the role of the business analyst in benefits
DESCRIPTION
Talk by Jayesh Patel, British Gas on the role of the business analyst in benefits. Thames Valley IIBA branch - 24th July 2012TRANSCRIPT
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The Business Analyst Role in Project Benefits
Thames Valley IIBA EventJayesh Patel
Date : 24 July 2012
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Agenda
Slide 2
• Introduction into Benefits• The Project• BA Role during Project Lifecycle• Project Challenge• BA Approach & Tools• BA in Release Planning• Q&A• Take Aways
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Introduction into Benefits
Definition of a Benefit:
Slide 3
... The measurable improvement resulting for an outcome that is perceived as an advantage by one of more stakeholders and which contributes towards one or more organisational objective(s) (PRINCE2).
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Benefits – The Challenge
• Some statistics…..• Studies show that over 70% of business improvement projects fail to
deliver their expected benefits, and even when they are achieved in part, often they are far from fully realised (InfoWorld report)
• Fewer than 12% of companies can accurately measure the business impact of their IT investments (InformationWeek summary of survey and interview research)
• 41% of projects failed to deliver the expected business value and ROI (Tata Consultancy Study)
• When the true costs are added up, as many as 80% of technology projects actually cost more than they return. It is not done intentionally but the costs are always underestimated and the benefits are always overestimated (Mercer study)
• 50% of CEOs and CFOs agreed with the statement “I do not feel my organisation is getting the most for its information systems investment” (Computerworld survey quoted in The Information Paradox)
Slide 4
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Type of Benefits
Slide 5
Tangible Intangible
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Why do we do projects?
“The role of IS is to deliver a capability to the business – the solution MUST enable the benefits to be delivered”
(British Gas Head of IS Change Finance)
Slide 6
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Typical Benefits Categories in Business Cases
• Cost Reduction in Operating Costs
• COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
• Revenue Growth
• Margin Enhancement
• Cost Avoidance in Operating Costs
Slide 7
Benefits and the Project Life Cycle
Slide 8
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How BAs can add value in relation to Benefits
• The level of sophistication across the business in relation to benefits varies greatly
• There needs to be increased emphasis to ensure that it is possible to measure what has changed between As Is and To Be >translate this into quantifiable financial benefit
• Project costs are visible – benefits are more difficult to isolate and measure – this is a challenge for everyone
• MI should not always be an afterthought – it is often required to be able to measure benefits
• Business Analysts can play a key role in relation to business stakeholders and other IS stakeholders such as project managers
Slide 9
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The Project
Quote captured by engineer in field and
sent via email to customer and British
Gas Office
•Business Case Benefits: £6m over 4 years for British Gas Services businesses
Replacing current paper + manual entry quoting process with automated solution
Paper based Quoting
From… To…
Field
An increase in quotes generated by engineers More consistency in quoting (increase in Revenue) Real time Pricing update (ability to run campaigns) Paperless quoting
Back Office
System stability Ease of telesales Facilitating new markets e.g. Solar, Electric Vehicles Improved controls on margins
Slide 10
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The Project (2)
• Agile (SCRUM) software development
• 42 Functional Requirements in High Level Requirements Specification at end of Shaping phase
• Produced 5 Epics and 105 user stories– Create Quote
– Progress Quote
– Manage Packs
– Housekeeping
– Performance Tracking
• End of Mobilisation phase ~166 user stories
• During Build phase ~maximum 196 user stories
Slide 11
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Agile (Scrum) Overview
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Allocating User Stories to Sprints
1
2
3
4
5
6
Product Backlog Sprint Backlog
User Stories are selected from the Product Backlog by the Product Owner at the Sprint Planning meeting
User Stories further refined and prioritised during the current Sprint to be ready for the next Sprint(s)
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Prioritising Refinement of the Product Backlog
Product BacklogNext Sprint
Last Sprint
Pro
du
ct B
ackl
og
Sch
edu
le
Fine grained and detailed User Stories, ready to be used in a Sprint (Estimated at lessthan the Sprint duration)
Medium sized requirements,typically large UserStories. (Could be a Release)
Course grained requirements,Epics. (Could be future releases)
There is limited value expending effort on stories scheduled for
Sprint 9 when in Sprint 2
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Agile - Iterative Process
Slide 15
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Project User Stories
Categorised User Stories into 8 Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF) sets to aid Release Planning:
1. Fast Quote
2. Complicated Quote
3. Create Quote in Office
4. Progress Accepted Quote
5. Progress Deferred Quote
6. Product Management
7. MI Reporting
8. System Configuration
Slide 16
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BA Role during Project Lifecycle
Idea
• Define Options• Define business
needs & objectives
• Identify benefits
Shaping
• Gather requirements
• Analyse requirements
• Prioritise Requirements
• Define Measures• Mapping/tracing
benefits to requirements and objectives
• Communicate requirements
Mobilise
• Communicate requirements
• Elaborate requirements
• Create Product Backlog
• Ensure & manage the quality of Stories
• Identification & tracking of gaps, synergies & dependencies
Build• Clarify requirements• Prioritisation of the Product Backlog• Manage Product Backlog• Assessment of business value & impact on project• Requirements Specification &Solution Design & Product Backlog Traceability• Support Change Requests• Support Testing
Implement
• Support Training• Support
Implementation of measures
• Support Business Readiness
Slide 17
Key
Red Text = activities directly linked to benefits
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Project Challenge
Cost
QualityTime
Slide 18
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BA Approach & Tools
• Utilised Product Owners to proportion benefits from Business Case into Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF) Set
• Extracted Product Backlog from Mingle into MS Excel spreadsheet• Filtered User Stories by status, priority, business value and story points• Joint working with Solution Architect and Scrum Master to assess which
MMF could be delivered in a Release taking into account technical constraints
• Selected high business value User Stories that should be implemented for an MMF
• Prioritisation of MMF into a Release and graphical representation (see subsequent slides)
Slide 19
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Benefit Driven Requirements
Slide 20
Minimum Marketable Feature Set Field (nn% of business case)
Office (nn% of business case)
£n.nn Million £n.nn Million
Fast Quote 80% 0%
Complicated Quote 20% 0%
Create Quote in Office 0% 30%
Progress Quote & Print Partner 0% 35%
Product Management 0% 20%
Operational Reporting 0% 10%
Performance Tracking (MI) 0% 2%
Housekeeping 0% 3%
100% 100%
Slide 21
Release 1 Release 2 Release 3-£1,500,000
-£1,000,000
-£500,000
£0
£500,000
£1,000,000
£1,500,000
£2,000,000
£2,500,000
£3,000,000
£3,500,000
Multiple Releases
Benefit
Cost
Net Benefit
Time
Slide 22
Release 1 Release 2 Release 3
-£2,000,000
-£1,000,000
£0
£1,000,000
£2,000,000
£3,000,000
£4,000,000
£5,000,000
£6,000,000
Single Release
Benefit
Cost
Net Benefit
Time
Slide 23
Benefit delivered by Releases
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BA in Release Planning
Slide 24
ChallengeEarlier
BenefitsRealisation
Prioritisation
BA Enabler to help make decisions
ReleaseManagement
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Questions
Slide 25
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Summary
Slide 26
BA Role during Project Lifecycle
The Project
Project Challenge
BA in Release Planning
BA Approach & Tools
Introduction into Benefits
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Take Aways – As a BA you can do this!
Business Analysts can become involved and add value at every stage of the life cycle by using their skills in
• Identifying, defining and shaping benefits
• Prioritising benefits
• Mapping/tracing benefits to requirements and objectives
• Prioritising and challenging of requirements
• Defining measures and the information to support them
• Gathering information
• Championing benefit realisation
• Influencing implementation
• Documenting and reporting benefits realisation
• Challenging and facilitating
Slide 27