There are many qualities thatcontribute to great business analysis. You have to be a goodcommunicator and be able to analyze problems. It generally helps to havesome solid background in the common techniques of business analysis.For some jobs you need domain knowledge, for others technical expertise.All of these are debated and discussed often in BA circles across theweb.
One of the attributes I don’t hearpeople talk about quite as much is being results-oriented.Results-oriented individuals are focused on making things happen. Youfind them in the middle of successful projects digging up the roadblocks and greasing the wheels. As a results-oriented business analystyou figure out how to get the right requirements, no matter thechallenges faced, and stay resolutely focused on the core principles ofgaining alignment and achieving clarity. You also ensure that yourproject and efforts are consistently focused on delivering value for theorganization.
Do you think you are results-oriented? Consider the following questions:
How do you get started on a project? Do you wait for someone else for direction or do you jump in and figure it out?
If your stakeholders aren’t answering your emails or attending your meetings, how do you respond? Do you figure out what you can do to help?
If your organization has a formal process, do you focus on dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s or do you stay relentlessly focused on ensuring the deliverable you create are clear and consistent and fulfill your objectives on the project?
You know your activities areresults-oriented if you can answer the question of “why” for eachactivity you do day-to-day. This is a tough standard, but one worthconsidering applying to your work.
In IIBA’s May newsletter, KathleenBarrett wrote a magnificent article about taking charge of ourprofession. One attribute she called out was “finding your inner projectmanager.” I think this is a great way to frame a results-orientationbecause it speaks to the fact that even though we are not projectmanagers, we should be self-managing. This means we’re responsible forplanning our requirements activities and breaking down the roadblocksthat surface as we proceed along our plan. It means we’re accountable tothe success of our requirements-related activities. This means we needto be results-oriented in our work.
Another aspect of results-orientationis about staying focused on the project ROI. We hear a lot about thevalue of specific projects and I’ve never heard anyone accuse a businessanalyst of not finding and delivering a high-value, quality solution.But value is delivered only if the solution can be implemented. I haveheard many cases (and witnessed a few myself) where a business analystfocused only on potential value and not realistically achievable value.Like it or not, project constraints such as time and budget are a partof our world.
Some questions to consider:
Do you feel solutions need to be perfect to be acceptable?
Do you find yourself in debates with the technical team when the requirements are unrealistic?
Do you help the business prioritize? And I mean really prioritize in such a way that not every idea or thought is a number 1 priority but only the best possible ideas make it through the initial analysis phase?
We all know that anything ispossible, given infinite resources and infinite time. I doubt any of youhave the luxury of working in an environment that meets either of thosecriteria, let alone both. Being results-oriented means we can focus ourbest business analysis efforts on what can actually be achieved. Itdoesn’t mean we have to forego the dream or set aside big ideas andvisions, but it does mean that we do gut-checks against what can berealistically accomplished and help guide the requirements processinside a certain set of achievable boundaries. Results-oriented businessanalysts inject a healthy dose of pragmatism into their requirementsprocess.
I can almost see you nodding yourhead and thinking you’ve got this nailed. So let me tell you a story.Let’s talk about Bob, a fictitious business analyst who is a lot likemany of us. Bob is given a new project that’s the top priority projectfor the company. There is a bit of urgency because a competitor islaunching a similar feature in a few months. Bob’s boss tells Bob todrop everything else and focus on this project. The team needs enoughdetail to start developing something in two weeks.
Bob calls a meeting with the businesssponsor. The business sponsor isn’t 100% clear about what thecompetitor feature is and can’t answer a lot of Bob’s questions. Bobwaits for a couple days and then tells his boss the deadline isimpossible. The business doesn’t have a clear set of objectives.
Sound like a familiar situation?Let’s consider an alternate ending for this story, one that sets Bob upto be a superstar, results-oriented business analyst.
Let’s pick up this story after thefirst meeting with the business sponsor. Bob realizes that there is moreambiguity than expected about the project. He talks to a colleague ofhis in the sponsor’s department, we’ll call her Sue. Bob knows Sue wellbecause they meet for coffee every couple weeks. Sue gives Bob a coupleof documents, including a competitive report and some screen shots theywere able to capture from a demo they attended. She briefs him on whatshe knows and they set up some time to meet the next day. All afternoon,Bob sifts through the documentation. He creates a snapshot of therequirements of the competitive feature and thinks of 3 ways his companycould launch something with similar value. Next morning he reviews his 3ideas with Sue. Sue thinks two of them are great, but one is off themark. Sue has a different idea. Bob updates his working “idea document”and sets up another meeting with the sponsor.
In the meeting with the sponsor, Bobstarts out by saying what a challenge it is to come up with a featurelike this. He tells the sponsor he came up with a few ideas just to helpget the conversation started. Would he like to see them? Of course!Then they launch into a 2 hour discussion of the different options,select one, and Bob nearly skips out of the sponsor’s office. He spendsthe remaining 7 business days working with Sue and a few otherstakeholders to detail out the idea. At the end of the two weeks, Bobhas the big idea laid out with details on the first few parts for thedevelopment team to start on. He meets with the development team, proudof what he managed to achieve in such a short time. The development teamtells Bob that his solution is impossible. The requirements he has forthe first two weeks are useless. Development will start late. Bob isdefeated. He was so excited to meet the deadline that he forgot to vethis ideas with the development team.
The story doesn’t have to end thisway. Let’s step back to Bob’s meeting with the sponsor and write a newending. Instead of coming up with one solution, Bob and the sponsorselect two possible solutions and create a list of prioritizedobjectives for matching the competitive threat. One solution has morevalue to the customer, but the second is probably good enough to meetthe competitive challenge. They put some benefits statements around eachsolution possible solution.
Bob schedules a meeting with thedevelopment team to review the two possible solutions and hear theirideas. By the end of the meeting, the development team comes up with anidea that is slightly better than the second option and achievable inthe time frame. Bob validates the new idea with the sponsor. Bob meetswith the implementation team the next day to identify the implementationphases. Bob then sets out to fill in the details for the initial phase.He now has 5 business days, so the piece he delivers is a bit smaller,but the development team has already started working on some corearchitectural pieces and planned to iterate, so no real time is lost.
Bob is awarded employee-of-the-month for getting the requirements done in record time and promoted to senior business analyst.
You can call the process Bob usedagile, lean, RUP, or enterprise analysis. You can call it whatever youwant. There are no limit to the practices and techniques you can use toachieve results. But at the core, focusing on driving results is whatwill get you results. This is just one story. Bob could have been handedany number of challenges. There is no one path and you won’t ever bedealt the same hand twice. So focusing on results is the clearest pathto success that I’ve ever come to know.
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