Today most of our core business processes are already supported by software; most organizations have moved away from large development projects. Our projects are smaller, more incremental. There is much more focus on interfaces, integration with existing systems, and change management. Also, developers can develop faster and users can see prototypes earlier due to more sophisticated development tools. These changes are driving the increase in the number and sophistication of Business Analysts (BA). BAs must have a sophisticated understanding of their business needs and the current operating environment to be able to recommend business and software solutions that will work with existing systems.
Requirements
Facilitation sessions are a great way for BAs to gather complex business requirements and help their business teams understand and articulate needs. Using facilitation sessions to gather and analyze requirements is a key task of many BAs.
It is important to recognize that a BA acting as a facilitator on his or her own project is not independent or completely objective as are traditional professional facilitators. The BA brings his or her business area knowledge, understanding of technological options, and understanding of the organizational environment to the session making
• Multiple versus individual input. As stakeholders listen to other stakeholders describe their requirements, they may all be reminded of additional requirements that might have been missed with one-on-one interviews.
• Resolution of differences. Individual interviews with stakeholders often result in different answers to the same question. This causes the BA to re-interview people and try to resolve the discrepancy herself. By using a facilitation session with all involved the BA not only the facilitator, but also a valuable member of the group.
What is a facilitation session?
Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines the word facilitate as to make easy or easier. This is a very nice way of explaining why facilitation sessions are often considered during project initiation and requirements gathering. To make requirements gathering easy or easier is a goal towards which we all strive. A facilitator is one who is a planner, designer, helper, instrument, or agent.
Facilitation sessions are not meetings. They are very structured, planned, working sessions where every participant is carefully chosen and has a critical role to play. Planning and preparing for a facilitation session is a significant task that, if not done well results in a poorly run session and a huge waste of time for the participants.
Why use a facilitation session?
When a project involves two or more stakeholders, conducting a facilitated requirements gathering session may be useful. There are several reasons why a facilitation session might make requirements gathering easier:
Multiple versus individual input. As stakeholders listen to other stakeholders describe their requirements, they may all be reminded of additional requirements that might have been missed with one-on-one interviews.
Resolution of differences. Individual interviews with stakeholders often result in different answers to the same question. This causes the BA to re-interview people and try to resolve the discrepancy herself. By using a facilitation session with all involved parties together, the BA can help them discuss their disparate points of view. Often these differences result from something as simple as different uses of terminology or different assumptions. When the requirement is discussed by the group, these differences may be quickly resolved.
True differences in requirements are identified immediately and the team becomes aware of issues that will need to be addressed. The entire group recognizes that the ultimate solution must be able to address a variety of needs. When it becomes clear that stakeholders have conflicting requirements the Project Manger and Business Analyst must review the project scope and plan to make sure there is time to address these conflicts.
Balancing priorities. Different stakeholders often have different priorities with respect to the requirements. Leading the group through a discussion of priorities results in everyone being aware of other stakeholder needs. The facilitator can direct the negotiation between stakeholders to arrive at one shared priority list.
Scope the project. A facilitation session is very beneficial at the beginning of the project as a way to develop the scope and/or area to be studied. This session is planned and prepared by the Project Manager and the Business Analyst working together and can increase the likelihood of project success by having all of the stakeholders understand and agree to the project boundaries.
Team building. As with any well-orchestrated group work, the team develops rapport with each other and team members become more vested in the success of the project.
Process improvement identification. Occasionally as people from two different departments talk about how they do their work, one may learn of a different procedure or policy that could solve a business problem right away.
Challenges for the Business Analyst as the Facilitator
There is one unique challenge of using a BA as a session facilitator. A BA cannot be completely independent or neutral about his or her project while conducting a facilitation session. This is because the BA:
• Has in-depth business knowledge.
• Has an understanding of the unique business environment.
• Has organizational technology knowledge.
• Is responsible for communications between business stakeholders and the solution team; they are an integral part of the project team.
• Will help to identify alternative solutions.
• Has a stake in the outcome.
Because the BA cannot be completely independent or neutral, she must be very careful when conducting the session. The BA must allow the project stakeholders to provide the requirements and keep them within the project boundaries. She also must lead the session in the direction that makes the best use of the participant’s time and meets the objectives of the project.
This often means that the BA must allow the group to explore areas that the BA knows are “going nowhere,” allowing the group to figure that out for themselves. But if a BA sees that the group is heading in a completely wrong direction, she can “facilitate” the group back on the right path. This requires excellent communication skills and a good sense of group momentum.
One way to minimize the challenges faced by the BA acting as the facilitator is to use two BAs to run the session. One BA may act as the facilitator and the other as the scribe. This is referred to as BA Pairing, where two BAs work together on a project. In the ideal situation, one BA would have extensive business area knowledge and the other BA would have an IT background. This pair of BAs would be able to listen to requirements, quickly identify the areas that need further discussion, and then tailor and refine their questions to lead the group in the most productive direction.
Benefits of using the Business Analyst as the Facilitator
Although it is challenging for a BA to also be the facilitator, the benefits are often worth the extra effort. A BA’s knowledge, sophisticated analysis skills, and powerful communication skills allow her to subtly change the direction of a group discussion to make the best use of the group’s time together. An experienced BA can listen to the group’s input; analyze it and understand the implications, see the next logical step in the process; and tailor her questions to lead the group in the most productive direction. Let me present a couple of examples.
Example 1: During a facilitation session the BA realizes that a business stakeholder has an idea for a solution about which he feels very strongly. He has come to the session with this idea and his goal for the session is to convince everyone else that it is the best solution. While the BA is listening to his idea, she realizes that his solution is not technologically feasible in their environment.
This is an example where an outside facilitator might not realize that the solution idea is not feasible and may allow the group to discuss its merits and details for an extended period of time. The benefit of having a knowledgeable BA leading the meeting is that she can lead the discussion away from that solution and get the focus back on requirements gathering and idea generation. “That’s an interesting potential solution Frank, I do foresee that may be difficult to implement in our environment so let’s make sure we really understand the problem and consider other possible solutions.” In this case the BA has saved valuable session time and prevented the team from getting vested in a solution that will not work.
Example 2: While facilitating a session on a new product idea with the Marketing Department, the BA listens carefully as the group discusses how they might sell the new product to their existing customer base. The BA hears one stakeholder mention that customers who have purchased or inquired about product XYZ might be interested in the new product. She also hears that customers in a certain geographic location are likely to be interested in the new product.
Since the BA knows that order history data and customer profile information is already stored in existing corporate data stores, she can begin asking questions about the existing data to determine how it might be used here. She might ask questions like “How reliable are the customer addresses in our database?,” “Where did the data come from?,” “Have we kept track of product inquiries?,” and/or “How much history is available?” In this case the BA’s knowledge allows the group to progress toward a solution.
The art of facilitation sessions is becoming more vaulable in gathering requirements and gaining consensus on solutions. With their unique knowledge and skills, the BA is able to tailor questions, hone the discussion, and keep the group working toward solutions that she knows are feasible and cost justifiable for their organization. This makes the BA as facilitator a valuable member of the group in addition to helping the group provide requirements.
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