Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to BA Summit Presentation - Business Analysis Across Africa - Paul Johnston
Similar to BA Summit Presentation - Business Analysis Across Africa - Paul Johnston (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
BA Summit Presentation - Business Analysis Across Africa - Paul Johnston
- 1. PAUL JOHNSTON @pauljohnston Business Analysis Across Africa
- 2. EVOLVING INFORMATION PROCESSING Requirements Workshops
- 4. A bit about me: - BA Manager at Sybrin - Head up Business Analysis for our Payment Systems - Sybrin has systems in 19 African countries at dozens of banks
- 6. “You can’t guarantee success before the workshop begins, but if you aren’t careful you can guarantee failure”
- 7. “The first 60 minutes are crucial”
- 8. Customer Skills & Experience Business Analyst Skills & Experience Ideal Project Outcome
- 10. Should you as the BA ever be a Subject Matter Expert?
- 11. “You arrive as a BA, but the client may expect a Subject Matter Expert”
- 12. “Changing industries as a BA is a little like driving in an unfamiliar country. You need to know the basic rules of the road and you need a map. But once you have these things, you can drive as effectively and efficiently as you could back home (using all or most of the same techniques)” Adrian Reed “Business Analyst or Subject Matter Expert?” www.adrianreed.co.uk
- 13. “Disagreement should be your friend”
- 15. “Make a positive, measurable difference”
- 16. “Your last 60 minutes are also crucial”
- 18. “Steps for Post-workshop success” • Hold a “Break-away Deep Dive” Session the first • Provide frequent, draft updates to your progress and maintain momentum • Walk the client through approving documents – sticking point
- 19. • The first 60 minutes are crucial • You can’t guarantee success before the workshop begins, but if you aren’t careful you can guarantee failure • You arrive as a BA, but the client may expect a Subject Matter Expert • Disagreement should be your friend • Make a positive, measurable difference • Your last 60 minutes are also crucial
- 20. Thank you for your time – keep in touch! @pauljohnston paul.johnston@sybrin.com https://za.linkedin.com/in/pjohnston
Editor's Notes
- Workshops can be overwhelming How I felt on before my first workshop Uncertainty Stress Pressure – senior stakeholders, important project, major expense from the customer and the company to get you on-site 2 Mins
- Why should I improve my Workshop Facilitation skills? Crucial to project success Foundation for later project activities, performed by multiple stakeholders Skills are transferrable to other areas Often performed under less than ideal circumstances Area Bas need to be on our game 2 mins
- 2 mins “To be the Information Management and Payments Solution Provider of Choice in Africa” – how are we achieving this goal?
- What do you think is the story behind these signs? Scope Creep Change of Requirements Not having the right stakeholders in the room Not having a BA involved Changes to a live system What’s the next requirements? - We need a sign to warn skiers about the signs! Complexity is born of poorly understood, poorly documented, or missed requirements. When running your workshop, keep this in mind. Simple to replace the signs – very difficult to re-engineer a multi million dollar system. 4 mins
- Workshop Preparation Good preparation is necessary for success, but on it’s own not sufficient to ensure success Ensure the right stakeholders will be available Remember, who this is will differ from what you expect Don’t make the mistake of applying your time expectations Workshop Agenda & Scheduling Need to schedule in extra time Differs culture to culture – will people be on time? If possible, get feeling from the customer and from contacts in the organization Are they willing to stay late? What is the norm? Angola – work until you are Strong preparation is necessary, but not sufficient, for a successful workshop It doesn’t matter how good your facilitation is if the right stake holders are not in the room Familiarity with the customer, the problem and the proposed solution Managing Customer Expectations When appropriate, have a proposed design complete before the workshop begins – Ronak’s point yesterday – “Anchoring Bias” For every customer, there will be many things you can’t design or prepare before hand – so, the things you can prepare, you should do so. Have a prioritised Work Load
- Malawi – “The importance of the first 60 minutes” You only have one opportunity to make a first impression You need to outline your expertise, experience and credibility But, it’s important to balance justifying your own value, with recognizing the value the client brings Malawi NMB Workshop Story – first day going well, but not seeing client buy in – after building credibility, saw client buy in During this time, you should establish ground rules Remember, your actions speak louder than words A lecture on participation will be ineffective if you don’t invite stakeholders to participate. But, it’s important to balance justifying your own value, with recognizing the value the client brings If you feel communication is one sided, you should ask specific questions, and ask the participants to explain back to you what has been agreed
- Surprisingly useful diagram I’ve drawn this at a number of workshops, and although simple, it really get’s everyone to understand some key facts: They have info that I don’t have I have info that they don’t have While a large amount of project success can come from the above two areas, there is a large area that we will need to explore together during the workshop It also establishes up front that you are not expected to have all the answers – a common, if unrealistic, expectation
- Another crucial aspect to include in the first 60 minutes – explaining why you need this workshop. In our experience, many customers don’t want to define specific requirements – they want “world class” or “industry standard”, and therefore feel a workshop isn’t necessary. So within the first hour, you want to
- Experienced this in Lesotho – Entered the workshop – off site venue at the National Archives, biggest board room table I have ever seen, CEO, CFO, COO all in the room In their mind, they expected a SME Customer asking detailed questions into every area Especially with a room full of diverse stakeholders, there will be questions you cannot answer – areas you are not an SME If you try to be an SME in every area, you will fail – so you mustn’t peg your skill, or your credibility, to specific knowledge BA Skills – analysis, facilitation, problem solving, investigation, In the ideal world, you would be an SME in every area – BA, EFT for the project, Core banking Systems and AML because you integrate – but this could never happen
- Experienced this in Lesotho – Entered the workshop – off site venue at the National Archives, biggest board room table I have ever seen, CEO, CFO, COO all in the room In their mind, they expected a SME Customer asking detailed questions into every area Consultant / Domain Expert / Advisor Especially with a room full of diverse stakeholders, there will be questions you cannot answer – areas you are not an SME If you try to be an SME in every area, you will fail – so you mustn’t peg your skill, or your credibility, to specific knowledge BA Skills – analysis, facilitation, problem solving, investigation, In the ideal world, you would be an SME in every area – BA, EFT for the project, Core banking Systems and AML because you integrate – but this could never happen
- Lesotho -
- Nigeria – Conflict can be your friend Nigeria conflict story Stakeholder arguments Disagreement on what the scope of the project was Took two days of the workshop[ Eventually we had to push back, even with quite senior management Don’t avoid conflict – manage it to minimize conflict while addressing disagreement Disagreement quashed during the workshop will revisit the project at the worst possible moment Strive to experience conflict through a wider lens than your own cultural background Nigeria for example – more direct, less beating around the bush. Saying things in a tough way, but with a very relaxed tone
- Here’s an example of No Disagreement – and as you can see, it’s going badly At one point, I thought the worst outcome would be if every resource stakeholder disagreed with me. But with experience, I now realise that the worst outcome is if everyone agrees! Too much agreement shows that a situation hasn’t been fully understood. When disagreement is absent, look out for limited understanding If you have the time, a great technique is to request participants to play “Devil’s Advocate” By arguing for and against different multiple viewpoints, stakeholders are able to hold less tightly to their own viewpoints
- The above is a favorite saying of Alex Noel, from FTI I was reminded of this quote during a project in Zambia. We added major value to the customer, but still did not receive the support we needed. But once we showed the project was having a Measureable and Positive difference, stakeholder buy-in followed. This applies on both a project level, and on an individual level – how are you adding value? You need to show the positive difference the project can result in, and define how it will be measured, right from the beginning of a project
- In a workshop, the only 60 minutes more valuable than the first 60, are the last 60! Agree to deliverables going forward Summarize what was covered, highlighting the successes and high points – leverage the Primacy and Recency effects to your advantage A great technique is to schedule future conference calls at this point
- You will be exhausted after a workshops – but, there is still a lot to be done to ensure project success
- Ghana – “Steps for Post-workshop success” Hold a “Break-away Deep Dive” Session the first day back Don’t be Al! “Al’s spreadsheet” – “No Organisation should ever depend on absent brains” – Ronald G Ross, “Father of business rules” Provide frequent, draft updates to your customer – show progress and maintain momentum Walk the client through the Approval of documents – it’s a common sticking point
- Questions: - Are workshops really that important?