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The Strategic Business Analyst (Or, Who Me?)

BADD IowaMay 2, 2008

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Outline

ContestAll I WantThe BA’s RoleThe SLMImplementing the SLMSome Examples

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Contest

Three volunteers.You could win a Major Award!

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All I Want From Life Is

Everyone makes decisions that are aligned with strategy.Everyone makes decisions that properly use resources.We use these decisions to win in the marketplace.A pill that gets me in shape and makes me eat healthier.

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Whither Strategy?

Strategy has different meanings to different people.I prefer (actually demand) Michael Porter’s definition:

Strategy = Sustainable Competitive Advantage

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The BA’s Role

The Fundamentals

Business Analysis Planning

Requirements Management and Communication

EnterpriseAnalysis

Elicitation RequirementsAnalysis

SolutionAssessmentAnd Validation

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How Can This Be Strategic?

Most companies cannot articulate their strategy. Therefore, how can a BA use strategy to improve decision making?How best to utilize resources is subjective.Sadly, BA’s are toast.But wait . . .

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What If There Were . . .

A simple to understand,Easily communicated,Immediately implementable,Way to articulate and use strategy to

improve decision making?

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There Just Might Be . . .

The Purpose Alignment Model (or SLM).This model views business processes, business rules, and, therefore, requirements in two dimensions:– The extent to which they differentiate us

in the marketplace.– The extent to which they are mission

critical.

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Purpose – The SLM

MarketDifferentiating

High

Low

Mission CriticalLow High

Differentiating

Parity

Partnering

Who Cares?

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In Practice

MarketDifferentiating

High

Low

Mission CriticalLow High

Do We TakeThis On?

Innovate, Create

Minimize /Eliminate

Achieve andMaintain

Parity, Mimic,Simplify

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An Example – CPG

ERP project to replace legacy system.Legacy sequence of data entry:

Name, Telephone, AddressERP sequence of data entry:

Name, Address, TelephoneBusiness requirement was to customize ERP sequence to match legacy sequence

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Using Purpose

MarketDifferentiating

High

Low

Mission CriticalLow High

Differentiating

Parity

Partnering

Who Cares?

Is data entry sequence here

or here

or even?

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Project Example (Real Life)

Result: Better product in half the time and 60% of the original cost.

“Requirements” = 3000 function points

What goes here?

Most areusually here

Anything here?

Anythinghere?

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Specifics

Differentiating was to improve the process for distributed document collaboration.Product management, development, and business analysis worked together to create a unique, on-line method to create, review, and finalize documents.For the other modules, the company benchmarked and mimicked market leaders.

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Graphically - Before

Project Tracking

Document Mgmt

Document Edit

Document Library

Search

EDGAR IntegrationMarket

Differentiating

High

Low

Mission CriticalLow High

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Graphically - After

Project Tracking

Document Mgmt

Document Library

Search

EDGAR Integration

Document EditPortal

MarketDifferentiating

High

Low

Mission CriticalLow High

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The Key to Using Purpose

What simple decision filters can we use to identify what is “Differentiating”?These decision filters should link to strategy (in fact, are a good way to define and articulate strategy).These decision filters are powerful tools in the hands of a BA.

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Linking BA Role and Purpose

Analyze the enterprise (articulate strategy).Elicit meaningful requirements (self-filtering).Analyze requirements (differentiating / parity?).Assess and validate solutions (what makes us best at differentiating? How can we simplify and streamline parity?).Manage and communicate requirements (simple question – differentiating or parity?).Analyze business plans (gaps provide project roadmaps).

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Example – Custom Pricing Engine

Current business rules require multi-dimensional pricing. Imagine 6 dimensional space:

To get to price, find the right combination:

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Pricing EngineThese business rules treated pricing as if it were “Differentiating”.But, decision filters identified products (not pricing) as differentiating.Pricing is “Parity”. Therefore, uniqueness is wasted. How to simplify and streamline?Solution: Standard product pricing with standard discounts based on past year’s dollar volume and promotions. No customization.

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Example – Split Payments

eCommerce and catalog order management system supported split payments?Split what? Pay with a combination of credit cards (as many as you want).Required a significant customization. Are split payments differentiating or parity?

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Split Payments

Differentiating includes product selection and customer service. Therefore differentiating.Not so fast, if differentiating,Let’s advertise!

Treat exceptions like exceptions.Inelegantly handled with standard functionality.

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Fine, How Do I Start?

Present the model

Define the decision criteria

Distill to simple questions

Make better decisions

Example Questions:Will this lower lifetime cost?Will this lock up long contracts?

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Lessons Learned

Emphasize (all the time) the mission critical nature of parity.Purpose is not priority.What is both differentiating and parity changes over time.The more distributed the decision filters the better the results.Purpose shifts the burden to behavior change.

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Did I Get What I Want?

Everyone makes decisions that are aligned with strategy – the decision filters.Everyone makes decisions that properly use resources – designing around purpose improves resource use.We use these decisions to win in the marketplace – by making the differentiating truly differentiating.A pill that gets me in shape and makes me eat healthier – still waiting.

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One Last Example – Payroll

LG

BP

CP

One Payroll

SLM: Payroll = Parity (15 minutes)Net result, one system, one set of rules,standard codes and process.

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Questions?

nnick@accelinnova.com

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Shameless Plug

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