How to conduct Stakeholder Analysis?

The basics of requirement management is planning for stakeholder analysis. If you miss this, you will face many hurdles. Stakeholder analysis is key to succeed in your project as missing any stakeholder in the stakeholder analysis means that stakeholders requirements will add to the project as either an additional requirements or a change. Both would have an impact on project timeline and budget. Moreover, the stakeholder may be disappointed for not counting him/her in the first place.

Let us understand how to work on stakeholder analysis...following are few tips of analyzing the stakeholders and creating the list in most effective way.

- By studying the business need (problem or an opportunity) and solution scope document to understand stakeholders and their involvement.

- Outlining the stakeholders’ details by studying the organizational structure or modelling the organization (enterprise architecture) and their relationships, and communication.

- Getting additional details through existing documents related to stakeholder analysis.

- Communicating and collaborating with identified stakeholders to confirm details thus obtained (except for details on their attitude and persona).

Process: First identify the impact of the business need (problem or an opportunity). Once you know the details, that will become your basis to build stakeholders. You also obtain organizational structure to understand the people and their role. You discuss with the main stakeholders to identify the stakeholders or you can obtain the official stakeholders list as some of organizations have formal designated person for every dept who act as stakeholder(s) for them.

You can compile the data in excel and verify the data with the relevant stakeholders.

The data can be compiled using following parameters.

1. # / Stakeholder Number
2. Name
3. Contact Number
4. Email
5. Location
6. Role
7. Responsibiltiies
8. Authority Level
9. Profile or
10. Technical skills / proficiency
11. Preferred environment
12. Special Needs
13. RACI (R - Responsible, A - accountable, C - consulted and I Informed. Some may add S for support, but that is an optional)
14. Additional Description
15. Group / category
16. Influence *
17. Attitude *

Please remember that all the information can be send to stakeholders to validate the data, except last two (influence and attitude) unless you want get fired. This list must be modified by authorized person to avoid complication of loss of data or changes made to the documents.

You can add more parameters to this and create a matrix that can be easily used.

Business Analysts' knowledge-bank - Information Systems by Efrem G Mallach

The reason why I added this book to Business Analysis blog- Many Business Analysts come from domain or business background and they are required to know the basics of Information Systems. They need to know where to obtain the required knowledge. Read my detailed review about the book before you think of purchasing it.

The book provides comprehensive knowledge about most aspects of Information System, which is required by every business student. This comprehensive knowledge is quite valuable as there is no business or profession today that is untouched by Information system. Therefore, one can't remain aloof from the basic understanding of Information Systems and how it works. 

If they know how it works, they will know how best they can make it work for them effectively. It simply means, if they can understand what is needed, they can guide and monitor the entire development of business solution successfully.

Business technology management is big part of business today and is a key to its success. Professionals, who know what are the ‘Business Needs’, what is the suitable Information System required for that, and how to get that, will be able to optimize the business environment that decides the success or failure of any business.

Information Systems by Efrem G Mallach

In the first section, the book covers why Information System matters and the role of Information System within business environment. It also covers general concept of Information Systems.

In the second section, it covers technology part of Information System including hardware, software, database management, and network. This is basically explains what any business student needs to know about building a business solution or application or project.

In the third section, it covers the various Information Systems that is needed in the organization for different departments by different people depending on their role and responsibilities. It also covers the system and it’s usage of connecting with external stakeholders for their interaction with the organization as a customer or a supplier or a regulator…

In the fourth section, the book covers how to select these Information Systems from the various options available i.e. off-the-shelf product, customized product or developing the solution and so on... This is an important factor as it involves an analysis based on many criteria to take a correct decision.

In the last section, it covers the effective managing of the Information Systems after the transition phase.

All the topics are well elaborated with appropriate examples and illustrations. However, It doesn't cover the Strategy Analysis topic of Information System where most business students will be involved either as a stakeholder or a subject matter expert (SME) or as a sponsor in future. This part is extremely significant as it talks about how Information System solution are defined in detail and their role during requirement management to spell out the correct requirements. Otherwise, the business student may not develop the correct thinking process to visualize the Information System to contribute appropriately.

Another part is – author missed out on ‘Change Management’ that can be implemented through pre-defined or ad-hoc process depending on the project size, the complexity and the formality. So, projects don't get cancelled due to changes in requirements at the last moment as they can always be accommodated during next release or sprint.

Finally, requirement engineering has changed significantly and now, it is far more sophisticated compare to what it was a decade ago.

The book could have added a few UML diagrams along with process diagrams mentioned in the book to elaborate the requirements as they are current industry standards and business students (future stakeholders) are expected to know them.

On the flip side, the outdated information such as magnetic disk storage etc. could have avoided or explained in a line or two. Instead, there could have been greater emphasis on the process management or reengineering or others areas of business technology management that were more suitable to the business student.

Overall, the book is very useful as it provides all the required details in one place systematically using business language.

#IIBA, #BCS, #IREB, #requirementmanagement, 

#BusinessAnalysis, #BusinessAnalysiscourse, #businessanalyst, #businesstechnologymanagement, #InformationSystems, #Whatbusinessstudentneedtoknow, #EfremGMallach, #ANISAN, #ANISANtechnologies, #SandhyaJane, #CBAP

Career Paths for a Business Analyst

There are many flavours of business analysis and Business Analyst can opt for any one of the flavours depending on his/her academic and professional background.

To know more about the growth in Business Analysis field, you can visit the blog: Opportunities Business Analysis in future.

Followings are some of the career paths a Business Analyst can opt for:

1. Operations Head - Business Strategy Analyst who analyses the business need by analysing their current products, services, process and operations, and recommends solution (with or without IT) to improve the business.
2. Enterprise or Business Architect - A Business Analyst starting a career as a Business analyst, and moving towards lead Business analyst, and a role of heading Business Analysis activities as an enterprise or Business Architect in an organisations. 
3. CTO: In rare cases this is also a possibility for a business analyst if the person comes from technology background. He will have to work through many technology roles such as in-charge of IT projects and overall technology in non-IT company to reach to CTO role.
4. Product Owner - Business Analyst working in a IT company specialised in product development can becomes Product owner/manager through a BA path.
5. Practice Head  - In-charge of projects with similar domain in an non-IT company and establish the process and standards for Business Analysis activities such as creating "Centre of Excellence" for Business Analysis. 
6. Program Manager - Business Analyst from technical background can become an in-charge of projects from same domain in an IT company.
7. Delivery Head - Business Analyst from technical background who is in-charge of delivery of project or IT services in an IT company having same or different domain.

Business Analysis - Career Path

8. Management Consultant - A Business Analyst starting with Jr consultant, create a path towards Consultant, senior consultant and management consultant.


To read more about Business Analysis Career, Please read my book, Business Analysis: The Question And Answer Book. It is available on amazon in both eBook and paperback version.

It is the way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers.

In 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

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.

In 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

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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