business analysis centre of excellence

A Good Practice Framework

© www.businesschange.co.za 1

IIBA Chapter Meeting in Cape Town

28 July, 2011

Presented by Joe Newbert

Cut the preamble


Learning outcomes

Path to Enlightenment

Pragmatic Delivery

Onwards, Upwards


Try this at home

• No industry standard

• Pockets of thinking

• No “one size fits all”

• Art not science

• Basic plan, not premium


PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT Learning Outcome 1.


Mix of (In)Competence

Centre of Excellence

Competency Centre

Service Centre

Community of Practice

Area of Practice


• Spectrum of Areas of Competency (AoC)

• CoP vs CoE, semantics or critical distinction?

• Underlying steps to maturity

Area of Practice

Independent and/or isolated practice area. Immature in its journey by learning on the job. Roles and deliverables are undocumented with no focus on training and development.


Community of Practice

A grass roots collective to bring together practitioners from across the organisation to provide support; guidance; shared learning, mentorship and access to external informal and formal professional groups.


Service Centre

Grass roots or top-down initiative with a defined level of maturity. Provide reactive support at a project level across the organisation. Resource utilisation and performance development is active.


Competency Centre

Top-down or mature grass roots with best practice at its core. Offering a wide range of services to support the enterprise with high-priority portfolios. Metrics and continuous improvement in place.


Centre of Excellence

High-performance enabler that’s tightly integrated within the business at a strategic level. Wide-ranging roles and skills across disciplines to drive business change. Proactive optimisation of self. Trusted.


Out there, for real


Myth

• Grass-roots elbow grease

• Blanket approach

• Single method of attack

• “Cook Book” Analysis

• Silver bullet

Reality

• Different forces

• Focused targets

• Methodology agnostic

• Tailored solutions

• Continue to struggle

PRAGMATIC DELIVERY Learning Outcome 2.


Business Analysis Maturity Model

Informal

•Wild west lawlessness.

•Undisciplined process

•Individual reign

•Schedule/Budget over runs

Documented

•Basic cost & schedule procedures

•Guided approach

•Basic planning and management

Defined

•Standardised

•Documented

•Standardised

•Integrated

•Change Management

Managed

•Strategic plans, goals

•Measurements collected

•Process control

•Benefits management

Optimised

•Evolution strategy

•Continuous improvement

•Objective measurements

•Maturity assessments

•Project Audits

•Skill Assessments


Area of Competency Offering

Consulting Services

• Competitive Analysis

• Strategic Analysis

• Business Process Engineering

• Business Architecture

• Feasibility Studies

• Business case

• Project Investment Package

• Staff augmentation

• Delivery Standards

Practices and methodologies

• Tools and Techniques

• Performance metrics

• Knowledge management

• Performance reporting

• Continuous improvements

Professional Development

• Skill assessments

• Education and training

• Mentoring and coaching

• Team building

• Role descriptions

• Career progression

• Competencies

• Skill requirements

Life-Cycle Governance

• Business Program analysis

• Strategic Project BA Resources

• Portfolio Management team process support and facilitation

• Benefits Management


Project Implementation

Visioning and concept Definition

BA CoE vision and mission

Executive sponsor

Steering Committee

Business Case

Stakeholder Management Strategy

Organisational and Individual Assessments

Organisational readiness assessment

BA Practices Maturity assessment

Individual business analysts knowledge and skills assessments

Implementation Planning

Kick-off workshop

Project Definition

Project Planning

Change Management

Benefits Management

Budget/Resource approval

Form BACoE Team

BA Standards, practices, tools and metrics

BA Education & Training

BA Consulting Services


Organisational design


Nine packed tips

Identify SMART goals and objectives

Treat the improvement initiative as a

project

Ensure executive buy-in and enforce

new practices

Adopt best practices from

within the organization

Incentivise outcomes (drivers

and adopters) Live the change Seek criticism

Embed a learning culture

Over communicate to everyone meaningfully


ONWARDS, UPWARDS Learning Outcome 2.


Tomorrows world?

Greater emphasis on

upfront requirements

Convergence of disciplines

Variety of analysis

approaches


I’ve talked enough


Done. Here’s how we can connect.

http://www.slideshare.net/newbert

[email protected]

joe.newbert

http://za.linkedin.com/in/newbert

http://www.twitter.com/newbert

“You have not failed no one Grasshopper, only your own ambition.”

Poe, Kung Fu Panda.


http://www.slideshare.net/newbert

mailto:[email protected]

callto://joe.newbert/

http://za.linkedin.com/in/newbert

http://www.twitter.com/newbert