Posted by James King on April 28, 2011
I have always believed that a good business analyst will be able to work on any project because he or she will ask good questions. At the same time though I have always believed that different projects need different approaches and therefore potentially different skills.
Which begs the question – should our approach to starting a project be based on the type of project or on a generic set of questions aimed at understanding the problem to be solved (or the opportunity to be seized)?
Posted in Idea management, Investigation | Tagged: questions to ask, starting a project | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on April 24, 2011
If we don’t know why we are doing a project, then maybe we shouldn’t be doing it. But on many projects, if you ask the team “what will be different when we finish?” they look confused and start talking about the tasks they are performing.
But the tasks being performed should be moving toward some goal, which should be based on making something different to the way it is now (or would be without the project). Otherwise, to quote my grandmother:
How do you know you are not mistaking activity for progress?
Posted in Idea management | Tagged: benefit realisation, Project portfolio selection | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on April 22, 2011
The world’s simplest communication plan might be this one:
Even thinking about those three questions on the bus on your way to work might help create better communication. But I thought I would break the questions down to come up with a slightly more complex plan that is still not hard to do.
Posted in Implementation, Leading change | Tagged: commucation plan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on April 16, 2011
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been pondering how to apply some of the ideas from a book called “Stand Back and Deliver” to my own work.
Posted in Idea management | Tagged: Comparing projects, portfolio managment | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on April 16, 2011
I am running an “advanced BA course” next week and as part of the course we will be exploring the concept of strategy from a business analysts point of view.
One of the trainers I work with (Shane) recommended we provide the participants with a book called “Stand Back and Deliver” by Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, Todd Little and Kent McDonald.
Posted in Decisions, Idea management, Investigation, Observations | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on April 5, 2011
I spend a lot of time training teams in new approaches like agile development, but most of this training is about new techniques themselves rather than the process of managing the adoption and acceptance of those techniques.
I also spend a lot of time coaching project managers in how to run more effective projects, but I find that a lot of my time is spent on helping them to deal with internal politics, resistance to their projects and communication issues – which do not form part of most project management courses.
As a result I believe there is a need for good training in the area of managing change.
Posted in Capability growth, Courses, Idea management, Products | Tagged: agile, change management, communication plan | Leave a Comment »
