Skill: Conduct Effective Meetings

Business analysis professionals are often responsible for scheduling and leading meetings. This is a core skill that every BA should develop. Many of the activities and behaviors used to run an effective meeting are simple and straightforward. The trick is to remember to use them consistently.

There are many reasons why a BA may decide to schedule a meeting. Examples include to consult with a group of stakeholders on the business analysis plan, to develop or confirm the scope of the analysis area, or to brainstorm on solution alternatives. It is important to define your objective for a meeting. Without a strong reason for getting people together, you may waste their time. Think about whether your goal could be accomplished in a different way. If you are simply giving stakeholders the status of your progress, would an e-mail message work just as well? If you need help getting started with your requirements document, could you meet with a senior BA to get that help? If you need requirements from one department, is there one key stakeholder who could answer the majority of your questions? Any time that you can accomplish your goal without holding a meeting, you have saved your company valuable time and money.

When you have decided that a meeting is the appropriate forum to accomplish your objective, take a little time to plan the meeting. Select the appropriate attendees, develop an agenda, conduct the meeting efficiently, and follow up after the meeting is over.

Prepare for the Meeting/Select Appropriate Attendees

The leader or organizer of a meeting should prepare himself or herself and the participants for the meeting in order to be effective. Clear objectives are necessary to describe specifically what the meeting is to accomplish. The leader should create an agenda and estimate the time required for each topic or activity in the meeting. Based on the objective of the meeting, select participants who will contribute to the objective. Be sure to only include necessary participants. The more people in a meeting, the greater potential to waste time. Other interested people may be informed about the meeting and sent the meeting minutes.

Determine a time and location for the meeting that best meets the needs of the participants. Since all of your participants are necessary to accomplish your goal, aim for 100% attendance. If a key stakeholder is unable to attend, reschedule the meeting.

Meeting Agenda

The meeting agenda should be prepared in advance and distributed to the participants. This allows everyone to adequately prepare for the objective of the meeting. New topics added during the meeting should be noted and scheduled for future discussions unless the group agrees to adjust the agenda. An agenda should include the following items:

• Objective of the meeting (including the expected outcome)

• Date and start and end time

• Location

• Meeting participants

• Topics, with estimated time for each topic

• Person assigned to lead or present each topic

When the BA spends a few minutes thinking through the meeting agenda, a meeting is more likely to be well run and effective. Although not all meetings will proceed as planned, having a plan sets everyone’s expectations and clearly shows when the discussion is getting off topic (Brassard and Ritter, 1994).