Tako Eye...and Process Improvement

Tako Eye is seeing the process improvement innately....Calamari is asking if you even need the process in the first place!

Let me start with explaining this "tako eye" thing...I have to credit a mentor for phrasing the "tako eye".   In Hawai'i, we often use the Hawaiian and Japanese words for things we talk about in daily dialogue.  Tako is a Japanese word to refer to an octopus.  If you have ever watched one move across the ocean reef, they constantly change their colors to match their surroundings around them to blend in and better hunt their prey.

To have "Tako Eye" means that you see the tako on the reef while everyone else is marveling at the pretty fish swimming around the coral.  You see the moving creature, adapting, searching and even stalking right through the activities of the environment.  When you are looking at your business processes, what do you notice?  Do you notice things before people even consider the situation itself?  Do you see the root cause before the long-pressed symptoms discussion ever happens?  Then you my friend have "tako eye"!

But now I've had the fortunate exposure to go beyond this - let's make some calamari!  Now that you know how to spot the process improvement, are you able to step back further and not be lured in by the beauty of the movements and the awe of the colors and see that you can satisfy your own hunger with a tasty treat?  To be a helpful analyst and improve process is absolutely a needed skill set.  To go further and challenge the organization to ask how the process even fits and continues to support the organization's mission and goals is a key element of being that senior advocate for the business.

As we were improving a process, I noticed everyone was trying to fix the process.  We were talking about future status and no one was questioning the very existence of the process itself.  If we are truly talking about future state, then you don't bring the baggage of existing along with you.  But too often our stakeholders get consumed by what they do versus realizing they need to rise above existing 'business' and focus back on goals.  Asking the questions to what you are trying to accomplish - asking WHY! - becomes a key value to your role as a business analyst and process improvement support member.

So do you have "tako eye" and see the process improvement opportunity existing in the chaos of today's world?  Do you even see your next appetizer and are ready to cook calamari?  Share your thoughts on how we find and highlight these creatures of the deep that are all around us!

Elicitation...and Conflict!

I had the pleasure to present and share with a host of other industry leaders and flat out fantastic and enthusiastic individuals some thoughts on Real World Elicitation this month in Orlando at the Project Summit*Business Analysis World conference.  Talking about elicitation, I shared thoughts on how facilitation focuses on making it easier for others, helping someone else get to a place of adding value.  One of the things that often comes up is conflict.  A dirty word to some and a treasure box to others!!

Are you a person who runs and hides from conflict?  Or scared to call that meeting because of that over powering stakeholder who does not get the idea of 'consensus'?  Conflict lets you know that you've found the right mark as if people get challenging, then that means they care.  You have found something they are passionate enough to get motivated on - so you should PURSUE it!  No hiding here for fearless BA super heroes!

One of the best things you can do with conflict is to turn it from a "me versus you" scenario to an "us versus it" scenario.  Take the conflict and throw it on the wall (yes the topic here, it's not a person!) - white board works great!  I love to take an idea, concept or discussion point and write it on the wall big so that we - the whole team, those in the room, online and in email - have something to now attack with that same passion that got us worked up in the first place.  You and I now sit and TOGETHER talk about how you and I will overcome the obstacle.  Now it is you and me figuring out a solution together that brings the business value we are seeking.  Now the true passion brings out energy and a fire that helps us all be super heroes to overcome the challenge!

Love to hear further ideas on dealing with conflict!  Check me out on Twitter @jamie_champagne to see all my conference highlights as well as other's thoughts!

Interested in learning more about business analysis, the value it brings and the techniques to be successful?  Join me in one of the upcoming classes - sign up here!

Building Leadership Skills on Project Teams

I recently had the pleasure of sharing this as a presentation at PMI HNL Professional Development Day 2015 and enjoyed the feedback that I've incorporated into this posting to continue to share and build on thoughts that makes us successful when working with people!

If you want a different outcome, ask yourself what are you doing differently to achieve this outcome.

Requirements

Understand that project teams are made up with people of diverse experience & expertise; while valuable to the team, realize that they each take a different view of the challenge at hand

Physically displaying items – whether in pictures of end result or large words posted on the wall – help clarify and ensure everyone is literally on the same page.

Consider “Draw the Pig” icebreaker – instructions available at:  http://www.whiteman.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130408-056.pdf  

Risk

Draw out the potential outcomes (comic strips are great for actions) – how likely are they to occur?  Are they worth prioritizing? 

Getting Feedback

Post ideas on a large easel sheet of paper (one idea per page) and post in a common area.  Leave markers and encourage people to comment over a few days.  Great for identifying what’s in and out of scope!

Listening

Listening is about asking the right QUESTIONS (not the right answers – if you knew the answer, why are you asking the question?)

Listen to all the information the person shares versus focusing on just what you want to hear – you may miss out on valuable information!

Get a scribe – someone NOT a stakeholder to take notes so that you may engage with your stakeholders.  Then review afterwards with the scribe and highlight key insights from your listening.

Process Definition

How a process works is sometimes better to see in person.  If you can’t physically see the action then act it out (think charades!). 

Brainstorming

Use the “Red Cup” or other object – one idea per person, must say an idea before passing, can only say one idea and continue for a short amount of time with a hard time limit (push people to go faster!) – focus is on QUANTITY not quality.  It removes the “analysis paralysis” by focusing on the object while getting equal participation by all, regardless of position or expertise.  There are no right or wrong answers, just ideas to grow on.

     Question from presentation: Brainstorming in this way could still allow influence on others - YES!  Participants, even though the focus is on equal pariticipation by all, could still be influencing others; however, the goal of brainstorming is quantity.  If you're more focused on not influencing, then anonymous techniques (via email and a facilitator) or non-verbal techniques (using post-its on a wall) may be preferred.  Adjust to your situation!

Prototyping

Build something a user can interact with – SHOW what the envisioned end result is, do not tell them.  Give them something to interact with.

Prioritizing

Write out each item on a post-it, one per post-it.  Then provide stakeholders with poker chips (or other voting item) and have them vote.  They can place as many as they want on each, but no “buying” more.                                                     

Just TRY it!  And build on Lessons Learned!

The WHAT and the WHY and then the HOW

This last week I had the extraordinary privilege to speak at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Honolulu Chapter Professional Development Day (PDD)2014.

In speaking to a group of Project Managers about How to Effectively Work with a Business Analyst, a great question came up about how you deal with a PM and BA working together who's lines for roles and responsibilities begin to blur.  Considering real world examples and how to address this, the answer that was so positively received was - "What, Why, and How".
 

Whenever a PM and BA are having a conversation, a great thing to consider whenever roles and responsibilities begin to blur is that the PM should consider the WHAT and the BA to consider the WHY.  Those are the swim lanes to stand in.  What - the project, the schedule, the scope, the budget - these are all PM responsibilities.  They have a specific answer and the PM ensures they move to completion.  WHY -  why is the project good for the business, why the requirement should be included, why the test cases are required - this is where the BA lives.

I took it a step further from personal experience that the BA (and also PM) needs to especially recognize when they delve into the HOW realm.  The moment they start determining HOW something should be done, you're getting into Design.  This is the swim lane for your SMEs, architects and designers.  It keeps the roles and responsibilities clear.  It's also extremely helpful when developing business requirements as you know you've gone far enough when you start to explain HOW the feature is supposed to look, act and feel.

Some Good Questions Every BA's Should Ask

Business Analysts (BA's) live in a world of requirements.  And while  never the 'owner' of a project, they often bear the burden of requirements responsibility.

Two interesting things I got to see in the fascinating world of business analysis this last week made me think about how exactly I would recommend approaching these scenarios (one shared here, the second in the next post).

Business analysts assist in make sure things not only go smoothly, but also in ensuring the RIGHT things continue on track.  So a BA received feedback on a report.  The person addressing the BA told them to put the report in a certain format.  Now a more junior BA, he listened intently and described what he had done.  He asked what was wrong with his method and the response was basically it wasn't in the format as she was describing.  This went back and forth for a few minutes with nothing more decided than someone feeling that the report should be in the new format and a very unsure junior BA.

In talking through this situation with the junior BA, two very good questions came up:

1. Why?  What's the purpose of the report?
2. What question(s) is the data answering?

Two very simple thoughts, but something I'm not sure all us BA's really stop and ask ourselves, ask our stakeholders.  We put SO much effort in all our documentation, but do we stop and validate ourselves?  Do we double check the information we're providing is solving the need and ONLY solving the need (no sugar coating)?  I think these are two great things we should work on asking up front and more often on every single piece of documentation we work hard to create.

But these are only two good questions - many more are there!  What questions always help you ensure you're only doing activities that will help your initiatives and ONLY those initiatives?

More Words of Wisdom for BA's (Part 2 of 2)

Continuing on my last post regarding the amazing discussions taking place at Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference 2013, sponsored by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), business analysts and other professionals continued to garner insights from discussions around change – incremental versus transformational.  Do you know the expected type of change demanded of the organization before you begin an engagement?  What are their expectations around timeframes, costs and impact?  Small scopes might imply incremental change, leaving harder challenges for later as showing any progress would be more meaningful than exists today.  Larger scopes coming from the top down around new visions and transformations refer to transformational changes that are more permanent.  These will take more time and cost, but go back to the objectives – what is the overall goal of the engagement and get the owners to understand that their objectives and expectations are going to need to match up to the time and resources required to get them there.  An interesting thought for those who love to capture processes – if the new process is so different from the current, only spend limited time documenting the current one as it will have little matter once the new process is in place.  Utilize your resources carefully such that they spend their time on the most valued activities on the critical path to success. 

Back to innovation, a great thought was shared that smart leadership should only create the container, the space for the activities to occur.  Limited boundaries keep things focused, but then allow all creativity to exist within that space HOW they go about implementing the process.  As long as objectives are met (the box you’ve given) the details should be trivial on the execution.  Knowledge workers will look to simplify their own lives and streamline operations into efficiency without being scripted by those unfamiliar with the process.  One can destroy innovation if they put too much pressure on the process versus delighting the customer, internal or external in the end solution.

And finally, consider your own role as a BA and what leadership skills you are sharing with your teams.  To help differentiate between a project manager and BA, often a whole debate in itself, consider how you present the value of your role outside the project.  Rather than focusing on scope, highlight how determining which projects should be undertaken is inherently more valuable to the organization.  Move from software to systems and how individual pieces and projects work together to support the overall business objectives.  The shift should be from requirements focus to becoming a visionary, innovator, strategist and leader.  These roles are so needed and ask any PM – I bet you often they have little time nor authority to consider the solution being put into place and are so driven by deadlines and narrow objectives that having a BA around to see before and after the project would be greatly welcomed!  A great thought I heard was make sure that a project isn’t just being done to satisfy a debate between two competing technologies.  Ask if the technology itself is even needed – that will solve the debate quickly!  But too often this occurs where two options are considered without holding true business value in the forefront, regardless of technology solution.

I love the closing thoughts that to improve your own BA skills, elicit requirements from those you work with on what they require from you.  We spend so much time on requirements definition we often forget ourselves.  Ask your stakeholders and use some of that input as guidelines or benchmarks and then seek opportunities to improve these skills.  Better execution of the old models is not enough, but encourage yourself to innovation and reinvent your approaches!  Know your own strengths and surround yourself with others with different strengths so that you become more diverse.  Remember, trust, an important part of relationships, is a two-way streak.  Ask yourself if you are worthy of the other person’s trust.  And a final note – people follow people who get things done.  Keep your word and use your energy and many others will follow willing to help!