1 Chuck Millhollan, MBA, MPM, PMP, PgMP © 2009, Innovative Management Solutions, LLC 1 Advice,...

1Chuck Millhollan, MBA, MPM, PMP, PgMP

© 2009, Innovative Management Solutions, LLCwww.millhollan.net

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Advice, Lessons Learned & Best Practices from Fellow Practitioners

A Debrief of the June 2009 PW & WCBA

Chuck Millhollan, MBA, MPM, PMP, PgMPASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt

ASQ Certified Software Quality EngineerASQ Certified Manager of Quality / Organizational Excellence

[email protected]



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Speakers

• Pete Gibson, VP & CTO, Wyndham Hotel Group– Topic: Improve & Achieve a Greater Business Value

• Karin Emery, Manager, Centralized Shared Services, CareFirst

– Topic: Best Practices & Roadmap for Creating a Business Analysis Center of Excellence

• Asif Ahmad, CIO, Duke University Health Systems & Medical Center

– Topic: Building High Performance Teams in Healthcare

• Kathleen Barret, President of the IIBA– Topic: Helping Businesses Do Business Better



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• Central theme– Tips for remaining competitive and/or

demonstrating value in an organization experiencing recessionary pressures



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Pete Gibson, CTO, Wyndham Hotel Group

• Theme– Continuously evaluate your environment and

adapt to ensure you’re making an appreciated contribution

• Chuck’s comment– Pete purposefully started out by painting a

bleak picture to get the audience’s attention…and it worked!



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• Here’s our current situation…– Organizations are seeking to reduce their intellectual capacity – This has a cascading impact on our ability to do our job– Team composition may change due to layoffs– Your own employment may be at risk…or at least the fear of that

possibility could influence your performance– Projects are under constant review for value– Projects are being put on-hold indefinitely are outright cancelled

due to a lack of funds– A lack of projects leads to a natural lack of a need for project

resources!



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“If change is happening on the outside faster than on the inside, the end is in sight.”

Jack Welch

This statement is focused on the organizational level; however, there’s a direct application to our contribution

as practitioners. If we’re not adapting to our environments quickly, we’ll soon go the way of the

dinosaur.



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• Focus on your individual contribution• Build a “big tool box”• Do you know your profession, your job, and your

organization…and how the three intersect?• The intersection is the genesis of your value to

the company• What can you do to enhance any of the three?



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• The best PMs and BAs not only know their tools and how to apply them, but also know when to apply them

• Be lean, not bureaucratic

• Our methodologies are not hard fast rituals; they’re guidelines



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• Have a network available for finding answers to questions, challenges, etc…

– If you have a political issue, do you have a mentor that understands your company, the key decision makers, etc…?

– If you have a profession related issue, do you have a mentor that is experienced to provide you advice?

– In short, have strong mentors that you can turn to for guidance– All too often, professionals rely on their own tool box to get them

through a job– The problem with that approach is that they’re not adding

tools…just sharpening the ones they already have



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• Quick, responsive delivery is become increasingly important

• Be accountable and develop a sense of ownership for projects

• If it was your money that you were spending– Would you make the same decisions?– Would you move at the same pace?– Would you accept the same level of effort from the team?– Would you allow the same types of behaviors from the

contributors?



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• Business results are what matter, not compliance with project specifications

• Don’t mistake the map for the journey

• Keep your eye focused on the end-state goals and be flexible on how those goals are achieved



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• Pete’s final comment– Constantly sharpen your tools and seek to add tools

to your tool box…Read!– Leaders are readers– Don’t wait for your company, or anyone else for that

matter, to invest in your professional development– If you’re not willing to invest in yourself, why should

they?– In the end, no one is responsible for your

professional development but you, so take charge of your job security and future



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Karin Emery, Manager, Centralized Shared Services, CareFirst

• Theme– Similar to a PMO, a department or team must be identified that “owns”

standards, best practices, professional development, etc…for BAs

• Chuck’s comment– If projects fail, inevitably the blame comes back to incomplete or

ineffective requirements

– Most organizations do not fully understand the value that professional, trained, and supported BAs can provide

– Which leads to a lack of emphasis (and little formal training)

– Which leads to skill gaps

– Which leads back to more challenged projects due to poor requirements

– Which perpetuates the problems associated with poor requirements



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• The first step to overcoming the challenges associated with capturing clear, effective requirements is to come to agreement on the business analyst’s responsibilities

– We must create a standardized understanding and appreciation of the role

• The reality is that many associates with the BA title are not really functional business analysts

– Allowing associates to carry the title without standardized, structured responsibilities only contributes to the lack of understanding associated with the BA role & skill set



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• Much like the standardization of PM responsibility and methodology over the last decade, organizations will benefit from developing…

– A standard BA set of practices– A common BA language– Standard artifacts

• The IIBA and the BABOK provide a great foundation for this alignment, but remember that theory and reality do not always perfectly align



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• The team members in the highest demand at CareFirst have become their dedicated “Requirements Managers”

• Their Requirements Managers are responsible for…

– Creating the Requirements Management Plan– Scheduling and facilitating the working sessions for

business analysts– Managing the elicitation and documentation of

requirements– Developing the Requirements Traceability Matrix



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• CareFirst established a BA Forum that allows BAs to…

– Leverage each other’s skills– Discuss challenges associated with their roles– Help each other overcome barriers to successful

requirements management

• The BA Forum is responsible for identifying a structured BA training program to ensure that skills, roles, etc…are standard throughout the organization



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• All project stakeholders must be trained on the fundamentals of requirements management and the BA’s role within their organization

• HR must be included so that, if necessary, job descriptions are rewritten to accurately reflect the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviors for effective business analysis

• Karin recommended centralizing the recruiting and hiring process at first to ensure that the best professional business analysts are brought into the organization



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Asif Ahmad, CIO, Duke University Health Systems & Medical Center

• Theme– Alignment & leadership are key ingredients for high performing teams

• Chuck’s comment– We have to remember that support roles (and infrastructure projects)

also contribute to the organization’s mission• We’re not fixing broken software code; we are enabling customer server

representatives to answer customer questions• We’re not changing the company’s time reporting tool; we are avoiding

unnecessary costs by implementing a solution that is enabling our finance team to accurately track human resources and the associated costs of labor

– If you do not know the tie between your project and the organization’s goals…ask!

– Your job is to understand how your team is contributing to the company’s strategic intents



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• Asif expects his PMs & BAs to make the direct tie between their projects and the organization’s mission

• They are expected to communicate project goals and objectives with the team members & ensure they understand how their effort “fits in” with the organization’s strategy

• It is very difficult to have high-performance teams when the team’s goals are not aligned with the organizational goals

• Ensuring teams understand the link between the project & the organization’s strategy can lead to purpose driving teams & higher levels of engagement and commitment



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• We should be passionate about our organization’s goals, products, and customers

– Demonstrate that passion to your teams– This can be another great way to help increase team engagement

• Training and professional development are an investment, not expenses– Are you seeking opportunities to develop yourself?– If your organization cannot fund your professional development due to economic

pressures, how are you investing in your development?– There are a plethora of low cost (sometimes no cost) learning opportunities

available…Find them!

• Consider customer-centric training– How does the training opportunity tie to enhancing your customer’s experience?– Learning your internal customer’s processes can be some of the most beneficial

(and frequently free) training



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• Asif’s final message– “Keep the organization’s guiding principles

clearly in sight”– While focusing on strategic goals and how

your contribution links to those goals might not always guarantee employment, it does at least guarantee that you’re moving in the right direction



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Kathleen Barret, President of the IIBA

• Theme– First half: Change management…kinda– Second half: Outline of the BABOK v2.0

• Chuck’s comment– Our roles inherently usher in change– We must proactively identify not only the

technical impact of change, but also the emotional impact of change

– In short…we must become Change Agents



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• Business analysis is much more than just documenting requirements for projects that have already been requested and approved

– Business analysis is about identifying the need for change and then facilitating that change

• Change naturally brings varying levels of both fear and hope

– Fear that things could get worse– Hope that things could get better



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• All too often, how we address the change is the determining factor on which side of the fear-hope fence our stakeholders are on

• PMs & BAs, more than any other professions, should understand the stakeholders, their needs, how our projects are impacting them, etc…

• How we communicate and manage their expectations has a significant influence on how they adapt to (or accept) the change



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Closing comments…



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Remember the “Goal”

• We can have a huge impact on our organization…Even if not directly, almost all of our work has an impact on our organization’s customers too

• Something as simple as system enhancement to an internal software program can have a downstream impact on our customer’s experience

• Our professions, both PMs and BAs, must be able to explain and defend the following…– How their work is contributing to the project’s goals

– How the project is providing value

– How the value is linked to the organization’s strategic goals

– How those goals are realized through our customer’s experience



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PM &BA

ProjectTeam

Project Stakeholders(i.e. Users, Vendors,

Suppliers, etc…)

Organization / Company

Customers What customers are impacted and how?

What is the benefit to the organization?

Who are the project stakeholders?

Who is on the project team?



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MBA + MPM + PMP + PgMP + CSSBB + CMQ/OE + CSQE + MHP + itSM + CBAP “in-training” +

Knowledge is only potential…

Proficiency is power!

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1 Chuck Millhollan, MBA, MPM, PMP, PgMP © 2009, Innovative Management Solutions, LLC 1 Advice,...

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Transcript of 1 Chuck Millhollan, MBA, MPM, PMP, PgMP © 2009, Innovative Management Solutions, LLC 1 Advice,...