5 Steps to Better Project Management

An organization must execute well. While project management can make up for mistakes in planning, excellent project management begins in the planning phase.

Project management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to produce finished products or service. There are many ways in which a project can be carried out and the way in which it is executed is PM. Without a planned approach to the task of managing the projects and achieving objectives, it would be very difficult for the organizations to successfully execute the projects within the constraints of time, scope and quality and deliver the required result.

Many of us are either new to PM or our organization is new to a structured PM approach. The key is to set up a good process and build on it through successful project deployments and understand what works best for your organization and customers.  You can build a project management methodology, but be open to tweaking it along the way – especially for newer or smaller organizations as you learn what works best for the size projects you manage.

According to Insightly.com, here are things you can do today quickly and easily that will make you a better PM and make your overall practice more successful:

Use a good customer management tool. There are so many cloud-based options abound for managing your customers.  It can be so easy to lose track of current clients, potential clients and those clients who want you to call them back next quarter when they have more money to spend. You need a good  CRM tool, so download a few trials and see which one works best.

Use a good PM tool. There are also a lot of cloud-based and affordable PM tools.  Search and try a few out…there are hundreds available now.  You can even use a combination of a CRM and a separate project management application, or you can evaluate CRM applications that include PM functionality.

Collect templates and planning documents. You need to plan – you need those requirements documents, communication plans and statements of work.  And, you need templates, pipelines and stages so that you can easily repeat project successes.  Project schedule templates are difficult to create from scratch, but once you have effective ones to choose from you can tailor them to get started on any type of project quickly and confidently. 

Meet with your customer regularly. We should all be scheduling weekly status meetings with our project teams, as well as reaching out regularly to your customer just to ensure that they feel all the bases are being covered. It’s better to find out early about a concern than to let it fester into something that they end up calling your CEO about later in the project. 

Be professional. You probably have at your disposal a solid group of very skilled project resources.  Treat them as such and they will follow you into battle. They won’t soon forget the recognition you give them for jobs well done.  Project managers don’t often get the praises they probably deserve for individual project successes, but that should never stop you from treating your team the way you would want to be treated.  It will pay off dividends throughout the engagement and when these same resources end up on your teams later on other projects. 

Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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Marshmallow, Spaghetti Sticks and String…Oh My! How to Encourage BA and PM Collaboration

In her discussion titled “Let’s Collaborate Not Tolerate…” Paula Bell (CEO, Paula A. Bell Consulting, LLC) proclaimed early on that “Many people talk about collaboration, but few people actually collaborate.”  After this proclamation, Bell moved forward with her mission to make sure that session participants became a part of (if not already in) the population that actually collaborates – not just talks about. 

Bell emphasized the importance of first building a relationship with your partner (project manager or business analyst), next fostering a collaborative environment, and finally maintaining a positive relationship. 

As a part of building a relationship, Bell encouraged participants to

·         Learn about each other (likes/dislikes, working styles, and communication styles)

·         Set expectations for working together

·         Stay connected with one another

In terms of fostering a collaborative environment, she stressed the importance of (among other things)

·         Investing time upfront

·         Communicating goals

·         Defining roles and responsibilities

For maintaining a positive relationship, Bell advised participants to do a number of things including

·         Make good on your word

·         Admit your mistakes

·         Be realistic

To help session participants grasp and retain the key concepts above, Bell shared interesting videos, provided a template demonstrating how to apply some concepts, and directed the team in a very engaging and thought provoking activity (learned from another expert).

 

It was the aforementioned activity that seemed to really allow session participants to practice and assess their own collaboration.  Bell divided participants into small groups that were responsible to work together to build a structure (as tall as possible).  Each group was afforded the exact same resources for building its structure (a marshmallow, some spaghetti sticks, a string and some tape).  At the end of a set time period, the group with the tallest standing structure was declared the winner.

 

The winning group had a structure that stood 19 inches tall.  When Bell allowed the group to share with others how they worked together, one of the group members explained “I trusted my team”.  The group member went on to explain how she never worked with the others in her group (prior to the session), so she had no reason to distrust them.  The group member’s comment tied back to one of Bell’s key bullet points on maintaining positive relationships – making good on your word.

Overall, Bell’s obvious passion for the material, interactive tools, and hands-on activity seemed to drive home the point that collaboration is not something to simply be talked about – relationships must be established, a collaborative environment must be fostered, and the positive aspects must be maintained. 

Belinda Henderson, CBAP, PSM

Senior Consultant and Business Analysis Blogger, Cardinal Solutions Group
Guest Blogger, 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts

Lessons in Leadership from the Flight Deck

Carey Lohrenz, a leadership and strategy expert, knows what it takes to win in one of the highest pressure jobs imaginable. She has spent 10 rewarding and challenging years planning, executing and debriefing complicated missions as the first female F-14 Fighter Pilot in the U.S. Navy.

Lohrenz doesn’t work in your typical office - she spends each work day in a $45 million jet working a very high stress role with a lot of moving parts. In less than two seconds she goes from 0 to 165 mph in her jet to bring men to a target and back again.

“That speed is physically exhausting so the hardest part is staying conscious, “she explained in her keynote presentation at PW&WCBA 2013 in Disney World. “Meanwhile you are responsible for communicating on three different radios to several different people in the air and on the ground.”

Working on top of an aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous industrious worksites in the world. The job has a clear focus of mission– safely launching and recovering an aircraft. In order to complete each mission successfully, Lohrenz has to consistently exemplify stellar leadership skills.

“When you can leverage strong leadership skills, you can achieve growth and accelerate your career path.” she told the audience.

Here are some skills that Lohrenz developed to reach her goal:

Be the Catalyst

A catalyst is someone who can align people and make things happen faster. “That purpose, focus and discipline allow common people to achieve extraordinary thing,” said Lohrenz.

Also, having a winning attitude and commitment gets you far. How committed are your to your success and continued development? “If you lose sight, your loose the fight,” she added.

Be Tenacious

Early in her life, Lohrenz was drawn to doing something with an organization that put mission before self. She has to always be flexible, be able to adapt to ever-changing situations and overcome any obstacle, which she strongly advises people to do in any business.

The Commanding Officers had to identify only the people who were able to do this well. “They want to break us to get us to the point of understanding where we will break and be able to address those fears and challenges and work through them. The fear of failure is so paralyzing because it makes us pass up opportunities,” she explained. “But, breaking through this allows us to start reaching our potential.”

Be Committed to Excellence

Lohrenz really wanted to blend in and be one of the guys, but it turns out she became a pioneer in the industry. Because of this, she has learned how much perceptions matter, your personal brand, professional brand matters because it is how people perceive you.

“There can be a gap and you just need to know where you are in those gaps so you can address those perceptions,” she explained.

Lohrenz said she and her team are process people’ and tend to over-complicate things. They have highly effective processes of planning, executing and debriefing after the event. “We understood peoples’ roles and responsibilities so we can move easily into the execution phase,” she said. “In fact, one hour of effective planning can save you 200 execution errors, according to Harvard Business Review."

Be Resilient

Being a fighter pilot has its challenges. Lohrenz was used as a platform for “why we can’t have women fighter pilots” in an international discussion when she was just 24 years old She was pulled even out of her cockpit when the Navy chose to not support her because they thought the issue would simply go away. So, for a year and a half she was grounded and felt like her world was completely shattered.

“There were days that I felt like I couldn’t breadth. Everything I worked for was taken away from me,” she told us.

She later was given the opportunity to get back in the cockpit and fly admirals and generals, but it was a very different life than a fighter pilot.  Soon enough, she was back to where she was meant be as a fighter pilot.

“I stood up for what I believed in because the women came before me fought so hard and I knew women would be coming up behind me,” Lohrenz said.

Overall, her message today is: “Good enough is only your entry ticket into the game. Be innovative in your path to success that will get you where you want to go.”

So, be brave. Take risks. What are you going to do to make a difference?

Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc. 

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For Pete’s Sake…Consider the Impact of Change on Others

Keynote Naomi Karten (Author of Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change) opened her discussion on “Embracing Change…” by warning “There is a prerequisite for this session – It is only for people who have experienced change.”  She then advised anyone who has not experienced change to stay after the session, so she could “introduce them to someone who has experienced change.”  This witty way of emphasizing that change happens to everyone went over well with the audience and made for a smooth transition into the real life example of someone who had experienced an interesting change – a gentleman Karten met by the name of Pete (or Project Pete as Karten called him).

Karten met Project Pete at a previous conference.  She told how Project Pete went to work one day and was told to “pack up” his area.  He (and the rest of his team) was being moved to another office in 24 hours.  Karten described how this unexpected “jolt” to Pete’s normal way of life threw him into chaos.  She went on to reference Project Pete throughout the discussion, in order to tie how we experience change back to a real life scenario.  

One point Karten emphasized is that session participants (as project managers and business analysts) are often responsible for introducing “jolts” into the lives of others – the same types of “jolts” that Pete experienced.  BAs and PMs cause jolts by carrying out expected tasks like offering ideas, introducing options, and trying to influence others.  Since BAs and PMS are “possible sources of chaos”, Karten stressed the importance of understanding how chaos is caused and how people respond to it.   

Understanding that successful BAs and PMs cannot completely avoid introducing change (jolts), Karten shared some guidelines on how to best handle such situations.  A few of those guidelines are listed below.

·       Minimize the compounding effects of chaos:  If you know someone is still dealing with the effects of another change, consider adjusting the timing of the change you are preparing to introduce.

·       Regularly communicate the status of the change and its impact:  Communicating the status of change builds trust.  However, be careful that you don’t overdo it – Don’t communicate so much that you become a larger source of stress than the change itself.

·       Give people a say about the change:  In many cases you will not be able to eliminate the change altogether.  However, if you have areas where you can give them some say on how to carry out the change – do so.

·       Recognize the power of listening and empathy as change management tools:  Sometimes having someone to just listen makes it a little easier for those involved to handle change.   

·      Absolutely, positively, do not put down the old way:  Putting down the old way of doing something may offend those involved, because people often find a sense of security in the old way. 

·      Don’t Mollycoddle: Don’t spoil, overprotect, cosset, humor, pander, overindulge, or baby those who have to endure the change. Listening and empathy are important (as noted above), but don’t overdo it.

·      Don’t forget that there is chaos involved with change:  Change is naturally messy.  Understand that those involved with change are experiencing some degree of chaos. Accordingly, they may not respond to things in a logical or rational way for a period of time.

·      Build trust:  Before introducing change for others, build trust. 

Karten also touched on how participants personally should handle change.  She emphasized that when going through a change personally, it is important to recognize when you are in a state of chaos, as well as be able to resist the urge to make decisions that have permanent results.

Overall, session participants seemed to take away the importance of considering the impact of change on those going through it (others like Pete - as well as themselves).

Belinda Henderson, CBAP, PSM

Senior Consultant and Business Analysis Blogger, Cardinal Solutions Group
Guest Blogger, 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts

News Alert! Bigfoot Sighting – We Have Evidence!

In a session titled “Business and IT Alignment:  Turning Agility into a Reality”, Robert Woods (IT Project Manager & Agile Coach/Trainer) used his hands-on experience at Aarons, Inc. to advise participants on the importance of establishing Business and IT alignment, when trying to get the value out of an Agile transformation.   He described this alignment as being elusive – “…sort of like a Bigfoot sighting.”   He went on to reassure the audience, however, that he observed this alignment working at Aarons.

Woods explained that the success of Aaron’s Agile transformation was evident in the release of the developed product to 500 stores - as planned.  The journey was not without challenges, though.  A lack of product ownership and a lack of properly trained team facilitators are 2 of the key challenges the team faced.  These challenges were acknowledged and steps were taken to create engaged product ownership and to train team facilitators.  

After explaining some of the challenges (and tips to overcome them), Woods left participants with a key take away “Agile transformation is not department specific.  It is a culture change for the entire organization.”  He explained that if an organization can think of Agile transformation from this perspective, it is more likely to be successful in that transformation.

Belinda Henderson, CBAP, PSM

Senior Consultant and Business Analysis Blogger, Cardinal Solutions Group
Guest Blogger, 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts

Embracing Chaos: A Normal Response to Change

In PW&WCBA 2013 this morning, Naomi Karten, author of Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals, Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change, Gaps and How to Close Them and Managing Expectations, had the audience at the edge of their seats as she gave a keynote presentation on Embracing Change: Transforming Ideas and Challenges into Opportunities.

As we all have experienced, the way things are can sometimes get thrown into a jolt which causes chaos and many people affected by this change go through a very bumpy adjustment through the chaos created form the jolt.

Karten explained that jolts can be brief or prolonged, expected or unexpected, planned or unplanned, positive or negative, etc. Jolts like mergers, new manager, project cancellation, new tools, new job, or demanding sponsor can be very familiar jolts in your workplace because they can throw the people involved into a state of chaos.

“Chaos is a normal response to change and therefore is predictable,” added Karten. “People may be absent minded, tired, and have difficulty concentrating when people experience chaos. People may experience stronger emotions in general.”

So, how may they react? Karten said that some people actually love chaos – they thrive on the adrenaline rush and get charged up, while others not so much. Others may resist and refuse to cooperate because they don’t like the uncertainty. But don’t worry, Karten said resisting is normal because it’s the way we naturally react to change

“At home and at work, we are dealing with a lot of chaos all at one time. It’s amazing how good we feel when dealing with chaos,” she explained.

According to Karten, BAs and PMs are the people that throw the jolt into the mix and create chaos - by creating new ideas, giving bad news, introducing new methods, and trying to change people’s minds.  Ultimately, how BAs and PMs communicate with their team can greatly influence the duration and intensity of chaos.

So how do manage chaos? Here are some of Karten’s guidelines you can follow:

1. Minimize the compounding effect of chaos.
2. Regularly communicate the status of the change and its impact.
3. Give people a say about the change.
4. Recognize the power of listening and empathy as change management tools.
5. Absolutely, positively do not put down the old way.
6. Don’t mollycoddle.
7. Avoid the biggest mistake people make by implementing change.
8. When you are in chaos, try not to make any irreversible decisions.

Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc. 

How Fascinating! Learning to Speak the Truth about Agile Adoption

Ellen Gottesdiener (EBG Consulting) and Ainsley Nies (Acorn Consulting) kicked off the first Agile workshop of the 2013 PW&WCBA by emphasizing truth-telling with regard to Agile adoption.  When we discuss the who, what and why of Agile, we must be willing to be honest about where we are in our progress.  This includes being honest about the adoption challenges we face.  Once we are transparent, we can take steps to overcome the challenges and advance our Agile implementation.

The duo went on to encourage each person to identify her progress on the spectrum of traditional versus Agile practices in areas like management focus, culture, design, change, and value. As participants physically moved up and down the spectrum (created by Ellen and Ainsley standing at opposite ends of the room), discussion ensued about how participants may be more mature in some areas of Agile, but have opportunities for improvement in other areas.  The activity also revealed that an individual participant may be at one place on the spectrum, where the actual organization in which the participant works is somewhere else on the spectrum.  Participants were encouraged that identifying these types of opportunities and gaps is the starting point for addressing related challenges and maturing in Agile adoption.

The traditional versus Agile spectrum activity was a nice transition in to the being Agile versus doing Agile discussion, where Ellen and Ainsley emphasized that “many implementations fail because people are so focused on doing Agile instead of being Agile.”   The duo stressed that being Agile means a change in mindset, where values and principles guide behavior and enable success.  Some of the key values and principles discussed included thinking with a systems perspective, tolerating ambiguity, building relationships, and being transparent.   To help participants take the next steps in being more Agile Ellen and Ainsley directed everyone in starting a development plan with actions to address the opportunities for improvement identified during the session. 

Ellen and Ainsley shared a number of other insights regarding who is involved with Agile (the Agile teams) and what those teams do.  One of the more impressive ways I have seen to demonstrate what teams do (versus just lecturing on it) is the way that the duo structured the agenda.  The agenda items were listed in an actual backlog.   Ellen and Ainsley explained that the session participants were the users for this backlog.  As the duo progressed through the backlog, they moved items from the backlog to the doing board and finally to the done board.  Participants were treated like actual users in that they were allowed to add items to the backlog during the meeting.  Towards the end of the meeting Ellen and Ainsley asked participants to choose which backlog items they wanted to pull into the current sprint, given that there was only X amount of time left in the session.  This really drove home the concepts of backlog management and time-boxing. 

Finally, in the spirit of being transparent (according to Agile principles) Ellen and Ainsley shared with the group a technique they use for handling unexpected change (which they learned from another expert).  Instead of handling unexpected change with fret and dismay, they instructed participants to simply shout out “how fascinating!” This takes the initial sting out of change and allows the necessary steps to be taken for handling that change.  Ellen and Ainsley encouraged participants to apply the technique during the meeting.  The participants did just that.  By the end of the session, everyone seemed to get the point that change happens and you have to be prepared to handle it – not ignore it or get so worked up that you are unable to move forward. 

Overall this session reinforced key Agile principles in an interactive way that gained (and maintained) participants’ attention.  To that I give a genuine - how fascinating!

  

Belinda Henderson, CBAP, PSM

Senior Consultant and Business Analysis Blogger, Cardinal Solutions Group

Guest Blogger, 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts

 

 

Business and IT Alignment: Turning Agility into a Reality

About five years ago, Aarons Inc. a lease-to-own retailer that focuses on leases and retail sales of furniture, electronics, appliances and computers, was growing faster than anyone projected. So, the company decided to go through an agile transformation.

Ultimately, the company was missing the critical business and IT alignment in their project management. It was missing an agreement on priorities, a common understanding, the culture change taking place and even the adoption of agile.

“We had to find those core missing requirements and fill the miss holes,” explained Robert Woods, IT Project Manager, Agile Coach/Trainer, Aaron’s Inc., at PW&WCBA 2013 this afternoon in the Agile Summit. 

Woods and his team sat down explained the agile transformation process, the ROI, the team engagement, stakeholder management, etc. According to Woods, these were all key things that management at Aarons Inc. didn’t know they actually had to be involved in.

“The agile transformation world: a world where every team is thrilled to be working with each other. I’ve never seen this place before, but I hear it exists and we want to get as close as we can,” he commented.

The idea of an agile transformation world is an idea that project managers and business analysts try hard to aspire to, but it unfortunately doesn’t always work out that way.

“So, we have to take steps to find the core items that we are missing from a project stand point,” said Woods.

As it turns out, he and his team found that Aarons Inc. needed a team facilitator, a more servant leadership which is different from the people coming from a project management history.

“It was a hard change for some of them,” Woods added. The team facilitator must be a conflict resolution specialist because a lot of different types of people are working together trying to “make magic happen,” so there is bound to be conflict.

Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc. 

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The Science Behind the Art of Servant Leadership

With over 20 years of business experience and a master’s degree in neuroscience, William Greenwald, founder & chief neuroleaderologist, Windsor Leadership Group and former director, Performance Coaching & Advisory Practice at Humana Inc., knows a thing or two about business and the brain. With his extensive experience in the two areas, he has been able to deeply connect his love of business and love of the brain.

“Your mind is like a parachute, it works better when it’s open,” Greenwald told attendees at his workshop at PW&WCBA 2013 today in Walt Disney World as he dove into the topic of corporate and personal resilience.

“Our job as leaders is to humanize leaders,” he continued. According to Greenwald, leadership can be defined any way you want, but wearing the leader title is a very tough job. The first thing great companies need to do is understand that leaders are human and you cannot always check your problems at the office door.

In fact, Yahoo’s CEO Melissa Mayor is doing a great job right now of humanizing people. She even started running one of the largest companies in the world while she was pregnant.

The bottom line, said Greenwald, is if we can figure out how to humanize leaders, we’ll win.

So, how will you apply corporate resilience back at the office?

Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc. 

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The Secret to Significantly Increasing Enterprise Project Success

Every project has a person who is at the center of the action, constantly pushing the team to excel.  They live and die by the successes and challenges that are encountered. 

At first glance it would seem that the Subject Matter Experts (SME) possess the passion to drive a project to successful completion.  But that might not be their core motivation; subject matter experts are driven by being known as the go-to expert on a particular topic - let’s say security.  They have achieved success as a vertical thinker.  Vertical expertise is critical to the success of the organization and to a project, but it has a narrow, although important, focus in relation to enterprise success.

If you look deeper into your project team you will see the Business Analyst (BA) has obtained the overall knowledge that can lead to project success.  The good ones can answer any question about the project, follow a well-defined process, translate business “asks” in to actionable tasks, and clearly understand the factors that will determine their team’s success. A BA helps facilitate and develop solutions for the subject matter expert – they are driven by the challenge of solving the tactical problems.  

The BA thinks horizontally and can assist in generating new ideas to solve problems.  They are required to assimilate multiple requirements from multiple SMEs and consider technical constraints in order to formulate a solution.

Let’s use an example of creating a weapon that can destroy a planet, reference the Death Star – I can’t help but use a Star Wars reference here. The BA will wrangle with irrational requirements, they will solve problems that seem unsolvable, the project will not succeed without them - the larger the project, the bigger the pressure.  

Now consider that the project the BA is working on is only a single project in a larger plan.  There are several projects of the same size and scale each with their unique challenges and all with different stakeholders.   

Who owns that? Or who can own it?

The evolution of the BA into a business strategist starts with the understanding of the detailed requirements coupled with the wider knowledge of how these requirements fit into the projects that dovetail into the programs.  A business strategist must prioritize the components of the roadmap to ensure that a specific mix of projects will achieve the organization’s vision.  The business strategist must be able to communicate to all levels within the organization as well as provide inspirational leadership to a variety of teams.

The success of large enterprise initiatives depends on the ability of skilled Business Strategists. We believe a BA can grow into a strategist whether the enterprise itself fosters that larger role or the BA as an individual challenges himself or herself to “be a business strategist within their project”.  

Join the DefinedLogic team at the 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts to learn the skills a Business Strategist must have to drive your Enterprise Vision.  You may also learn what would have happened if the “Empire” used a Business Strategist.

It’s not too late to register! Click here to attend: http://bit.ly/15EfWyf

This post was written by Alex Shanley, Partner, Business Strategist, Defined Logic LLC.

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“Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...Anyone, Anyone?” – How to Keep Stakeholders from "Taking a Day Off" During Your Requirements Meetings

“Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...Anyone, Anyone?”  Do these famous words from the 1980s film Ferris Bueller's Day Off pretty much sum up the tone of your requirements meetings? Let's face it...requirements is not the sexiest of meeting subjects for the typical stakeholder.  Most stakeholders would rather spend time actually doing their work, instead of talking about it.  Nevertheless, active stakeholder participation is crucial when determining true requirements and underlying needs.   So, if your stakeholders consistently pull a “Ferris Bueller" every time you hint at getting together to discuss requirements, it may be time for you to revamp your approach to requirements sessions.

Below are a few simple guidelines for facilitating stakeholder participation in requirements.  As with any guidelines, these should be tempered according to the business analysis practitioner, the stakeholders, the effort at hand, and the general environment.

1. Select relevant topics, according to attendees.  If you want to get (and keep) your stakeholders engaged, avoid inviting them to meetings where only a small percentage of the content is relevant for them.  Rather than having an all-day meeting (for example) where each stakeholder has 2 of 6 topics pertinent to his role, divide the meeting topics across multiple shorter meetings.  Maybe hold 3 separate meetings - each having 2 relevant topics for its participants.

2. Establish meeting guidelines and protocol early on.  In addition to promoting a safe environment in which everyone can fulfill their respective roles, having guidelines also helps to keep the meeting on topic.  For example, you may tell stakeholders they should not hesitate to ask clarifying questions during the meeting.  You may further advise them that questions which cannot be answered right away (or that take the meeting off topic for more than 2 minutes) will be placed on a list for follow up outside of the meeting.   If you discuss this approach up front, participants can feel free to ask questions.  At the same time they fully expect the business analysis practitioner to rein the discussion back in, if a question takes the group too far off topic. 

3. Inform participants of their expected roles.  Clearly explain to your stakeholders what it is you expect them to do, in terms of requirements (and specifically with regard to requirements meetings).  Reiterate the expected roles at each session, as needed.  For example, you may have certain stakeholders who are the subject matter experts responsible to help define an automated process, whereas other stakeholders (perhaps those who manage the areas involved with the process) are expected to review and approve. Establishing, clearly communicating, and reiterating these roles sets the stage to have the process (and supporting requirements) defined by those who have the knowledge and right perspective to do so.  It also facilitates approval by those who have the responsibility and proper authority.

4. Display your meeting accomplishments.  When meeting with a group of stakeholders it is helpful to display (during the meeting) what is discussed and especially what is decided.  Regardless of the specific technique used to later specify requirements (user stories, use cases, process models, statements, etc.), displaying key discussion and decision points during the meeting

·         Equips stakeholders to give feedback by agreeing with (or correcting) what is posted

·         Helps to keep the meeting on topic

·         Provides participants with a sense of accomplishment  

5. Honor stakeholders’ time.   Besides participating in the project at hand (and specifically requirements meetings), most stakeholders have a normal job to continue.  Showing respect for a stakeholder’s time increases the chances of that stakeholder actively participating in your meeting next time around.  Here are some ways to respect stakeholder time

·         Schedule enough time to accomplish your agenda

Note:  You don't want to send stakeholders away feeling like they failed at accomplishing the meeting objective.  So, be careful about over packing your agenda. Who wants to be a part of something that makes them feel like they failed at accomplishing the goal?

·         Share the agenda in advance

·         Start on time

·         End on time (a little earlier if possible)

6. When longer meetings are necessary, provide scheduled breaks and refreshments.  As much as you may try to avoid longer meetings, you may have to go that route occasionally.  When longer meetings are necessary, it is important to remember that we all have biological needs.  Not accounting for those needs can result in uncomfortable stakeholders who are even more eager to get out of a meeting than usual. This is an easily removable obstacle that can be addressed by simply planning ahead for scheduled breaks and providing refreshments.  

These are just a few things to keep in mind as you try to engage stakeholders in your requirements sessions.  Applying these guidelines probably will not result in a stampede of stakeholders trying to force their way into your meetings.  However, it does address some of the common pitfalls that cause stakeholders to disengage during the meeting (or not show up at all). 

Do you want to learn more about those soft skills and human skills that will assist you with engaging your stakeholders?  If you are interested, you don’t want to miss the 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts.  Join me there to gain (or enhance) related skills that will benefit you, your organization, and your stakeholders.  Register today at http://bit.ly/13jM72A.  I hope to see you in Orlando!

Belinda Henderson, CBAP, PSM

Senior Consultant and Business Analysis Blogger, Cardinal Solutions Group

Guest Blogger, 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts