This document describes a triage technique to help a business analysis team select which of the 99 tools and techniques described in a book are most relevant and important for their needs. The technique involves sorting the tools into "keep" and "park" stacks, visualizing the kept tools on a quadrant based on importance and confidence levels, and defining actions like trainings to improve skills in important techniques. Examples are provided and the document outlines exercises for a group to go through the steps of the triage technique.

1. ba-beyond.eu — #BABeyond20
13 October 2020
Tools and Techniques Triage
Milena Mileva, Geertje Appel & Danny Kalkhoven

2. Using the book
Business Analysis, 99 essential tools for succes
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES TRIAGE

3. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
AGENDA
■ Introduction, the basic idea
■ The triage technique: sort, visualise, next steps
■ Two cases to provide context
■ “The sort” (selecting keep/park)
● Round 1 exercise
■ “Visualise and group”
● Round 2 exercise
■ Next step: define actions
● Round 3 exercise
■ Next steps: keep track of progress

4. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
THE BASIC IDEA
A new BA team.... here’s the book
99 tools, that is a lot !
Do we need them all,
must we use them all,
are we confident and capable?
No...
So we need a selection for our Team
(or Project, or Assignment, or...)

5. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
THE TRIAGE TECHNIQUE
■ Divide all 99 techniques into: KEEP and PARK
■ Use a quadrant technique to visualise the KEEPs
and place them in relation to each other
■ Next steps: define actions, measure and keep track
of progress

6. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
CONTEXT: TWO CASES
■ Which criteria to use for KEEP or PARK?
■ Depends on context: Project, Assignment, Phase, etc.
CASE 1: you are a team of analysts that are given the
assignment to specify and guide the development of the new
application website for a large university (5.000 students)
CASE 2: you are a small team of analysts that are assigned
to improve the reporting process for the management team of
3 directors and some 15 unit managers

7. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
THE SORT
■ Go through all the techniques
■ Decide if the technique is needed/wanted or not
■ Some techniques might be labeled mandatory in
organisation policy or standards
■ Divide them in two stacks: KEEP and PARK

8. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
ROUND 1: SORT EXERCISE
■ We will provide cards with all 99 techniques
■ Discuss for your context/case: which to KEEP,
which to PARK
■ Create two stacks of cards
■ Note the main reasons for selection that the
group (table) agrees on

9. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
VISUALISE AND GROUP
LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE / CAPABILITY
LEVELOFIMPORTANCE/NEED

10. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
ROUND 2: VISUALISATION EXERCISE
■ Use the KEEP stack of cards
■ Place these on the quadrant. Remember: the
relative importance/confidence is what matters

11. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
NEXT STEP: DEFINE ACTIONS
1
2 3
4
5

12. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
ROUND 3: DEFINE ACTIONS EXERCISE
■ Consider the result of the visualisation
■ Decide where you want to be in xxx time:
●Everybody needs to be max conf. On technique X
●At least two team members need to be confident on
every important technique
●...
■ Discuss and whether trainings, Lunch&Learn,
or other actions would be appropiate
■ Use post-its to add to the visualisation

13. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
TAKE AWAYS / LESSONS LEARNED
■ Not every technique is always necessary
■ The team/project context sets the technique
scope
■ It’s possible to plot into quadrants of
importance and confidence
■ Does everybody need to have the same set of
capabilities?

14. Geertje Appel
Danny Kalkhoven
Ber Albers
FOLLOW UP
■ You will receive a pdf of the Mural
■ You can still visit the Mural read-only
■ The book can be obtained through the BCS webshop
with a discount of 30% until the end of october.
■ Use code BEYOND20 https://shop.bcs.org/store/221