3 Steps To Winning Over Your Most Difficult Stakeholder.

3 Steps To Influence Stakeholders on Prezi

An important part of a good Business Analyst's tool-set is the ability to engage and influence key stakeholders.

Here's a simple model I use to develop meaningful and lasting professional relationships with my stakeholders be they managers, project people or juniors:

Over a period of time (i.e. one or more meetings or interactions) make sure you move through the following phases:


Step 1: MATCH

• The main goal for this phase is to empathise as much as you can. In other words walk a mile in thier shoes.
  


• Actively demonstrate that you are working to understand their view of the world. Take opportunities to stop the conversation and "play back" what you've heard.



• Listen out for opportunities to add value in small ways. (e.g. mention an online resource that may be helpful for them)



• Whenever you interact be sure to mirror body language, tone of voice, language. Sounds cheesy but it works!

Step 2: PACE

• After you've practiced matching for a while you should be more 'in tune' with their way of thinking.



• Conversations should flow quite easily and your stakeholder should be quite relaxed.



• You should also have a good understanding of what they want or what thier concerns are.



• In this phase you focus on keeping the momentum going. Feedback things that you know they would be interested in.



• Make sure you keep any promises made in conversation even if it may seem trivial. (This is crucial for building credibility!!)



• You know you're getting this part right if you can finish their sentences!

Step 3: LEAD

• Be outcome oriented. Stay wedded to the outcome and not the method of getting thier!!!


• This is when you start bringing in your agenda in a very respectful way.
  
• Start by telling the reason for talking to them. Ask them for some time to explain your point of view.


• Be open to comments and treat questions or concerns with respect.


• Respond to comments as if you were looking at your message alongside your stakeholder.


• Ask them what they think the best way is to proceed.


• Respond to thier advice. Show that you are able to be influenced.

This model has served me well over the years and really helps remind me to listen before presenting.


If you're interested in where this model came from have a look at the NLP wiki.

5 useful WolframAlpha features for Business Analysts

WolframAlpha has finally launched and this article takes a look at some of the features that may be useful to the IT crowd. If you're looking for a good explanation of what WA is then have a look at Stephen Wolfram's intro.


1) Estimation tools

Next time you ask your developers for an estimate point them to Wolfram's excellent set of metric computations...

Spotting trends can be hard however Wolfram can give you several perspectives on simple data streams. Drop a sequence of numbers in and the output will be several computational perspectives that will help you to spot patterns or even trends. Pretty useful when building estimation models. Try these statistical examples.

2) Present Value and other financial features

Essential for Cost Benefit Analysis, Wolfram provides a several view of projected value earned over time. Here's an example.

3) Website info

Drop your own URL in and see a breakdown of statistics. Still a bit basic but I think it has potential.

4) Historical Money

Great little feature that allows you to find out the value of money at different points in time. For instance you could find out how much $100 USD in 1900 is worth today.

5) Salary and wages

Wolfram allows you to input different job titles and returns the salary stats for comparison. These can even be targeted to a specific location. I've tried a few variations with out much success but I suspect this feature will be developed as the demand ramps up.

The release of a computational search engine like WolframAlpha is a very significant event and although this tool won't compete directly with Google, I believe it's on a par. Technologists and business people should definitely take note.

The many modes of a Business Analyst

These days, business analysts are plying their trade in increasingly diverse settings and are being pushed more than ever to add value at strategic levels.

Good analysts are showing their mettle by adopting a range of operating modes. Here's a list of the operating modes I've applied myself and observed in others:

1) Orientation Mode

This is where the analyst (or analytical team) gets familiar with the domain and the stakeholders. We expect to see a great deal of relationship building here paying particular attention to the 'agenda setters' within that domain.

What it looks like:

• Relationship building.
  
• Coffee meetings.
• Taking a passive role in meetings.
• Conversations over the drinks cooler.
• Conversations with the movers (and the shakers).
  

2) Description Mode

An analyst in description mode is focused on describing the current state and the end game and ensuring this is communicated to everyone involved. This is where the vision is captured from the leaders and communicated in as many ways as possible. The aim being to prompt discussion at the tactical/operational level and help the implementers understand how the vision is different from the status quo.

What it looks like:

• Taking an active role in meetings.
• Relationship building.
  
• Generating descriptions (proposals, business cases, high level conceptual states, GAP Analysis).
• Presentations & workshops aimed at understanding.
  

3) Analysis Mode

This mode comes into effect when the analyst has a substantial amount of data to digest. This may be information captured from users, stakeholders, subject matter expects or even simply from themselves which needs to be analyzed and developed to address key questions.

What it looks like:

• Taking a more active role during meetings.
• Analytical Modeling, requirements analysis, gap analysis, impact analysis
  
• Cogitating, thinking, mulling over...
• Discussing with other analytical peers
• Researching analytical methods
• Testing of theories
• Recreational activities (e.g. playing online games or lots of breaks)

4) Prescription Mode

Here the analyst has developed a strong sense of direction and needs to communicate this to the implementers (whether that be directly to the developers or the people who manage them).

What it looks like:

• Thought Leadership
• Setting the agenda
  
• Influencing
• Providing constant reminding of the destination
  
• Monitoring progress
• Isolating and correcting misalignment

5) Prediction Mode

This mode is underpinned by a significant application of analytical skill-set, estimation. Here the analyst aims to predict the outcome of various conceptual (or committed) paths. It is important to note that the quality of this activity plays a major part in supporting good quality decisions. Often projects live or die by the quality of estimation at the outset.

What it looks like:

• Estimation workshops
• Wideband delphi
• Creating estimation models
  
• Trend analysis
• Data analysis
• Impact analysis
  
• Workshops
  

6) Validation Mode

In this mode the analyst aims to independently compare actual outcomes with the outcomes envisaged to validate progress or delivery. This mode also aims to test the usefulness of what's been delivered as perceived by the user or customer.

What it looks like:

• Test strategy formulation
• Test design
• Testing
• Quality Assurance activities
  
• User Acceptance Testing
  
• User Calibration Testing
  

How to generate better luck on large projects.

Today’s topic will include a look at typical project cycles and how to dramatically improve the 'luck' experienced on a project.

This posting focusses mainly on the Start-up and Final Delivery phases of a typical project and answers the question: What can we do during the start-up phase to promote success during the final delivery?

We will approach the answer by first looking at the 'What' and 'Why' before moving on to the 'How' and 'Who'.

So lets get started...

How can we generate better luck on our projects?

Step 1. Make sure you have the end in mind before you start.

• Identify the high-level project deliverables along with the main business drivers. (Business Case)


• These are powerful navigation tools essential for steering the right course.


• Conduct a study of who your Stakeholders are and what benefits they'll want from your project.


• Meet with your customers and ask them to help you to help them. Sounds cheesy, but it's a great way to build rapport and calibrate your approach. This will also demonstrate to them that your project is focussed on delivering benefits and not just another sterile solution.


• Develop an 'Elevator Pitch' for the project and have this adopted by your management team.


• Create a detailed Product Breakdown Structure taking into account the stakeholder input.
  

This takes care of the ‘WHAT’ and ‘WHY’ for your project. Now let’s look at the ‘HOW’ and the ‘WHO’...

Step 2. Conduct a full inventory check on the resources you and your team have at their disposal:

• People, skills, expertise, budget, time, infrastructure, sponsorship support etc.


• Consider the timelines for when these resources may actually be needed.


• Assess any gaps between the project demand profile and what you can supply in terms of resources.


• Work out how to fill the gaps. For example request more funding, skills etc. This is where you show your initiative and resourcefulness.

Step 3. Measure Measure Measure !!!

• There's an old saying: "What doesn't get measured doesn't get done."


• How will you know when you get there?



• Look at the Product Breakdown Structure and work out ways in which to measure the successful delivery.


• Carefully decide on the quality criteria for each one.
• Try applying the GQM method to get started.


• Make sure they are SMART criteria.
  

There is a strong cause and effect relationship between the decisions made at the start of a project and the ease of success of the output.

In short, effort invested in these techniques at the beginning will amplify the luck experienced at the end.

All the best,

P.s. Feel free to comment on this blog with your own experiences.

Make your mistakes early and cheap!

Take too long to deliver and you've missed that crucial window of opportunity!
Someone else gets to market with a competing product and again you've missed the boat!

This is where we can learn from today's entrepreneurs...

*** Make your mistakes early and cheap ***

(Featuring: Five easy steps to consider when planning your next deliverable ;-)

Last year we had a brand spanking new product to launch for a rather large internet start-up that sought to combine three major technologies; Mobile, IM and VOIP. The sheer volume of assumptions we were relying on made management very nervous. Their (quite natural) response was to consider extending the deadlines and increase quality control. Luckily, we managed to convince them to support our, seemingly counter intuitive, approach...
By thinking like a garage start-up we aimed to capture the essence of the business model in a cheaper and simpler solution. We found we were able to gain faster access to the revenue, drastically reduce the time to deliver and minimize the associated risk exposure. We planned several incremental releases that would respond to the feedback captured on the fly. This enabled us to maximize the revenue streams and easily ramp up the complexity. Working closely with these entrepreneurs gave me the idea for this post:

Here are five easy steps to applying the entrepreneur's lesson to your next project:

Step 1) Analyze the core requirement that your deliverable is addressing.
This is very much about WHAT your deliverable is trying to achieve as oppose to HOW. The answer will give you greater flexibility when generating pilot options.

Step 2) Conceptualize a Pilot version of your deliverable that meets this requirement.
As a rule of thumb, aim to scale the solution down to about 25% of the original budget.

Step 3) Plan to pilot this release to a select set of target users.
Identify and engage your customers early. Prepare them for the release and how they can best help out. Make sure you establish several ways for them to communicate with your team.

Step 4) Set-up your development resources to respond quickly to feedback.
Make sure your own team is setup to capture and manage the changes in the following releases.

Step 5) Start planning a series of releases as required.
Be ambitious with your delivery dates. Constantly re-prioritize the tasks to maintain alignment with the overall requirement. Think Triage! Follow this up with a schedule of release dates and commit to them publicly.