Presentation by James Archer at the "big pICTure" meetup of @itworks in Brussels on April 2nd, 2014. James explains why and how business analysts are good catalysts for successful business change.

1. How business analysts are
catalysts for business
change
James Archer

2. The bridge

3. The context

4. Challenge - Process

5. Advice

6. Different(levels(of(leadership(
Business Analysis and Leadership4
● Organization. While many business analysts see no need to look
beyond their immediate project, outstanding ones will always
have one eye on the organization they work within. They realize
that, in order to make change stick, they need to understand and
engage widely across their whole organization. This requires an
understanding of the entire system, the ability to deal with power
FIGURE I.1 The different levels of leadership
BA
Organization
Project
Self
Wider world
Self
Project
Organization
Wider World

7. The T of skills and competencies
Intra and interpersonal skills
Businessknowledge
Technicalskills

8. Environment
/ climate
Product
Process
People
A systemic approach
© Creative Problem Solving Group Inc.

9. Climate is different to culture

10. DIMENSION DESCRIPTION
Challenge/
Involvement
The degree to which people are involved in daily
operations, long-term goals, and visions
Freedom The independence in behaviour exerted by people
Trust/Openness The emotional safety in relationships
Idea-Time The amount of time people can (and do) use for
elaborating new ideas
Playfulness/ Humour The spontaneity and ease displayed within the workplace
Conflict The presence of personal and emotional tensions
Idea-Support The ways in which new ideas are treated
Debate The occurrence of encounters and disagreements
between viewpoints, ideas, differing experiences and
knowledge
Risk-Taking The tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity exposed in the
workplace
The 9 dimensions of climate

14. Brown cow

15. “Management is doing things right;
leadership is doing the right things.”
Peter Drucker

16. When policy gets
ahead of itself:
The tragic tale of
the Integrated
Children s System
The story

17. An
example of
just one
mandatory
form

18. Brown cow

19. Model the way
Creating solutions that:
resonate or attune or reflect
or enable the
organizations values
Understanding oneself to
understand the organization

20. Brown cow
Social workers are skilled
professionals
We need to support them in
doing difficult jobs

21. © 2013, Perspectiv LLP. All rights reserved. Working out ways to high performance.
Inspire a shared vision
(
Business(Analysis(tools(can(
help(turn(ideas(and(
visions(of(others(into(
prac7cal(solu7ons(
The(more(a(project(is(linked(to(strategy(
and(visions(of(the(future(the(be>er((

22. Role of business case
Articulated importance of
tools and conditions to
support social workers
Fear - Government plans
unworkable and
incompatible with RBKC
Risk - RBKC requirements
incompatible with national
requirements

23. Challenge the process
Search for opportunities
Look outwards
Seize the initiative
Experiment and take risks
Most innovations from people closest to the work

24. Janusian thinking
Creative ideas
from contradictory
ideas
Looked outwards and
inwards - use best of ICS
(rigour and structure) with
strong sense of supporting
social work practice
- individual needs of child
within family context

25. Innovation = new and useful
How to make complex
processes intuitive

26. Enable others to act
The key is how well is a change
adopted - NOT the quality of the
solution
Share knowledge
Facilitate relationships
Break down silos

27. The stretchy text box
Box to enter text into
You never know if this is an important
question for this child. Therefore an
expanding text box became a really

28. Brown cow
Make it easy for
social workers to
enter information
(
Stretchy text
box
(

31. Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild
Limited
• Functional requirements are things the product must
do
• Non-functional requirements are properties that the
product must have
• A constraint is a restriction on the design or scope of
the product
.. some aspect of a product s content or
behaviour, which is needed to support the
business
A requirement is..

32. Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
• Functional requirements:
! Technical skills
! Business knowledge
• Non-functional requirements:
! Inter and intra personal skills
! Leadership skills
• Constraint:
! Self-imposed
Requirements for a Business Analyst
are...

33. www.volere.co.uk
www.baleadership.com
Twitter - @jamesarchers
Jamesmcarcher@gmail.com