Aiming for Excellence in Business Analysis
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Aiming for Excellence in Business Analysis
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On 24 July 2009, I was fortunate enough to speak at the BA World conference in Wellington, to talk about Centres of Excellence for business analysis, how aiming for excellence would help us overcome some of our challenges, on what those first steps would look like. This was the first public airing of the early stages of what would evolve to become my practice development approach.
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Aiming for Excellence in Business Analysis
- 1. Practice makes perfect Aiming for excellence in business analysis with David Morris CSM CBAP BA World Equinox IT Business Consulting 15 March 2009
- 2. … and why it’s important just now (in 2009) Let’s explore what we mean by “excellence in business analysis” …
- 3. Our organisations need a bigger bang for their buck ICT spending ↓30% (IDC NZ Ecosystem Study 2009)
- 4. BAs are in a key position to assist our organisations achieve more with less
- 5. … but we need to get better at delivering
- 6. What challenges do we face in delivering for our organisations?
- 7. Since 1994, every 2 years, the Standish Group has published the Chaos Report, assessing our rates of success with project delivery, and after 7 reports (in 2009), we have made some progress …
- 8. Cancelled projects down a quarter 31% 24% 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 CHAOS report, Standish Group Cancelled projects are those that never saw the light of day – ran out of budget, change of ownership, re-prioritisation, company went bust, etc.
- 9. Challenged projects down a fifth 53% 44% 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 CHAOS report, Standish Group Challenged projects are those that do get implemented, but not with all features, on budget, on schedule – or typically a combination of all three
- 10. Successful projects doubled 16% 32% 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 CHAOS report, Standish Group
- 11. Definite improvement, but … 16% 32% 53% 44% 31% 24% 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 CHAOS report, Standish Group
- 12. … still unsuccessful on two-thirds CHAOS report, Standish Group Succeeded 32% Challenged 44% Cancelled 24%
- 13. So, what are the key factors that contribute to success?
- 14. Requirements, scope, business case 32% • Strong elicitation and management of requirements • Good control of solution scope • Clear business case, kept in review throughout of project success Contributes to
- 15. Engagement with end-users 24% • Win their hearts and minds at the start • Involve them throughout the project • Set clear expectations, communicate, and deliver of project success Contributes to
- 16. Engaging with senior stakeholders 14% • Clear vision for project • Strong backing from senior management support of project success Contributes to
- 17. Competencies and leadership 10% • Strong leadership behaviours • Appropriate team competencies and development of project success Contributes to
- 18. Project management 20% • Wise and timely allocation of resources • Just enough planning • More frequent delivery to shorter timescales of project success Contributes to
- 19. Business analysts have influence over 80% of project success factors Project management 20% Scope & requirements 32% Engagement with business 24% Engagement with senior stakeholders 14% Competencies and leadership 10% CHAOS report, Standish Group
- 20. That was international, but it’s no better in New Zealand
- 21. Maturity levels of BA practices 54% 2 3 4 5 2009 Business Analysis Baseline, IIBA NZ practices below level 3
- 22. Not enough BAs have or are working toward professional qualifications 66%practices have no or very few professionally qualified BAs
- 23. Too many BAs are still working solely at the tactical project level 69%
- 24. Aiming for excellence can help
- 25. Community of practice Community of competence Development Maturity Centre of excellence Strategic alignment Community of interest Support Glenn Brulee
- 26. Develop highly-effective business analysts 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey Aptitude SkillsKnowledge • Assess your team’s knowledge, skills, and aptitude • Agree development plans and mentoring • Set paths to certification
- 27. Implement systems and structures • Establish, monitor, and continually improve the systems and processes for our BA practices
- 28. Select appropriate methodology for the business and technical teams Drive toward more structure Agile Iterative Waterfall Drive toward more adaptive Organisation culture Conformance to the plan Rapid business value Projectculture StructuredAdaptive Pete Tansey
- 29. Improve service levels • Improve requirements capabilities • Agree how to manage scope, and keep to it • Mandate business cases, and actively review them
- 30. Work at the strategic level • Engage with senior stakeholders • Guide selection of most value soonest delivered • Follow through with benefits realisation review
- 31. Start the journey toward excellence
- 32. Get buy in from the business • Create a practice vision • Recruit a senior sponsor • Get all stakeholders on side
- 33. Assess where you are today • Consider what measures should be in place • Assess your practice’s current maturity • Assess team’s individual competencies
- 34. Organisation readiness Dark ages Tokenism Payback Partnership Where is your organisation on this continuum, and how ready are they to form a partnership? Rob Thomsett
- 35. Which heading • Agree new heading • Take first steps with new working practices • Establish a regular training programme
- 36. Get ready to scale strategic heights • Gear up to provide strategic enterprise analysis to operate as an internal consultancy
- 37. When working with senior business stakeholders, be willing to challenge the emperor’s clothes
- 38. Monitor and adjust • Collect metrics agreed beforehand • Hold regular 360 reviews with stakeholders • Be ready to pivot if things don’t work out
- 39. Are we getting better at delivering? • To help our organisations deliver more with less, we have to up our game • Aiming for excellence will help us achieve that
- 40. LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/DavidJCMorris Twitter twitter.com/DavidJCMorris Email davidjcmorris@hotmail.com Follow up
Notas del editor
- Today we’re going to explore what we mean by excellence in business analysis, and particularly what we mean by centres of excellence. I’d like to paint a scene for you:
- Today more than ever, our organisations need to achieve more with less. The global recession is causing businesses and government to save money by reducing IT spending where possible “30% less funding for ICT projects is expected” (IDC NZ Ecosystem Study 2009)
- As business analysts, we are in a key position to assist our organisations achieving more with lessBut do we? Can we? In reality, we are an evolving community of practice for business analysis, struggling to meet those expectationsWe want to become highly effective and motivated business analysts, exceeding business expectations
- The key message to take away from this is that:to meet our organisation’s expectations, we need to up our game and get better at delivering – and as we’ll see through this session – centres of excellence provides a way of justifying the effort in improvement
- In considering the challenges, we’re going to look at: > the state of play in project delivery, > some of the factors behind that, and > how that affects us in New Zealand
- Since 1994, the Standish Group has published a report every two years on success with project delivery, and the factors involved – they called this the CHAOS reportWe’ve now had 7 reports showing that we’ve made *some progress* – as we’ll see
- Over 14 years, cancelled projects down by just under 25%Cancelled projects are those that for whatever reason, never saw the light of day – ran out of budget, law changes, change of management/ownership, reprioritisation of projects, company went bust, etc. etc. etc
- Challenged projects down by just under 20%Challenged projects are those that did get implemented, but with not with all features, on budget, on schedule – or typically a combination of all three
- And here’s the really good news – project success has doubled
- So although it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride – things are definitely looking better than they did back in 1994 but we have a long way to go still - as we’re about to see
- While we are now delivering twice as many successful projects as 14 years ago – that’s still less than one third So we’re still not delivering all features, on time, on budget for over two-thirds of projects
- Let’s look at the factors that contribute to these failures, from the perspective of business analysts
- Three aspects to how this causes issues:> Poor elicitation and management of requirements, > Poor control of solutionscope, and > Unclear or nonexistent business case, or not checking it as we go
- Three aspects to how lack of appropriate two-way engagement with the business stakeholders causes issues:> Not involving them enough at the start (hearts and minds),> Neglecting them through the project, or > Just delivering something unexpected to an unprepared audience (hopefully not like this talk)
- Two ways not engaging fully with our senior business stakeholders causes issues> Lack of vision for project> Lack of senior management support
- And our approach to leadership behaviours and competencies can cause issues tooPaying attention – this only comes to 80%
- Finally, project management is obviously also a factor, but usually outside our influenceThree contributing factors:> Allocating resources,> Adequate planning,> Timescales and milestones
- There are 15 individual factors that contribute toward project success (if done right) or failure (if not). The CHAOS reports show us how much each factor affects the success or otherwise. I’ve combined their figures for cancelled and challenged projects to come up with this split. It’s amazing to realise that business analysts have influence
- As business analysts in NZ, we’re struggling just as much as our colleagues overseas
- Maturity levels:1) Initial: business analysis performed inconsistently2) Repeatable: some standardisation on practices and templates3) Defined: process is formalised and predictable4) Managed: quality of artefacts is assured through reviews5) Optimising: continuous process improvementMajority (54%) of BA practices in NZ are below level 3 maturity
- Majority of BA practices in NZ have none or very few professionally qualified in business analysis
- Majority of NZ business analysts working at the tactical level
- Aiming for excellence can help business analysis practices overcome these challenges
- What do we mean by ‘centres of excellence’One thing to sort out first, it does not mean everyone working together in one locationA community of interest promotes collaborative supportA community of practice promotes practice and personal developmentA community of competence promotes a growing level of maturityA centreof excellence promotes a strategic alignment[based on an original model byGlenn Brulee]
- Centres of excellence enable us to develop and support our staff and skills to become highly effective business analystsKnowledge of what has to be doneSkills of how it has to be doneAptitude to care to do it right> Assess knowledge, skills, and aptitude> Provide training and mentoring> Follow a path toward certification
- We need to establish, monitor, and continuously improve our systems and structures
- Selecting an appropriate methodology for the business and technical teamsBased on alignment of organisation culture along the conformance to business value continuumBased on alignment of project culture along the structured to adaptive continuumThose interested in structure and conformance will favour waterfall practices.Those interested in adaptive projects and business value will favour agile practices.Those somewhere between the two will no doubt favour RUP. Where IT is more adaptive but the organisation still focus on conformance, in the short-term it should ether adapt to more structured approaches or seek to influence the organiastional mindset.Where the business is into the business value from each initiative> Define processes and standards> Develop templates> Maintain a knowledgebase
- We need to work on our level of service to be recognised as delivering value to our organisationsImprove the way we elicit, document, check, and communicate requirementsAgree with the business how we manage scope, and then make sure we do itEnsure that we have a business case for our projects, and check at key milestones that it’s still valid
- We need to get involved working at strategic enterprise analysis to deliver optimum value:> Engage with our senior stakeholders, helping them select initiatives that realise most value soonest> Monitor solutions after projects have been implemented, to ensure that benefits really are delivered> Doctors – sun shines on successes – earth covers up mistakes
- Now we can start our journey towards excellence
- Create a vision that articulates how developing your practice improves your organisation’s effectiveness Find a senior business stakeholder who can act as sponsor and champion the changesConsult with all stakeholders and get them on side
- > Consider what measures (KPI, SLA) you will need in place> Assess the maturity of your practice> Assess individual competencies
- Check your organisation’s readiness to engage with in a new way, what is the relationship like at the moment? Are they still kept in the dark by the mystical IT wizards? Are they involved in tightly controlled ways only? Have they seen through that and in a backlash against all things IT? Are they ready to meet and work in partnership already? Rob Thomsett’s allegorical story of the four phasaes of IT/Business relationships, as described by Jim Highsmith in his book ‘Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems’.
- Know where you’re headed, and take the first stepsOnce you’ve agreed a new landscape, get going with new working practicesEstablish a regular training program
- Gear up to providing the strategic enterprise analysis consultancy
- Constantly monitor how you’re going and adjust if necessary> Collect the metrics agreed beforehand> Hold regular 360° reviews with key stakeholders> Be ready to change direction if things don’t work out
- We’ve reviewed the challenges, how centres of excellence can help address them, and how we can prepare for taking this journey toward excellenceSo to recap, the key message to take away from this is that:to meet our organisation’s expectations, we need to up our game and get better at delivering – centres of excellence provides a way of justifying the effort in improvement
- I would be very happy to come talk to you about any of this. Please feel free to contact me via any of these accounts, and I’m happy to take any questions now. [