The Balanced BA Striking The Balance Between Domain Knowledge &

Analysis Skill

Simon Nicholls

Head of Business Analysis, SLI

June 2016

About Me

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• Change professional for the last 20+yrs

• Approx. 10yrs in The City on Sell-Side…….except for a brief stint in consultancy

• Last 14yrs at SLI on Buy-Side

• Career ‘plot’

Practice Lead

Change Manager

Technology Analyst

Technical Business Analyst

Consultancy

Technology Systems Analyst

Trade Settlements Process SME

About SLI & Our Business

• Global organisation with 31 offices in 18 countries

• Manage £253bn assets

• Client base comprised of institutions, fund/investment platforms and retail customers

• Change / project activity

91 active projects

Multiple strategic endeavours

50 BAs

….+ Systems Analysts + Solution Analysts

4

What are the ‘Attributes’ of an Analyst?

5

Content

Craft Core

Domain

Knowledge

Analytical

Skill

Personal

Effectiveness

Is Domain Knowledge Important?

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• Stakeholders will always value some domain knowledge

• Analysts will always be sought out for their deep domain

knowledge

• Analysts can leverage past experiences

• Helps accelerate the analysis process

Helps promote strong stakeholder relationships

Experience & knowledge is always useful

Expedites the analysis process

…….But There Are Downsides

Too much domain knowledge can lead to:

Too many assumptions on behalf of the analyst/project

Reduced thoroughness in the analysis process

Decisions being made for the business

Business Analysts can become pseudo business

Ultimate accountability drifts away from ‘real’ business stakeholders

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Is Analytical Skill Important?

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Idea Initiation Feasibility Mobilisation Delivery Closure

Objectives & Scope

Requirements Elicitation

Requirements Analysis

Solution Development

Solution Assessment &

Validation

Define project boundaries

Problem definition

Enrol Stakeholders

Plan requirements gathering

process

Decide approach

Plan materials

Build Business Case

Gather detailed requirements

Requirements prioritisation

Requirements verification

Requirements traceability

Operating model creation

Assess proposed solution

Allocate requirements

Define transition requirements

Validate solution

RFP (request for proposal)

creation

Vendor selection

Cross reference test approach

Cross reference test cases &

requirements

Typical Analysis

Activities

The Analysis

‘Journey’

Change

Process

Translate business requirements

into solutions

Collaborate with IT/3rd parties to

ensure solution meets

needs

Manage new requirements as

they emerge

Pilot solutions as appropriate

Keep business units engaged

throughout development

cycle

• Analysts

Help articulate the problem

Capture the true business needs

Avoid the ever-present ‘Jump-to-solution’ mode

Help ensure solutions are fit for purpose

Rigour, Structure & Discipline, Analysis is a ‘Profession’

Balancing Domain Knowledge & Analytical Skill

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Domain

Knowledge

Analytical

Skills

Stakeholder & Project Influences

Trust & individual relationships

Expectations will differ

Will always value domain knowledge

Subject matter complexity

Repeatability

Time pressures

Risk appetite

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What Does Ideal Look Like?

• High in domain knowledge

Broad understanding of the business

Specialist knowledge

• High in analysis skill

Extremely capable analyst

Experience to multiple project types

• Also, some practicalities…….

People are affordable

People are available

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Analyst profile

ALWAYS

matches the needs of the project assignment

Coping with Reality

• Recruitment

Always recruiting people with pre-built domain knowledge is difficult

Only hiring deeply experienced analysts is impractical

• Career Development

Keeping people engaged

Where next on the career journey

Succession planning

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Analyst profile

DOES NOT ALWAYS

match the needs of the project assignment

Key Messages

• There is no formula

• Some domain knowledge is useful for some people

• ….But the analysis skill is critical for everyone

• Good SMEs do not make good analysts (all of the time)

• Having no (limited) domain knowledge can actually be a good thing

• Need to strike the right balance across the BA community

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Questions?

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The ‘Balanced’ Managing Analyst

Player, Manager, Coach…how to get the balance right as

Managing Analyst

Eva Cairns, Managing Analyst Investments & Derivatives

Isla Bell, Managing Analyst Client & Corporate

June 2016

Content

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1. What are we here to talk about?

2. Introduction – The MAs at SLI

3. One Role, many different profiles

4. Key Challenges

5. Value Add

6. Lessons Learnt & Recommendations

What are we here to talk about & why?

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1. Share experience of structuring a BA practice by putting a Managing

Analyst role in place.

2. Share lessons learnt around the Managing Analyst role itself.

3. Encourage some thinking around BA practice structure, career paths

and role profiles.

Introduction – The 3 MAs at SLI

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What is an Managing Analyst (MA)?

The Managing Analyst manages a team of BAs linked to a specific portfolio of work and is responsible for

shaping new pieces of work as well as overseeing and delivering analysis activities within that portfolio .

Who are the 3 MAs at SLI?

A bit of history…

Simon Nicholls

Head of Business Analysis

Isla Bell

MA

Client & Corporate

Eva Cairns

MA

Investments & Derivatives

Kareen Allan

MA

Real Estate & Regulation

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2012

BA Practice

created

2013 2014

Simon

becomes

BA Practice

Lead

Eva

becomes

first MA

Isla joins

as second

MA

2015

Kareen

joins as 3rd

MA

10 Business Analysts

(perm & contractor)

10 Business Analysts

(perm & contractor)

10 Business Analysts

(perm & contractor)

2016

BA Practice

has 3 MAs

& ~35 BAs

What do we do?

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Doing – Shaping new pieces of work, delivering analysis on specific projects

Managing – People management, resourcing & recruitment, stakeholders management

Coaching – Oversight & Analysis QA, help ensure consistency of approach & output

Developing – BA Practice Development, team development, knowledge development

Planning – Forward looking view, portfolio planning, resource planning

…and why may this be different from what other leads in BA Practices are

doing?

One MA role, many different profiles

• The role profile can look different every month and is different for each MA.

• Key drivers are stakeholder expectations, people or project issues, time of year.

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70%

15%

15%

Profile A – The Player

Player

Manager

Coach

40%

30%

30%

Profile B – Balanced

Player

Manager

Coach

20%

50%

30%

Profile C – The Manager

Player

Manager

Coach

Pros

- Sense of achievement of delivery

- Keeping knowledge up to date

- Gaining trust & credibility

- Working closely with BAs

Cons

- Dragged into detail

- Removed from planning

- Limited time for ‘non urgent’

activities like coaching and

development, can lead to ‘fires’

Pros

- Awareness across many areas

- Support for each facet of the role

Cons

- Spread too thinly

- Hard to achieve an even balance

and to manage others’

expectations

Pros

- Focus on support and development

of others to strengthen the team

- Staff feel well supported

- Seen to be moving practice forward

Cons

- Can get too far away from content of

the work & Subject Matter expertise

may not be up to date

- Not enough knowledge to foresee &

help resolve delivery issues

- Lose trust & credibility

Current MA Challenges

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• Role expectations & profile heavily depend on how stakeholders work

• Some stakeholders only ‘accept’ one part of the role (eg want MAs to be players or line managers only)

• Strong people management and coaching of BAs can be undervalued

Managing Expectations

• Trying to balance the needs of individuals, the BA practice, analysis tasks and stakeholders ie being pulled into many directions at the same time

• Maintaining focus on the ‘player’ activities can be difficult as unplanned management issues can easily take priority

Balancing priorities

• It takes time to effectively embed a new role into the structure, therefore it is still ‘shaping’ up and affecting communication and MA involvement

Effective Embedding

• Given MAs are still practitioners, they can sometimes be seen as an extra pair of hands to fill gaps on projects

Filling Gaps

Value Add of the MA role

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• Putting MAs into the structure reduced management responsibility for the Head of Analysis and enabled him to focus on BA practice lead activities

• MAs also take on BA practice development & link portfolios of work

• The Analysis Management Team created is more effective at brainstorming ideas, discussing issues, making decisions & driving things forward as a team

Practice Development & Management

• MAs look after BA sub teams that are linked to a common agenda and can encourage team building, focused discussions and developments in these teams more effectively

Team Building

• The MA role provides a career path into a leadership role for BAs who would like to develop as people managers

Career Paths

• MAs can manage & coach BAs more effectively given their BA background and subject matter knowledge

• MA understands the reality of Business Analysis rather than just the theory

BA support for BAs

Lessons Learnt & Recommendations

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1. How best to establish the MA role within the Practice?

Communicate and support newly established role, senior management needs to truly embed

this within the structure

Consider the stakeholders carefully when setting up the role profile, get their input and

determine what works best for that portfolio of work

Manage stakeholder expectations (this includes the BAs!) in line with the agreed role

profile, this is key to make things work

Establish ways of demonstrating the value of the coaching and developing aspects of the

role

2. What is the ideal MA role profile?

There is no right answer, but too thinly spread is not effective, the role should have a focus and be driven by the needs of the relevant

portfolio of work.

Key Drivers that determine the profile are portfolio managers & business stakeholders,

staff issues, ‘fires’, time of year

Whilst flexibility is good, changing focus daily is not…select an area of focus and stick with it

for a defined period of time. Delegate responsibilities to BAs as career opportunities.

Manage expectations accordingly so you are not expected to be A one day and C the next

day.

Your Thoughts and Experiences…

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