Technique: Conduct Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder analysis is performed during planning because BAs need to think about all of the individual people involved in a project and analyze their needs. This is the second piece of the Business Analysis Planning Framework. Since a large part of business analysis work involves communicating with people, it only makes sense to plan these communications.

Ideally, the BA and the project manager will sit down during project initiation and discuss each stakeholder. Since the project manager is responsible for keeping everyone aware of project status and dealing with issues, he or she must also think about the best way to communicate with each stakeholder. The two can strategize about how to work with each team member and develop a cohesive and consistent approach. The most successful projects have a project manager and BA who are in sync with each other and always deliver a consistent message (see Chapter 2 for more on stakeholder analysis).

Technique: Plan Your Communications

At the beginning of a project, you should think about how and with whom you will be communicating. Obviously, you will be communicating with all of the stakeholders.

A communication plan helps you think through how to best communicate. Always think through the who, what, where, when, and why of each communication. A little planning goes a long way in the area of communication. Everyone on the project team is busy, and no one has a lot of time to spend talking about the project and its requirements. You need to think ahead about how to best elicit and confirm requirements. Having a communication plan will also help you estimate the time required to complete your work.

With whom are you communicating? What is the individual’s position in the organization? Where does he or she work? How much time does this person plan to devote to the project? How experienced is he or she in the business area? If you know the individual from previous work, what is his or her personality? Is he or she shy and quiet? Is he or she difficult to pin down? Does the person oversimplify complex tasks? Does he or she work well in a group or work better alone? What is his or her attitude toward IT and software? The more you know about each individual, the better you will be able to structure your communication and make the best use of your time and the stakeholder’s time.

What information do you need from each stakeholder? Do you need to understand how work is currently done (as is)? Do you need to understand how one department works with another? Do you need to understand how one individual works with another? Are there complex business rules that you will need to document? What are the limits on your solution recommendations? Be sure to ask stakeholders for their ideas and suggestions for the solution. Plan enough time to develop questions, conduct elicitation sessions, conduct requirements reviews, etc.

How are you going to communicate? Business analysis work involves planning conversations, planning for interviews, and planning for facilitation sessions. Using a script may work well in these situations. There is a great book, not specifically written for BAs, called Lifescripts (Pollan and Levine, 2004). It suggests that when you must have a difficult conversation with someone and are unsure of how well the conversation will progress, you should plan the conversation. This fits well with requirements elicitation work.

The idea behind a script is that you plan each question or statement that you will say and then imagine the possible responses made by the person with whom you are speaking. In the context of trying to understand why a project is being initiated, imagine the entire conversation that you would have with a senior executive in your organization. Figure 7.3 shows the beginning of a sample script for such a conversation.

Figure 7.3: Sample Script

Where and how are you going to communicate? The ideal communication takes place when people are face to face to discuss project requirements. In a personal interview or requirements elicitation session, a BA gets non-verbal information in addition to the words that the stakeholder uses. Facial expressions reveal when you need to ask a follow-up question, paraphrase, or mirror a statement. If you can meet in person with a stake-holder, do so.

However, in many organizations today, face-to-face meetings are not always possible. When stakeholders are physically and/or geographically separated, BAs need to be creative in designing communications. Take advantage of the options that are available to you. Table 7.7 highlights some advantages and limitations of common communication vehicles used in business analysis.

Table 7.7: Communication Options
Vehicle	Advantages	Limitations
Telephone	• Convenient, available almost every-where • Ability to ask clarifying and follow-up questions	• No visual, non-verbal information • Requires both parties to be available at the same time
E-mail	• Convenient for brief information exchange • Communicators do not have to be available at the same time • Can easily ask follow-up questions and follow the e-mail string	• No visual, non-verbal, or tone-of-voice information • Does not build relationships
Instant	• Convenient for simple questions • Communicators do not have to be available at the same time • Can easily ask follow-up questions and follow the e-mail string	• History is not saved by default • No non-verbal clues
Face-to-face interview	• Great for very detailed requirements elicitation • Allows for use of drawings, comparing notes • Non-verbal clues are available • Builds relationships between team members	• May be costly if travel is required
collaboration Online tools (Web conferencing)	• Great for group work and re-view of documentation • Individuals can work at their convenience	• Requires a moderator/coordinator to review all feedback • Need a common understanding of the goal/purpose of the document being created
Teleconference	• Allows several people in different geographic areas to “talk” • Good for reviewing documents or deliverables • Low cost		• No non-verbal clues _ Facilities and scheduling may be difficult • Requires a structured agenda and strong facilitator
Video conference	• Allows several people to see each other in different geographic areas to “talk”		• Facilities and scheduling may be difficult • Effectiveness varies based on equipment and room setup—poor setup makes this distracting • Requires a structured agenda and strong facilitator
Questionnaire, survey	• Good when information is needed from a large number of people • Well-designed survey produces easily tabulated results		• Excellent survey design is time consuming and costly • Only closed-ended questions are asked
Work observation	• Great way to understand business stakeholders’ work environment and learn how processes are done • Helps with usability design		• May be disruptive to workers if questions are asked
Facilitated sessions	• Efficient when there are several stakeholders interested in the same requirements		• Scheduling • Requires significant planning • Requires a skilled facilitator