How business analysts are catalysts for business

change

James Archer

The bridge

The context

Challenge - Process

Advice

Different(levels(of(leadership(Business Analysis and Leadership4

● Organization. While many business analysts see no need to look beyond their immediate project, outstanding ones will always have one eye on the organization they work within. They realize that, in order to make change stick, they need to understand and engage widely across their whole organization. This requires an understanding of the entire system, the ability to deal with power and politics, skills in working across boundaries of culture, and an understanding of both strategy and commercial realities.

● The wider world. The very best business analysts realize that they have a lot to give to the wider world, starting with their own professional colleagues. From writing articles to presenting at conferences, they give back to their profession and, in the process, may be recognized as thought leaders. Others serve on professional associations such as the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) around the world, supporting new analysts and developing the profession in many ways. Still more engage with others through networks, within and across companies and on social media, grappling with dilemmas and solving problems together.

F IGURE I .1 The diff erent levels of leadership

BA

Organization

Project

Self

Wider world

01 Intro.indd 401 Intro.indd 4 5/13/2013 3:33:30 PM5/13/2013 3:33:30 PM

Self Project Organization Wider World

The �T� of skills and competencies

Intra and interpersonal skills

Busin

ess

kn

ow

led

ge

Tec

hn

ica

l ski

lls

Environment / climate

Product

Process

People

A systemic approach

© Creative Problem Solving Group Inc.

Climate is different to culture

DIMENSION DESCRIPTION

Challenge/ Involvement

The degree to which people are involved in daily operations, long-term goals, and visions

Freedom The independence in behaviour exerted by people

Trust/Openness The emotional safety in relationships

Idea-Time The amount of time people can (and do) use for elaborating new ideas

Playfulness/ Humour The spontaneity and ease displayed within the workplace

Conflict The presence of personal and emotional tensions

Idea-Support The ways in which new ideas are treated

Debate The occurrence of encounters and disagreements between viewpoints, ideas, differing experiences and knowledge

Risk-Taking The tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity exposed in the workplace

The 9 dimensions of climate

Brown cow

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker

When policy gets ahead of itself: The �tragic tale� of the Integrated Children�s System

The story

An example of just one mandatory form

Brown cow

Model the way

Creating solutions that: resonate or attune or reflect

or enable the organizations values

Understanding oneself to understand the organization

Brown cow Social workers are skilled professionals

We need to support them in doing difficult jobs

© 2013, Perspectiv LLP. All rights reserved. Working out ways to high performance.

Inspire a shared vision

(Business(Analysis(tools(can(

help(turn(ideas(and(visions(of(others(into(prac7cal(solu7ons(

The(more(a(project(is(linked(to(strategy(and(visions(of(the(future(the(be>er((

Role of business case

Articulated importance of tools and conditions to support social workers

Fear - Government plans unworkable and incompatible with RBKC

Risk - RBKC requirements incompatible with national requirements

Challenge the process

Search for opportunities Look outwards Seize the initiative

Experiment and take risks Most innovations from people closest to the work

Janusian thinking Creative ideas from contradictory ideas Looked outwards and inwards - use best of ICS (rigour and structure) with strong sense of supporting social work practice - individual needs of child within family context

Innovation = new and useful

How to make complex processes intuitive

Enable others to act

The key is how well is a change adopted - NOT the quality of the solution

Share knowledge Facilitate relationships Break down silos

The stretchy text box

Box to enter text into You never know if this is an important question for this child. Therefore an expanding text box became a really

Brown cow Make it easy for social workers to enter information (

Stretchy text box (

Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited

• Functional requirements are things the product must do

• Non-functional requirements are properties that the product must have

• A constraint is a restriction on the design or scope of the product

.. some aspect of a product�s content or behaviour, which is needed to support the business

A requirement is..

Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited

• Functional requirements:

! Technical skills

! Business knowledge

• Non-functional requirements:

! Inter and intra personal skills

! Leadership skills

• Constraint:

! Self-imposed

Requirements for a Business Analyst are...

www.volere.co.uk www.baleadership.com Twitter - @jamesarchers Jamesmcarcher@gmail.com