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The Five Pillars of a Great Business Analyst
Youre given the unlimited right to print and distribute this e-book and I encourage you to share it using the URL www.freebagift.com. However, you cannot alter it in any way and you may not charge for either the book or the content within it. The copyright in this work belongs to Yaaqub Mohamed(Yamo) who is solely responsible for the content. Please send feedback or questions to yamo@thebacoach.com or use www.freebagift.com/feedback.
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IIBA, the IIBA logo, BABOK and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of David Allen & Co. Project whispering is inspired by the book The Project Whisperer by Pam Stanton and used with her permission
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Contents
Introduction Pillar 1 - The Passion Pillar 2 - Adaptive Social Skills Pillar 3 - Recursive Systems Thinking Pillar 4 - Going the Extra Mile Pillar 5 - Peak Productivity Epilogue About Yamo Join the Community
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Introduction
Where are we positioned?
No business needs convincing that improvement and change is an essential part of its existence. It is becoming increasingly apparent that change is the most important factor to manage for an enterprise, from a tactical, strategic and enterprise standpoint. The need to quickly win over change is often amplified by changing market dynamics and ever increasing competition. Due to this push from the changing marketplace dynamics, teams that are involved in change execution are challenged to use fewer resources to deliver more in less time. This calls for an increased efficiency in utilization of all the resources, and lays a greater emphasis on teams to be more cohesive and to perform at a higher level on the delivery curve. Business analysts are at the heart of improvement and change in an organization. A Business Analyst plays a crucial role in a team that does the analysis, assessment and execution of change be it process related, operational and/or technological in nature. Our position is also increasingly embedded in the growing use of technology in organizations and its inherent complexity in the context of an intricate business environment. The position of a business analyst in a team has gone through a gradual metamorphosis in the past decade. With increased awareness and realization that a business analyst can be more valuable if leveraged properly, we are seeing a positive trend on how business analysts are being perceived in an organization. This is just the beginning of a paradigm shift; business analysts still have a lot of work to do to be perceived as a valued part of a team. They must continue to contribute positively in the teams they work in. Organizations such as the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) add to the positive perception of business analysis by increasing awareness and creating standards.
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Pillar 1
The passion
fueled with talent
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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
If you dont like it dont do it. If you were not made for it dont do it either.
Passion is probably the most important ingredient for being a great business analyst. You need to love every aspect of being a business analysis practitioner. The ensuing emotional energy due to this passion is what makes business analysts move forward despite obstacles, deliver despite impediments, and show up at work despite having demanding bosses. At this point you might be wondering, Isnt this true for any profession? It absolutely is. However, over the course of walking you through this pillar, I want to strengthen your passion dimension in the context of being a business analyst. I want to focus on Why BAs love being BAs. In this section, I will also draw on my own reasons. In addition to this, I also want to illustrate the power of how having the right talent can be highly conducive to performing the role of a business analyst.
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When I created the structure for doing BA Interview podcasts on TheBACoach.com, one of the first few questions to each BA I interviewed was, Why do you like being a BA? because I wanted to elicit the essence of what made them choose this profession. Was it a conscious choice? Was it something that they decided to do because it had better scope in terms of jobs and a higher salary? Or was it just an accident? The responses were inspiring, and each interviewee had an array of reasons for becoming a BA which were unique to each of them. Holistically they all had one underlying theme, which made their responses a beautiful symphony of a strong business case for being a business analyst. I want to quote and elaborate on a few of these below. Adrian Reed from Portsmouth, UK likes being a BA because: I enjoy the variety no two days are the same, and I like having the opportunity to make a positive change to the organization I work for. Variety and versatility are two exciting facets of being a business analyst. The tasks associated with performing different phases of analysis offer variety. You could be talking to a business partner at 10:00 AM, having a status meeting with testers listening to their pain points at 11:00 AM, and engaging in creating a process flow in the afternoon along with your team in a JAD session. Often, there is no room for boredom. And while you enjoy the variety, contributing positively to an organization you work for is something you wont regret. Doug Goldberg from Dallas, Texas, USA likes it because: I enjoy the challenge and interaction of working with people and personalities to resolve problems and deliver solution options. Working with myriad personality types under different situations is something very common with being a business analyst. You get to work with stakeholders that are extremely analytical, and cater to their style of being extremely systematic, well organized, and deliberate. You work with drivers, folks that are very practical and results-oriented.
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You work with friendly people who hate dealing with impersonal details and hard facts. You work with outgoing, enthusiastic, and expressive personalities. A business analyst gets to work with all these personalities under varying stress levels, when their personality takes a slightly different shape. Margaret Marco from Toronto, Canada likes it because: Being a BA is like being a detective - one has to work to find out what is really going on, produce a vision that others can understand and agree to, and provide clear details so that it can actually be implemented. Problem solving and navigating a confusing ecosystem of a project is often an essential component of being a business analyst. Where there is chaos and scattered information, a business analyst needs to collate the relevant pieces and create alignment in order to facilitate agreement to move things further along. Jayesh Jain from Auckland, New Zealand likes it because: There are three aspects of the job I like the most: people, challenges and problem solving. I love interacting with people. Being a BA I get to do that a lot. No two days are the same and no two projects are same; there is always a variety in what I do. As passionate as I am about learning and being able to correctly apply the skills and tasks that make business analysis effective, I am a lot more passionate about the impact good business analysis has on businesses A lot of times its just the combination of these realms. Dealing with people is not always easy if you dont have the tolerance and knack for it. Working on challenges is not always easy if you dont have experience to handle them systematically. And getting to solve problems at work that are peoplerelated, process-related, or related to business analysis is something business analysts love to deal with using different BA tools and techniques. The best part is that there is no prescribed way to solve a problem; being a business analyst could almost be called an art form.
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These four responses Ive shared with you are just a sample of many responses that I heard while interviewing business analysts throughout the world. This should provide you a good sense of the reasons why business analysts are passionate about their profession. Each of these interview podcasts are published on the blog and you can also find them on: TheBACoach.com
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Without emotional engagement, employees will lack the energy and talentfueled passion that will cause great things to happen, when there is a room for it. Without this ingredient, the spark for innovation and enthusiasm will be difficult to draw out. This will also affect peoples life in the long run and affect their attitude of how they feel about their quality of life in general.
Throughout my career I have experienced a series of epiphanies that have contributed collectively to my loving the role of a business analyst. The one below was probably the starting point for this: I vividly recall the day during a C++ lab when I had created a program to generate a pop-up menu for a text editor that we were building. After nearly a week of studying various functions and figuring out the logic, I was all set to try it. It was about 3 a.m. and I had just discovered how to change the hover color for the first menuitem, File -> New. The computer science lab was dark and quiet, with all monitors on Windows screen saver, except mine. Pressing that F9 key to launch the program for the first time was undoubtedly the starting point for me to embark on a serious journey in software engineering.
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The rush I got from seeing the fruits of my knowledge take shape was extraordinary. It aroused within me a curiosity to build and create software that began as just a vision. At that point in my life I saw how small pieces of code, put together, could make big changes in the way a program works and change the way people react toward it. By this time I knew that pursuing my Bachelors degree in Computer Science was an apt choice. Seeing the world of software development for the past decade, I have realized the definition of a solution is the most crucial component for building it effectively. I have played the roles of a Systems Analyst, was part of the worlds largest C++ project, did validation and testing as a QA Analyst, worked as a Team Lead and, managed an offshore team of 40. Gradually I started leaning towards requirements definition and wound up as a Business System Analyst, which I have since been doing for a long time. I loved learning new subject matter, and was pretty decent at it, and this made me get excited about new projects. I loved dealing with people all through my career, and loved solving problems, organizing, and creating all business analysis artifacts. As a former dramatic actor in school, I brought good public speaking skills to my work. I was able to map my strengths and use them in the many different aspects of being a business analyst.
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The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people - Theodore Roosevelt
If you are consistently building strong relationships with people you work with, you are getting closer and closer to being a great business analyst.
A project team is a veritable melting pot of personalities and situations. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important for a business analyst to recognize this reality and to be able to work with the different situations that bubble up in that pot. There is a strong need for adaptive social skills in a business analyst, to effectively navigate and integrate the ecosystem of people, processes, and technologies under different social contexts. Adaptive social skills for a business analyst can be defined as ability to recognize the utilization of a suitable skill or response to a given social situation to effectively solve the problem at hand. The situation could involve solving a business analysis problem or an interpersonal interaction related scenario. In this pillar, I want to walk through some key elements of this class of social skills, and at the end provide some ways in which you can improve and master these skills.
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They recognize that, in order to interact effectively with others, one has to be able to monitor and control ones own emotional state. This serves as a strong basis for building adaptive social skills.
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Samantha is a BA working with David, and sometimes gets intimidated by the way David interacts. Specifically Davids nononsense approach to dealing with project tasks, and his assertive questioning makes Samantha think that he doesnt trust her work and feels bullied at times. Ideally: Samantha should have carefully observed the patterns of behaviors exhibited by David over time, and understood his personality type. Rather than get intimidated by his approach, she should work with David with a sense of understanding where he comes from. When you apply this principle, always remembers one of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. ~ Stephen R. Covey.
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Example of adaptive engagement with stakeholders Please fit into my use case template: (adapt to role play)
Adam has created a use case that has about 52 steps. While doing a walkthrough with his stakeholders, he realizes that users do not understand how different components of a use case fit together (preconditions, post conditions, alternate flows, etc). He quickly recognizes this and switches his walk-through into a roleplaying session where he walks through the use case flow using roles, and scenarios. He uses the white board to identify with users the key events and steps involved in what a user does and helps them to relate various facets of the discussion to the use case and its components. This adaptive engagement with the users helps Adam to not lose the users because they could not understand his initial approach. He quickly recognized this situational issue and engaged in another technique to complete the walkthrough with the users.
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Active listening helps a business analyst to: critically evaluate what is being said. formulate the right questions to ask at the right time. foster understanding, making the stakeholders more comfortable in giving out information. create more open communication. build positive working relationships. alleviate conflicts within the team. strengthen cooperation. facilitate a positive synergy. reveal what analysis needs to be performed.
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. Recognize situations for adaptive engagement with stakeholders. List out alternatives that you would use if a stakeholder is having difficulty understanding the following: BA Technique / Tool System context diagram Process flows Data flow diagrams 7. Study various personality models and try to categorize your team and certain stakeholders in a given category of personality type. List out five below: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Alternative approach that you would adapt to
(Please dont forget to give your feedback for this pillar: www.FreeBAGift.com/feedback )
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I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. - Albert Einstein
You are not just a technical writer, a meeting scribe, or an order taker. You will always think before you ink. Thinking in the right light and at the right level is the key to success as a BA.
Thinking is the key part of conducting analysis. Unfortunately, often business analysts are labeled as being simply writers of the requirements specifications, meeting scribes, or just listeners to what the business says and putting it into a format that fits the template at hand. All these activities are just a way to communicate the analysis, not the analysis itself. A great business analyst has a natural flair and an unquenchable thirst to discover the truth, to uncover a missing piece in the puzzle, and to follow their quest to solve the riddle using an appropriate approach. This often entails a systematic thinking process that leads to the uncovering of facts and details. However, there are times when the thinking process goes beyond what is visible it involves the perceptive gathering and connecting of various hidden ambiguities to form a concrete, correct and complete picture.
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John had a claim after 2 months of policy issue due to an at-fault accident, which made his rates go up by 5%. The renewed policy now reflects the new rates. While all this is happening, a data warehouse captures data about all policyholders, which gets supplied to Insurance regulatory bodies as monthly reports. These reports facilitate financial reporting, forecasting, and helps Susans boss Tamer to advise her to remind John about e-billing options, since most of her policies were not opted-in for paperless option. If you put your systems thinking hat on to understand this, you will begin to appreciate how different people (John, Susan, Tamer), External entities (MVR, CLUE, regulatory bodies), processes (Quote, Issue, Claims, Renewal, Reporting, Analytics) and Systems (process specific IT and non-IT systems) are working together to keep this insurance business running and profitable.
Understanding recursion
When performing analysis for a given problem domain, it can be beneficial to apply the principles of recursion to elicit, analyze, and synthesize various work products that pertain to business analysis. Often just one level of investigation and thinking may not be sufficient to solidify any analysis artifact (a use case, a system context diagram, a process flow diagram, etc.). It is worthwhile, in most instances, to repeat analysis and investigation from different angles in order to build a more complete picture of the problem space or to uncover any missing pieces. In simplest terms recursion is doing something repeatedly and logically until a desired result is accomplished. In effect recursive systems thinking is about applying the principles of recursion to systems thinking in order to perform effective business analysis for a given domain.
Example of recursion
Recursion is the process a procedure goes through when one of the steps of the procedure involves rerunning the procedure.
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To understand recursion, one must recognize the distinction between a procedure and the running of a procedure. A procedure is a set of steps that are to be taken based on a set of rules. The running of a procedure involves actually following the rules and performing the steps. A very simple analogy would be emptying a buckle of water with a tumbler: Tumbler-Out = procedure to remove water once from the bucket (with various steps) Empty-Bucket = the end result A recursive procedure that will empty the bucket can be represented as below: Perform -> Tumbler-Out until Empty-Bucket.
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One level up: For the notifications area you start to recognize how the documents team is a sub-set of the policy administration systems area that manages policies. The website area is a separate area that links to the policy administration system, collecting key pieces of data to notify John about his policy or claims. The website area also connects with the documents area to pass on any updates made by John on the website (personal details changes, setting of paperless options, etc.). And for reporting area you notice that they get their data from a central data warehouse that gets regular feeds of data from the policy administration system. Two levels up: Now you can see how the documents and website areas are like their own hubs for all the systems and processes across the enterprise. The reporting area has different reports for various areas in the organization. All sourcing from the central data warehouse gets fed with data regularly by various other systems within the company. Three levels up: Now you can see how John gets one mail from the Insurance Company that collates all the documents for his products from the Insurance Company. He can logon to the website to see one integrated view of all the information related to his products with the company. If he has selected paperless options on the website, he no longer gets printed matter from the Insurance company. Four levels up: You begin to appreciate how this company has the most advanced integrated view of all the products their customers own. Insurance regulatory agencies rate this company A+ due to their on-time compliance in financial and regulatory reporting. This is just an example of zooming out to view the big picture. There is no set number of levels to zoom out; its entirely up to your preference and judgment. These four levels just indicate a problem at hand view to the big picture view.
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In essence, recursive system thinking helps a business analyst to: break down a big analysis problem into divisible smaller sub-problems, decipher them and then combine each of these partial analyses to get the holistic analysis of the problem domain. step back and see the whole picture, rather than focusing on just its parts. It is an attempt to see the forest as well as the trees because you can see the interrelationships among the elements of the system. explore the interdependencies among the elements of a system, looking for patterns rather than memorizing isolated facts (such as document analysis, system overviews, etc.). get a more accurate picture of the problem context and help understand a systems natural forces to achieve effective results. think about problems and solutions with an eye toward the long view. For instance, how might a particular requirement play out over the long run? And what unintended consequences it may have? recognize that systems thinking is founded on universal principles that can be detected in all projects. enter the system, complete with its functional and dysfunctional dynamics, and help the team become more effective without becoming influenced by the system and its various forces.
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There are several ways to take your systems thinking to the next level. I would like to offer you these three activities for you to use: 1. Make maps of the organizational hierarchies Organizational charts are an easy method of connecting the various project stakeholders. An effective way to do this is to use the Organization Modeling technique described in BABOK: An organizational model defines how an organization or organizational unit is structured. Organizational units bring together a group of people to fulfill a common purpose or goal. This purpose may be functional, meaning that the people in question share a common set of skills and knowledge, or to serve a particular market. An organizational model will define the scope of the organizational unit, the formal relationships between the people who are members of that unit, the roles those people fill, and the interfaces between that unit and other units or stakeholders. Once you have done adequate level of organization modeling, look for how different processes, people, and workflows function together as one unit. 2. Always perceive the big picture Having the ability to zoom out of the current process view into the big picture view is a key element of systems thinking. Ask yourself the following questions to validate your big picture view: Who is the ultimate benefactor of this? Where does this piece fit in the larger context of the organization? Who is immediately impacted? (directly and indirectly) How does this add value to the organization? What is the value that is being added? What would be the effect of this process not being implemented?
If you can visualize or be able to describe answers to most of the above questions, you are able to zoom out of the micro level change to the macro level impact.
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3. Break out of the fringes Going beyond the boundary of the current change often yields a greater understanding of the system. This can be as simple as knowing what happens next in a fair bit of detail. Having an understanding of this can sometimes expose the gaps in your own realm of change. Adopt one of the following approaches to break out of the fringes: Talk to the interfacing components process SME and understand what happens after you finish the hand-off from your process to theirs. If that person is short of time, ask for any literature or process assets that will help you understand the end-to-end flow. Always ask open-ended questions to learn about the process and its implications. If possible talk to more than one point of contact and get different perspectives on the same process. This can sometimes bring out a different angle or twist.
When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say. - Abraham Lincoln
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2. Constantly look for patterns in your analysis work, and identify any gaps that may make a current instance incomplete. Use the examples given below as a cue, along with your own. Area Login and Access Audit and tracking changes Pattern / Best practice Defined security roles allow a streamlined access Maintained audit trail info allows for tracking specific changes Signs of gap - No roles defined - Access levels not defined - No way to identify who made changes - Errors go unchecked
3. Select one artifact from your project (a use case, a system context diagram, a process flow diagram, etc.) and apply all the steps of recursive systems thinking, and see if you can make it better.
(Please dont forget to give your feedback for this pillar: www.FreeBAGift.com/feedback )
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Pillar 4
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No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction. - Charles Francis Adams
When you dont feel the urge to go the extra mile it means that you are not passionate about what you are doing.
Going the extra mile is a mindset that helps a business analyst see things with a slant to deliver better results, to meet and exceed expectations, and to constantly seek to deliver more business value. Great business analysts find a way to contribute at crucial points in a project timeline to propel things forward, and to bring to light a contribution that eases pain. As part of this pillar I want to elaborate on what going the extra mile really means for a business analyst, along with a few examples. I also want to help you identify and highlight certain themes and facets of going the extra mile that you could use tomorrow in your business analysis work. Use these facets as cues to embark on a venture that will make you go the extra mile in your journey of creating business value and solving business problems. Going the extra mile to achieve results is a crucial element that makes a Business Analyst stand out in a team. It is important to realize that a Business Analyst plays a bridging role, not between teams, but also within his or her own team. Being able to facilitate understanding and make the team excel by creating a highly helpful and collaborative working environment is an important function of a Business Analyst.
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An obvious implication is that Nikhil should have approached Puja, and sought any necessary clarifications to provide a detailed list of fields to Philips. In this instance, Puja went the extra mile, proactively stepped in and defused the confusion. So, the next time someone is stuck, ask yourself, what can you do to help move things forward for him or her? 2. Learn to teach, not just to understand or absorb Ongoing learning to absorb new concepts, domains, and technologies is a key requisite of the business analyst role. While were learning, we are usually disposed to be able to perform a given task to its completion, and to conform to the expectations of others. Going the extra mile during learning would be to do so with the goal of becoming a SME who becomes confident enough to teach and train others. The ability to impart knowledge and training is an essential BA skill be it helping a new person up to speed, ensuring the team understands the business and its requirements or guiding the user community on using the new system. Teaching is something a business analyst often gets involved in during a project. It could be teaching someone new to the team to get on board, or to get the development team up to speed with what the project or requirements are about. Giving training to the user community is something that a lot of business analysts do as well. What about my job security then? In many scenarios this may seem like you are replacing yourself with someone by giving out all the knowledge, and information you know about the subject matter. This may seem like a counterintuitive approach to increase job security. Well, there is no such thing as job security really. If someone needs to be let go, they will be. Doing your best to impart knowledge as and when needed, can be a great way to build excellent rapport within the team. So, the next time you approach any learning, do it with the intention of mastering it to the point of being able to teach it.
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3. Be the project whisperer There is a TV series called The Ghost Whisperer where the protagonist, Melinda Gordon, has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. While living a normal, happy married life, she helps earthbound spirits resolve their issues. Often her tasks are difficult and challenging when addressing these problems. She gets pushed away by people in a few instances, due to their disbelief in her ability and talent. The ghosts are mysterious and sometimes menacing at first and Melinda must use the clues available to her to understand the spirits needs in order to help them. A project whisperer would be someone like Melinda, but instead of being involved with ghosts, he/she is involved with the project team and the issues faced by the team. Business Analysts regularly face daunting project challenges, especially at the beginning. This phenomenon becomes more apparent when working in new teams, or with new stakeholders. A BA should recognize this, and work to resolve the issues using his/her prior knowledge and experience. Being a project whisperer is also about understanding that tools and methodologies used in projects are just one side of the equation. The other, more important, side is people and their needs. Having the ability to read the available clues to help people is paramount, and an important part of being the project whisperer. This can add a lot value to your BA toolkit.
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In this instance, Amir read clues from Sophia to recognize there is a knowledge gap. He then went the extra mile to conduct an additional one-on-one session. 4. Be the process whisperer If being a project whisperer is about understanding people and their needs, and working through their disbeliefs, challenges, and threats; a process whisperer is looking at processes as if they have a life of their own. They can speak in ways that a great business analyst can listen to. This helps in identifying how processes can be simplified, optimized and improved to have maximum impact. Being a process whisperer is the foundation for continuous improvement, helping the business solve problems, and attain a greater fulfillment in your job. These improvements do not have to be necessarily conducted against existing processes; it could also be for creating a new process when iterated through its creation. A process whisperer is not a person with paranormal abilities who can talk to and listen to the inanimate processes, but rather someone who is willing to go the extra mile by: listening carefully to identify any pain points that may exist. This can happen during requirements elicitation, analysis or validation. thinking using patterns from best practices in previous projects, and situations. empathizing with the users and bringing a point of view that will improve the process sympathizing by understanding the key challenges, and issues faced by the end-users. suggesting changes to any related item that can contribute to alleviating pain and improving processes.
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Similar fields for the new setup are copied from the existing setup by visually looking at an existing one, and copy-pasting the corresponding fields into the new setup. She sits with the user, and observes as the user expounds upon the procedure. At this point Denise asks the user So you do this for every new setup? The user responds, Yeah, pretty much. Since most of the new setups are similar to the existing ones. Denise, being a process whisperer starts to think, What if there could be a Clone button to copy setups? When Denise begins to map out requirements for the TO-BE process, she discusses this pain-point with the team, and drafts requirements to provide a setup-cloning feature. 5. Network Most of the business analysts deem themselves to be lifelong learners, but continue to do so within the four corners of their cubicle and their organization. It is important to have the mindset to try different tools, techniques, and approaches for different efforts and projects. Going beyond your current organizational methodologies can be a great learning experience. Having a good understanding of the BABOK, and its structure is a great starting point. From that point forward acquiring good perspectives on best practices and standards from your peers in other companies can act be very educational. So why is learning and networking a facet of going the extra mile? You could continue to do your job without them. You could continue to use the same toolkit for all your projects, and never tread the path of learning something new, outside your comfort zone. However, networking ties in closely with that because it takes extra effort to build a network. Having a good network is not about having a LinkedIn profile with 500+ connections; its about how strong your relationship is with your connections. Can you count on your network to help you with a new BA tool or technique? Are you in touch with them on a regular basis? What have you learned from your connections in the past one-year? These are just a few questions to reflect upon.
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My definition of art contains three elements: 1. Art is made by a human being. 2. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else. 3. Art is a gift. You can sell the souvenir, the canvas, the recording... but the idea itself is free, and the generosity is a critical part of making art. Art is what were doing when we do our best work. ~ Seth Godin in Lynchpin
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Peak productivity
to make things happen
Pillar 5
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Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. - Paul J. Meyer
You either control the external elements that impact your work, or they control you. Dont Panic
As a business analyst, you manage multiple stakeholder expectations, elicit requirements, conduct analysis activities, create multiple diagrams, describe document requirements, conduct reviews, incorporate review comments, document minutes, conduct user training, participate in scoping, create measurement reports, lead or coordinate with the QA team, learn new material, keep up with emails, and keep the status of all your tasks at the tip of your fingers. And thats just one project. Imagine juggling multiple projects at once. Are you feeling overwhelmed? Dont panic! Managing workload and distractions effectively is a key attribute of great business analysts. In this pillar, you will learn how to deal with distractions, prioritize your work flow, and be more efficient in your process. In this pillar I want to define what peak productivity is, and provide real tools with examples so that you can be more productive right away.
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iii. Folder for the beholder: Organizing emails in folders is very useful to create buckets of information and look-up items. If you are working on multiple projects, folders can come in handy too. Sub-folders could be used to further categorize your emails. iv. Tool of the rule: Rules help immensely to route your emails to set folders. You could setup rules on a number of parameters in Outlook. Always have a few rules in place, redefine them as necessary. v. One-and-done: When dealing with an email, immediate action is a great way to increase your efficiency. Doing a first round to read the email, a second round to review it, and a third to finally address it is not the best approach. Minimizing the tendency to delay acting on the email can waste your time and energy and will only lead to an increased backlog. vi. From chime to the time: While you process your emails, you may come across one that requires an action at a later date (e.g. a request for meeting, a follow-up, etc.). In these instances always schedule a time window in your calendar. 2. Getting Things Done (GTD) Process Having a system in place to get things done (GTD) at work is an important facet of increased productivity. This can include clearly defining what needs to be done, and if there are any dependencies, getting them aligned appropriately. One of the most comprehensive books written in this field is Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity by David Allen. This book will help you understand the fundamentals of productivity, and the process of making things happen. Without having a solid system to get things done it can be challenging to think, to focus, and to pay attention to the important things to move your work forward. The system could be as simple as a whiteboard with a list of things or as complex as a spreadsheet having various mini-projects to track various activities, along with detailed next steps. In my experience, I have found great success by keeping things as simple as possible.
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A few productivity tips: i. Plan and prioritize your tasks: This is an obvious but a missed component from working through tasks as Business Analysts. All of us (myself included) are guilty of focusing on something that is urgent but not important. It is essential to plan for all the tasks, and prioritize them in the order of how they need to be done. Here are some quick pointers: a. Plan your tasks at the beginning of the week, and before you start your day. b. Set aside 15 minutes, at least, to consciously plan your tasks at the beginning of your workday. c. Keep the Business Analysis plan handy (in case your project has one) and try to assign priorities based on this, and also according to what needs your attention most. d. If someone is waiting on you to move forward, assign that a higher priority than something that you can do on your own. ii. Have a system to track your tasks and progress: A system could be as simple as a whiteboard which has outstanding tasks that you tick off as and when your work through your tasks or a spreadsheet tracking various activities and their current statuses. Tackle the tasks that you are most comfortable with and take the least time first. Some examples include: a mini whiteboard to list tasks, a spreadsheet with projects and activities, and also a recurring outlook appointment - to block time off and also list out tasks for that day. iii. The power of lists: Creating a list that shows a sequence of tasks, and any stopping points in between, is a great way to hash out the task flow, and also increase your productivity. iv. Single task with focus: Try to single-task on important tasks. This gives you clarity and focus in your work. It will be difficult at first, but start off by single tasking for just a few minutes (10-15 minutes). As you become more comfortable doing this, increase your time window (up to 45 minutes). After you have completed your time working on a single task, reward yourself with a break to do anything you like for 5-10 minutes. Just remember to come back to your work afterwards!
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v. Schedule important tasks in advance: This may seem obvious however there are two distinct aspects to this. For tasks that you can complete alone, schedule time in the future, particularly if you are waiting to follow-up on someone finishing a dependent task. The second aspect of this is using stakeholder time effectively by scheduling tasks and activities according their availability. This is a crucial aspect of working with stakeholders that have acute shortage of quality time to spend on your project. 3. Interruption handling process Handling interruptions effectively is key to increasing productivity, and getting things done. Allocating time for interruptions can be useful in training your mind to separate them from important work, rather than dealing with them randomly. i. Eliminate distractions: In an age of iPhone notifications, Facebook and Twitter phenomenon, it is getting increasingly difficult to focus and keep attention on tasks. Add to this the constant email arrival Outlook popups notifications, and one can become totally devoid of concentration. Close all applications such as Outlook and put away mobile devices temporarily to enable you to focus and complete your tasks. By setting up a pre-defined time window for social media, you can still stay connected with your friends and focus on your work. ii. Find your peak productivity window: Find out what time of day works best for you. If you are a morning person, try to get the most important tasks done during that time. It is sometimes a good idea to block time off on your calendar during your peak productivity window to focus on the most important tasks.
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2.
Task processing
3.
Interruption handling
2. Use the worksheet below to jot-down some ideas on how you will use the email efficiency tips: Sl.Nr Tip How will I apply 1. Same time for the chime 2. Craft of the draft 3. Folder for the beholder 4. Tool of the rule 5. One-and-done 6. From chime to the time 3. Read David Allens Getting Things Done The art of stress-free productivity book, and identify what areas from the book you can incorporate in your daily work schedule. 4. Try a productivity technique that you havent tried before from the ones suggested in this pillar.
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Epilogue
I wrote this book not because I am the model for a great business analyst, but because I consistently aspire to be one. I wanted to learn what it entailed to be something other than a business analyst that my team would ridicule or consider superfluous. Being a great business analyst is not a state of being actually, it is a journey. Its a journey that will change you and make you change things around you in the process. These five pillars that I have offered are your guideposts to be better practitioners, listeners, and employees, and to find the fulfillment you are looking for in your job. I believe that business analysts are the artists of the knowledge-related workforce. All the BA tools, techniques, and standards are our brushes and each project that we do is our canvas to paint. What makes our work an art is the expending of emotional labor by realizing the essence of these five pillars by: 1. being passionate about it, even when you are in pain, similar to a musician who plays the guitar despite the pain from pressing those sharp steel strings. 2. making meaningful connections with your stakeholders, as a novelist does connecting all the characters in the plot throughout the novel. 3. employing recursive systems thinking in your work, like a painter who zooms in close then far away to create that perfect perspective for their masterpiece. 4. going the extra mile when you need to, like a sculptor perfecting an inconspicuous, but essential element of their model. 5. focusing on peak productivity, similar to an architect synergizing time and resources to build the best building for its purpose.
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About Yamo
Yaaqub Mohamed (Yamo) is a passionate and practicing business analysis Consultant based in Toronto, Canada. He has over a decades experience in software development and has worked on diverse domains such as Retail, Auto, Property, and Life Insurance, Mutual Funds, Banking, Sales and Marketing, CRM, Cloud Computing, and Non-profit sector. He holds a major in Computer Science(B. Eng) and enjoys working on projects that involve strategy, process improvement, legacy migrations, and new app development. He enjoys mentoring BA professionals, teaching business analysis topics and prepping BAs for CBAP and CCBA exams. When not working or teaching he loves to read, play guitar, blog, podcast, and spend time with his family. He also volunteers with IIBA Toronto chapter, and enjoys conducting Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program (YLP) for school kids. He is the co-founder of Movement for Students Welfare Trust; a Nonprofit organization based in Bengaluru and has helped thousands of under-privileged students in India through his Motivation and study skills workshops. Being a firm believer of having a solid purpose in life and giving back as a living philosophy, he actively follows what he preaches. He is currently working as a Lead Business Analyst in the Capital Markets domain for a top-tier financial group in Canada. He loves to work on challenging and mission critical projects. He also heads the Professional Development for Business Analysts advocacy group in his current organization, and is an innovation advocate for his group. You can: Email him at yamo@thebacoach.com, Follow him on twitter: @yaaqub or @thebacoach Connect on LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/yaaqub
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