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Tag: Strategic & Business Management

5 Trends in Business Analysis, Project Management, and Agile for 2017

Written by Elizabeth Larson on . Posted in Articles. 8 Comments on 5 Trends in Business Analysis, Project Management, and Agile for 2017

Since 2009 we have enjoyed reflecting on what’s happened the previous year on projects and making predictions for the upcoming year. To summarize the `trends” we saw in 2016:

  • Emergence of the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) to maximize value
  • Agile successes, challenges, and use beyond software
  • Trends in business analysis and project management certifications
  • Implications of a changing workforce

Here are five industry trends we see happening for 2017. We’ve added two brief bonus trends at the end of the article.

1. Business analysis as a focal point for scaling Agile

Many organizations are delighted with the results produced on Agile projects, but are struggling with its application on large, complex projects, as well as its adoption enterprise-wide. Many of the discussions focus on which Agile framework works best for scaling Agile. Some of the common frameworks often discussed are scrum of scrums, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), and Nexus.

  • Large, complex projects. While there is a great deal of contention about which framework is “best,” there seems to be an agreement that there is a need for coordination, integration, and communication among Agile teams related to the solution being developed. Regardless of the title of the person doing this work, it is business analysis work. And it’s work that has always been needed on large, integrated projects—the coordination of dependencies, security, business and technical impacts, and version control.
  • Enterprise-wide Agile. Many large organizations have adopted Agile in a hodgepodge of ways, and these different areas have become quite fond of doing Agile “their” way. Adopting Agile across the enterprise will require skills of people not only familiar with Agile, but also with understanding the Agile current state and working with stakeholders to reach consensus on a unified future Agile state. This will involve being able to influence, resolve conflict, and to think both creatively and critically—skills well suited to experienced BAs.

2. Digital Transformation: Profound Change for Business Analysis…or is it?

The “digital transformation” movement means we must change the way we handle business analysis and requirements. Or does it? Consider two trends commonly mentioned today.

  • Cloud Computing. Security is a bigger concern when storing data in the cloud than if it is on-site under “lock and key.” Considerations for recovering data must be employed over and above normal backup and restore. Access rights are also more complicated than with traditional applications.
  • Mobile apps. Mobile applications provide data for sensitive banking, investment, or insurance applications. Security is a bigger concern on mobile devices given they are, well, mobile. It is much easier for a thief to access a bank account from a mobile device than a desktop. Modern apps need to have “mobile responsive” features and usability.

What we conclude is that these two technical trends will continue to affect business analysis. The trend, though, is not so much with functional requirements as it is with non-functional requirements (NFRs). The two examples above feature important NFRs including security, accessibility, recoverability, and usability, including user experience. NFRs are traditional aspects of business analysis, and any profound effect on it is that we will need to pay even greater attention to them with digital transformation.

3. Freelance BAs and PMs in the Gig Economy

Currently 40% of the US workforce is part of the Gig or on-demand economy1 and that number is growing. Intuit breaks this on-demand economy into 5 groups.2 We describe these groups below and briefly discuss how they apply to the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA). Here are the 5 groups:

  • Side Giggers (26%). These are PMs and BAs who want to supplement their existing income. Examples include PMs and BAs who take vacation, days without pay, or who work off-hours to do training classes or short-term consulting gigs.
  • Business builders (22%). BAs and PMs who are tired of working for others and want to be their own bosses fall into this category. Many of these will create their own companies and hire others. We can expect these companies to be based on the owners’ experience in project management and business analysis. Examples include consulting and training companies.
  • Career freelancers (20%). These PMs and BAs love their work, love working independently, and want to use their skills to build their careers, not to build a company that hires others. These folks usually establish themselves as independent contractors with their small own company, usually an LLC.
  • Substituters (18%). PMs and BAs who want to work in the gig economy temporarily. Whether laid off from their former organizations or for other reasons they view “gig” work as temporary while they look for full-time employment.
  • Passionistas (14%). PMs and BAs who love what they do and are primarily motivated by their desire for greater flexibility than is usually provided by a more traditional organization.

4. The shifting sands of the BA and PM roles

Many project professionals find their roles changing so rapidly that it feels like the earth is shifting below their feet. Roles are being combined (BA and PM or BA and QA) or being torn apart (formerly hybrid PM/BAs are now full-time PMs or BAs). In some organizations BAs thrive on Agile projects working hand-in-hand with product owners (POs), while in others become part of the development team doing testing because there are no BAs,. PMs become scrum masters as do BAs. Sometimes the BA becomes a product owner, but one without the authority to make decisions.

In addition, both BAs and PMs are working strategically, doing business cases and recommending enterprise-wide solutions. And more and more organizations recognize the importance of the business relationship manager (BRM), to maximize value and help set the strategic agenda.

So what is the trend? For the foreseeable future, roles and titles will vary widely from organization to organization. Equally certain is that both project management and business analysis work, both strategic and tactical, have always been required and will always be needed, regardless of the role or the title or the role.

5. Generalists helping teams to self-organize

If descriptions of job openings are an indication, specialization seems to have wide appeal. But breadth of capabilities will continue to provide the flexibility that organizations need to respond to the hyper pace of change. BAs who code. Engineers who do project management. It’s the number of arrows in the team members’ quivers that defines an organization’s competitiveness – and contributes to the team’s ability to self-organize. Not only do organizations need self-organizing teams, but the teams themselves also need the flexibility to pick up tasks that are ready to go, so the more diverse the team members’ skills, the more work can be done in parallel and completed sooner.

Although varied work appeals to many younger workers, this isn’t just about attracting millennial talent. Self-organizing teams provide the structure organizations need in order to react quickly. Self-organizing teams and the ability of team members to wear multiple hats and get things done as they see fit will continue to become the best way for organizations to respond to external influences. The self-organizing team is not a new thing, but it is going to increasingly become the norm.

Two bonus trends

  • Short business cases and quick value. The trend is to provide business cases on slices of the initiative, slices that can bring quick value to the organization, rather than spending weeks or months detailing out costs and benefits and a return on investment showing a multi-year payback.
  • Dev Ops3 This trend relates to the first and fourth trends, scaling Agile and the shifting project roles. BAs and PMs now find themselves participating as DevOps Engineers on Agile teams that emphasize collaboration not just between the customer and development team, but also among such areas as development, operations, security, infrastructure, integration, etc.

Footnotes:
1 Forbes, January, 2016
2 Intuit Investor Relations, February 3, 2016, http://investors.intuit.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/The-Five-Faces-of-the-On-Demand-Economy/default.aspx
3 Dev Ops is “a cross-disciplinary community of practice dedicated to the study of building, evolving and operating rapidly-changing resilient systems at scale.” https://theagileadmin.com/what-is-devops/. Ernest Mueller, Aug 2, 2010 – Last Revised Dec 7, 2016. He attributes this definition to Jez Humble.

About the Authors

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA is Co-Principal and CEO of Watermark Learning and has over 30 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth’s speaking history includes repeat presentations for national and international conferences on five continents.

Elizabeth has co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation. She has also co-authored chapters published in four separate books. Elizabeth was a lead author on several standards including the PMBOK® Guide, BABOK® Guide, and PMI’s Business Analysis for Practitioners – A Practice Guide.

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, President and Founder of Watermark Learning, is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on business analysis and project management topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.

Rich loves to combine industry best practices with a practical approach and has contributed to those practices through numerous speaking sessions around the world. He has also worked on the BA Body of Knowledge versions 1.6-3.0, the PMI BA Practice Guide, and the PM Body of Knowledge, 4th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation.

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, is the Director of Project Management at Watermark Learning. She has 20+ years of experience in project management and related practice and training. She writes and teaches courses in project management, business analysis, and influencing skills. She has long been involved with the PMI® chapter in Minnesota where she is a member of the certification team. She has a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and is particularly interested in the cultural aspects of team development, as well as the impact of social media and new technologies on organizations and projects.

Can you predict if a project is going to be successful?

Written by Phil Jacklin on . Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Can you predict if a project is going to be successful?

We all have failed projects. But what if we could predict how likely a project was to be successful. Can we?

There are certainly some factors that we would all agree are definite indicators of a project’s probability of being successful. Take two projects, identical in every way, except one has all resources utilised at 200% of capacity and the other has all resources utilised at 50% of capacity. Everything else is identical. There is universal agreement that the project with over-utilisation of resources is less likely to be successful than the project with under-utilisation of resources. In this very abstract scenario, project success has an element of predictability.

But that doesn’t mean a project with more resource availability has a higher probability of being successful, than a project with lower resource availability, even if all other things are equal. For example, is a project with resources utilised at 51% of capacity, more likely to be successful, than a project with resources utilised at 52% of capacity? The difference is probably negligible. Both projects are equally likely to be successful. But what about a project with resources utilised at 100% of capacity, compared to a project with resources utilised at 101% of capacity? The difference is the same as in the previous example (1%), but is the effect on probability of success different?

So now we have the situation where there is a tipping point beyond which a project’s likelihood of success starts to change, as well as another tipping point later, after which changes have no discernible effect (projects with a 500% or 501% of resource utilisation, for example, are equally likely to be successful). This would give us a success curve, as shown in figure 1. Jacklin 011017

This leads to the next logical question. What are the values of the tipping points? Of course, that question we can never truly find the answer to. You can’t set up identical projects with different values of resource availability, keep everything else equal, and then run the projects to completion to see which ones were successful and which ones failed. Maybe that means project success is not predictable? Or is there another way?1

Like we have developed the argument around resource utilisation and shown how that could affect project success rates, there are other variables that we can develop a similar argument for. Keep everything else equal and only alter the amount of budget contingency; Keep everything else equal and only alter the amount of slack on the critical path; Keep everything else equal and only alter the amount of scope creep. All these scenarios will develop along similar arguments to the resource availability example. Whilst we can’t provide absolute measurements and can’t define our tipping points, we can at least develop a theoretical model, a probability of success curve, for how probability of success will alter depending on different values.

Before we come on to how we can use this, we need to think about the effect of combinatorial factors. So far, in all our examples, we have only changed one factor and kept everything else equal to derive our success curves. In our real projects, there are thousands of moving parts and thousands of factors that we might want to take account of. These factors change values at the same time. What effect does that have? Does it have any effect?

If we have a project with 95% resource utilisation and -30% budget contingency, is that more, or less, likely to be successful than a project with 95% resource utilisation and a 30% scope creep? Are scope creep and resource utilisation the deadly duo and when seen in combination, there is an accelerator effect and projects are even less likely to be successful? And how can we measure and validate this?

There is no doubt that combinatorial factors make the whole analysis of project success a good deal more complicated. Measurement and validation of any model, very difficult to start with, now becomes almost impossible and our hopes of finding a model to predict project success are fading. But there are some assumptions and techniques we can use to give us a glimmer of hope.

If we were to build such a model that predicted project success, what would we use it for? It turns out, that an answer to this question, could help us build a useful model for at least one scenario. A model that ranks project success, across a range of projects, relative to each other, would be useful to help us understand which of our projects, across our whole portfolio, are least likely to be successful. Those are the projects that we might review, change, or keep a careful eye on as they progressed. In this scenario, an absolute ‘score’, a ‘percentage probability of success’, doesn’t matter. What matters, is a comparative score. We are only interested in those projects that are low, compared to others.

Our work is simplified considerably with a comparative model. The position of our tipping points does not need to be as exact as the comparative differences still apply wherever the values of the tipping points are set.2 The probability of success ‘score’ for different points along our success curve no longer matter either.

As we are only building a comparative model, it’s the difference between the scores for different projects that matter, not the absolute scores. So now, if a project has a 100% resource utilisation, it doesn’t matter what ‘success score’ is given to this point, what matters is the comparison of this score to other scores.

There is still complexity in combining factors, which absolutely needs to be done in any model of worth. No one would argue that project success is entirely dependent on one single factor. Since the ‘multiplier’ effect of different combinations cannot be safely evaluated (you can’t prove that factor A, in combination with factor B, is more likely to lead to a failed project), the simplest thing to do is to combine factors in the least aggressive way (i.e. additive not multiplicative) and to combine all factors in a consistent way. The model will not be perfect, but it will still be valid as a comparative tool to compare project A’s chance of success against project B’s chance of success.

So, what do we end up with? We have a very simplified model that gives us the ability to compare a group of projects against each other, to show which ones are more likely to be successful and which ones are less likely to be successful. It’s not perfect and there’s still work to be done to work out which factors we should be including (1000s is not practical. But do we need 100s to have a good working model, or are 10s of factors enough?). But with enough data to analyse, this problem can be solved. There are also assumptions and simplifications that we’ve had to use to get to any model. Despite the limitations, the model is something we can use in our evaluation of projects – another tool to help us deliver successful projects.

Any model of project success becomes even more useful when we apply human interference and irrationality in to the model, which is the environment that a real project must be delivered in to, but that’s a blog post for another day.
What would you do if you knew your project had a 35% probability of being successful?

Footnotes
1 There is a separate argument that it might not matter. The rate of change, in probability of success, at either side of the tipping point, is so small, that if you were to build a model and set the tipping point at the ‘wrong’ place, the effect would be negligible anyway. This argument degrades once you set the tipping point a lot further away from the place it ‘should’ be, but it does give you an ‘accuracy range’ at which you can place the tipping point and the model can still be valid.
2 This is not quite true, there are a range of places within which our tipping point can be validly placed and not degrade the results of the model too badly. But that range is significant enough for us to have a better degree of confidence in the model.

8 Things You Must do Better to Make Better Decisions

Written by Richard Lannon on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on 8 Things You Must do Better to Make Better Decisions

I have been thinking lately about what it takes to make decisions. Just recently I was presented with a situation where some major decisions will need to be made.

Ones that impact changes in business and careers focus and could mean going into a whole new direction. So you have to make the best decision with the information at hand for your organization. From that perspective I think there are eight things you must do to make better decisions.

1. Invest in decision making skills.

This is something that holds true today as it did ten years ago or more. I see this as a foundational skill that people need to learn, practice and apply. There are many approaches or methodologies that can be applied in the decision making process whether you are a traditional organization, project based, a committee environment or driven by the board of directors. Often the fundamentals of decision making are missing. Look at the environment and create an appropriate decision making structure.

2. Create time to think ahead.

Time, time and more time is something we don’t have. It has become a luxury that most people can’t afford. Yet making good decisions requires time to reflect and look at the road ahead. What if you are considering changing careers and decide to go in a whole new direction? This is a big decision. This applies to a business venture also. Change and transformation are difficult to do on a whim, often you are required to think and plan ahead. But don’t over think long term plans as things change around you quickly.

3. Know who you serve.

This is an important point to answer. I know a lot of business leaders and professionals who I am completely confident in their ability to get the job done, to move forward and make things happen. But, they lack an important insight and clarity of who they serve. Decision making is a whole lot easier if you know who you serve whether it is a specific target market, an organization or something else. I think it provides opportunities to make mindful decisions and improve innovation and creativity in solving problems due to clarity and focus. It does not matter if you upset the market because you know who you serve.

4. Question everything, especially the business.

I often get asked how I would approach a specific problem. I am in a meeting and someone sets up a scenario and wants to know my approach. Any good business analyst, trainer or consultant will know the basics; define the problem, evaluation solutions, implement the approved solution, and measure the results. Part of the process is to question the business model. Recently I had this happen in a meeting with an executive director. I was presented with a question and responded but within that response I placed questions to better understand the business model of this organization.

Turns out they are looking for a change and the business model is suspect. It is always good to question, even when answering.

5. We can all think in a straight line.

Straight line or linear thinking is the a, b, c, of decision making. With so many organizations talking about innovation, creativity and being intentional I wonder what’s the point. There are many theories about what approach you should take. I still think the best approach to decision making and initiative integration is a mix between predictive and adaptive planning. These two approaches provide the best of both worlds, and when blended, often provide an organization an approach that works beyond the mere linear.

6. Create a story around decisions.

Life is a story and you write it yourself. With every decision there is a story that comes from people discussions, thinking, making assumptions, determining impact and communicating the decision. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create a decision narrative that is beyond the old boring business report? People want to be part of the decision story that makes a difference thus bridging organization gaps. You should create decision making stories.

7. We are all moving at the speed of a click.

Over decades my career has been part of the professional consulting and service economy which has accelerated at lightning speed in recent years. When I look at the professions’ value stream I think we need to make better decisions around the downstream business environment. Clients no longer just order or buy stuff they engage now in a very different way where it becomes difficult to determine the ROI on business activities. Margins wither as the need to provide valuable free content increases making business decisions a challenge to make. No matter the business you are in, the accelerated service economy is impacting your business.

8. Find a tool, reduce your risk and get costs under control.

The strategic business analyst looks at the past, present and future of a strategic plan and approach and use financial analysis of NPV, IRR and ROI within your business case. But it is important to go further and look at risk with uncertainty analysis. This is something that I learned over time from various economic adjustments (ie: dot com bubble burst, corporate and accounting scandals, subprime mortgages issue, and resource industry collapse) I think uncertainty needs to be determined better. Business intelligence and uncertainty reducing tools can be used to assist in this analysis. My point, the business analyst can play an important part in helping organizations make decisions through embracing uncertainty analysis approaches and tools to help deal effectively with unpredictable times.

Final Thoughts

Big decisions are tough to make, especially when you have invested so much time and effort on your business or focus area. When you work in a space where you are building skills and helping businesses define their future, you start to realize that there are certain truths that exist. One truth, everybody wants to survive and be around a long time. The second truth, that there is always a purpose that needs to be achieved. Third truth, good decisions and core competencies take you a long way to creating a profitable future thus achieving the first two truths.

Applying Best Practices on Strategic Initiatives

Written by Kenneth Perry on . Posted in Articles. 7 Comments on Applying Best Practices on Strategic Initiatives

Why employing project management best practices is critical to a Project Manager’s success at managing an organization’s strategic initiatives

Many organizations in today’s environment rely on Project Managers to help develop and manage their key strategic initiatives. These organizational initiatives are defined as “discretionary project[s] designed to close a strategic performance gap… [and] achieve performance improvements that cannot occur through continuous operational refinement or improvement.” These types of projects can be lengthy, highly complex and involve a wide variety of stakeholders, some of whom may hold senior leadership positions. Such challenges make it a risky undertaking for a Project Manager entrusted with this responsibility. What is a Project Manager to do?

In my experience working on such strategic projects, I have learned that one of the most important things a Project Manager can do in this situation is to embrace and apply project management best practices right from the beginning of the initiative. Doing so requires the individual to collect information on the tools, techniques, processes and methodologies considered to be best-in-class; review, analyze and understand their content; and integrate them into the design and execution of the initiative. While knowing technical or industry-specific best practices are no doubt important in this context, utilizing project management best practices is absolutely critical for the Project Manager chosen to shepherd an organization’s strategic initiative.

Why should project management best practices be used to support the effective management of strategic initiatives? I have concluded there are, at least, four major reasons for doing so.

  1. It ensures the organization’s efforts are aligned with accepted standards. If project management best practices are not applied to the implementation and coordination of strategic initiatives, then organizations are executing their strategy in a manner never before demonstrated in a successful, replicable way. This of course can introduce considerable risk to the organization. Instead, organizations can reduce risk by aligning their management of strategic initiatives with validated and respected project management best practices. 
  2. Doing so adds credibility to the Project Manager. Since project management best practices have already been evaluated and recognized as most effective, the Project Manager can rest assured knowing that his or her approach is grounded in established theory and practice. Their efforts will be understood by the project team, the sponsor and stakeholders as being prudent, deliberate, and justifiable. This reflects well upon the Project Manager and increases the confidence level in his or her management of the initiative.
  3. It provides predictability in a complex environment. When a Project Manager bases their efforts on project management best practices, they are introducing a degree of predictability to the project environment in which the team members and stakeholders operate. This is important as predictability greatly supports expectation-setting, communication and collaboration within the project. This is not to suggest that creativity or innovation are inherently bad characteristics to have in this context. It is to simply state that such qualities as consistency and repeatability are typically more important to effectively manage strategic initiatives considering the characteristically high degree of both risk and importance that such initiatives have.
  4. Applying best practices increases the probability of success. Something can only be established as a “best” practice if it has been consistently demonstrated to support, or result in, successful outcomes. Using such established project management practices is analogous to borrowing a map someone previously created to help them navigate through comparable, complicated terrain. Like this map, project management best practices – when applied appropriately – will increase your own chance at success because your “navigation through the project terrain” will be supported by practices others have already successfully implemented.

Though not a comprehensive list by any means, these four reasons do support the assertion that the application of project management best practices is a value-added exercise for all Project Managers, particularly in the context of strategic initiative management.

For those looking to discover and apply project management best practices to their own work, there are a wide variety of sources and organizations that they can turn to. One of the premier thought leaders in the field, the Project Management Institute (PMI), is a great place to start. PMI has developed the Project Management Body of Knowledge, or PMBOK, which is one of the leading handbooks on project management in existence. Additionally, PMI’s website is full of other standards, articles, templates and research papers, helpful for Project Managers across all levels. Another important best practice resource to draw from is the PRINCE2 standard, which is a very popular methodology, particularly outside of North America.  All are sources that have proven useful to me in the past and that I have leaned on in my own effort to manage strategic initiatives. I hope they will prove helpful to you as well.

Out of the Box Forum: Designing Project Management Methodologies is a Waste of Time

Written by Robert Wysocki on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Out of the Box Forum: Designing Project Management Methodologies is a Waste of Time

The project landscape is becoming more complex and uncertain.

The frequency of unknown unknowns is increasing. Risks are high in such a landscape.

These are undeniable facts. The likelihood that a predefined methodology will be robust enough to successfully manage these projects is rare. Flexibility and creativity must characterize every methodology to have any chance of it being useful. The same must be true of those who would manage such projects. If all you can do is use a recipe created by someone else to manage your projects, you will certainly fail.

This is a problem, and fortunately, it has a solution. My approach is founded upon the fact that complex and uncertain projects are unique, and the best way to manage them will also be unique.

Let me pose a management approach. My approach is based on first assessing and describing these three factors:

  • the characteristics of the project
  • the organizational environment in which the project will be executed
  • the stability of the market into which the project deliverables will be deployed

With this assessment in hand, the second step is to define the management approach that will accommodate this project situation. That assumes a vetted portfolio of tools, templates, and processes from which a “recipe” can be created to manage such a project situation. If all you have is Scrum in your vetted portfolio, you are in harm’s way and will almost surely fail. Scrum is excellent, but it cannot work for every project that might arise. If you add DSDM and FTP to your portfolio, you will have a better chance of success, and if you allow the project team to modify either Scrum or DSDM of FTP for this project, you will have an even better chance of success. You see where this is going?

The richer the vetted portfolio from which the recipe can be created, the better will be your chance of succeeding. The vetted portfolio that I use to help my clients design their own portfolios includes:

  • bodies of knowledge (PMBOK, IIBA, IPMA, etc.)
  • a specific set of methodologies (Scrum, FTP, etc.)
  • customized reports
  • business process models
  • Earned Value Analysis
  • process improvement programs
  • professional development program
  • problem-solving models
  • decision-making models
  • conflict resolution models
  • prioritization models
  • RASCI Matrix
  • Risk Management Matrix
  • other proprietary tools, templates, and processes

The project team uses the project assessment and this vetted portfolio and designs the best fit approach for managing their project. Every project will have its own approach, and every organization will have its own vetted portfolio.

This is only the start. We are talking about a very different type of project manager here. So a position family is needed and the support processes for it. An organizational infrastructure is required that includes a new type of PMO. The business model must also be aligned. But these are topics for future postings.