Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Business Analysis Communication and Collaboration

The Business Analyst's role is pivotal and he is required to maintain a high level of coordination with the business and technical teams on a continuous basis during the solution life cycle.

Communicate and Collaborate:
Yes, the key aspect of the communication goal must be to forge collaborative relationships as the active participation of stakeholders is a must in order to create a successful solution. Based on this primary goal, the Business Analyst can set-up the agenda for communication. Here are a few guidelines to achieve the same:

Code of Conduct: 

Establish a code of conduct at the very outset. This will provide guidelines and create a set of expectations for everyone. This also helps avoid unnecessary confusion.

The code of conduct must be communicated to key stakeholders and, if required, their agreement must be obtained after incorporating any feedback.

Create an Environment of Trust and Respect: 
An environment of trust is created through consistent, clear and focused communication that is timely and updated at regular intervals.

Creating an environment of trust and respect is the key to the success of a project. For that, the Business Analyst must take the lead in communicating information correctly and consistently about the plan, outcome of proposed goals and their foreseeable benefits to stakeholders and organization.

Setting the correct tone, fulfilling promises, obtaining feedback and incorporating them while building the solution, providing regular feedback on stakeholder contribution and creating an atmosphere of transparency, all go a long way in ensuring success of the proposed solution.

Reduced email communication and encouraging more interaction over the phone or interpersonal meetings not only help improve understanding but also aid in avoiding unnecessary work.

Time Zones: 
Be sensitive to the time zones while setting-up meetings or even sending out emails to recipients.

Understand Stakeholders: 
Organize meetings for the entire team to understand everyone's needs, concerns and skills. This data will also help to build the base to design the best possible solution.

Understanding the stakeholder background such as his educational and professional experience, and cultural background, help minimizes confusion and conflict. If a stakeholder is new to the organization’s culture, either explain the same to him in detail or provide him with the communication policy to bring him on the same page.

Addressing concerns helps in bringing out the stakeholder’s attitude towards the proposed solution and in what way he can contribute to the proposed solution. This information will support the Business Analyst in planning his strategy throughout the business analysis life cycle.

Focus on Goals and Managing Expectations: 
Communication should always be focused on the goal while discussing issues, risks, plans or anything else during meetings. These goals must be part of the opening discussion of the meeting/workshop to remind everyone about their respective areas of focus.

Face Conflict: 
Conflict may arise due to various factors and the Business Analyst must plan his strategy to both confront and defuse the situation. Regular discussions and feedback from individual and team meetings effectively help to deal with conflicts.

Manage Technology: 
Technological interventions are required to manage in-person or virtual meetings. They may include audio-visual set-ups, telephones, projectors, and other connectivity. These need to be planned well in advance.

More about Business Analysis, The way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers.

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References:


http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/04/04/10-communication-secrets-of-great-leaders/


http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/06/07/five-ways-to-build-an-effective-team/


Communication Strategies for Virtual Teams by Debbie DuFrene & Carol M Lehman, (pp.31-35) Business Expert Press LLC, 2011, ISBN: 13-978-160649-260-4


http://www.forbes.com/sites/iese/2013/06/20/managing-virtual-teams-ten-tips/


Effective Communication in the Organization by Michael Fielding, Juta & Co. (Pty Ltd), 2005, ISBN 0 7021 6650 2


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Saturday, January 23, 2016

Business Analysis - Competencies, Techniques and Tools

Business analyst will have to use many techniques and tool to perform his role in business analysis domain. These techniques and tool support or enhance his performance. However, merely using techniques and tools will not make one a successful business analyst as one needs clear concept about business need and possible solution. The usage of these techniques and tool to either elicit or present the information(or requirement) will only help everyone involved understand the issue better...

Business Analysis Techniques:
  • Behavioral and personality related 
  • Analytical and Cortical thinking skills 
  • Communication 
  • Relationship building 
  • Influencing / Leadership 
  • Team player / management 
  • Political awareness / understanding of Organizational dynamics. 
  • An eye for details 
  • Self-confidence to able to convince using data and facts 

IT knowledge
  • Project management 
  • Requirement engineering 
  • System Analysis 
  • Data Mapping 
  • Data Dictionary 
  • Test cases / Test Scenario 
  • Data Modeling 
Strategy Analysis
  • Impact Analysis 
  • Business Technology Optimization 
  • Catwoe 
  • Consensus Modeling 
  • Force Field Analysis 
  • Six Thinking Hat 
  • Business Change 
  • Business Capability Analysis 
  • Current State & capability (As-IS) 
  • Future State and ability (To-Be) 
  • Gap Analysis (To-Be – As-Is) 
  • Benchmarking and Market Analysis 
  • Financial Analysis /Business Case 
  • Define solution and its Scope 
  • Scope Modelling 
  • Stakeholder List, Map, or Roles and Responsibilities 
  • Interview 
  • Workshop 
  • Business Process Modeling 
  • Concept Modelling 
  • Brainstorming 
  • Business Rules Analysis 
  • Organisation structure and modelling 
  • Document Analysis 
  • Risk Analysis and Management 
  • Focus Groups 
  • Decision Analysis 
  • Traceability Matrix/Item tracker 
  • Balanced Scorecard 
  • Reviews 
  • Data Dictionary 
  • Functional Decomposition 
  • Mind Mapping 
  • Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria 
  • Backlog Management 
  • Estimation 
  • Prototyping 
  • Prioritisation Techniques 
  • Glossary 
  • Role Change 
  • Collaborative Games 
  • UML(Use Cases, Activity Diagram, State Diagram, Class Diagram & Sequence Diagram) 
  • User Stories 
  • Observation 
  • Lessons Learned 
  • Business Model Canvas 
  • Process Management 
  • Data Modeling (ER Diagram / Class Diagram / Data Flow Diagram) 
  • Non-Functional Requirements Analysis 
  • Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 
  • Roles and Permissions 
  • Interface Analysis 
  • Prototype 
  • Survey or Questionnaire 
  • Decision Modelling 
  • Functional Decomposition 
  • Vendor Assessment 
  • Communication policy and standards 
  • SWOT Analysis 
  • Root Cause Analysis 
  • Solution Assessment 
  • Vendor Assessment 
  • Change Management 
  • Requirement Management 
  • Templates 
  • Competency Assessment 

Business Analyst Tools
  • Basic Tool - MS Office, MS Visio and MS Project 
  • Note Taking - MS OneNote and Evernote 
  • General Modelling - Lucidchart and Creately (in absence of MS-visio) 
  • EPC Modelling - ARIS 
  • BPMN Modelling - System Archit 
  • Data Modelling – ErWin, MS-Visio, Click chart and other free tools 
  • Wireframing - Balsamiq 
  • Invision - combined with Balsamiq (or designs) to make playable demos 
  • Prototyping - Flinto, proto . io and iRise 
  • Confluence and JIRA 
  • Data Extract - Microstrategy ETL, Talend Open Studio, SQL, MongoDB Shells 
  • Reporting - Jaspersoft, Tableau 
  • Analytics - Google, KISSmetrics etc 
  • Dashboarding - Microstrategty, Dashthis 
  • (IBM) Rational Toolset (it is expensive and not used widely) - ReqPro , Clearcase, Architect, Rose, XDE 

These are some of the Business Analysis Techniques available for Business Analyst. The Business Analyst must select the technique based on his and other team members' (involved in particular activity) comfort, convenience and organisation culture.

There are many more free as well as licensed tool are available depending on your need and comfort.

Business Analysis - The Question And Answer Book. it is way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers.

India Order link https://www.amazon.in/dp/B074PRQQ5V or Global Order link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074PRQQ5V

Business Analysis: The Question And Answer Book


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