Business analysts who can only see the world through their own toolbox create much bigger problems for themselves later on.
Unfortunately, it’s all too common given the almost universal focus on frameworks, models, best practices and techniques by training providers.
Business Analysts readily acquire a tool for every situation, yet remain unequipped (and unaware) of the difficulties still to come.
Got a problem with X, then apply Y.
You might have seen this behaviour from your team BA, keen to help their employer unlock value and prove their worth.
“Let’s have a requirements workshop to understand stakeholder needs”.
Equally, replace the word ‘requirements’ with process map or service design, or any other type of workshop. No harm in following your professional training, down to the tee.
Unfortunately, perfectly formed outputs rarely translate into carefully prescribed changes. Even despite formal acceptance and sign-offs, organisations often fail to comply.
Problems arise. People become unhappy. The spotlight shines on the Business Analyst. Maybe the requirements ‘need another pass’.
Sound familiar? It does to me.
Seeing things through my toolbox of interventions was also my experience, and downfall. Until I learned better.
I once spent 12 months writing a business case for a CRM replacement. Three business cases, in fact, all in successively greater detail. Demanded by an organisation that ‘needed more detail’. This wasn’t the job discussed in the interview.
The 8-person consultancy delivered the 250-page business case, outlining immediate cost savings and a year-on-year > 50% ROI.
Upon which the IT director vetoed it for a third and final time. Everyone returned to their desks, and I packed my bags.
My BA training hadn’t taught me to ‘surface’ an organisation that didn’t want an improved CRM, nor to identify stakeholders and incumbents who profited from not having it.
Much of human behaviour is rooted in self-interest, perverse incentives, unconscious processes and family of origin patterning. Sadly, none of these will have been covered in your basic Business Analysis training.
Frameworks, models, best practices, and techniques speak directly to those who already see the world in this way. These are the marketing hooks of the training providers.
The real job is navigating organisations and people who don’t want to change. But you won’t find that in basic training.