business analysis & leadership

1

By Christian D. Kobsa

Leadership in

Business Analysis

An Introduction

Agenda

Introduction and Basic Definitions

Facilitative Leadership

Business Analysis and Project Management

Communication

Stakeholder Management

Facilitative Business / System Analysis

Problem Discovery, Abstraction, and Scope

Problem Types

BA / PM Collaboration

Facilitation

Creativity

Ethnography

…TBC…

2By Christian D. Kobsa

3

What Does a Business Analyst Do?

Involves understanding and responding to a business situation

The role purpose is to turn strategic goals and visions into reality

while adding value

It begins with understanding challenges and problems

It discovers new opportunities that help the business meet its

vision and goals

It helps the business realize the identified benefits and values of

an opportunity

It requires innovative thinking, collaborative working, and

strategic acting

To fulfill a business analyst role at this level the individual must act

as a leader within the project and the organization.


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Systemic and Holistic Approach

Pay attention to all the different elements that have

an impact on change.

Look across the organization’s processes, people and

culture.

Identify interrelationships between organizational

units.

Understand the context in which the change occurs.

Identify technology and infrastructure that could

possibly enable the change.


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The BA as Leader

Work with the business to draw out what is really

needed.

Must have a strong and committed mindset.

Have the courage to challenge appropriately and

respectfully at all organizational levels.

Have the drive to make a difference.

This is Business Analysis Leadership


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Expert Versus Process Consultant

Expert Help Process Consultant Help

The problem has been correctly diagnosed. The BA does not own the problem, the client does.

The problem is straightforward or simple.The client understands the problem better than the BA

does.

The client has effectively communicated exactly what

they are expecting.

The BA works with the client to identify what to

improve and how to improve it.

The client understands the consequences of the business

analyst doing the work; i.e.: access to relevant people

and information is available.

The BA uses various appropriate techniques to help the

client to understand the problem and to develop and

communicate potential solutions.

People asked for information know why they are being

consulted.

The client knows what will work in a particular

situation. The BA looks for and proposes a variety of

well thought out potential solutions. These must be

discussed and considered with the client.

The business analyst has the skills to discover and

provide the information.

The BA helps the client to see the cause of the problem,

and leads collaboratively with the client towards the

best solution that provides the most likely success.


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Leadership = Holistic Business Analysis

Holistic:

“Relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems

rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection

into parts.”

Business:

“A person, partnership, or corporation engaged in commerce,

manufacturing or services; profit-seeking enterprise or

concern.”

Analysis:

“The division of a physical or abstract whole into its constituent

parts to examine or determine their relationship or value.”


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BA Versus Holistic BA

BA (Junior / Mid-Level) Holistic BA (Senior / Consultant)

Detail oriented Detail oriented

Good analytical skills Good analytical skills

Enough communication skills to ensure scope is clear to all

stakeholders

Enough communication skills to ensure scope is clear to all

stakeholders

Requirements gathering Requirements gathering

Understand enough techniques, tools, and methodologies Understand enough techniques, tools, and methodologies

Requirements documenting Requirements documenting

Ability to challenge requirements defined by operational

management

Ability to extract out issues that need consensus at a senior

level; i.e.: conflicting priorities, use of resources, etc.

Ability to anticipate organizational change

Ability to anticipate changes in the marketplace that affect a

given organizational project

Ability to overcome resistance and anticipate obstacles


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The BA as Facilitative Leader

“The defining feature of facilitative

leaders is that they offer process and

structure rather than directions and

answers. In every situation, they know how

to design discussions that enable group

members to find their own answers.”


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Facilitative Leadership – Best Practices

Model the way

Inspire a shared vision

Challenge the process

Enable others to act

Encourage the heart


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Facilitative Leadership – Model The Way

1. Understand the connection between values

and actions.

2. Align actions with shared values.


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Facilitative Leadership – Shared Vision

Any proposed solution should relate to moving a future

goal.

The more a project is linked to strategy and future

vision, the greater the usefulness potential of the

project becomes.


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Facilitative Leadership – Challenge The Process

1. Do the processes encourage cross-organizational interactions?

2. How closely are the processes aligned with business objectives?

3. How much noise and complexity do the software tools the organization uses bring to these processes?

4. What was the main motive behind the selection of this process? IT strategy? Usability and productivity? …

5. How were the processes defined? Were they imposed top-down? Or did they emerge based on healthy practices from the bottom up?

6. Can we measure their efficiency? How? Do we actually measure and monitor it? If not, why not?

7. Are the processes rigid, or are they flexible? Are they updated, modified, or improved based on user feedback?

8. Do the processes make any sense? I.e.: can those using the them explain how their contribution through these processes align with the organizations strategy?

9. Are the processes agile? Do the processes simplify practices?

10. Do people take ownership over the processes they use? If yes, how? Do they propose improvements?

11. Do the processes provide visibility of work performed?

12. Are the processes built around pre-defined data structures? Do the processes allow for unstructured data to be managed?


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Facilitative Leadership – Why Challenge The Process?

Art:Inputs are fuzzy and there are many possible outputs. There is no clarity of how well these match system goals. Organizations try to minimize Art, since it is not well understood and it is inefficient.

Practices:Inputs and outputs are defined. However, there is a substantial amount of judgment based on past actions used to selecting and transforming inputs into outputs.

Processes:Inputs and outputs are clearly and unambiguously defined. The environment which transforms inputs into outputs is clearly and unambiguously defined, and it is a controlled environment.


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Facilitative Leadership – Enable Others to Act

Provide key roles to subject matter experts

(SME) or project champions.

Network SME’s and project champions together

through workshops.

Engage SME’s and project champions early.


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Facilitative Leadership – Encourage The Heart

Show genuine appreciation for contributions

made.

Show genuine empathy for peoples project

related challenges they face.

Demonstrate recognition publicly.


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Business Analysis and Project Management

How does the work of business analysis and

project management connect?

How can business analysts and project

managers support each other?

Who does what, and which tasks overlap?

Are both roles necessary?


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Why The Business Analyst Role?

The ones requesting don’t know what they want.

The engineers do not understand the requestors

business.

The requestors and engineers have a different

vocabulary.

The requestors and engineers have different goals.

The working world of both groups is in constant flux.

Both groups, and individuals within each group, are

geographically dispersed.


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Why The Project Management Role?

Monitor and manage the interactions between all the

variables that affect completion of a project.

Work towards meeting the project goals within the

specified constraints.

Plan, monitor, manage and drive to completion

project related tasks.


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The BA / PM Alliance

Project Manager Business Analyst

PlanningAdministeringMonitoringSupervisingMotivatingRisk ManagementConstraint ManagementResource ManagementReporting

Understand the BusinessInvestigating

ClarifyingQuestioningQuantifying

ModelingFormalizing

Risk IdentifyingInnovatingFacilitating

Providing Feedback

CommunicatingCollaboratingGoal Oriented


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PM / BA Concerns About The Other

PM Fears About BA BA Fears About PM

BA endlessly collecting requirements without effective

coordination, facilitation, or realistic deadline.

PM is unwilling to fully investigate and analyze

stakeholder needs.

BA will create unrealistic expectations with stakeholders

regarding project commitments that jeopardize

deadlines.

PM doesn’t understand the complexity of defining,

analyzing, and managing requirements; rushes the BA.

PM left out of the loop on critical meetings and

conversations (BA off talking to sponsor and

stakeholders alone – after requirements are locked!)

PM sees the BA as an assistant and not owning

anything.

BA doesn’t have functional or technical knowledge to

articulate requirements accurately.

PM moves on after the project is done, but BA has to live

with the consequences (good or bad) and face the

sponsor far into the future.


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BA / PM Collaboration – Scope Management

Potential Conflict

AreasBusiness Analyst Project Manager Both

Scope Management

Defines high level

deliverables scope during

Enterprise Analysis (Pre-

Initiation).

Plans and manages project

scope including integration

of the business analysis

approach and analysis

deliverables into the overall

project.

PM and BA have

responsibilities that relate

to scope.

After project authorization

facilitate agreement and

scope approval from

business stakeholders.

Responsible for project

scope management.

The BA is responsible for

the product deliverables

(solution) scope.

Focus on planning and

defining deliverables scope

and ensuring product

deliverables are aligned

with the project.

The PM is responsible for

the project scope and

incorporating the product

scope into the project

scope.


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BA / PM Collaboration –Communications Management

Potential Conflict


Communications

Management

Primarily with stakeholders

directly or indirectly

affected by the product

deliverables (solution)

requirements.

Accountable for all project

related communication with

all project stakeholders.

Stakeholder analysis is

completed by BA and PM.

Communication with above

stakeholders is likely

throughout most of the

project life cycle.

Responsible to the project

sponsor about all aspects

of the project.

The PM needs to know the

stakeholders for project

planning purposes.

The BA needs to know the

stakeholders for business

analysis planning purposes,

which must be incorporated

into the project plan.


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BA / PM Collaboration – Risk Management

Potential Conflict


Risk Management

Identifies and

communicates business

risks and analysis risks to

the PM.

Create the overall project

risk management plan and

for managing project risks.

PM and BA identify and

analyze project and

business risks and help

develop risk response

strategies all stakeholders

agree with.

Works closely with the PM

in gaining stakeholder

consensus on risk

strategies.

Responsible for

incorporating business risks

and analysis risks into the

project risk management

plan.

Assess implementation and

organizational readiness

risk and plan/implement

along with the PM

strategies to reduce overall

project risks.


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BA / PM Collaboration – Requirements Management

Potential Conflict


Requirements

Management

Responsible for defining,

tracing, and creating a

requirements management

plan for how requirements

will be analyzed,

documented, and managed

throughout the project.

Works with the BA in

planning the business

analysis work.

BA and PM work together

to determine which

activities will be done and

which deliverables will be

produced.

Incorporates the

requirements management

plan and the business

analysis plan into the

comprehensive project

management plan.


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BA / PM Collaboration Strategies

1. Clear, documented, and mutually agreed on

roles and responsibilities.

2. Constant and open communication based on

mutual respect and trust.

3. Have a common understanding of project

methodologies, the requirements process, and

critical success factors.

4. Active business sponsor engagement.


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Why a Common Language Model?

?!!@$@%??


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A Common Language Model


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Early Communication Requirements

Start with finding a balance between:a) Scope of the work to be investigatedb) Stakeholders who need to be involvedc) Goals of the projectd) Partition the investigatione) Prioritize the piecesf) Start doing some detailed business analysis

Initially the following items are important:a) Narrow down the scopeb) Determine and narrow down the stakeholdersc) Identify the project goalsd) Determine how much work must be investigatede) Find out how the investigation is partitionedf) Estimate the amount of effort for each taskg) Compare the budget with the estimateh) Define the project constraints

Business Analyst Project Manager

Project Manager & Business Analyst

Initially business analyst provides to project manager with:a) Input about value and priority of different business use casesb) Possible risksInitially project manager provides to business analyst with:a) Project management strategyb) Involvement of external suppliersc) Quality review checkpointsd) Mandated documents


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Stakeholder Management

Difficult Stakeholders:

Bad News

You can not change another person!

Good News

You can influence the way another person responds to

you!


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Stakeholder Management - TKI

Low

Low

High

High

Concern for own needs

Concern for needs of others

Compete

(win / lose)

Collaborate

(win / win)

Avoid

(lose / lose)

Accommodate

(lose / win)

Compromise

(win a bit / lose a bit)

Conflict Preferences


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Stakeholder Personality Types

Competitive: Take a firm stand

Know what they want

Operate from a power position

Collaborative: Try to meet the needs of all people involved

Can be highly assertive, but cooperate effectively

Understand and acknowledge value of team input

Compromising: Look for solutions that will partially satisfy all

Willing to give up something in return for something else

Accommodating: Willing to meet the needs of others at the expense of one’s own needs

Highly cooperative

Avoiding: Tend to evade conflict entirely

Delegate controversial decisions; accepting default decisions; not wanting to hurt anybody’s feelings


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TKI – A Time and Place for Every Style

Low

Low

High

High

Concern for own needs

Concern for needs of others

Compete

(win / lose)

Collaborate

(win / win)

Avoid

(lose / lose)

Accommodate

(lose / win)

Compromise

(win a bit / lose a bit)

Conflict Preferences

No relationship needed

Important to win

Long-term relationship

Time available

Worth the effort

Not worth it

Relationship unimportant

To help win next time

Built relationship

Collaboration not possible

Lack of time


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Meeting or Workshop Facilitation

Definition:

“Facilitation is a process in which a person whose

selection is acceptable to all the members of the group,

who is substantively neutral, and who has no substantive

decision-making authority diagnoses and intervenes to

help a group improve how it identifies and solve

problems and make decisions, to increase the group’s

effectiveness.”

- The Skilled Facilitator by Roger Schwarz


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Facilitation – Why Important?

Mixed teams – hierarchical, functional, cultural.

Each person has their own individual

perspective.

Ensure each persons perspective his heard.

Ensure each persons perspective is understood.

Lead the project team to a shared

understanding and true consensus.


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Facilitation of What?

Project meetings

Kick-off meetings

Regular status meetings

Milestone meetings

Analysis planning meetings

Project workshops

Scope discussions

Business needs discussions

Business requirements discussions

Business processes and information discussions

Functional and non-functional requirements discussions

QA and testing discussions

Operational implementation discussions

Lessons learned discussions


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Facilitation – How?

Before:

Clearly identify the purpose of the meeting.

Narrow discussion points to just a few things.

Give thought who must, who should, and who should not attend.

Identify objectives and when they are reached.

Schedule as convenient to all as possible.

Identify meeting risks.

Create and provide an agenda.

During:

Lead the group towards objectives.

Keep the spotlight on the group.

In conflict situations, intervene based on factual data.


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After Facilitation, What’s Next?

During the meeting write down actions publicly, stating

who has what action items to do, and by when.

Ensure action items are stated clear and

unambiguously.

Gain agreement on action items prior to end of

meeting.

Ensure all participants have a copy of the follow-up

action items.

Periodically follow-up on action items, checking

completion status.


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Discovery of a Problem’s Essence

Essence:The problem to solve is some piece of work, some business policy, an organizational process,

etc., that can be stated without any technology that may attend to it. The problem exists

regardless of any technology implementation. That is the essence of the problem.

Scope:More projects fail from having too narrow a scope than fail because the scope is too large. The

scope of the problem is always larger, than the solution.

Viewpoints:The ability to see the problem space from as many stakeholder viewpoints as necessary.

Understanding which viewpoint is being used at any given moment.

Don’t Rush:“If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem.”

- Albert Einstein

Behavior:The goals of a system are demonstrated by the way it behaves.


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Requirements Abstractions

Ignore implementation details!

Ask what problem needs to be solved.

Ask what the stakeholder does to solve it.

Ask why they do it that way.

Ask why again….

Ask what the bottlenecks are.

Ask why they are bottlenecks.

….


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Requirements Viewpoints

Each stakeholder has a point of view.

Stakeholder’s viewpoints differ.

Viewpoints are not right or wrong.

Stakeholder viewpoints are important analysis

findings.


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Viewpoint Modeling

What NowHow Now What Future

Model of the current situation

How Future

Essential business use case

Enhanced essential business use case

Product use case scenarios


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Scope Modeling

Context Diagram: Oval: The work that the problem solution must perform.

Rectangle: Adjacent systems that interact with the work that the problem solution must perform.

Directed Lines: information flow between the oval and the rectangle.

Why Create: Define and agree on scope and system boundaries of interest.

Provide a simple high-level picture of solution of interest.

Help identify elements within the environment the solution of interest interacts with.

Identify and define external interfaces the system of interest interact with.

Allows the team to share information and gain a common understanding.


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Dealing With Problems

“Successful problem solving requires

finding the right solution to the right

problem. We fail more often because we

solve the wrong problem than because we

get the wrong solution to the right

problem.”

- Russell Ackoff (1974)


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Dealing With Problems

Are we dealing with the right problem(s)?

Are we aware of all the problems or are some of them hidden?

Are the problems worth addressing?

What type of problem is it overall?

What sort of problem are the component parts of the overall problem?

What are our personal governing variables that are affecting the frames by which we perceive the problem(s)?

Is our approach to addressing the problem part of the problem?


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Problem Types

Tame Problems Wicked Problems

Does not mean simple, but means there is a solution.Do not have straightforward solutions; at times there is

no optimal solution at all.

The more we study a tame problem, the more likely an

optimal solution is found.

The more we study a wicked problem, the less likely an

optimal solution is found.

It can be solved through convergent analytical methods.

It can not be solved through convergent analytical

methods. It is divergent in nature; i.e.: the more people

study it, the more they come to different solutions.

Project management specialization works well in solving

tame problems.

Project management specialization does not work well,

or at all in solving wicked problems.

There is broad agreement as to why something needs to

be done and how to go about doing it.

There is broad disagreement as to why something needs

to be done and / or how to go about doing it.


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Nature of Problem Types


Present or past oriented Future oriented

Reactive or planned Anticipatory or responsive

Answer known somewhere; either inside or outside the

organization

Answer not known – tends to rely on emotional and

ideological aspects

Requires process, procedure or practices to fix Broad in scope and complex

May be simple or extremely complex Questions and learning drive the work


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Leadership Needs by Problem Type


Management based Must be knowledge synthesizers

Creates teams, committees, task forces, etc…. Need to be creative

Sets guidelines, milestones, deadlines, due dates, etc…Create a vision and get others to share it, demonstrate

commitment to it and the mission it represents

Can be delegated Need to foster and facilitate collaboration

Activity based and biased Need to possess entrepreneurial ability

Be a system thinker

Be able to and set priorities

Must be able to form coalitions and build teams

Have the ability to put innovative ideas into practice

Act as colleague, friend, and humanitarian to everyone

in the organization


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Facilitative Leadership – Core Beliefs

People are intelligent and capable. They want to do the right

thing.

Everyone’s opinion has value, regardless of an individual’s rank or

position.

Groups can make better decisions than individuals acting alone.

People are more committed to the ideas and plans that they

create.

People will take responsibility and assume accountability for their

actions and can become partners in the enterprise.

The role of the leader is to evoke the best possible performance

from each member of the team.


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Creativity Defined

Noller’s Symbolic Formula for Understanding Creativity

C = fa (K, I, E)

Creativity is a function of:

Knowledge

Imagination

Evaluation

Creativity reflects an interpersonal attitude towards

towards the beneficial and positive use of creativity.


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Systematic Approach to Creative Problem Solving

Person

Characteristics of people

Process

Operations people perform

Product / Service / Enhancement

Resultant outcomes

EnvironmentOrganizational culture,climate, context


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Facilitative Creative Problem Solving in Business Analysis

Analyze

Conceptualize

SynthesizeApply

Evaluate


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Characteristics of Creativity in Business Analysis

Curiosity

Elaboration

Imagination


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Business Analysis Paradigm Shift

“The significant problems we face today, can not be

solved at the same level of thinking we had, when we

created them.”- Albert Einstein

“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend

fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five

minutes finding the solution.”- Albert Einstein


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Ethnography


Definition:

Ethnography is a social science discipline rooted in

anthropology. Ethnography is the study of mankind.

Ethnographic methods include entering a subject’s own

environment; i.e.: their living room, kitchen,

supermarket, school, beauty shop, repair shop, streets,

etc., all settings of normal daily routine.

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Ethnographic Research in Business Analysis


Principles of Effective Observations

Do’s Don’ts

Try to wipe away preconceived notions before starting

your observation.

Begin with a strong expectation of what you expect to

see.

Collect observations under different circumstances and

from varied perspectives.

Draw major conclusions from a very small and/or biased

sample of observations.

Seek informants wisely. Rely on the lone voice of a so-called expert.

Take good notes, including quotes from key

conversations, and collect important artifacts.Try to commit everything strictly to memory.

Engage active listening. Ask leading questions.

Keep systematic track of observations that surprise you

or contradict your prior beliefs.

Seek and record data primarily to prove a preexisting

hypothesis.

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Business Analysis Leadership Skills

A knowledge synthesizer.

Creative.

Able to create a vision, get others to share in it, an demonstrate

commitment to it and the mission it represents.

Foster and facilitate collaboration.

Possess an entrepreneurial ability.

A system thinker.

Prioritize.

Form coalitions and build teams.

Ability to convert innovative ideas into practice.

Act as a colleague, friend, and humanitarian w/o bias.


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Business Analysis Leadership in Agile


“Agile” is an approach to collaborate among stakeholders, with the

specific goal of delivering value to customers in frequent increments.

To do this successfully, “agile” requires regular and consistent

reflection, continuous learning based on that reflection, and

subsequent adaptation in order to continue delivery of value.

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(Agile) BA – What First?


There is no first thing a BA does on a project.

There are several things a BA does opportunistically:

Get to know the people involved.

Understand why the project is undertaken.

Understand what the project must achieve.

Get something done.

Identify obstacles to getting something done.

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References

White Papers:

How to Challenge Existing Processes

An Exploration into Some Problem Solving Strategies

…

Academic Papers:

Basic Strategy for Algorithmic Problem Solving (Jorge Vasconcelos)

The Process of Solving Complex Problems (Andreas Fischer, Samuel Greiff, Joachim Funke)

Introduction: Leadership for Wicked Problems (Richard H. Beinecke, DPA, ACSW)

Professional Magazines: Ethnographic Research: A Key to Strategy (Harvard Business Review; March 2009 Issue)

Books:

Business Analysis & Leadership (Penny Pullan / James Archer)

Know What You Don’t Know (Michael A. Roberto)

The Structure of Scientific Revolution (Thomas Kuhn)

Websites:

http://agilemethodology.org/


http://agilemethodology.org/

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Appendices


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Appendix: A1

Human Problem Solving Approach

Scientific Problem Solving

Approach

Creative Problem Solving – The Human Element


business analysis & leadership

Leadership & Management