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.
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
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
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
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
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. [