Using Business Analysis to Meet IT Challenges
UW Tech Talks February 14, 2018 Piet Niederhausen, Enterprise Business Architect, UW-IT 2 Overview
> Typical IT challenges > What is business analysis and how does it help? > How does business analysis fit into a team? > Case study > Getting started Typical IT challenges Typical IT challenges
● What does the organization really need from IT long term? STRATEGY ● Are we prioritizing the right projects?
● Does this project have the right scope and goals? PLANNING ● Are we planning the right stories for our sprint?
● What’s really most important to users in this solution? SOLUTIONS ● Would an alternative also meet people’s needs? Digital trends: 35 years in 36 seconds
● Highly integrated solutions ● Deliver on a full range of business needs ● Ubiquitous
Source: Harvard Innovation Lab IT challenges are shifting
Source: EDUCAUSE, The Future of the IT Workforce in Higher Ed (2017) 7
What is business analysis and how does it help? 8 What is business analysis?
“Business Analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.”
-- International Institute of Business Analysis 9 Example
Context Changes Needs A fast-growing university Our office staff has grown We all need access to the administrative office, which quickly and we serve far more same up-to-date information works closely with several people. Demand is up, but about the people we serve partner offices. our customer satisfaction is and what we’re doing for down. them.
Stakeholders Value Solutions ● Management ● Better customer service Changes in how we work as ● Office staff ● Reduced staff frustration an office, perhaps including a ● Customers new Customer Relationship ● Partner offices Management system. 10 What are typical business analysis deliverables?
Context Changes Needs ● Scope statement ● Drivers ● As-is assessments of ● Problem statement ● Strengths, weaknesses, processes, systems, data ● High level context opportunities, threats ● Requirements for to-be mapping of processes, (SWOT) processes, systems, data systems, data ● Scenarios ● Goals and objectives ● Projections (requirements can take many forms; that’s a topic unto itself)
Stakeholders Value Solutions ● Stakeholder interviews ● Business case ● Evaluation criteria and notes ● Cost-benefit analysis ● Alternative solutions ● Facilitated stakeholder ● Metrics or KPIs ● Design assumptions meetings ● User stories ● Ongoing stakeholder ● Test cases communications What does business analysis contribute?
With good business analysis Without enough business analysis STRATEGY
Context is well understood so the right efforts and Work is wasted on the wrong efforts; a different Context scope can be defined. strategy could have achieved more.
The root causes of changes are understood so the Important changes are not acknowledged; work is Changes right needs can be defined. wasted on addressing the wrong changes.
PLANNING
The expected value of the work is well understood The return on investment is not clear; stakeholders Value and is affordable for the organization. have conflicting expectations.
The right stakeholders are represented, contributing Important stakeholders are missed; their Stakeholders their information and goals. information or goals are not well represented.
SOLUTIONS
The true needs are understood so work is focused Work is wasted on solutions that don’t meet the true Needs on the right problems. underlying needs of the organization.
An appropriate solution was selected, designed, The solution does not meet actual needs; it is Solutions tested, and is well supported. difficult or costly to test, operate, or support. 12
How does business analysis fit into a team? 13 Business analysis is not a single methodology
Lean Six Sigma Scrum Agile
Business analysis IT Service Management Design Thinking (ITSM) Many more ... 14 Business analysis in IT projects Planning ● Help define scope ● Help define deliverables Initiating PMI’s Project ● Plan the business ● Gather objectives Processes analysis effort ● Research context ● Contribute to WBS and ● Conceptualize the estimates product ● Initial requirements ● Define the business gathering case
Controlling ● Trace requirements Executing ● Define success metrics ● Ongoing requirements gathering & management ● Support implementers ● Maintain documents Closing ● Contribute to testing, ● Assess actual training, and change cost/benefit management ● Hand off documentation
Image source: Project Management Institute, The Basic Process of Project Management 15 Business analysis in IT service management
Service Strategy Service Design ● Assess business needs ● Develop service and demand requirements such as ● Analyze the service capacity, availability, portfolio security, compliance ● Develop the business ● Identify enterprise case for a service requirements
Service Operation Service Transition ● Contribute to support ● Gather detailed ● Maintain documentation requirements ● Catalog recurring issues ● Support implementation and unmet needs for CSI ● Contribute to testing, or future design training, and change iterations management ● Document knowledge about the service
Image source: UC San Francisco, IT Service Management Office 16 Who does business analysis?
“Job titles for business analysis practitioners include not only business analyst, but also business systems analyst, systems analyst, … product manager, product owner, … business intelligence analyst, … and more.
Many other jobs, such as management, project management, product management, software development, quality assurance and interaction design rely heavily on business analysis skills for success.”
-- International Institute of Business Analysis 17 Roles at the UW that do business analysis > In project teams ― Small projects: PM/BA and/or Programmer/Analyst ― Medium projects: Dedicated BA working with developers and QA ― Large projects: Senior BA leading a BA team > In service teams ― Common: Service Owner or Manager doing business analysis ― Less common: Dedicated BA as part of the team > In program teams ― Common: Director, manager, or PM doing business analysis ― Less common: Dedicated BA, program analyst, financial analyst, data analyst, etc. 18 Different areas of accountability
Business analysis: Project management: What are right outcomes to How will we get the work deliver at this time? done?
For your team, how SOLUTION will you make sure this gets enough analysis? Design, implementation, testing, and training: How will the solution work? 19
Case study 20 Case Study Context > Facilities Services contacted UW-IT asking to replace a third-party document management system that was going off support > The UW-IT Enterprise Document Management team (fka CONCERT) led a project to create a new solution > This case study centers on an IT solution; other business analysis efforts could center more on process changes or data transformation 21 Project team
Project Business Manager Sponsor
Business Project Analyst Manager
Subject Solution Matter Architect Experts
Developers Users 22 Discovery
Context Changes Needs
Stakeholders Value Solutions Discovery > 23 Context and stakeholders Discovery > 24 Changes in technology, people, process, and policy Meeting IT challenges
● What does the organization need from IT long term? STRATEGY ● Are we prioritizing the right projects?
> Broad context of business challenges where IT could seek to provide value > Broad view of related technology, people, process, and policy changes > Prioritization of “musts” and “coulds” 26 Definition, Design, & Implementation
Context Changes Needs
Stakeholders Value Solutions Definition > 27 Prioritizing needs Definition > 28 Solution scope Definition > 29 Search users include internal Solution context UW and external users such as contractors. They search Search the to-be solution as well as users related systems.
All content items and selected Related systems have existing web metadata will be migrated. Initial links to content items in FS-DOS; iterations of the to-be web search solution will include a transition plan can link back to FS-DOS for files To-Be Solution to replace links at least in Asset Related Legacy System Mapper. that have not yet been migrated. (using Systems (Innovator, CONCERT (Asset Mapper, FS-DOS) While the to-be solution is iteratively Solution should be designed for released, ongoing ETL will be platform) related systems to take advantage AiM) needed and iterative changes to the of the Content API in future. Will continue to be design of transformations are Will continue to rely used while the to-be expected. on Innovator until solution is iteratively final release of the released. to-be solution.
New content can be Multiple electronic source or scanning scanned. Multiple workstations scanners Records Records Access authority managers authorizer Currently, contributors submit These users approve Manages content to the Records office via disposition of records in access to the Records the records solution. email, on portable media, or on team paper. Solution should be designed management workflow. Content The Records staff intake, to be extended with workflow to contributors enable authorized users to submit manage, control access to, new content or changes to existing and ensure compliance for content. all content. Definition > 30 Example: Use case
Use Case 1.2: Share Search Results Description: Enable Search User A to share a search result or content item with Search User B, so that person can run the same search and view content items. Priority: Must-do Actors: Two Search Users, System Triggers: Search User A has reached a search result they want to share (see C1.1 Find and View Content) Basic flow: 1. Share search result a. Search User A copies the URL specifying the search and makes it available to Search User B, for example as: i. A link in an email ii. A link on a web page or displayed by a web application User story: As a search user, I want to 2. Receive search result a. Search User B clicks on the link send a link to another person so they can b. Search User B logs in with their NetID see the same search results I found. c. The System displays the search results specified by Search User A d. Search User B views content items or revises the search (see C1.1 Find and View Content) Alternative flows: 1. Share content item link a. Search User A copies the URL specifying a single content item and makes it available to Search User B b. Search User B logs in and views the content item, as above Meeting IT challenges
● Does this project have the right scope and goals? PLANNING ● Are we planning the right stories for our sprint?
● What’s most important to users in this solution? SOLUTIONS ● Would an alternative also meet people’s needs?
> Clear current vs. future scope > Prioritization of “musts” and “coulds” > Requirements based on real-life use cases > Solution-agnostic requirements Design > 32 Example: User interface wireframe 33 Reflection: Business analysis works at multiple altitudes
Cloud Organization strategy
Priorities for Seagull Process context change
Sea Burning platform System context
Fish Functional requirements
Clam UI design, data design, testing Typical IT challenges
● What does the organization really need from IT long term? STRATEGY ● Are we prioritizing the right projects?
● Does this project have the right scope and goals? PLANNING ● Are we planning the right stories for our sprint?
● What’s really most important to users in this solution? SOLUTIONS ● Would an alternative also meet people’s needs? Trends and changes
● Highly integrated solutions ● Deliver on a full range of business needs ● Ubiquitous 36
Getting started 37 Getting started: Five areas to practice in
Gather background Propose alternatives
Find stakeholders Alternative scopes
Active listening Alternative solutions Core Do research activities Additional participants
Write stuff down Track stuff
Add structure Enable others Needs and priorities Connect levels of detail Issues and decisions Connect people Enable discussion Documentation Bring information Enable future use Changes Maintain context
Raise the bar 38 Resources > Your peers in the UW Business Analysis Community of Practice ― https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/BAC/ > International Institute of Business Analysis ― http://www.iiba.org/ > Project Management Institute, Business Analysis Practice Guide > Just do it … pick a business analysis activity you’re interested in, get your manager’s agreement, and try doing that work for your team!