an Enterprise Architecture; divided into Business Architecture, Information Architecture, Application Architecture, Technology Architecture and Security Architecture. Along with that it should include BA training and information material to quickly ramp up newly hired Business Analysts. Also, some type of mechanism to ensure you are capturing the business knowledge of Business Analysts who are leaving the organization, so that valuable business knowledge does not walk out the door.
When a Cincinnati, Dayton or other community business has a BA community that is actively maintaining a centralized, electronic internal body of knowledge; that organization is well on a maturity path from a BA Practice to a Business Analysis Center of Excellence (BACoE).
By maintaining this body of knowledge within the organization, the Cincinnati, Dayton or organizations across the country and globe can help deliver business analysis services across the organization at the same level of service, move its business analysts among the business lines and business units within the organization with ease and little ramp-up time, make better business decisions based on an enterprise-wide knowledge base, enable business management consulting within the organization. These business decisions can have significant impact on the company’s bottom line.
Does your organization have an internal business analysis body of knowledge?
We have been discussing the value a Business Analyst (BA) brings to the table in the area of Solution Validation. Another often overlooked and underperformed task of Solution Validation is “Assessing the Solution Performance”. Cincinnati and Dayton organizations do not take advantage of the benefits that can be received by performing a Solution Performance Assessment.
This task is performed after the IT business solution is deployed and working. It can be done very shortly after implementation or over a period of time following deployment. You cannot assess performance if the solution is not in use by the business.
First the BA must determine the criteria by which the solution will be measured; these are often called “key performance indicators” (KPI). To determine correct performance criteria the BA must understand the intended value that the IT business solution was designed to deliver to the organization. Understanding this value the BA may determine criteria by which the solution may be measured to determine if the business is receiving the anticipated value from the solution.
Some of these solution performance metrics may be quantitative, measure of time, volume, revenue, errors or other hard numbers; or qualitative, user satisfaction and use, recommendations, concerns or other subjective opinions of the stakeholders using the solution. When a new enhancement to the Order Entry system in deployed, but you soon find that the Customer Service Representatives or Order Entry Clerks have developed a manual workaround that circumvents the enhancement, then your qualitative analysis would show a negative response from the stakeholders. Such response should be investigated by the BA or Subject Matter Expert (SME) to determine the root cause of the business user’s dissatisfaction with the solution. This may lead to enhancement, reversal or replacement of the IT business solution.
Collecting solution performance metrics are not only negative, but the BA should also collect positive metrics to assist in determining if the solution is delivering the expected benefit to the company. This can assist in early detection of a “bad” solution, proving the success of an IT business solution and can lead into other business capability gap analysis.
Does your Cincinnati or Dayton company collect solution performance metrics following project implementation? What other ways have you found to validate the performance of an IT business solution after deployment?
Last week I began to demonstrate the value a Business Analyst (BA) brings to the table in the area of Solution Validation by talking about how they bring value by ensuring the thorough testing of the solution prior to implementation. Let’s continue in this area with an often overlooked and underutilized task of the BA “Assessing Organizational Readiness”.
It would be unfruitful for an enterprise application development team to take a project through the project life cycle (PLC) and implement the solution if nobody in the organization is going to use it. I have witnessed many times a solution gets implemented and the business users don’t like the new process and often times find ways around it. Business users try to continue on a path of “doing it the way we have been doing it for years”; which makes the job of the BA more difficult as he/she is the Agent of Change within the organization. To get the business users out of that mindset and accept new, more efficient, ways of doing things is one of the goals of assessing organizational readiness. This task is centered on identifying whether the organization, and the people in it, is ready to effectively use a solution ready for implementation. The Business Analyst should identify the forces that support and oppose the proposed change to the organization. In this way the BA can work to mitigate the opposition of the change, by identifying any training needs or other techniques that will make implementation of the solution go more smoothly and be effectively used for its intended purpose.
Some of the techniques that a BA may use to assess the organizational readiness are Data Flow diagrams and Process Models, to show the change the proposed solution will have on the organization and business users; Organizational Models to help identify stakeholders or groups of stakeholders that will be affected by the proposed IT business solution; Focus Group, Interviews and Surveys can help identify business users’ concerns about the proposed application solution; Risk Analysis helps identify all potential risks to the organization for implementing the proposed solution and develop a mitigation strategy for each risk; Force Field Analysis to identify the forces for and against the IT business solution; and SWOT Analysis to identify the organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in preparing for the proposed change.
When doing these techniques to identify the organization’s readiness to accept the change required, the BA needs to be aware of the Culture of the organization and the impact the proposed solution will have on it; Operations and how the IT business solution will change how the organization accomplishes its processes; Security, physical and electronic, how the changes the solution will bring about affects the security of the organization; and Stakeholders, stakeholder groups, locations, functions, processes and concerns in relation to the enterprise application being affected.
An organization of Cincinnati, Dayton or other business community can benefit by effectively utilizing a BA for assessing the readiness of the organization to accept and effectively use an IT business solution by enabling necessary change management practices, decreasing solution implementation timelines, freeing up other project resources to move on to other responsibilities, identifying training needs and assists in identifying transition requirements necessary for solution implementation.
Do you do any type of Organizational Readiness Assessment prior to IT business solution implementation?
There is no doubt that a considerable amount of resources of an organization is spent on requirement definition and documentation no matter where the maturity of the Business Analysis practice within the organization. The business has a considerable interest in requirements that lead to IT business solutions and it can define the direction and prosperity of the entire organization.
By maintaining requirements for re-use the Business Analyst (BA) can considerably reduce the resources spent on requirements definition and documentation. In this way the BA identifies long-termed used requirements of the organization that may be used by multiple systems, or continually come up for solutions on multiple projects. These may include requirements that the organization must meet on an ongoing basis, as well as requirements that are implemented as part of an IT business solution.
Whether these requirements are maintained in a repository or not; they must be identified, clearly defined and available to all BAs within the organization. When a requirement must be changed, the change must be communicated to the BA community and understood by the business community concerned.
Maintenance of requirements for re-use can facilitate impact analysis of new, proposed changes to the business, reduce analysis time and effort, assist in the maintenance of previously implemented IT business solutions and support other business initiatives; including training, corporate governance and standards compliance.
Cincinnati and Dayton companies; and companies across the globe need to mature their BA practice within the organization toward effective maintenance management of business requirements, including requirements for re-use. This will give these organizations the benefits stated above and continue the BA practice on the path toward a Business Analysis Center of Excellence (BACoE).
Do you have an effective requirements management process? Do you use a software requirements repository tool to accomplish this?
I have been asked from time to time what a Business Analyst (BA) does, or what is the value of a BA to the organization? That is question is not limited to Cincinnati and Dayton Companies, so let’s explore further. Not just to dictate all the many tasks or ways a BA serves their organization, but make note of the role within the organization and how an organization may get value add from that role. Many people know of the work of a BA within projects, the tactical role, but aren’t as aware of the work of a BA in preparing for projects and their Enterprise Analysis role, the strategic role. So we will start with some of the more known and common duties of the BA and progress to the less common roles.
It is common knowledge that approximately two-thirds of all projects fail. The most common cause of this issue has been attributed to incorrect or incomplete requirements. However, in some cases, the cause can be traced back further to incorrect or incomplete stakeholder identification. Sometimes requirements are not included because the stakeholder that would benefit from that feature or aspect of the solution, or has the business need, is not included in the project scheme of stakeholders. So identifying all the stakeholders of a particular solution proposal or business need can significantly increase project success.
Take the example of a manufacturer who is implementing a new Order Entry system. They may identify Order Entry, Customer Service, Manufacturing, Shipping and Accounts Receivables as all stakeholders for the project. However, if you miss the Customer Complaint, assuming shipping and Receiving departments as stakeholders then you do not have a full picture of the impact of a new Order Entry system on the organization. Data can be made available to the customer complaint system, but if that is not identified at the origination of the implementation project then it would have to implemented at a later date on another project; and the original implementation project may make a decision that would make the availability of data to the customer complaint system more difficult and add cost to that implementation.
So identifying all stakeholders for a project, and thereby identifying all requirements for a project is one role of a BA within an organization. This reduces the number of projects, follow-up work and re-work necessary on projects. This not only frees up the BA, but other project team members as well, to move on to more important projects.
Each day I will be sharing more about the value of a BA. If you have something that you want to share, please post your response. Today's BA value proposition is: Identify Stakeholders.
In a previous article, at beginning of the year, I discussed the “Top 10 Business Analysis Trends for 2011” as described by ESI International, a business analysis education provider and an IIBA® Endorsed Education Provider (EEP). Looking back upon the year, I see how very close they were on the emergence of these trends. One in particular, number 7, “Resurgence of Centers of Excellence” strikes me. It hits home because this also seems to be on the rise in the Cincinnati and Dayton markets.
Kupe also wrote on this subject this week at BA Times. He describes it as a topic of a discussion panel at the Building Business Capabilities conference earlier this month. The eight comments posted to Kupe’s article show a few people that have been involved in implementing Business Analysis Centers of Excellence (BACoE).
So now you ask yourself “Should we setup a BACoE for our company?” You can answer that question by rephrasing it “Will our company benefit from a BACoE?” Setting up a BACoE for the purpose of saying that you have one, is not good enough. How will the organization benefit from having a BACoE? What is the purpose of the BACoE? So find the value add to the organization that a BACoE can provide and you will find the purpose and benefit of having a BACoE and that will make it worth implementing.
One thing to realize when implementing a BACoE is that it is a process that takes time. It isn’t a something that you setup and it is done. It will take continual improvement of your documentation4, processes, tools and training material keeps your BACoE delivering the best possible value to the organization. I have described this process of continual improvement before. So don’t implement the BACoE and never revisit it, not only continually use the material of the BACoE, but continually improve that material. Keep your BACoE as innovative and up-to-date as possible. That is how you will best serve your organization.
Would your organization benefit from a BACoE? Your friends at STAR BASE Inc. would love to explore that possibility with you.
Weary Cincinnati/Dayton IT job seekers hope it’s true. Politicians declare that it should be true. Parents of young graduates with Computer Science degrees need it to be true. So is it? Are businesses beginning to backsource (bring IT services that they had offshored back to the U.S.) in significant ways? What about outsourced jobs? Are those moving back in-house?
This month, STAR BASE invites you to help us answer these outsourcing and backsourcing questions by participating in our 2011 Pulse Survey. This brief and confidential survey will go a long way in helping us all better understand the outsourcing/offshoring strategies businesses like yours are embracing today.
And, if you are motivated by swag the way I am, here’s another reason to take our survey. All participants are entered into a drawing for a Powermat wireless charging station. So take a moment, take the survey and share your backsourcing story with STAR BASE.
My esteemed colleague, Kupe Kupersmith, wrote an article for BA Times last week stating that “Agil
e is a Fad”. Now I know that will get a few of my other friends’ up in arms ready to defend their approach to IT project work. I can see the smoke coming out of their ears now. However, if you read Kupe’s article he says that “the word agile is a fad, the agile movement is definitely a trend.” I think it is safe to say that Agile is the hottest trend in IT project work these days. Many companies have switched over to Agile over these past few years and many more companies are considering the move. It has prompted many training courses by education providers. So let’s take a deep, hard look at the Agile “movement” and see if it is a fad, or is it here to stay? Is Agile really any better than Waterfall? What is the next best thing that will come down the pike?
Agile came upon the IT application development and software requirements arenas like a wave, gaining support as it moved. As education providers developed courses to teach IT application development teams to “go agile”, it gained momentum. All this happened in these past few years in very much Fad style. A fad starts very abruptly and gains momentum as it moves, forceful and overpowering; like a wave. Will Agile be here with the wave reverses course and heads back out to sea? This is where the fad loses its zest, when people realize that this is no better than what we had before, or it is swept over by the bigger and stronger wave of the next best fad to come down the pike. The wave reverses course and heads back out to see and disappears as fast as it appeared.
Is Agile better than what we had before (Waterfall)? I won’t even go there because depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer. You could ask 100 people and probably get somewhere near 50 yes’ and 50 no’s. That is built quite a bit on personal opinion. The one thing I notice with Agile as it is used today is that it is misapplied by many companies. They talk agile and think that they are using agile, but in reality they have adopted some of the components of agile, such as sprints, scrums and the daily stand-up meeting, but they miss the boat on delivering a piece of working software at the end of each sprint. When your five minute daily stand-up meeting becomes 15 or 20 minutes, all you really have accomplished is keeping your application development team from doing actual work. There are other places that say they are agile, but their sprint is six months long. According to the principles of Agile a sprint should be a couple of weeks to a couple of months long, with a preference to shorter timescale. So a six month sprint is not agile.
The biggest downfall to the Agile principles that I have seen in my experience is the need for comprehensive engagement of the Product Owner. In my experience, Business managers have a business to run and helping IT develop software is not in their job description, they don’t want to talk to the geeks. However, the smart Business managers know that if you don’t talk to the geeks, hard telling what you are going to get out of them. They need more direction than one sit down meeting saying “here is what I need”; and we will not go into the language barrier. If you can’t make IT understand what problem you are trying to solve, then you probably will not get the best IT business solution out of them.
So, is Agile just a Fad? Through all its misapplications and shortcomings, I don’t see agile going away anytime soon. It will not whisk away with the outgoing tide. Is Agile the “Be All of All”? There are some things that you just cannot develop with an agile approach. Some companies have developed a hybrid of the agile and waterfall approaches, so Agile is not the answer to all of IT’s business solutions problems. What will the next great approach be that comes down the pike? My crystal ball is not working today, but it is sure to hit the IT project management world just the way Agile did a few years back. Will IT management be ready for it? Only time will tell.
I attended, along with my team, some great sales and recruiting training recently. The instructor was fantastic. His mantra is: Having clients’ interview more than one person is a waste of their time. We are the IT talent hiring experts, so if they interview more, we have let them down. This is so similar to my own philosophy; I think I may adopt it.
Actually we have practiced that approach for years. As a matter of fact, we have one client that doesn’t even bother to interview from us any more. They simply give us the skill set and a date they want the person to start and we take it from there. It’s taken us a few years to earn that trust and it has proven over and over again to save them a lot of time and effort.
For those of you who have wondered where I have been, I am happy to say that I was in the Bahamas. I took a long deserved vacation with the family to the Bahamas. The cruise and the trip were excellent. Now I come from the 80 degree sunny weather of the Bahamas and Florida to the 20 degree snowy weather of Cincinnati, it just doesn’t seem fair. No, I was not in the Bahamas for a month or two months, but getting caught up with everything takes time.
Recently, I have been pondering the question “Has IT become irresponsive to business requests?” As I go from organization to organization I look at the time it takes from 
request to solution implementation and I am dumbfounded. For those of us who have been in application development services for awhile remember that what use to take a day now takes a week, or longer. Yes, we have things like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and other regulations to thank for this; but also I see that organizations themselves put so much process into their developing of IT business solutions, that the time to fill a business request gets longer and longer. Let’s take a look back to see how this happened.
In the beginning there was chaos. The business manager, needing a widget, made a request to the IT manager, the IT manager handed down the request to the developer, who spoke this language called “techie”. In three days, the business manager needing his widget, went to the IT manager and asked “Hey, where is my widget?” The IT manager replied, “I will find out for you”. He went to the developer and asked ‘Where is the widget?”, and the developer handed him a midget. The IT manager said “I am not sure this is what he wanted”. The IT manager returned to the business manager with the midget. The business manager said “That is not what I asked for, can’t you understand plain ‘biz talk’?” He further inquired, “Why couldn’t you tell me when it would be done and stop the developer when he started building the wrong thing?” The IT manager said “I need help!” and chaos ensued.
Then The Project Manager (PM) stood up and said I can help. I can put together a project schedule and draw pretty pictures for you that will tell you exactly when that IT business solution will be done. The IT manager said “I like pretty pictures, yes do that”. So the business manager made a request to the IT manager for a fidget. The IT manager handed down the request to the PM. The PM made a project schedule, carefully drafted a project scope, wrote a communication plan and a risk mitigation plan and made deadlines and milestones. He then showed all his work to the IT manager who looked at it in awe. Then the PM handed all his work to the developer who stripped out just the parts he needed to create the widget. In seven days, the business manager needing his fidget, went to the IT manager and asked “Hey, where is my fidget?” The IT manager showed the business manager all that the PM created and the business manager looked at it in confusion. The IT manager said, this says your fidget will be done in two days. The business manager said, at least now you can tell me when it will be done, but what is taking so long? So now they have structure to the chaos. In two days the IT manager delivered the widget to the business manager and the business manager said “that is not a fidget, what is wrong with you?” The IT manager said I do not understand what you want.
So the Business Analyst (BA) stood up and said I can help. He said your application development team speaks “techie” and the business people talk “biz talk”. I speak both languages and can translate what the business is asking for into “techie” for the development team. The IT manager said “Yes, do that”. So the business manager requested a zidget from the IT manager. The IT manager handed the request down to the BA and the PM. The BA went and talked to the business manager and said “tell me about this zidget you want”. He made long lists of requirements and definitions of what a zidget is. Meanwhile, the PM made his project schedule, full of scope, plans and drawings. The BA went to the PM and handed him all the requirements and said this is what the business means by a zidget. The PM handed all that the BA and the PM had created to the developer who stripped out just the parts he needed to create this zydget. In ten days, the business manager needing his zidget, went to the IT manager and asked “Where is my zidget?” The IT manager showed the business manager all that the PM and BA had created, who looked at it in great confusion, and stated “Is that what I asked for?” The IT manager said “Yes it is, and it will be ready in two days”. The developer showed the finished zydget to the BA, who stated “this is not quite right, make a little change here”. So the developer did as the BA said. In two days the IT manager delivered the zidget to the business manager, who declared “Look you got it right!”
The above story does not really account for the time and effort that Quality Control and Production Change Control put into the process. So it is easy to see why a day has become a week, or longer; and make it appear as if IT has become irresponsive to business requests. However, in most organizations the above is the normal process, we call project life cycle (PLC), to get an enterprise application development change made. Most organizations have emergency procedures that circumvent the normal procedures to get a change made quickly. More and more I see those emergency procedures being used. What does this cause, new production change control processes and validation, which usually translates into more people. So what can be done to improve this process? Go back to Chaos?
One of my fellow Techserve Alliance members sent out an article that I thought was pretty interesting. You can view the original article here. It reinforced the idea that local talent is important. STAR BASE, Inc. has always focused on Cincinnati and Dayton IT talent, so I felt validated. Some of you may think I’m crazy for talking about a Talent Battle while unemployment is still so high. I don’t think so, because some IT talent is already hard to find. Here are some key points from the article in winning the up coming Talent Battle.
1. Eliminate Past Biases. Many companies don’t consider candidates who they have interviewed but declined previously. There is often a strong bias against them, as in, “We interviewed that guy in January, and he wasn’t any good …” Given that most companies don’t have highly refined selection processes; this is an error in strategy. Most companies’ selection process is very subjective. For companies to win, they will need to revisit local talent who they may have interviewed previously for other roles.
2. Don’t Overweight Experience and Technical Skills. Most companies routinely overweight years of experience and technical skills through the interview process. A question that needs to be asked is, “Is it possible for someone with five years of experience to outperform someone with ten years of experience? How is that possible?” Smart IT service providers will help their customers select on the portfolio of attributes that drive success in a job, being careful to not overweight less-predictive candidate attributes such as years of experience. Doing so will increase the candidate pool that is available locally.
3. Map your Internal Talent. Now more than ever, developing internal talent is a smart strategy, as it also correlates to reduced attrition. So for those jobs that can be sourced internally, organizations will be well served by doing so, provided it supports the local search strategy.
4. Measure the Opportunity Cost of Key Vacancies. Understand the business case for paying relocation. There could be a good argument for what jobs might warrant a rich pot of relocation dollars. This will put you ahead of the game.
5. Focus on the Local. Now would be a good time to look at your suppliers and choose ones that are local and focus on the local. (I think I may know of one…)
6. Outsmart Your Competitors. Smart companies will quickly recognize that improving the value package offered to employees to attract and keep more local talent carries far greater ROI than buying someone out of their underwater mortgage, or letting a key role in the organization sit vacant.
7. Keep Your Best: As always, the best local talent to attract and recruit are the strong performers who are already working for your company. But most companies have cut bonuses, reduced merit increases, and kept job promotions to a minimum in order to control costs during recent challenging economic times.
Now is a good time to think about your Talent Strategy. Don’t get caught short in the up coming Talent Battle.
In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the dangers of working in IT. It is very important for application development people and really anyone who has a desk job to get regular exercise. My shocking moment was when I went to London with my son, and I saw myself walking across Abbey Road. There I am, and my “overhang”! To put more fuel on my weight fire, my boss is doing P90X. He has dropped several pant sizes and is looking good. To figure out how I was to lose weight, I did what all good application development people do, I observe what works for others. I recently read (and saw his picture) that Drew Carey lost 90 pounds in 8 months. His secret for his weight loss was getting on the treadmill for at least 30 minutes everyday, and eating broccoli. I looked at people who run regularly, and they are skinny! So I decided to run and eat broccoli. My diet currently consists of an apple in the morning, turkey for lunch, a banana in the afternoon, a protein shake after my run, broccoli, a small dinner, and maybe some skinny cow ice cream. This may be too much for some, but try these simple things to start: drink water instead of soda pop. Swap out a candy bar with a piece of fruit. As for the running, I go six times a week. I created a “course” at an executive park by my house. My first time, I barely got through a half mile. It doesn't really matter how far you go, just set a goal for yourself. Every day I wanted to go further, and eventually my course became three quarter of a mile. I found this Android app that is my favorite and most useful piece of software I have used. It's called Cardio Trainer. It uses GPS and Google Maps to track your running. It keeps track of you distance, time, and calories burned. I save my workouts, and now I have a history of my runs! In six weeks I am up to 16.5 miles a week while running three 5Ks in my training. I have lost at least 12 pounds (I am sure I have added muscle to my legs). My “overhang” has dramatically decreased, I have more energy, I sleep better, and I feel happier. The point of my story is that we application development folk need to get up and do something. If you have bad knees, try swimming. Find something that will make you active. Set a reachable goal, achieve it and set another one. I want you guys to hang around and read my stuff!
s To Look For When Hiring Consultants” listed several qualities that would be very difficult to “look for” prior to hiring the consultant. It would be very difficult to pose questions during an interview to gage the Consultant’s A Penchant for Facts, Sift and Filter Out, Think Ahead, Precision, Self Discipline or Honest to a Fault. Also if you do not need the consultant to fulfill a leadership role within the organization or IT business solutions team then Leadership is not a quality to look for in applicants. My colleague, Jeff Welsh, wrote a two piece blog on the "Seven Deadly Sins of Consulting", in which he notes the seven things that a Consultant should never do when engaged at a client. A lot of them are common sense things and some of them come from experience. After reading all these blogs, I have compiled a list of qualities to look for in applicants for a BA role within your organization. Questions can be formed during an interview to help gage the applicant’s ability in these areas.
1. Depth and breadth of experience and knowledge
A review of the resume/CV will show the applicant’s prior work experience. The more senior, critical or strategic activities you wish the consultant to perform, the greater work experience and knowledge you will want the consultant to have. Also, ensure the consultant’s work experience is relevant to the tasks you will ask the consultant to perform. Such as, if you are implementing a new ERP package, find a consultant that has done ERP implementation projects.
2. Dedication to profession and work
The BA Consultant should have great dedication to the BA profession and to his/her own work. A consultant that stays abreast of BA resources, keeps up-to-date on training and/or has achieved BA certification is showing dedication to the profession. Every business person should take great pride in their work and deliverables. The BA Consultant is no different.
3. Excellent communication skills and interpersonal savvy
Effective communication is essential for Consultants. Oral and written communication skills are a necessity. Communication to the client should be relevant and timely. Miscommunication and Under communication to the client tend to shorten your stay at the client. One of the posts noted above stated “Honest to a Fault”. Sometimes, blunt honesty backfires and cause greater issues. Finesse and tact should always be practiced when handling sensitive issues.
4. Customer focused
All Consultants, including BA Consultants, should always be focused on delivering value to the customer. During the interview probe the Consultant’s commitment to the customer.
5. Results oriented
The BA Consultant should be dedicated to delivering results. If the applicant’s resume/CV does not show their achievements and results then probe the Consultant’s dedication to adding value and delivering results in a timely manner during the interview.
6. Can see the “big picture” and work in the details
Having the “big picture” view, knowing how your activities fit into that picture, and then being able to work in the details of your activities is truly an art. Consultants are often asked to perform the tedious tasks, such as research and document activities that require hours of repeating processes. It is not glorifying or high-profile work, but necessary to be completed. Being able to go beyond customer expectations doing these kinds of tasks is a way to prove your value to the client. While working in the details, not taking your eyes off the big picture and ensuring that decisions are made that keep the big picture in tact is also an art.
7. Team player
Personality conflicts are always detrimental to the team unity. Bringing on Consultants that do not work well with the team causes people management issues and divert resources to handle those personality conflicts rather than more productive activities. Derogatory comments about other consultants, or worse the client’s employees, is a fast track to causing team conflict. As Jeff puts it “don’t be a prima donna”.
8. Creative thinking
Sometimes solutions to complex business problems require the ability to leap beyond conventional thinking. They require creative solutions that require creative and conceptual thinking. Situational questions can devolve the Consultant’s ability to “think out of the box”.
9. Personal organization
Being personally organized helps deliver results sooner. Having to continually search for documentation or other items can be a great waste of time. Being able to remember meeting appointments and being on time to meetings show a good degree of personal organization.
10. Dependable
Being where you are suppose to be at the time you’re suppose to be there is a great attribute for Consultants. Being punctual really is greatly appreciated by the client, so when you are going to be late to work or an appointment communicate the delay. That too is appreciated.
So if you are responsible to bring in consultants to help your IT business solutions staff you have some guidelines to look for when determining who to bring in to complete your IT staffing. If you are a BA Consultant make sure you exceed customer expectations in the areas above and you will have a satisfied customer.
- the job titles on your work history do not reflect your experience in business analysis (they include other titles such as programmer, software developer, financial analyst, etc.) and/or;
- you spent many years doing business analysis work for one company (perhaps even with the title of BA), but never obtained post secondary education, and is finding it difficult to get your resume noticed by other companies.
just introduced by the IIBA. This certification is targeted to the intermediate BA who has not yet achieved the 5 years of BA work experience required by the CBAP®. The IIBA has positioned this certification as a stepping stone to the CBAP®, as such it does not have a recertification process. The CCBATM is good for 5 years and it is expected that within that time most recipients will achieve their CBAP® certification. If not, you will have to sit for the CCBATM exam again. So is it a good idea to get the CCBATM certification? There are many good reasons to obtain a certification; Adriana points many of them out in her article so I will not repeat them here. However, I am often asked this question by BAs with no or less than one year of work experience. They clearly do not meet the requirements of the CCBATM certification; so what is the alternative for them?
The alternative to a certification for someone who is just starting out their BA career is a “certificate” from an education provider that you have completed some training in a specific area. It is advisable to get your training from an Endorsed Education Provider (EEPTM) of the IIBA so that you know that what is being taught is in line with the IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®). One other recommendation for those just starting out their BA career, go ahead and join the IIBA now. Just putting your IIBA membership on your resume shows your dedication and passion for the BA profession. It also gives you an excellent talking point during interviews.
As you are beginning your career as a BA, concentrate on improving your BA skills and gaining experience in a breadth of BA tasks and techniques. Remember, work experience can stand alone on your resume; a certification (or certificate) can not.
The CTO blog does not forecast such a dismal future for the IT professional, but it also acknowledges the need for better alignment with business strategic goals and faster IT solutions delivery.
Whereas, I will not completely buy in to the idea that 75% of today’s IT professionals will not be working in IT in 5 years or that change will be so rapid or radical. It is increasingly apparent that change in IT solution delivery is necessary, and that is where I suggest that business organizations start; in particular IT Governance.
I hope to see today’s IT Governance Committee, which approve and prioritize IT business solutions projects, replaced with a Business Improvement Project Review Board who approve and prioritize all business improvement projects. This new Governance Body will consider all business improvement projects; those with business solutions and those with IT solutions. As I mentioned a few weeks ago this new board needs to better track all projects and continue to give its support to all projects at every stage of the project. Once the cost of the project outweigh the benefits, or other external forces make continuance of the project unwise, the project can be stopped and decrease the expense to the organization.
Along with that we will see the idea of a Project Management Office (PMO) replaced with a Business Improvement Office (BIO). The BIO will be staffed with people with business backgrounds and those with IT backgrounds; however, cross-training and best practices will require all members of the BIO to look for the best solution, considering both business and IT solutions, to meet the needs of the business. The BIO will take over the project management, business analysis and quality assurance aspects of a project.
Continued competitive pressures will force the BIO to change its practices in order to achieve faster solution delivery. Some will embrace the Agile methodology; others will develop some hybrid methodology taking parts from both the Agile and Waterfall methodologies. However they achieve it, continued pressures for competitive advantage will require continual improvement in the methodology to push for faster and faster delivery while not sacrificing quality.
Many references now forecast a change to IT Departments and IT staffing as we know it today. It will be interesting to see the changes as they come about and see which forecast was most correct.
As I move from client to client, IT shop to IT shop, the one think I notice is that most organizations do not have an internal BA Body of Knowledge. There are several reasons that I can think of as to why organizations have not taken on the task of developing an internal BABOK:
1. Companies are slow to embrace the idea and value of a BA Center of Excellence.
2. Companies do not understand what an internal BABOK is and what should be in it.
3. Companies have not realized the value of an internal BABOK.
4. Not enough time, not enough resources.
So let’s take a look at these reasons. First, creating a BA Center of Excellence would allow the organization to use their BA talent in a more strategic role within the organization. It would allow them to move their BAs among the business units within the organization with a much less learning curve. BAs leaving the organization don’t take valuable business knowledge out the door with them and just as important, new BAs have a much shorter ramp up time to become effective to the organization. I believe once organizations realize the value that developing a BA Center of Excellence can have on the organization, they would all want one.
Secondly, there is reference material available that conceptually describes an internal BA Body of Knowledge, but you would have to dive deep into reading material to find it. So, let me spell out for all to see what we are talking about when we say an organization should develop an internal BA Body of Knowledge. This is a centralized, electronic copy of documents that define anything within the business. This is a wealth of knowledge that all your BAs can draw from to better perform their duties. This would allow a BA to learn a new area of the business quickly that they have not worked in before as they are assigned new tasks. This BABOK would define the business organization, the business units with it and the interrelationships between those business units. What did that sound like to you? If you said an Enterprise Architecture, you are absolutely correct. The first thing to include in your internal BABOK is the organization Enterprise Architecture, including all five parts of the architecture. Also include the BA Career Ladder, BA Competence Model, BA Job Descriptions, new BA training material, BA departure review and BA reference material pertinent to the organization.
Thirdly, now that you understand what wealth of knowledge is included in an internal BABOK, I think you can realize the value of it without me saying a word. Most organizations do not have an Enterprise Architecture, let alone an internal BABOK. Those organizations that somewhat have one; usually have it dispersed all over the company network, which makes finding material very difficult. Centralized, easy to access, electronic, included in the company’s backup and restore process adds tremendous value to the organization.
Lastly, this is always the reason that many good ideas do not take form. Realize, that if you had an internal BABOK that your BAs used on a daily basis that research tasks take a lot less time. This can decrease project schedules, freeing up more than just BA resource time.
That all sounds nice, but what does it mean to the organization? Well, there are many benefits to having an Enterprise Architecture and internal electronic BABOK to the organization:
- Project portfolio in greater alignment with business strategic goals and initiatives
- Realization of BA talent in a more strategic role
- New BAs become more effective to the organization faster
- Ensure enterprise knowledge stays within the organization when BAs leave the organization
- Starting point for Enterprise Capability Gap Analysis
- Reference material for new product feasibility studies
- Reference material for competitive edge analysis
- Required material for new enterprise software impact analysis
There are many benefits to the BA practice within the organization:
- Reference material easily available without exhaustive searching
- Understand BA Competencies important to the organization
- Understand BA Competencies needed to achieve the next level on the BA Career Ladder
- Move within the business units of the organization with greater ease and knowledge
- Needed reference material for Enterprise Analysis activities
Now can your organization survive in these economic times without an internal BABOK?
A common reference I hear in business today is that the Business Analyst (BA) is the bridge between the business and information technology staffs within the organization. This infers that the knowledge of getting from one to the other, or interacting with either is contained within the BA alone. The BA should not be the bridge, but the bridge builder. If the knowledge is contained only within the BA, if the BA should leave the organization, then the bridge is gone. If the BA is the bridge builder, then if he/she should leave, the knowledge remains within the Organization.As an IT Strategy Consultant developing IT solutions here in Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio, I go from organization to organization and see that turnover within the BA ranks inevitably causes a great learning curve; either to recover the knowledge that has just walked out the door or bringing the new BA up to speed and making them an effective contributor to the organization.
What all these organizations lack is an Enterprise Architecture, a fundamental artifact of the Business Analysis profession. This and other artifacts are the foundation of creating a Business Analysis Center of Excellence. There is a maturity path that all organizations take from having a community of BAs that serve the organization with no continuity or conformity of service through a mature level in which that continuity and conformity of service is establish; into a BA Center of Excellence, where all BAs within the organization have a common standards of practice, tools and resources from which to draw knowledge.
Where is your Organization on the maturity path to a BA Center of Excellence?
This is the question that many organizations are still trying to answer today. Many organizations are just realizing the benefits of the BA role. One thing to realize, is those of us in the BA arena today are in the forefront of an infantile and growing profession. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)®, the professions governing body, was formed in 2004; incorporated in 2006. There are 827 certified professionals (CBAP)® in the world. Compared to the Project Management Institute (PMI)®, which was incorporated in 1969, offer five certification programs and has nearly 300,000 certified professionals. You may say that your company has had BAs for the last 5 or 10 years. Then I say your company is one of the forward-thinking organizations that has recognized the benefits that the BA role provides in developing IT business solutions.
Now I believe this discussion will go on for years; but as this is my blog, here I get to put my two cents in. First, let’s define the role of the BA in which we discuss. Many organizations have a quality assurance team, department or processes within the IT application development team. As these people support system or user acceptance testing procedures, these people are Business Analyst. For this discussion, I refer to the Business Analyst that works on the front end of the project life cycle. Who develops the Enterprise Architecture, gathers business requirements for business process improvements and makes the business case for IT business solutions projects to make those improvements.
As the role of the BA is to develop requirements and make the business case for IT application development projects, this is an IT function; therefore the BA is an IT position and should report to the IT management as opposed to the Business management. Although the duties that the BA performs may put him/her in front of external customers of the company, their goal is not to perform the business of the company but to recommend IT business solution projects to improve business processes within organization; this is an IT function.
If your organization is large enough to use terms such as Business Process Organization (BPO) and Project Management Office (PMO); then you should find the BA at the heart of the BPO. The purpose of the BPO is to analyze and recommend improvements to business processes. So now you say that in most organizations the BPO is a business team; I would reply that it should be a combination business and IT team. The improvement to business processes may require a business solution, such as upgrade or replace business machinery or training; or an IT solution, such as application enhancement, system training or system upgrade. Therefore, the BPO should be made up of business positions and IT positions working together to determine the best solution to business issues.
One thing that I would change in many organizations is that I believe the BA should sit more in the vicinity of the business unit(s) that they support as opposed to sit in the IT Department. BAs will be much more effective when they fully understand the business processes in place, issues that business workers face and the daily going-ons within the business unit(s). Also, easy approachability to the BA for the business gains buy-in to the duties and recommendations of the BA.
So there is my opinion on the subject, what is yours?
“IT executives increasingly implement marketing initiatives to improve the communications with their business customers. But these efforts often focus solely on the brand aspects of the services under the IT’s control without understanding the business’ perception of IT. To maximize the success, IT must add business satisfaction assessments to its tool kit. Understanding business satisfaction requires qualitative and quantitative data that capture customer expectations and perceptions through different types of interactions such as interviews, panels, focus groups, complaint systems, and surveys. This report provides best-practice recommendations, survey templates, and questions to guide IT executives through the deployment of a business satisfaction assessment. It applies Forrester’s deep expertise in external customer satisfaction to the interface between business customers and their internal IT suppliers.” says a new Forrester report.
I have served on countless business application development teams within several organizations in the Southwest Ohio and Cincinnati Information Technology community, one thing I can say is that most IT organizations do not gauge business satisfaction with IT business solutions. I have served in only a couple of organizations where the business serves on the IT governance committee. An organization does not have to be “big” to have an IT governance committee. No matter what the size of the organization decisions are made as to priorities in IT work. IT governance does not have to be a long drawn out process or take great time commitment from the business or IT executives, but business involvement in IT governance goes a long way in gaining business buy-in as you roll out the IT business solutions to the business.
Involvement in IT governance is just one way that many organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area can improve the IT-business relationship. The Forrester report goes into ways to solicit and gauge business satisfaction with IT business solutions. Doing so should affect decisions concerning not only IT business solution delivery but also IT Infrastructure and IT outsourcing initiatives.
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