Innovative Business Analysis Techniques

I was fortunate enough to be part of an amazing community and share some of my experience at Building Business Capability 2014 this past week and gathered so much feedback and ideas how to continue to innovate in my current role.

A number of people requested the handout from the session, which was also the basis of my overall presentation.  Below is the content of that I would love others to add additional comments to and continue to build on the discussion.

“Driving Business Innovation” – different approaches to performing BA techniques with success!

“Insanity – doing the exact same thing over again and expecting a different result.” ~Albert Einstein

If looking for different results – what are you doing differently?

Meetings

Ø  Think of how you start your meetings – if you want excitement and energy out of them, try starting with a game!

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Or even have a meeting standing up – you’ll have to keep the length short and to the point if you have to stand the whole time!

Requirements

Ø  Ask everyone to “draw a pig.”  Give everyone a few minutes and then compare the different versions that were drawn!  Then analyze with the info here.

o   REMEMBER: Everyone has a unique view in this world and what one person envisions may not be what another does, so remember your perspectives of your stakeholders.

Ø  You could do this differently by giving everyone a piece of foil with the word “dinosaur” written on one side.  Hand them out and tell people that everyone has a word on their foil – don’t show it – but everyone has to create that ‘thing’ out of the piece of foil.  You’ll get plenty of differently shaped ‘dinosaurs’!

o   Again – you gave everyone the exact same requirement and look at the ways it was interpreted!

9.1 Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria

Ø  Write one criteria per large white board or easel and place in high area of traffic with markers handy.  Repeat for each of your criteria’s.  Encourage everyone to comment on the criteria over the course of 1-2 weeks and then review the feedback.

9.3 Brainstorming

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Divide groups into 5 people, sitting or standing in a circle.  Assign a sixth person to be the scribe, sitting just outside the circle.  Put the topic of discussion in a Red Solo cup that one person will then read to the team as their ‘challenge.’   Rules are as follows:

o   The person with the cup says one idea and passes to the right.

o   Only the person with the cup may say an idea.

o   Only one idea can be said at a time.

o   You may not “pass” the cup without saying an idea.

Try to encourage teams of 5 to get around the ‘circle’ 10 times in 2 minutes.  The format and pressure on time:

v  Keeps everyone equal – no person’s idea carries more weight than another

v  Focus on generating quantity of ideas - not focused on analyzing; not worried about being “right”

v  Forces everyone to participate - no one monopolizes the conversation or can ‘hide’ in the background

9.11 Focus Groups

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Consider the “outliers” when trying to learn more about a topic

o   We often focus on “average” – but if you want to explore new markets, ask those who are not currently in the market and WHY!  Get to know the “super users” and what and WHY they can’t live without it!

9.14 Interviews

Ø  Ask the right QUESTIONS

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Consider a group interview: get people from all different aspects of a process (marketing, call center, help desk, technician, etc.) – one person at a time sits in front of group and shares their ‘experience’.  Encourage them to “tell me more” about it and ask “Why” and then get the other participants to help you ask more questions to learn more about WHY they do things the way they do.   Inconsistencies will quickly be brought to light and clarified by participants when they challenge each other’s process (vice the BA having to go back and forth between stakeholders on their own)

Ø  Focused on LISTENING – get someone else to scribe (they don’t talk, just write!)

o   Take notes with a sharpie and post-its – only one thought per post-it (short!); then after interviews go through post-its and layout in related groups to see themes and map out processes

9.18 Observation

Ø  Record sessions – images speak a thousand words to get body language, relationships, culture, etc. – especially when you’re the one facilitating

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ASK Permission!  Or at least inform participants what you’re doing and why (tell them where you plan to share this!)

9.19 Organization Modeling

Ø  Comic Strip – have people draw out their roles and responsibilities

o   Even better – get different departments to draw their view about other roles, not themselves

9.22 Prototyping

Ø  Build something FAST and CHEAP for FEEDBACK from those affected – what do they like? What would they change? Get them to interact with – put it in a visible place for a week to see what resonates with users

o   And build AGAIN!  Keep iterating until everyone is comfortable with solution, THEN capture requirements

9.25 Root Cause Analysis

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Ask Why 5 times – write question and then place answer below.  If the answer is not hierarchical, save for later and go back to asking why to decompose to single element for the root of the problem

9.26 Scenarios and Use Cases

Ø  Charades! Get users to act out how they do things today and what it would be like if they could change it!

o   Removes non-value added activities from process descriptions

Requirements Prioritization

Ø  Write each requirement on a post-it and lay out on table.  Give each stakeholder the equal number of POKER CHIPS.  They then “bet” on their requirements – you will quickly see the priority items!

o   All stakeholders’ votes are now equal, no extra chips and eliminates the ‘nice to haves’ from discussion

So how do I do this?  You TRY it!  Even if it doesn’t work as planned, look how much you learned!! You at least know what your project/requirements are NOT.  Ask your SPONSOR to SUPPORT!  Getting their support to try an often faster approach (i.e., less employee time spent in meetings) that build buy-in to the project (more committed stakeholders) is worth the time to try a DIFFERENT APPROACH for DIFFERENT RESULTS!