Stakeholder collaboration: Success Mantra of a Business Analyst

Business Analysis at its core is about introducing the change. The change could be related to people, processes or technology. But the main reason for the change is always linked to a business decision. The business has to introduce change to either stay ahead of the competition or chase the competition. The change could also be because of the changing business environment and that has been forced by the regulators, the government or the society.

Irrespective of the reason, change is always lead by people. People who are:

• Accountable to bring in the change
• Motivated to bring in the change
• Responsible for bringing in the change
• Ideating the change and
• Paying to affect the change

In Business Analysis world, we call them the Stakeholders. Remember that a stakeholder is anyone who can influence or is influenced by your project. It is important to know who all the players are.

As Business Analysts we know that stakeholders are not always readily defined, when we join an assignment. A Business Analyst has to work hard to identify the right stakeholders. As you go about gathering requirements and designing the system it is important to know the needs of each of these people, their importance to your goals, and how they should be collaborated.

Key steps essential for effective stakeholder collaboration

• Identify your stakeholders: It’s essential that you identify all the stakeholders in your project who have some level of interest or influence. It can include anyone from an end-user, right up to the sponsor or CEO. It’s incredibly valuable to create a list of stakeholders, so that you can decide who to engage, when. This list should contain basic information like the stakeholders name, their department, location and their interest in the project.
• Categorize your stakeholders: The next step is to categories each stakeholder. A common way of doing this is to consider each stakeholders level of interest and influence, and perhaps assign a rating (0-10) against each of these. This allows you to treat groups of stakeholders differently. Clearly, people with high interest and influence are the key players, and they need to be managed closely! However be aware that interest levels can change as the project progresses!
• Create a stakeholder engagement plan: Once you have established the key players in your project, you can meet them and take this opportunity to assess their influence and involvement. Once you have this view, you can formulate a stakeholder engagement plan like for e.g. schedule a weekly meet or status calls. This plan will show which stakeholder groups need to be engaged at which times, and how frequently.
• Communicate & Revisit: Once you have started to engage with your stakeholders, keep the communication channels open. As a community of practitioners, BAs sometimes have the reputation of being very visible for a short period of time, then “disappearing” whilst the solution is designed. Don’t let this happen – stay in touch with the key people on your project and keep them updated. It is an easy way to flag up any new potential issues that might arise.

“...those who have learnt to collaborate effectively have prevailed.”- Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin figured it out a long time ago that Collaboration is the mantra to prevail. The more effectively a Business Analyst achieves collaboration, more the chances of success of the project.

About Author:

Padma Nambi is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at padma.n@spluspl.com