PM Survival - Business Analysis for Project Managers

PM Survival:Improving Your Value

Through Business Analysis2011 PMI-DVC Tools Conference

November 5, 2011

By Chris Larsen, PMP

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A few questions...

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IT Management • Data Management • Project Management • IT Operations & Supporthttp://www.itevcorp.com

PM Survival: BA for PMs The Project Management Effectiveness Gap What PMBOK 4 Says About BA An Overview of Business Analysis Comparing and Contrasting PM and BA Integrating BA with PM Business Analysis Tool Example – Accompa Q&A






The PM Effectiveness Crisis

“Projects take too long, cost too muchand deliver too little.”

“Projects miss, lose, or destroymore value than they deliver.”

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The PM Effectiveness Crisis Technology projects fail too often

Standish Group Findings– 31.1% of projects are cancelled before completed– 52.7% of projects cost 189% of the original estimate– Average time overrun is 222% of the original estimate

FAIL!






What’s the problem?




Is it a project problem?




...or a business problem?




What does this mean for PMs? Project and program delivery needs more top-down

business support than it gets. PMs need much better handle on the alignment of

their projects with – business strategy (drivers)– business value (results)

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What does this mean for PMs? PMs need a stronger identity as champions of

business value.– knowledge of business strategy and business value– belief in the business strategy (vision, direction, etc.) in

order to promote it and align to it successfully– capability to align a project and its resources with business

strategy, business needs

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Increasing overlap of PM and BA PM must take a larger role in analyzing the business,

its needs, and solutions – an overlap with the discipline of business analysis.

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ProjectManagement

BusinessAnalysis






Why? To ensure alignment of projects with the business. To effectively communicate business outcomes and

value associated with projects. To effectively manage scope.

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What PMBOK areas does this address? Integration Management– Develop Project Charter

Business case (input) High-level requirements (input)

Scope Management– Collect Requirements

But not Quality Management?– Are requirements a missing input? A missing tool?

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PMBOK and requirements

Scope ManagementCollect Requirements (Section III, Chapter 5, Part 1)

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What is business analysis?

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What is business analysis?






What is business analysis? The set of tasks and techniques used to: – Work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to…– Understand the business strategy, structure, policies, and

operations of an organization, and to…– Recommend solutions that enable the organization to

achieve its goals.






What does a business analyst do? Identify, analyze, and solve business problems and

opportunities Determine the feasibility of a solution Define the solution scope and develop the business

case Continue to assess, refine, and validate the business

need and solution Evaluate the business benefits brought about by a

solution






Biz

IT BA







What is a requirement?

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A requirement is… A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to

solve a problem or achieve an objective. A condition or capability that must be met or

possessed by a solution or solution component to satisfy a contract, standard, regulation, law, specification, or other formally imposed documents.




Types of requirements

Type Description

Business Requirements Developed through enterprise analysis

Stakeholder Requirements Developed through requirements analysis

Solution Requirements• Functional Requirements• Non-functional Requirements

Developed through requirements analysis

Transition Requirements Developed through solution assessment and validation






Parts of a requirementThe system must/shall…

[…do something..] action verb (process)

[…with some information…] noun (entity/attribute)

[…under certain circumstances…] when/if (condition)

[…according to certain rules…] business rules (constraint)






How are your requirements handled now?




International Institute for Business Analysis

iiba.org




Business Analysis Body of Knowledge BABOK 2.0

IIBA certifications– Certification of Competency in

Business Analysis™ (CCBA™)– Certified Business Analysis

Professional™ (CBAP®)






The work of business analysis

Business Analysis Planning and MonitoringEnterprise AnalysisElicitationRequirements Management and CommunicationRequirements AnalysisSolution Assessment and Validation






Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring




Enterprise Analysis




Elicitation

Core Techniques Group Creativity Techniques (brainstorming, etc.) Document Analysis Focus Groups Interface Analysis Interviews Observation Prototyping Requirements Workshops Survey/ Questionnaire




Requirements Analysis




Requirements Mgmt and Communication




Requirements

Scope Management

Design

Development

Test Plan andScenarios

Transition

Traceability




Solution Assessment and Validation




Skills of a business analystCompetency Area Skills

Analytical Thinking, Problem Solving Creative thinking, decision making, learning, problem solving, systems thinking

Behavioral Characteristics Ethics, personal organization, trustworthiness

Business Knowledge Business principles, industry knowledge, organization knowledge, solution knowledge

Communication Skills Oral and written communications, teaching

Interaction Skills Facilitation, negotiation, leadership, influencing, teamwork

Software Applications General applications, specialized applications






Compare and contrast: PM and BA

Similar Planning Communication Management

Different Focus Deliverables Accountability





PM = Vertical The Project Manager aligns

closer to typical management positions with the responsibility of managing and tracking the various tasks and resources assigned to the project.

BA = Horizontal Business Analysts are more

akin to independent contractors, working across organizational boundaries as well as up and down organizational hierarchies.





PM = task-oriented The Project Manager is

responsible for staying at a higher level.– The PM moves the effort

forward toward completion

BA = subject-oriented The Business Analyst is

responsible for "drilling down" to elicit detail requirements.– The BA's work is never

complete.

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Integrating BA with PM Increasing demand for BAs to manage projects, and

for PMs to manage requirements Can one person do both well?

“There are more project managers able to do business analysis than there are business analysts able to manage projects.”






Requirements management with Accompa Online app for managing requirements– http://www.accompa.com

Requirements database – means requirements content can be viewed and published in multiple ways

Core concepts:– use cases– features– requirements






Requirements management with Accompa Customization – custom fields, views, forms Attachments to requirements ROI scoring of requirements – useful for

prioritization, business alignment Flexible requirements publishing– Word, PDF, HTML, Excel

Feature request forms and e-mail intake Can be integrated with SharePoint for review cycles






Accompa Demo



http://www.accompa.com/


Summary PMs need knowledge of business analysis and

requirements management to:– Align better with business strategy, business value– Improve scope management and solution quality






Business Analysis ResourcesResource Info

IIBA http://www.iiba.orgSource of BABOK, BA certification, educational resources

Modern Analyst http://www.modernanalyst.comOnline magazine and education resource; e-newsletters

ProjectTimes http://www.projecttimes.comGood requirements-related webinars with Keith Ellis; e-newsletters

Business Analyst Times http://www.batimes.com

Twitter Hashtag #baot (“business analysis on Twitter), good source of links and articles

http://www.theiiba.org/

http://www.theiiba.org/

http://www.modernanalyst.com/

http://www.projecttimes.com/

http://www.batimes.com/






Q & A

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