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Four thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas coined by our authors and co-created through audience reflection & feedback
⇒ Read and discuss the essence on LinkedIn
Common sense:
We must 'educate' our stakeholders about all the roles involved in digital transformation and business change and 'sell' the value of business analysis.
Uncommon sense:
We have an opportunity to collaborate and contribute beyond the boundaries of job titles.
Why you should care:
The turf wars are holding us all back, causing resentment, underutilisation of skills, confusion among our stakeholders and stopping us from acting in the best interests of our projects and organisations.
Introduction:
There has been a significant proliferation in the number of job titles involved in business change and digital transformation initiatives. Analysts, architects, managers and designers of all varieties seem to compete to protect their roles and responsibilities. Rather than multi-skilled cross-functional teams, we sometimes see hyper-specialised roles, which leads to both overlaps and gaps in skills and activities. Is there another way? How can these roles exist in professional harmony?
"Just as evolution favours genetic diversity, modern business analysts should foster cross-functional collaboration to avoid the pitfalls of insular thinking and ensure long-term survival." / Mark Smalley
⇒ Read and discuss the essence on LinkedIn
Common sense:
Analysts analyze the situation.
Uncommon sense:
Analysts first analyze the analyzability.
Introduction:
In today's fast-changing business landscape, Business Analysts must know when to trust deep analysis and when to switch to experimental methods. They must apply rigorous analysis for knowable problems while embracing more exploratory approaches when facing complexity. By adopting this more nuanced approach, BAs are not only more effective but also dispel an unhelpful pedantic image, lending credibility to their profession. Typically, BAs have relied on their analytical expertise to solve problems, define requirements, and deliver solutions. However, as organizations face more dynamic and uncertain environments, this core strength can sometimes become a liability when misapplied. This article explores how the Cynefin sensemaking framework can provide BAs with a practical lens to recognize when and how they should question their analytical defaults.
"We must realise that a bias towards analysis is still a bias that needs to be examined." / Christina Lovelock
Common sense:
Is to hurry, minimize upfront costs, and lead by activity.
Uncommon sense:
Is to synchronize, minimize marginal cost and lead by productivity.
Why you should care:
Because communication traffic jams are lumpy and slow everyone down, cause fatigue, and hurt your profit margins; a communication symphony is smooth and speeds up the ensemble, avoids fatigue and helps your profit margins.
Introduction:
Traffic jams are low discipline, low empathy, and low trust. Symphonies are high discipline, high empathy, and high trust.
"Every organisation is the creator of its own culture. The culture they end up with is the result of what they collectively choose to celebrate, punish or ignore." / Bard Papegaaij
⇒ Read and discuss the essence on LinkedIn
Common sense:
Whenever we are called in to help solve a business problem or improve a business process, that's exactly what we set out to do. We look for ways to make the problem go away and improve the current state, so the business can continue to do what it currently does, only better and, not seldom, more. The benefit of this approach is that it helps the business continue by overcoming obstacles and developing new capabilities.
Uncommon sense:
The downside is that this approach keeps adding solutions and capabilities to a usually already complex and confusing array of existing solutions and capabilities. Continuous improvement leads to continuous complexification, which ultimately leads to fragility, internal inconsistencies, and decreased efficiency due to the existence of a substrate of legacy systems and solutions that still require energy and attention without clearly and unequivocally adding value to the organisation.
Why you should care:
To attain true and sustainable business continuity, things must be allowed, even forced, to die as the business evolves. Ending systems and processes that are no longer optimally serving the organisation's goals and aspirations must be part and parcel of every BA's approach. How much needs to die, and how soon, must be bravely and rigorously examined. No scope is beyond scrutiny. From individual processes, solutions and systems to entire business departments, and - sometimes - even the business itself, the question: "Does this still serve the business enough to warrant the ongoing effort to sustain it?" must never be left unexplored. When the answer is 'no', our duty is to show why something needs to be killed, how that can be done safely and effectively, and how much (if any) of its constituent parts (think of data, business rules, processes, policies) can be salvaged and repurposed for something more fit to serve the business in the future.
"Operational sprawl is common. It is a financial and cultural drag on the business. A svelte organization knows how to prune and euthanize its baggage. Pruning and simplifying are disciplined, empathetic, and indeed, merciful. / Robert Snyder
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