Establishing a Business Analyst Community of Practice

I want it. I have to have it. What is it?

It’s commonly agreed that it’s good to floss, eat plenty of fruit and have a Business Analysis Community of Practice. So why there is no common industry definition of what a BA CoP is, what it does, and how to protect it from “cost-saving” initiatives?

Definitions

Since BA Center of Excellence and BA Community of Practice are often used interchangeably, let’s look at the background and use of these terms.

1) Center of Excellence

Although “Center of Excellence” has entered the corporate vocabulary, its origins had more to do with marketing than with excellence.

Hamilton and Fisher write, “The term “Center of Excellence” first came into general use in 1991 when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started its Medicare Participating Heart Bypass Center Demonstration project. Initially, designation as a “Center of Excellence” had nothing to do with providing excellent health care; instead it described hospitals participating in the project, which had lowering health care costs as a primary goal.”

(http://www2.aaos.org/aaos/archives/bulletin/feb06/fline8.asp)

“Center of Excellence” has been discharged from a purely hospital setting, and is now in very wide use, wandering around the corridors of private and public bureaucracies, with no name-tag or precise definition attached.

“Center of Excellence” has come full circle to where it began: a self-designated title, not a description of functions, activities or purpose.

2) Community of Practice

The term “Community of Practice” has a richer definition and substance. Its origins are in the anthropological study of apprenticeships as learning models.

Etienne Wenger states, “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems - in short a shared practice.”

(http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm.)

Because it has both provenance and meaning, I will use Community of Practice in this series of articles.

What does a BA Community of Practice imply?

A Champion

A champion is a tireless, ceaseless promoter, advocate and doer. Optimally, he must be someone on a senior level within an organization.

No champion, no CoP.

A Core Group

Advisors, who help with start-up, planning, organization and dissemination. This includes setting up monthly meetings, maintaining a shared intranet or SharePoint site, creating agendas, presentations and training materials.

Alignment and Awareness

Internally: with the IT Organization, PMO, SDLC, IT and Business Strategies.

Externally: with the BABoK, BA Methodology and emerging industry trends.

Apprenticeship

What the new need to know, but the old withhold.

Cohesiveness

The CoP is the picnic table, bringing together physical and virtual teams from a variety of projects. It is where the babes can come out the woods, and munch their lunch as one.

Community

Business analysts and the people who love them. This can include PMs, Developers, Architects, program managers, SMEs, sponsors and organizational leadership.

Curiosity

Passion, excitement and inquisitiveness. This is a much more fundamental driver than “career development.”

Expertise

If BAs could lift their eyes briefly from their oars, and close their ears to the sound of the cracking whip, they’d realize that along with their “project skills,” they have deep expertise in:

Analysis

Collating massive amounts of information

Communication

Creativity

Facilitation

Organization

Problem solving

Thinking (critically endangered, and perhaps close to extinction)

What if these tools could be used to solve organizational, economic and social problems?

At least you’d stop rowing.

Leaders

The senior point-people. They act as mentors, trainers and creators of the BA Toolkit. They are often a subset of the Core Group.

Learning by doing

Show me, don’t tell me. This is best done by collaboration: web meetings, job shadowing and mentoring.

Looking outside

I call the conventional requirements tools and templates “the BA Armada.” There is an enormous amount to be gained from incorporating tools, techniques and approaches from other disciplines, including:

Lean

Six Sigma

Systems Thinking

Process Consulting

Alan Weiss wrote, “Organizations tend to be extremely introspective and self-centered. They fail to consider the competition, consumer trends, economic developments, technological improvements, and so on. Find those outside influences that may have the greatest effect on the success or failure of current strategy and offer suggestions on how to avoid, escape, tolerate, or exploit such external factors.” (Organizational Consulting, Wiley & Sons, 2003)

Mentoring

This can be done by the BA Leaders, or by consultants external to an organization. Either way, it’s helpful to have the consulting mindset: an objective advisor, a trusted expert.

Participation

Opportunities to create and teach, to learn and share. We can also call this a BA Community of Participation.

How do we get people to participate? We give them things they want to learn.

Purpose

The mission of a BA CoP and its ramifications:

Having projects run smoothly, efficiently and successfully.

High quality requirements packages, that are genuinely useful to both business SME’s and developers.

BAs who can think, and ultimately become enterprise and strategic business analysts, contributing to, shaping and redesigning their organizations.

Shared Spaces

This implies several things:

Shared storage spaces: an intranet or SharePoint site.

Shared knowledge:

BA Toolkit

BA Playbook

Templates

Guidelines

Project examples of artifacts in use

Case studies

Industry references

Shared technology, which can include tools used for:

modeling

prototyping

requirements

QA

versioning

Regularly scheduled meetings where people present ask questions and come together as a community.

Shared training – ensuring a level skill set, and shared understanding of BA methodology.

Stability

The BA CoP must be immune from constantly shifting organizational sands. It can't get lost in annual reorganizations and realignments. It shouldn’t get disassembled as the BAs are buffeted between Business and IT, like kittens scampering from one side of the house to another. It has to be stable, and be afforded sufficient senior level protection.

Standards

The IIBA has done a profound service to all business analysts. Having industry standards for BA tasks, techniques and knowledge areas has definitively raised the profile of business analysis within organizations.

BA CoP Quick Start Guide

Part 1 of this series examined the components a BA CoP should optimally include.This article sets out the first four steps that must be taken in order to establish a successful BA CoP.

STEP 1: The Champion

The Champion is the RACI driver - Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

The Champion is in charge of getting the BA CoP up and running, and lending their guidance in the background once the CoP is established. Having a Champion is a mandatory first step.

Who can be a Champion?

1. An existing BA leader.

2. A Senior IT or business leader who has a background in Business Analysis.

3. A group of senior BAs acting in this capacity, and providing redundancy: if one moves to another business unit or geographic location, the BA CoP still has continuity.

What does the Champion do?

Defines and shapes the direction of the CoP.

Helps market the CoP internally.

Participates in most CoP meetings.

Gathers leadership support.

Reports on CoP metrics.

Encourages participation from all areas of the organization.

It is not a good idea to "delegate" a Champion, or have an Executive Sponsor "stand in" as Champion. The role requires a high degree of participation, consistency and supervision.

No Champion, no CoP.

STEP 2: The Value Proposition to the Organization of starting a CoP

It's crucial to get organizational buy-in early in the process of establishing a BA CoP. You must communicate the benefits to your organization: "The only true value is the value of changed, improved, or somehow altered results." 1

In other words, increased sales, lower project costs, higher customer satisfaction and better quality are the ultimate purpose . . . not more templates, process and Methodologie du jour.

Garcia and Dorohovich write in The Truth about Building and Maintaining Successful Communities of Practice, "Potential members and business leaders expect CoPs to support real business needs prior to investing their own time and organizational resources to support the communities. If CoPs are properly implemented, benefits to the organization are faster and better-informed decision-making and a workforce that has access to knowledge at the point of need." 2

Garcia and Dorohovich state that a CoP also:

Facilitates the rapid identification of individuals with specific knowledge/skills

Fosters knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries

Provides a safe environment to share problems, challenges, and test new ideas

Facilitates collaboration across different time zones

Fosters innovation (within and across organizational boundaries)

Reduces learning curves for new employees

Fosters interaction between new/more junior employees and senior/more experienced practitioners

Facilitates the building of mentor-protégé relationships

Beyond the general business problems your BA CoP will focus on, does your organization have specific enterprise, program or project issues that must be addressed?

For instance:

Introduction of a new SDLC, BA or Development Methodology

Reorganization or realignment (for instance, BAs moving from IT to a Business area)

Mergers, acquisitions or new strategic directions

Changes in technology

Are there business and project problems that can be clearly attributed to a lack of BA skills?

Inconsistent BA processes, standards or methodology

Poor communication or facilitation

Unacceptable documentation

Missed requirements

Disconnection with SMEs, PMs, developers or QA

You will be much more likely to get senior-level support if you can show how a BA CoP addresses specific enterprise issues.

STEP 3: The Initial Project Plan

Create an initial estimate of size, scope and timeframe for your BA CoP. Lay out the high level steps that need to be taken, including:

1) Defining Community size and location(s)

How many BAs are in your organization?

Where are your BAs located organizationally and geographically?

What is the potential audience size for a BA CoP?

2) Establishing Roles and Responsibilities

BA Leaders. They make up the Core Group and can serve as:

Content creators

Meeting Facilitators

Mentors

Presenters

SMEs

Subject Matter Experts

Trainers

Webmasters or admins

Executive Sponsors

Business and IT (helpful to have sponsors on both sides of the aisle)

Economic and political ($ and senior-level protection)

Audience - Allies and Impacted Groups

Business Leads

Consultants

Developers

Junior BAs

Project Managers

Six Sigma/Quality/Continuous Improvement groups

Trainers

3) Creating Content

Does material exist, or will it need to be created?

BA Toolkit

Specific templates and guidelines

Project examples of templates in use

Introducing new processes or methodologies

Training materials

Who will create, update and manage the content?

4) Holding Monthly Sessions

Audience Size

Possible Dates

Sample Agendas

Potential Meeting locations

Physical (conference room)

On-line (for large numbers of geographically dispersed BAs)

Workshops

Outside speakers

Lunch and learns

 

5) Assessing Technology needs

SharePoint or shared drive space

Webinars or NetMeetings

Conference lines

Evaluation, licensing or training on Software:

Requirements

Modeling

Workflow

Testing

STEP 4: The Leadership Presentation

Internal marketing is an often overlooked, but essential component of engaging key stakeholders.

Along with the value of having a BA CoP, a presentation should demonstrate several ways that a BA CoP can immediately benefit your organization:

1. Better requirements - which lead to efficient projects, less rework and reduced costs.

2. Up-to-date skill sets - which result in higher quality deliverables, better communication and happier customers.

3. Industry standard practices - just as "interoperability" is the buzzword in Health - IT, BAs should have a standard and "portable" skill set. They should be able to function anywhere in an organization.

4. Alignment with the PMO and SDLC - one of the most common flaws of BA CoPs is lack of alignment and connection to upstream (PM) and downstream (Development) activities. Interfacing with PMs and Development early in the BA CoP's set-up will ensure smooth communication and more efficient projects in the future.

5. Closer partnership between IT and Business - the Shangri-La of all corporate planning. Always envisioned, but rarely achieved.

6. Having BAs who can function on an enterprise and strategic level - BAs who can think and innovate. The ability to think is the rarest and most highly prized commodity in the corporate world: valuable due to its scarcity. This is of inestimable use to an organization.

A presentation to your organization's leaders should provide a high-level description of:

1. The BA CoP's potential activities

2. Interfacing groups:

SharePoint or Intranet Team

PMs

Training

PMO/Governance/SDLC

Business leads

Developers

Estimated audience size

Location of materials and anticipated content

Communication Plan

Tasks, timelines, milestones and deadlines

Initial resource needs

Estimated start up costs

Next steps, including

A Core Planning Workshop (required attendees, location, agenda)

Scheduled meetings (dates and locations)

Status reports and success measurements.

Why BA CoP's fail: 10 things to watch out for

Understanding why BA CoPs fail is an essential part of strategic planning. If you can identify the gaps in your own organization, you will be in a much better position to put a plan in place to "Mind the Gap." This article will look at 10 common reasons why BA CoPs fail.

Problem 1: Leadership (or the lack thereof)

The wrong Champion

BA CoPs fail when a Champion wants to have a CoP for cosmetic reasons. They feel having a CoP will make them look good within their organization, but they are not personally invested in its survival. Remember that it's not a good idea to "delegate" a Champion, or have an Executive Sponsor "stand in" as Champion. The Champion role requires a high degree of participation, consistency and supervision.

The wrong CoP leader or CoP leadership team

Finding the right person to be the CoP leader is not an easy task. Leading a community of BAs needs some very particular skills and behaviors: encouraging participation, managing CoP events and linking with other related communities (such as PM / PMO / Designers / Developers). A technically talented BA is not necessarily the best BA for the job of leader.

The wrong Sponsor or no Sponsor

Lack of senior level sponsorship will cause a CoP to fail. Organizationally it's usually quite easy to identify senior level sponsors of communities such as PM or IT Architecture - but a BA community often does not have obvious senior level sponsors.

Problem 2: Baby BAs

BAs are too junior

In many organizations, BAs are predominantly a junior resource only - they don't have the leadership skills, or the experience to self-organize and develop a CoP. They may not be aware of industry standards, BA methodology or what is happening "outside their walls."

BAs have inconsistent skill sets

This is common in companies without any standard BA Training, where the BAs have been hired from outside, and have disparate backgrounds, abilities, competencies and domain knowledge. There may not be enough skilled BAs in an organization to effectively establish and then run a CoP.

Problem 3: Shifting Organizational Sands

High turnover in all roles

If BAs move rapidly in and out of projects and switch domains or business areas, their CoP sponsors may "disappear." High turnover creates inconsistent material, training, communication and BA orientation.

The Organization is constantly shifting

This can be result from:

Acquisitions and mergers, where an enterprise must rapidly reorganize.

BAs moving from Business to IT and back again.

CoPs often get lost in this organizational re-shuffling, as waves of change sweep the BA CoP away.

Problem 4: Community of Process

Inflexible / intransigent

Once methods and working practices are documented - this generates a very strong sense of ownership (which is a sign of a strong community). However it can then be difficult for the CoP to be open to change, and CoP members may wish to protect the effort which was put into creating and documenting their working practices. The danger occurs when real working practices on projects start to diverge from the documented working practices. When this happens, the CoP and its processes start to lose credibility.

Too much methodology and process, not enough responsiveness to actual business needs

Another common error is focusing on BA methodology, templates and processes, without understanding the underlying business problems/needs:

Poor communication or facilitation

Unacceptable documentation

Missed requirements

Disconnection with Stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts, PMs, developers or QA.

Problem 5: No Time, Participation or Motivation

Many people sign up, but they can't or won't deliver against their commitments

Most people want to be part of a CoP, without recognizing or appreciating the time commitment that's required. In addition, the pressure of project work means that many CoPs try to make progress on their action plan in the slivers of time which people are given (or they create) alongside their project delivery work. It's easy for these commitments to slip, and it can also be a very ineffective way of delivering: e.g. attempting to deliver a 10 person-day piece of work for the CoP by having 10 people spend 1 day each over the course of 2 months. It's better to commit resources up front, which needn't be more expensive. Committed resources are very important in the early days to build momentum and to achieve initial business benefits, which in turn creates the case for further resources.

Lack of participation.

Unmotivated or uncommitted BAs may be due to several reasons:

Lack of strong sponsorship

No focused group activities

Uninteresting material

Group members don't see the value of participating

Without participation (the practice in Community of Practice), the CoP "fizzles out."

Problem 6: No organizational commitment or investment

Organizational resistance and roadblocks

This includes not allowing BAs to spend time participating in or contributing to their CoP. Some commonly heard objections are:

Do we really need a BA CoP?

Are we mature enough as an organization to create something like that?

Are we big enough to create something like that?

Isn't this just more methodology and process?

We already have a PMO.

We don't have the money.

We don't have the right people.

We don't have the time.

We don't want a Community of Practice; we want a Center of Excellence.

What value does it add to my organization?

Problem 7: BA > PM Career Path

Junior BA > Senior BA > PM

In many organizations, the only way to progress to a senior position is to move into PM roles. This has a negative impact on BA CoPs, as those people may consider the time and personal commitment to build or to contribute to a BA CoP as wasted effort. I.e., if promotion is your aim - why waste your energies developing the BA profession in your organization?

Problem 8: Insufficient reward: no recognition for developing and contributing to a CoP

A handshake, instead of a kiss

If it is an under-the-radar activity, do you get any organizational recognition (even a thank you) for developing / contributing to your CoP?

When CoP-building activities are undertaken on a voluntary, unrecognized basis, they are at great risk of being dropped in favor of more formal objectives.

This is a symptom of being disconnected from organizational objectives. If your contribution to the BA CoP doesn't appear in your annual objectives, then why are you doing it?

Problem 9: The underlying SDLC is disconnected or flawed

Broken SDLC

The underlying SDLC may be confused, with no clear hand-offs between:

Business Analysis

Development

Governance and budgeting

Portfolio management

Program management

Project management/PMO

The Project failed, but the Requirements looked beautiful

BA processes may be robust and well-defined, but if there is no interaction with other groups, then BAs wander like Ophelia, cutting their requirements into paper flowers, disconnected from the Renaissance world of development, testing and implementation.

If there is no genuine collaboration between BAs and developers, or if the developers are doing Agile/Scrum/XP development and the BA CoP has only "traditional" requirements processes, the CoP will fail.

Problem 10: Lack of internal marketing of BA value

The CoP can become inward looking / not sharing / defensive, and not managing their key stakeholders

BAs are usually passionate about the value of their profession and the need for great business analysis processes (requirements development, requirements management, business modeling, etc). However they are not always as passionate about demonstrating the value with some measurable benefits. They may also not be pro-active in promoting their value to other communities. If the BA CoP does not market itself internally and does not demonstrate measurable value to the organization, the BA CoP will be at great risk of being "dissolved" by the organization's Powers That Be.

Babies and BAs go through four stages, as they open their eyes and see

In Stage 1 with eyes closed, BAs are blind to their organization's mess: "A corporation's mess is the future implied by its and its environment's current behavior. Every system contains the seeds of its own deterioration and destruction." 1

In Stage 2, as their eyes begin to open, BAs see in black and white: a single process step, template or isolated requirement. They notice people and projects blurring around them. They don't yet have the ability to view their company as a system, or perceive the customer or the product being sold.

In Stage 3, the mobile movement of the outside world attracts and delights them: industries, methodologies, collaborations and emerging trends. They can perceive the face of the customer in color, beyond the rattling use case or Excel cell.

They realize, in amazement, that the customer is not a babysitter, business area or CIO, but a real person buying a real product. They see they are in a community within a System:

"Systems theory and systems thinking suggest that the system as a whole will have properties, behaviors and characteristics that emerge from the interaction of the components of the system, and which are not predictable from an understanding of the components alone. In the context of systems theory, the term "system" is much broader than an IT system-it also includes the people involved, the interactions between them, the external forces affecting their behavior, and all other relevant elements and factors." 2

In Stage 4, they strengthen their muscles: the analytical and creative skills used to facilitate organizational futures and protect their parent enterprise in this new economic climate. "The primary goal of an enterprise is to survive. This means that its strategy must be robust. It is only after this has been secured that one can move on to consider new business opportunities." 3

BAs clearly see a community and System that they can shape, change and transform. They look and are able to see, the new frontier of the BA CoP.

Organizational Blindness and its Cure

BAs operate in an organizational paradox, which can be described as the "bi-polar Enterprise." Companies have conflicts between what they genuinely need to do to attain their long term goals, and what they actually do in the emotional exigencies of the short-term moment:

Wanting to focus on knowledge management, while senior employees with the most knowledge in their domain are laid off.

Attempting to reduce costs, while losing critical in-house knowledge through outsourcing. (Which results in increased costs, less in-house capabilities, and a competitive disadvantage, as the laid off knowledge base goes to work for a competitor.)

Expecting successful projects, while being unable to make the right decisions and intervene, when it's obvious that multi-million dollar projects are failing. "Of the IT projects that are initiated, from 5 to 15 percent will be abandoned before or shortly after delivery as hopelessly inadequate. Many others arrive late and are over budget or require massive reworking. Few IT projects, in other words, truly succeed." 4

Poor short-term decision-making sabotages long-term strategic goals.

This paradox and bi-polar nature of organizations is caused by senior-level decision makers who are disconnected from their employees, their customers and their societal environments. The world is now experiencing the results of a Dictatorship of poor decisions.

To adequately address the problems facing us, we have to tackle decision-making at its root. The solution is a decentralized, holistic, democratic Systems view: "Either all those who are directly affected by a decision, the decision's stakeholders, or representatives they select, should be involved in making that decision." 5

Organizations have to be courageous enough to look at themselves honestly, and be open to decision-making at every level: "Agility - Every employee is able to readily contribute to the early detection of internal and external trends and respond with speed" 6

In other words, a Community of Practice should be a feedback mechanism that detects and responds to internal and external trends, and participates in decision-making through the:

Ability to foresee technological developments

Ability to take advantage of emerging market opportunities

Capacity to develop new strategic options

Ability to execute a strategic plan 7

This produces genuine long-term value, rather than the appearance of value through a manipulated balance sheet. "Communities that are aligned with a strategic purpose can make a significant contribution to creating an organization's competitive advantage." 8

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

IT methodology is new. Mature scientific disciplines like chemistry, biology and medicine have centuries of theory, research and practice behind them. Because IT methodology is only a few decades old, and our eyes are still half-closed, we continue to have the billion-dollar project failures that have made IT notorious.

A top-down approach which works well in a military or government setting, does not work when flexible thinking and creativity are required. A CoP must go beyond reacting to methodologies, to identifying problems and generating solutions. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Wenger writes, "Knowledge has become the key to success." 9 In addition to knowledge, vision and creativity are the keys to corporate success in this new Recovering world.

Vision helps us see beyond the Dictatorship of poor decisions, the tyranny of methodology and the anarchy and lawlessness of cowboy coding.

Creativity explores the unknown. "Creativity involves producing decisions that are not expected." 10 (Poor decisions are always expected.) Creativity is an essential part of the learning and participation that are core activities of Communities of Practice - generating ideas; passing knowledge from person to person; engaging teams and fostering collaboration.

A recent example of a creative method which addresses and solves real business needs is Agile/Scrum. A traditional waterfall requirements process can cause dangerously long project delays, and the delivered application is often far removed from the original business intention. The Agile solution is collaborative, iterative direct work with the business customer/owner, who provides design input throughout the development process.

There's no reason that a CoP can't identify and creatively solve similar problems. "The real value of the community is realized through its ability to innovate - to move the practice forward." 11 In this sense, the CoP functions as an organizational brain, strategically thinking about needs inside and outside of the enterprise, absorbing and assimilating information as it passes through the permeable membranes of a company's walls.

In a world of new information, how do we harvest it, bring it back inside the system, and apply it in new ways? By being fluid, flexible and aware (essential in this economy). What if a CoP didn't merely take tools, techniques, strategies and methods from others, but invented new tools and new ways of documenting, analyzing and modeling? As the Agile Manifesto suggests, "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly." 12

Since "process" can have a negative connotation, let's call this a "Framework for Getting Things Done":

Locally solving problems, rather than waiting for problems to be solved by others.

Reshaping an organization from the bottom up, rather than from the top down.

Optimizing CoP structure for the specific organization in which it lives and breathes.

Inventing a methodology tailored to specific business needs.

Sharing creativity, vision and decision-making in a Community of Practice.

References

1. Russell L. Ackoff, Creating the Corporate Future, John Wiley & Sons, 1981

2. International Institute of Business Analysis, A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide) Version 2.0, 8.1.5.2

3. Ulf Pillkahn, Using Trends and Scenarios as Tools for Strategy Development, Publicis Corporate Publishing, 2008

4. Robert N. Charette, Why Software Fails, www.spectrum.ieee.org/sep05/1685

5. Russell L. Ackoff, The Democratic Corporation, Oxford University Press, 1994

6. Hubert Saint-Onge and Debra Wallace, Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003

7. Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William Snyder, Cultivating Communities of Practice, Harvard Business School Press, 2002

8. Hubert Saint-Onge and Debra Wallace, Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage

9. Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William Snyder, Cultivating Communities of Practice, Harvard Business School Press, 2002

10. Russell L. Ackoff, The Democratic Corporation, Oxford University Press, 1994

11. Hubert Saint-Onge and Debra Wallace, Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003

12. Agile Manifesto, http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Business Analysis Center of ExcellenceThe Business Climate

In the twenty-first century, business processes have become more complex; i.e., more interconnected, interdependent, and interrelated than ever before. Businesses today are rejecting traditional organizational structures to create complex communities comprised of alliances with strategic suppliers, outsourcing vendors, networks of customers, and partnerships with key political groups, regulatory entities, and even competitors. Through these alliances, organizations are addressing the pressures of unprecedented change, global competition, time-to-market compression, rapidly changing technologies, and increasing complexity at every turn. Since business systems are significantly more complex than ever, projects that implement new business systems are also more complex. To reap the rewards of significant, large-scale business transformation initiatives designed to not only keep organizations in the game but make them a major player, we must be able to manage complex business transformation projects.

Why Now?

Centers of excellence are emerging as a vital strategic asset to serve as the primary vehicle for managing complex change initiatives. A center of excellence is a team of people that is established to promote collaboration and the application of best practices (Geiger, Jonathan G. Intelligent Solutions: Establishing a Center of Excellence. BIReview: March 20, 2007. http://www.bireview.com/article.cfm?articleid=222). Centers of excellence exist to bring about an enterprise focus to many business issues, e.g., data integration, project management, enterprise architecture, business and IT optimization, and enterprise-wide access to information.

The concept of centers of excellence (COE) is quickly maturing in twenty-first century organizations because of the need to collaboratively determine solutions to complex business issues. Project management offices (PMO), a type of COE, proliferated in the 1990s as a centralized approach to managing projects, in response to the challenges associated with complex projects in an environment with low levels of project management maturity and governance. Industry leaders are effectively using various types of COEs, and BACOEs are among them.

It is a Slippery Slope

we are fortunate to have learned from the implementations of PMOs. The Project Management Institute's research program studied PMOs in an attempt to publish a PMO standard. However, they were unable to do so, because they found out that there is no real standard practice for PMOs (Hobbs, 2007 PMI PMO Research Report). Here is what they discovered:

PMOs have been prevalent since the mid 1990s; yet, most have been in existence for two years or less

Only 50% of PMOs are seen as relevant and adding value

Most operate autonomously from other PMOs

Most organizations have trouble finding the right "fit" culturally and politically

Closure and restructuring happens frequently

Implementation time takes six months to two years; yet, there is a short time to demonstrate value before being closed or restructured; many are closed or restructured before they are completely implemented

The is a wide variability in the percentage of projects within the mandate of the PMO

Either all or none of the project managers are located within the PMO

Most PMOs have a very small staff due to the key issue of cost

Conclusions: it is a difficult endeavor to establish a center of excellence that is accepted and supported by the organization. A considerable amount of due diligence is needed to make sure the new center is successful.

It's About Value

For a BACOE to be viewed as adding value, one of the critical functions is benefits management, a continuous process of identifying new opportunities, envisioning results, implementing, checking intermediate results, and dynamically adjusting the path leading from investments to business results. Therefore, the role of the high-value BACOE is multidimensional, including: (1) provide thought leadership for all initiatives to confirm that the organization's business analysis standards are maintained and adhered to, (2) conduct feasibility studies and prepare business cases for proposed new projects, (3) participate in all strategic initiatives by providing expert business analysis resources, and (4) conduct benefits management to ensure strategic change initiatives provide the value that was expected. The BACOE is staffed with business/technology experts, who can act as a central point of contact to facilitate collaboration among the lines of business and the IT groups.

Implementation Considerations

Integration

Although the BACOE is by definition business focused, it is of paramount importance for successful centers to operate in an environment where business operations and IT are aligned and in synch. In addition, the disciplines of project management, software design and development, and business analysis must be integrated. Therefore, to achieve a balanced perspective, it is important to involve business operations, IT, PMO representatives and project managers, and representatives from the project governance group in the design of the BACOE. Indeed, your organization may already have one or more centers of excellence. If that is the case, consideration should be made to combining them into one centralized center focused on program and project excellence. The goal is for a cross-functional team of experts (business visionary, technology expert, project manager and business analyst) to address the full solution life cycle from business case development to continuous improvement and support of the solution for all major projects.

Mission

Understanding the business drivers behind establishing the BACOE is of paramount importance. The motive behind establishing the center must be unambiguous, since it will serve as the foundation to establish the purpose, objectives, scope, and functions of the center. The desire to set up a BACOE might have originated in IT, because of the number of strategic, mission-critical IT projects impacting the whole organization, or in a particular business area that is experiencing a significant level of change. Whatever the genesis, strive to place the center so that it serves the entire enterprise, not just IT or a particular business area.

Placement

one of the biggest challenges for the BACOE is to bridge the gap that divides business and IT. To do so, the BACOE must deliver multidimensional services to the many 1diverse groups. Regardless of whether there is one COE, or several more narrowly focused models, the BACOE organization should be centralized. "Organizations with centralized COEs have better consistency and coordination, leading directly to less duplication of effort. These organizations configure and develop their IT systems by business processes rather than by business unit, leading to more efficient and more streamlined systems operations" (2006 USAG/SAP Best Practices Survey: Centers of Excellence: Optimize Your Business and IT Value. SAP America Inc. February 16, 2007). Best-in-class BACOEs evaluate the impact of proposed

changes on all areas of the business and effectively allocate resources and support services according to business priorities.

Positioning is equated with authority in organizational structures; the higher the placement, the more autonomy, authority and responsibility is likely to be bestowed on the center. Therefore, positioning the center at the highest level possible provides the "measure of autonomy necessary to extend the authority across the organization while substantiating the value and importance the function has in the eyes of executive management" (Bolles, Dennis PMP. Building Project Management Centers of Excellence. New York, NY: American Management Association. 2002). in absence of high-level positioning, the success and impact of the center will likely be significantly diminished.

One Size does not fit all

the "perfect fit" takes several elements into consideration:

The maturity of the organization's processes and capabilities

The size of the organization

The diversity of the products and services

 

What is the Focus?

The current state of the organization must be taken into consideration, as in the effectiveness of the strategic planning and project portfolio management practices, the business performance management processes and strategies, the maturity of IT architecture, development and support processes, and the strength of the business focus across the enterprise. Clearly, organizations with more mature practices achieve higher levels of value from their COEs. Organizations can absorb a limited amount of concurrent change, while maintaining productivity levels, at any given time. Therefore, a gradual approach to implementing the BACOE is recommended. One option is to adopt a three-phased approach moving

across the BACOE maturity continuum from a project-focused structure to a strategic organizational model.

Where to Start?

Based on the history of best practices for setting up centers of excellence, there is a proven implementation approach, including the steps listed below.

1. Visioning and concept definition

2. Assessing the organizational knowledge, skills, maturity, and mastery of business analysis practices

3. Establishing BACOE implementation plans

4. Finalizing plans and creating action teams to develop and implement the infrastructure for the center

 

Visioning

it is important to create a vision for the new center. Create a preliminary vision and mission statement for the center, and develop the concept in enough detail to prepare a business case for establishing the center. Vet the proposal with key stakeholders and secure approval to conduct the assessment of business analysis practices and plan for the implementation of the center.

During meetings with the key stakeholders, secure buy-in and support for the concept. Large-scale organizational change of this nature typically involves restructurings, cultural transformation, new technologies, and forging new partnerships. Handling change can well mean the difference between success and failure of the effort. Techniques to consider during the visioning phase include (Kotter, John P. (2002) Getting to the Heart of How to Make Change Happen. Boston, MA: Harvard Business):

Executive sponsorship - A center of excellence cannot exist successfully without an executive sponsor. Build a trusting, collaborative relationship with the sponsor, seeking mentoring and coaching at every turn.

Political management strategy - Conduct an analysis of key stakeholders to determine those who can influence the center, and whether they feel positively or negatively about the center. Identify

the goals of the key stakeholders. Assess the political environment. Define problems, solutions, and action plans to take advantage of positive influences, and to neutralize negative ones.

A sense of urgency - Work with stakeholder groups to reduce complacency, fear, and anger over the change, and to increase their sense of urgency.

The guiding team - Build a team of supporters who have the credibility, skills, connections, reputations, and formal authority to provide the necessary leadership to help shape the BACOE.

The vision - Use the guiding team to develop a clear, simple, compelling vision for the BACOE, and set of strategies to achieve the vision.

Communication for buy-in - Execute a simple, straight-forward communication plan using forceful and convincing messages sent through many channels. Use the guiding team to promote the vision whenever possible.

Empowerment for action - Use the guiding team to remove barriers to change, including disempowering management styles, antiquated business processes, and inadequate information.

Short-term wins - Wins create enthusiasm and momentum. Plan the implementation to achieve early successes.

Dependency management - The success of the center is likely dependent on coordination with other groups in the organization. Assign someone from your core team as the dependency owner, to liaise with each dependent group. A best practice is for dependency owners to attend team meetings of the dependent group, so as to demonstrate the importance of the relationship and to solicit feedback and recommendations for improvements.

Organizational Readiness

The purpose of the organizational readiness assessment is to determine organizational expectations for the BACOE and to gauge the cultural readiness for the change. Form a small assessment team to determine key challenges, gaps and issues that should be addressed immediately. The ideal assessment solution is to conduct a formal organizational maturity assessment. However, a less formal assessment may suffice at this point.

PlanningDevelop a BACOE Business Plan and Charter that describes the center in detail. Planning considerations include the elements listed in the table below. It is helpful to draft the plan and charter, and then conduct a BACOE kickoff workshop where they are viewed, refined and approved.

Planning Considerations

Description of Kick-off Workshop Agenda Items

Strategic Alignment, Vision and Mission

Present the case for the BACOE, and reference the business case for more detailed information about cost versus benefits of the center.

Assessment Results

Include or reference the results of the assessments that were conducted:

Maturity of the business analysis practices

Summary of the skill assessments

Recommendations, including training and professional development of BAs and improvement of business analysis practice standards

Scope Describe the scope of responsibilities of the BACOE, including:

The professional disciplines guided by the center, (i.e., PM and BA, just BA)

The functions the center will perform

The processes the center will standardize, monitor and continuously improve

The metrics that will be tracked to determine the success of the center

Authority Centers of excellence can be purely advisory, or they can have the authority to own and direct business processes. In practice, centers typically are advisory in some areas, and decision-makers in others. Remember, the organizational placement should be commensurate upon the authority and role of the center. When describing the authority of the COE, include the governance structure, i.e., who or what group the COE will report to for guidance and approval of activities.

Services A center of excellence is almost always a resource center, developing and maintaining information on best practices and lessons learned, and are often a center assigning business analyst to projects. Document the proposed role:

Materials to be provided, e.g., reference articles, templates, job aids, tools, procedures, methods, practices

Services, e.g., business case development, portfolio management team support, consulting, mentoring, standards development, quality reviews, workshop facilitators, and providing business analysis resources to project teams

Organization Describe the BACOE team structure, management, and operations including:

Positions and their roles, responsibilities, and knowledge and skill requirements

Reporting relationships

Linkages to other organizational entities

Budget and Staffing Levels

At a high level, describe the proposed budget, including facilities, tools and technology, and staffing ramp up plans.

Implementation Approach

Document formation of initial working groups to begin to build the foundational elements of the center. In addition, describe the organizational placement of the center, and the focus initially: (i.e., project centric, enterprise focus, or strategic focus).

LaunchAfter the workshop session, finalize the BACOE Charter and Business Plan, and launch the center. Form working groups to develop business analysis practice standards, provide for education, training, mentoring and consulting support, and secure the needed facilities, tools, and supplies.

Final Words

Establishing centers of excellence is difficult, because it destabilizes the sense of balance and power within the organization. Ambiguities arise when all stakeholders are adjusting to the new model. These may manifest themselves as resistance to change, and can pose a risk to a successful implementation. Therefore, coordinate and communicate about how the center will affect roles and responsibilities accompanies the implementation of the center. Do not underestimate the challenges that you will encounter. Pay close attention to organizational change management strategies and use them liberally.

Value to the Organization

To establish BACOE to last, demonstrate the value the center brings to the organization. Develop measures of success and report progress to executives to demonstrate the value added to the organization because of the BACOE. Typical measures of success include:

Project cost overrun reduction - Quantify the project time and cost overruns prior to the implementation of the BACOE, and for those projects that are supported by the BACOE. If a baseline measurement is not available in your organization, use industry standard benchmarks as a comparison. Other measures might be improvements to team member morale and reduction in project staff turnover. Be sure to include opportunity costs caused by the delayed implementation of the new solution.

Project time and cost savings - Track the number of requirements defects discovered during testing and after the solution is in production prior to the implementation of the BACOE, and for those projects that are supported by the BACOE. Quantify the value in terms of reduced re-work costs and improved customer satisfaction.

Project portfolio value - Prepare reports for the executive team that provide the investment costs and expected value of the portfolio of projects; report actual value new solutions add to the organization as compared to the expected value predicted in the business case.

Great Teams...You Need One

When staffing the BACOE, establish a small but mighty core team dedicated full-time to the center, co-located, highly trained, and multi-skilled. Do not over staff the center, as the cost will seem prohibitive. Augment the core team's efforts by bringing in subject matter experts and forming sub-teams as needed. Select team members not only because of their knowledge and skills, but also because they are passionate and love to work in a challenging, collaborative environment. Develop team-leadership skills and dedicate efforts to transitioning your group into a high-performing team with common values, beliefs, and a cultural foundation upon which to flourish.