One of the critical roles of the Business Analyst (BA), or Enterprise Analyst (EA), in the area of Enterprise Analysis is to identify business need. There are many factors, or many ways that the BA can identify what the business needs. It can be a result of market research or an identified new opportunity brought about by actions of a vendor or competitor. It could be derived from a strategic goal or initiative of the organization. It could have come from a business user complaint about a current system issue and/or the subsequent Root Cause Analysis. It could also be derived from an Enterprise Analysis activity that the BA performed, such as Capability Gap Analysis, SWOT Analysis or Product Feasibility Analysis.
If this vital role is not performed than the organization in Cincinnati, Dayton or other business community would not realize the benefits of identifying some business needs that need to be addressed, possibly gaining greater competitive advantage, possibly achieving strategic goals or taking advantage of an opportunity presented by the market.
Once identified, the business need should be documented in the Business Case of a project to develop a solution for this business need. The business need defines the problem for which the business analyst is attempting to find a solution. The way the business need is defined determines which alternative solutions will be considered, which stakeholders will be consulted and which solution approaches will be evaluated. One pitfall that many business analysts fall into is trying to define the business need by the solution. They start with the solution first instead of the problem first. This reduces the solution alternatives that receive consideration and may bring a lesser valuable solution to deployment than what could have been achieved. So starting with the business need (problem) and solution scope, then developing alternative solutions will bring the most valuable solution to the organization, and the business analyst’s recommendation, to light.
We all learn from our mistakes, what pitfalls to developing the Business Case have you encountered in your career?
One of the primary responsibilities of some Business Analysts (BA), or Enterprise Analysts (EA), is to justify projects that the organization should undertake. The BA does this by creating a Business Case for the project and this task falls under the BA knowledge area of Enterprise Analysis.
Many Business Analysts miss the ball in the Business Case by making the justification for the project or IT business solution very subjective. Many Business Cases start off with what the IT business solution should be. To understand what should be in a Business Case and how to develop one, we must first understand the purpose of the Business Case.
The Business Case is a formal written document to assist executive decision-makers in making the decision on whether to invest in a particular project or IT business solution investment. Knowing this purpose of the Business Case brings to light two important aspects of the Business Case: 1) it is for executive decision-makers and 2) it is to assist in their decision to invest. This means that two very important sections of the Business Case need special attention: 1) the Executive Summary and 2) the money section.
I have personally seen that executive decision-makers look at these two sections only. Executives want to know 1) what is this about and 2) what is the cost and cost-justification. The Executive Summary should summarize the rest of the business case in a very concise and complete way for quick consumption by executives. The long, detailed version will be used by Managers, the Project Manager and other application software development team members. The second important section of the Business Case is the money. Notice, I not only said “what is the cost” but also “and cost justification”. The cost justification is what is usually left out of the Business Case; most Business Cases, even today, contain no ROI or cost justification analysis. The money section should contain not only the cost of proceeding with this project but it should contain a cost justification for undertaking the project. Projects can be justified by either a cost-benefit analysis, average rate of return, return on investment, internal rate of return or some other method of financial analysis.
Organizations may gain great benefits from engaging the Business Analyst in creating the Business Case including more informed decisions, project mix more strategically aligned and greater business understanding.
We will discuss the other sections of a Business Case and the process that the development of a Business Case should go through as this “The Value of a BA” series continues. Rich Larson of Watermark Learning presented a session on “Creating Bullet-Proof Business Cases” last spring at the Southwest Ohio Business Analysis Development Conference here in Cincinnati for Cincinnati, Dayton and other business analysis professionals in the region. Rich’s presentation, the BABOK® and other BA resources will be used to justify the concepts presented. I hope you continue to read and enjoy the series.
One of the most strategic roles of the Business Analyst (BA) is that of a Management Consultant. This role is not drawn out by the IIBA® in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®), but it would fall in the Enterprise Analysis knowledge area. Perhaps this role will be given its due recognition in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge Guide version 3.0 now being developed.
The Business Analyst, Enterprise Analyst (EA) or Enterprise Architect (EA) as they are sometimes called in this role, is often engaged in enterprise wide or market research activities that gives the person great insight into the organization and the market(s) in which it operates. Such activities as feasibility studies, market research, product analysis, SWOT analysis, Capability Gap analysis, analyzing business issues and opportunities, root cause analysis, defining business needs, developing business cases and documenting business processes gives the analyst a deeper understanding of the business and the environment in which it operates that sometimes even the senior management of the organization does not have. This is not saying that business analysts are smarter than business management, it is saying that analysts get deeper into the details of the analysis, which can derive greater understanding of these details about the business.
The creation of internal IT Consulting groups is becoming a common place in companies; in particular a few organizations here in Cincinnati and Dayton in which I have consulted. These groups are often created to perform business analysis activities on the enterprise level; to consult the business on the capabilities and limitations of technology and to consult enterprise application development teams on business needs and requirements. Whether BAs, or the IT Consulting Group, is consulting executive management or business lines management; this is consulting business management to take advantage of business opportunities and diminish business weaknesses and issues.
The creation of an internal IT Consulting Group shows great emphasis to business analysis within the organization. Even if your organization is not large enough to justify a formal IT Consulting Group, giving emphasis to business analysis as management consultants helps the business management make more informed decisions, helps the organization better accomplish its strategic goals and initiatives and enables better change management.
How does your company utilize business analysis for strategic value?
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?
Another area that many Cincinnati, Dayton and other organizations across the country and internationally miss is utilizing the Business Analyst (BA) role in Enterprise Analysis, in particularly in giving assistance in “Project Portfolio Management”.
The goal of the BA in this role is to ensure that the proper mix of projects get approved through the organizational project governance body that best helps the organization achieve its short-term and long-term strategic objectives. In addition the BA should ensure that there are no conflicting requirements or objectives of the projects being approved.
I worked for an organization that had a formal IT Steering Committee that considered each and every enterprise application development project proposed. This IT Steering Committee was made up of the business leadership from all business lines and regions of the business and the Senior IT manager responsible for application software development within the organization. The members of this IT Steering Committee would then rank the projects that were before the committee to determine which projects would get approved; those receiving the lowest ranking would receive approval. Many organizations may have similar processes, whether they actually take a vote or not; but this organization missed the point because there were no BAs involved in this process. The projects were presented to the IT Steering Committee by the IT Manager. The process would have achieved greater results if the Business Executive Sponsor presented the project to the IT Steering Committee as they are most passionate about the business need and that the project would benefit them. The BA would sit in support of the project as they did the initial analysis that provided the business need and the solution idea for that business need.
However, in this role the Business Analyst, or Enterprise Analyst (EA), would work with the IT Steering Committee or governance body to ensure that the projects receiving approval are the optimal mix of projects and helps the organization best fulfill its strategic objectives. This EA would present to the governing body the strategic alignment and conflicting issues of the set of projects before the governance body and make recommendations as to the projects that should receive approval based on those criteria.
With this additional information the governance body can make a more informed decision to ensure the portfolio of projects that receive approval are best aligned with the strategic objectives of the organization and reduce the conflicting interests, requirements, issues and scope between the project. This will help ensure that the organization meets its strategic objectives from year to year.
Does your company utilize the BA role to assist the IT business solution governance body in approving enterprise application development projects?
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?
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.
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.
Still a very timely topic of discussion, from the person who wishes to transition into a Business Analysis career who wants to know what skills they must have to be a successful BA, to the new BA who wants to know what skills they need to add to their repertoire, to the Senior BA who wants to know where to go next in their career; everyone wants to know how to improve their skills to get to that next level of their career.
Two of my colleagues take on this subject, Kupe in BA Times discusses soft skills vs. hard skills. He notes the importance of soft skills in being a successful BA. Kupe is not suggesting hard skills are not important, he notes that hard skills is what is going to get you noticed, stand out in a crowd, but it is the soft skills that will land you on that next level and keep you there. After all, nobody wants to work with a jerk.
Laura discusses whether Project Management is the next step in the career of a Senior BA at Bridging-the-Gap. She discusses how this use to be the case years ago but is no longer the only option. In fact, we now see the reverse happening where Project Management professionals transition into Business Analysis careers. For those who have reached the pinnacle of their BA career, besides Project Management, they could move into BA Management, creating a BA Office within their organization, Enterprise Analysis, Management Strategic Consulting, Business Consulting, Business Subject Matter Expert or external IT and Business Management Consulting. There are as many paths as there are people willing to forge them.
Elizabeth Larson will be taking on a similar topic at the Southwest Ohio Business Development Conference in April. She will discuss whether Business Analyst and Project Manager should be one or two roles within the organization. At this very same conference I will be presenting the topic “Improving Your BA Skills: From Self-Assessment to Self-Improvement”. This is where I will discuss the many ways you can gain new and improve current BA skills. This is a conference not to be missed if you are in the Cincinnati area on April 29, 2011.
This topic has been around for many years and as you can see is still a very hot topic today, getting a lot of press. There is no one way to build your career, forge your own path. Remember you are in charge of your career. Unemployment, downsizing or IT outsourcing may derail your plans for a time, but don’t allow that to stop you permanently. For some general guidelines, as Kupe suggests, develop the hard skills necessary to accomplish the tasks of a BA and get you noticed. Then develop the soft skills that will land you on that next plateau of your career. Remember, that your current job is not your career, it is just your current position in your career; you decide where to go next. Let your passions guide you. If Project Management doesn’t excite you, good; now you have other options to continue your career.
ESI International, a premiere education provider in the fields of Business Analysis and Project Management; and an Endorsed Education Provider (EEP) of the IIBA® held an educational webinar in which they laid out the “Top 10 Business Analysis Trends for 2011”. Presenting these top 10 trends was Glenn R Brule, CBAP, CSM, Executive Director of Global Client Solutions for ESI International. ESI’s Top 10 Trends for Business Analysis are:
1. Business Architecture will be the primary focus of business analysts
2. Business Analysis will guide the surge in cloud computing
3. Requirements management and development (RMD) will lead in delivering smart business perspective
4. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) will solidify its reputation as the industry standard
5. Agile success will go to those willing to break with tradition
6. BAs will be recognized as the critical change management proponent to avoid troubled projects
7. Resurgence of Centers of Excellence
8. RMD will be essential to regaining market share
9. RMD will continue to struggle to define itself
10. RMD will require better balanced competencies
These trends show a bright 2011 for the Business Analysis profession. As businesses strive to remain competitive, increase efficiencies and regain market share in the improving US and world markets Business Analysts will be critical in examining the inner workings of organizations, model those processes and help businesses resolve roadblocks to its strategic initiatives. I believe we shall see increased emphasis put on process modeling and other “hard” skills over the soft skills previously sought in BAs. I am not sure we will see a great resurgence of BA Centers of Excellence but BAs will be required to find a structured yet flexible approach to requirements management and development that help organizations find those increased efficiencies.
Those of you who follow my ramblings know that I have been a strong proponent for Enterprise Analysis and the strategic value of the Business Analyst within the organization. My views can be ascertained from my previous articles:
BA: Business Alignment for the Organization
Business Case vs. Project Charter; Do You Need Both?
Business Analysis has far reaching impact on the Organization
IT Governance Needs to Change to Gain a Competitive Advantage
Making the Business Case for an Internal BABOK
Building the Business Case for the Business Case
Business Analysis: Building the Bridge
Yet, as the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) grows in recognition, I find that many organizations, especially SMBs, do not utilize the BA role for strategic value. Most organizations have BAs and use them in their traditional tactical role on projects in requirements gathering and solution validation; but very few organizations utilize the BA role for Enterprise Analysis.
As the framers of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®) sit down to write version 3.0 of the BABOK® Guide and continue to work on the Enterprise Analysis extension to the BABOK® Guide, I hope that they put particular emphasis on this very important BA role. Perhaps companies will take note and start to utilize their BAs to help the organization achieve its strategic goals.
The BABOK® Guide does mention tasks that a BA may perform under Enterprise Analysis, including but not limited to Capability Gap Analysis, Market Research and Feasibility Studies. However, it falls short of describing how the BA should perform their strategic duties. The BA having performed the Enterprise Analysis task(s) builds a business case, resulting in a Business Case document, for a solution to resolve a business need of the organization identified during the Enterprise Analysis activity. This business case is presented by the Project Sponsor to the project review board (governance body) for approval to proceed with the project. The Enterprise Analyst (EA), having performed the up-front analysis that resulted in the business case, should sit in support of the business case and the Project Sponsor. He/she should be available at the presentation to answer any questions the governance body may have concerning the business case.
The EA also works with the governance body to ensure that every business case brought up for approval has traceability back to the organization’s strategic goals and objectives and that the most optimal mix of projects get approved that best contributes to the organization’s strategic goals. This would be a portfolio of projects that do not conflict with each other and advances the organization the best in achieving its strategic goals.
When we see organizations utilize the EA role more effectively perhaps we will see better project success rates in the Standish Group’s CHAOS Report.
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.
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.
I know some of my application development colleagues my say “heard it”, but a virtual desktop is cool! We are currently running Windows XP as our company standard. We moved our 9 physical servers running Windows 2000 on ancient (and failing hardware) about 2 years ago. Most of our clients are currently on XP, but some are looking into moving to Windows 7, and one is going to Vista. When my application development friends stop laughing, they are doing this because they have certified their testing with Vista, and they will have to re-certify with Windows 7. They want to move to Vista now, and move again in a year or two.
We can just follow the Windows upgrade path, but given the success of virtualizing our servers, my boss gave me the green light to review our desktop strategy. Some application development and management people would say why? Well it gives us flexibility in what we can do. If we just move to Windows 7, and our clients are still on XP, then we are too ahead of the curve in terms of support. We do have some XP only development tools, so why not just keep them on their OS? With a virtualized desktop, we can run any OS we want. If our clients want us to run specialized software, we can set up an OS just for that client. The other big change is that we are using Ubuntu 10.4 as our host operating System. This is to reduce the memory requirements, but it has other great side effects. Our consultants can learn (at least the basics) of a new OS! If they are under constraints, they can fire up their Windows VM and get to work, or they can do the basic stuff (surfing, checking email) on Ubuntu. In time they can learn how to install packages and other tasks without disrupting productivity. The can even use Windows 7 and learn it too. The best side effect (for management anyway) is that we can still get a lot of mileage out of our 5-7 year old laptops. Our laptops have 2 gigs of RAM, so even if we went pure Windows 7, we would have a performance hit, especially when you fire up an IDE like Eclipse! The more I play with Ubuntu, the more I like it. I will probably use it as my main OS, but others can use XP, Vista, Windows7, or whatever we can virtualize. Choice is a great thing!
This month I have been exploring the IT and Business working relationship. It is a hot topic these days getting a lot of press. STAR BASE Consulting is conducting a pulse survey asking what is the relationship like in your organization. BA Times notes that your “Customers Don’t Want to Work with You!” A couple of weeks ago, I looked at the relationship and how BAs could reduce the rivalry, if there is one. Last week I took the relationship to the Organizational level and described how the Organization can build a unified, collaborative team.
You say Organizational Structure, Seating Charts, Enterprise Analysts (EA) and Business Analysts (BA) are all find and dandy, but what about me and my small IT shop? I don’t have enough people to split into EAs and BAs. How do you split one person? Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) usually have an IT shop of 10 people or less. Maybe at most 2 of them will be BAs. I even had one CIO recently tell me that in his small shop he doesn’t really have full-time BAs, but five Programmer/Analysts that do their own analysis. So we will assume these are the hybrid Developer/Business Analyst role within the organization. So in this kind of structure, how can we improve the IT and Business working relationship?
In SMBs, where resources are scarce, it is not uncommon for people to perform multiple roles or “wear many hats” within the organization. In today’s economy, where IT spending and salaries have stalled but the workload has not: IT is getting even more squeezed. In this situation, when the SMB cannot make one of its BAs the strategic role (EA), or perhaps the organization does not need full-time enterprise analysis activities going on, it becomes even more crucial for the BAs to assist in building a unified, collaborative working relationship between IT and the business. So let’s look at some of the key points I have discussed in the past two weeks.
Seating Chart - Two Desks
When looking at this seating chart you realize that there is only one person, so you only need one desk, correct? Allowing the BA to have a desk in the IT Department and one in the business unit of the organization allows them to build a working relationship with each team. By spending part of the day or week with each team, the BA can understand the challenges each team faces. Even if the BA can spend only part of his/her time sitting with the business unit that they are suppose to support, it helps build awareness of the daily challenges that the business people face on a daily bases. This helps the BA identify business needs to improve business processes and make the business run smoother. This also makes the BA approachable by the business people to assist to work on problems and will help get buy-in from the business people when the BA has analysis tasks that require business input.
Communication is Key
Communication is a key skill for a BA, but becomes even more important in this situation. The trap that the BA must avoid is the business feeling that the BA is approachable only when he/she is sitting at the desk in the business area. Or that the BA is available for IT project work only when he/she is sitting at the desk with the IT business solutions development team. The BA must communicate to both teams that he/she is available whenever they need assistance; it is their goal to assist. The BA also must represent the needs, desires and limitations of each team to the other. Make the IT application development team understand the business requirements and why these requirements are needed. Make the business understand the time involved to make “a simple change” to an enterprise application. By representing each team to the other, and making each understand the work at hand, whether that is requirements or solution testing, they are creating a shared vision across the organization.
Build the Bridge
Through effective communication of the needs and limitations of one team of the business to the other and representing the each team to the other the BA can build a bridge of understanding between the two groups. By making each side realize that we are all in this together and desire the same outcome, you can build a relationship of trust and get rid of the “Us vs. Them” scenario and replace it with a collaborative working relationship that brings about better IT solutions to business needs.
Whether in a large organization or SMB, business must go to IT for technology solutions. Even in an IT Outsourcing situation, there are on-site IT people to directly talk with the business people. In SMBs, where resources are less and people “wear many hats”, the BA role of liaison becomes more important to overall IT business solutions success.
Kupe recently wrote on this subject at BA Times, where he discusses the point of whether your “internal customers” really wish to work with the IT department. So how does the Organization get rid of the “Us vs. Them” mentality within the organization?
Organizational Structure
Take a look at the Organizational Structure, do the Business Analysts (BA) within the organization report to a single Manager or Director, or are they dispersed throughout different departments of the organization. Do they report up to a Business or the IT Manager/Director? If they report to business, are they perceived as part of the business or business partners to work with the IT folks to achieve technology solutions. How are they perceived by the IT Team, as their business partners, SMEs or IT folks that are the “business-face” of IT. If they report to IT, how do the business units perceive them, as IT employees that they must work with to get technology solutions.
I have work in organizations that have had each reporting structure. I have had a third structure suggested to me, where the Business Analysis Office (BAO) is a separate unit within the organization that does not report to either the business or IT. Would this make them perceived as an independent unit to assist both the business and IT in achieving needed IT business solutions?
Seating Chart
Even if you decide that the organization is best served by the BAO reporting to IT, where should your BAs sit, within the IT Department or with the business units they are to support. One of the roles of the BA is to identify business needs and make a business case for a solution to that need. To do so, the BA should sit with the business people that perform the day-to-day tasks of the business. The BA needs to understand the daily challenges of the business and they can not do that tucked away in the IT Department.
I actually recommend splitting the BA role within the organization into two roles: Enterprise Analyst and Business Analyst (Business Systems Analyst).
Enterprise Analyst
The Enterprise Analyst (EA) would be the analyst that needs to sit with the business to understand the day-to-day challenges that the business people within the organization. They work with the business people to identify gaps that need filled and competitive advantages that can be gained. These are the analysts that will perform market analysis, capability gap analysis, SWOTs, feasibility studies and so forth to help identify business needs. They then build the business case for a solution, business or IT, to that business need. The EA should support the business case, being the one that knows the most about the case, before the governance body (Project Review Board). Once approved, they turn the business case over to the Project Management Office (PMO) and a new project is born.
Business Analyst
Business Analysts (BA) work with the PMO and IT enterprise application development team to make the solution to the business need a reality. The BA may report to the PMO or as suggested above to a separate BAO within the organization. This BA would take the business and functional requirements defined by the EA and refine them to give more detail to the application development team to help define the solution. The BA could use the EA or other business partner as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) during the project lifecycle.
The EA is the strategic role and the BA is the tactical role of business analysis. The EA helps the organization achieve its strategic goals through enterprise analysis activities. Unfortunately, this is the role of business analysis that most organizations are missing. This with a lack of an internal Business Analyst Body of Knowledge and Enterprise Architecture keep more than just the BAs within the organization repeating processes that cause a great waste of time. So every organization should strive to have both roles of business analysis performed for the organization. Ensure that enterprise analysis activities are being performed to further the strategic goals of the organization.
Kupe tackles this topic this week on BA Times, where he discusses creating an environment in which the business wants to work with IT to derive technology-driven solutions. Doug Goldberg does an in-depth analysis of the subject on his blog, in which he describes approaches that a business-side analyst and an IT-side analyst to take to create a collaborative environment.
This topic is nothing new, just as the relationship between IT and Business is nothing new.
It took decades to get it where it is today. I am sure you can find bright spots in which IT and Business work together to achieve their goals, but in more organizations than not, this is not the case. Just as business processes and technology advance year by year, the relationship between IT and Business can be made better. I believe the Business Analyst is in prime position to turn the relationship around to a positive, collaborative, trusting relationship in which the two work together to achieve the strategic goals and initiatives of the organization. Why the BA? The BA is one role that works on both sides of the fence. The BA works with business stakeholders to bring out requirements for business improvement or application development solutions. The BA also works with the IT Solution Delivery Team to develop the solution that meets the business requirements. As the BA works with both teams, they are in prime position to bridge the gap between the two. So how should the BA go about bridging the gap?Build a Relationship of Trust
One of the often overlooked roles of the Business Analyst is that of liaison between IT and the Business. In order to fulfill this role the BA must have a relationship with both sides of the organization. That relationship has to be built on trust. The business must understand that the BA is there not only to gather requirements but to understand the needs of the business and represent those needs to the IT delivery team. The IT delivery team must feel that the BA will represent the capabilities and limitations of technology to the business.
Communicate
The greatest factor that creates the “Us vs. Them” relationship is a lack of understanding. The business wonders why it takes IT so long to make a seemingly easy change. The IT application development team feels that business can not communicate effectively and does not understand the process of making application enhancements. Last month I spoke about creating a shared vision in relation to requirements and IT solutions. The BA should also create a shared vision of the needs and limitations of one organization to the other. The BA can communicate not only the requirements for IT solutions, but the stakeholder concerns surrounding those requirements. This adds context and can improve the ultimate solution developed as it increases the IT delivery team’s understanding. The BA can communicate to the business that the process of making application enhancements is more involved then changing a little piece of code and there it is. Testing, Quality Assurance, moving changes to production, Sox regulations, post-install processes and support are all time consuming tasks and increase the amount of time it takes the IT application development team to make an application enhancement. The more the business understands about these processes and the value they add to the solution, the more considerate they will be to the needs of the IT delivery team.
Build the Bridge
Through effective communication of the needs and limitations of one side of the business to the other and representing the other team to each team the BA can build a bridge of understanding between the two groups. By making each side realize that we are all in this together and desire the same outcome, you can build a relationship of trust and get rid of the “Us vs. Them” scenario and replace it with a collaborative working relationship that brings about better IT solutions to business needs.
So take the liaison role of the BA seriously and work to replace the adversarial relationship with a collaborative, understanding relationship. In this way you can show the BA value to the organization.
The age of IT specialization has been replaced by an emphasis on skills that can translate across the enterprise. According to Forrester, this shift can be traced to a number of emerging trends:
* Maturing technologies such as software-as-a-service and business intelligence are changing IT skills requirements;
* The growing array of outsourcing options have altered in-house staffing priorities, with more specialized skills increasingly likely to be outsourced; and
* The continued search for cost-reduction opportunities has changed how IT decisions are made.
With those trends in mind, here is Forrester’s list of the 13 Most Important IT Roles, based on the percentage of IT executives who believe each role is growing in importance.
#1 – Business Analyst – 70%
Talk about holding all the cards: Not only do these IT pros know the business, they also have their fingers on all the insight. As the saying goes, knowledge is power.
#2 and #3 – Architecture and IT Strategy/Planning – 66%
As IT has evolved into an increasingly important part of business, both of these roles have become critical in ensuring that every department has the infrastructure and tools that it needs.
#4 – Project Management – 65%
What business doesn’t need people who can mange multiple personalities, master numerous business processes, understand different aspects of the business and make sure things get done?
#5 – Security – 62%
With the onslaught of breaches and identity theft that constantly filters through the headlines, not to mention the growing mandates for better access controls, is there really an explanation needed here?
#6 – Service Management – 60%
The whole thing about the customer applies here to, as managing IT from the customer’s perspective has become de rigueur.
#7 – Client Relationship Management – 56%
We’re in the age of customer service, and anyone who’s mastered the art of managing CRM environments is worth their weight in gold.
#8 and #9 – Business Continuity and IT Financial Management – 55%
With companies paranoid about their systems surviving natural and man-made disasters, and cost-effective IT spending more important that ever, it’s no wonder these roles are on the rise.
#10 – Portfolio Management – 50%
This is a growing area driven by the desire to demystify the measurement of the impact of IT investments.
#11 – Asset Management – 34%
Like other spin-offs from more general business roles, this is another specialized function better outsourced.
#12 – IT Research – 30%
Research? That’s what consultants are for.
#13 – Human Resources (within IT) – 20%
HR for IT is an increasingly unnecessary luxury in an increasingly self-service environment.
Take a closer look at that list and you will notice Business Analysis has been ranked #1, #2, #3 and #10.
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?
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