Tips -Business Analysis !

Tips 1

Fired Up -

• For Car as your PMO, your PM is the Engine and you as the BAs are the GAS – The source of Power
• For Tree as your PMO, your PM is the Trunk and you as the BAs are the roots – The source of energy and stability
• For the war as the Project, you are the Chief Commander of war and your PM is the king observing that war from distance.

It is your skills which will equally decide the success or failure of a project as much it is with your PM. Else it won’t be true that about 70% of projects fail just because of BA’s poor requirements.

ALWAYS REMEMBER- > You are paid for identifying the real need, documenting expectations, generating the best and improved solutions, coordinating and managing team, and last but not least maintaining the company standards and code of professional conduct. Your are the SME - Subject Matter Expert for Technology Team and you are the Researcher for the Business Team. You are the link between Technology, Business and PMO.  You are the first contact for everything happens in the project from start to end. You are the leader of team and PM is the mentor & owner of the team.

Tips 2

Whenever you see a new person around you or in a meeting, always try to categorize them into two broad group (ask either they are from Business or Technology). Then if from Business the try to understand which operations or business are they from? Identify their position and their authority level by understanding how high they are in the organizational structure. Most people you encounter will be Directors, Sr Managers, Executives, Chief of Operations or Technologies etc who can make the decision on final requirements and solutions. Other people like officers or staffs of operations like Customer Service Representative, user of the product etc will be the one who will help you understand the detail of the product or scope of project but may not have the power to make any decision. They will have to go back to their executives to make the final decisions. ALERT - Business Stakeholders can have the power to terminate your project immediately if not satisfied.

If you encountered a Technology SME or Team member then you will have to start sorting them according their position. Understand about their power or level of authority on the system or technology they own. If now power then you will have to move one step up and determine their boss role and authority level –who may have the power to make the final decisions. In most cases, technology Executives or Chiefs make the final decision but the system level details are provided by lower level SMEs or tech experts or the tech users.

Tips 3

Most Important Stakeholders:  Each product of project is normally owned by one or many Business Owner(s) and one or many Technology Application Owner(s). It is critical to involve these owners to keep them informed of the impact of the project on their business or application. It is extremely important to get final approval on the requirements, solutions, UATs and other project artifacts from these owners. Never forget to get approval from your Project Managers as well. They are the owners of the project as a whole.

Tips -Bonus

Never avoid any stakeholders, rather embrace them all at once. Always create Stakeholders Log (RACI List) and keep track of all stakeholders’ expectations and needs both. In most cases expectations turn out to be requirements during the project execution. Project team is always changing and does this log, and the requirements.

PMI (PMBOK) recently started focusing more on Stakeholders Expectation (not just the requirements/needs rather expectations as well)? GUESS WHY? Now you know why, right?