10 DELIVERING A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED BA SERVICE

INTRODUCTION

Building relationships with stakeholders is fundamental to business analysis. It isn’t something that is a by-product or a necessary pre-requisite, it is at the heart of what business analysts do. While it may be said that this is true of all service providers, the range of stakeholders, the various perspectives held and the different needs that they have, contribute to the complexity of business analysis work.

BA leaders have to ensure that business analysts within the business analysis team understand the importance of identifying their stakeholders and working effectively with them to ensure that their perspectives are understood and, where possible, their needs are met. In some situations, it may not be possible to meet all stakeholder needs but effective engagement with stakeholders should at least ensure that their expectations are understood, and any shortfalls or disappointments are managed.

In most business analysis contexts, there are all manner of stakeholders to be considered and techniques such as the stakeholder wheel, shown in Figure 10.1, can help to identify the stakeholders for a particular situation or project. Figure 10.1 reflects that stakeholders may come from many different groups, organisations and communities.

Some of these stakeholders may be deemed to be business analysis ‘customers’ and should be considered as such when working to deliver a customer-oriented BA service.

If a customer-oriented service is to be delivered by business analysts, the essential first step is to identify the customers who are recipients of the BA service. Business analysts often talk about their ‘customers’, but to deliver a service that is customer-focused requires understanding of the variety of individuals and groups that fall within this broad category, and ongoing, focused efforts.

One aspect of working well with customers is to understand that while we may use a generic term, such as ‘customer’, or, more broadly, ‘stakeholder’, within each category are individual people. Individuals possess values, priorities, concerns and beliefs. They have personal agendas, and needs, and are likely to have expectations that must be managed. A personalised approach that considers people with a range of needs is more likely to be successful when delivering a service. Viewing a stakeholder or customer as an individual is more likely to ensure that the focus is on the person rather than the role they perform. Techniques such as personas can be very useful in this context, as they help to uncover the factors of importance to individual customers.

Figure 10.1 Stakeholder wheel (adapted from Paul, Cadle and Yeates, 2014)

Effective customer engagement may be enabled by developing the personal skills that form part of the business analyst T-shape, as discussed in Chapter 4. However, business analysts with excellent personal skills may still struggle to work effectively with their customers if they lack the business knowledge and understanding and the professional skills that are relevant to the particular context.

This chapter explores the following topics:

• customer categories for the BA Service;

• working effectively with customers;

•techniques for analysing customers.

IDENTIFYING THE ‘CUSTOMER’

The term ‘customer’ is used with an increasing frequency in all manner of business situations and often seems to be applied with an unwarranted level of confidence when discussing the nature of the customer and their requirements. However, when challenged, it is often the case that many individuals and organisations do not have a clear view of the ‘customer’ but instead are using the term in a broad sense, often making sweeping assumptions about what customers actually need.

A customer may be defined as:

However, when we consider the term ‘customer’ within a business analysis context we might extend this definition as follows:

Given this definition, many of the stakeholder groups shown in Figure 10.1 are in fact different categories of customer so should be offered the level of customer service that meets or exceeds their expectations and requirements. The exceptions are suppliers, regulators and competitors, where the nature of the stakeholder relationship is different to that of a customer-oriented service relationship.

CATEGORIES OF CUSTOMER

It is worthwhile exploring three different categories of customer: business customers, governance customers and development project customers. Each category may be decomposed to identify specific types of customer and their different priorities and requirements. The key roles are shown in in Figure 10.2.

Business customers

Business customers are those who are the recipients or beneficiaries of the outputs from the projects. Working with these customers has become increasingly important for business analysts over the last few decades, as the importance of taking a holistic view of business changes has attracted greater recognition.

Business analysts represent the needs of the business customers to those responsible for designing and developing new systems and processes. They work collaboratively with business customers to co-create value through discussing and analysing requirements in order to clarify what is required from the new systems and processes. Chapter 2 explored the nature of ‘value’ and the need for co-creation of value.

Figure 10.2 Customer categories and roles

Understanding the specific needs of business customers has increased in complexity over the years as different categories of customer have become more established. As a result, the broad term ‘customer’ is often insufficient to reflect the differing issues, problems and requirements of the different customer groups.

A structure that identifies different business customer categories is shown in Figure 10.3.

Figure 10.3 Categories of business customer

The nature of business analysis work is such that it may involve direct or indirect relationships with different categories of customer. For example:

• Business analysts typically interact directly with business employees. However, where there is a large team of business staff, the business analyst may interact with only a representative sub-set of this team.

• A consumer of the product or service provided by the business analyst’s organisation is likely to interact with the business employees rather than directly with the business analysts.

Table 10.1 discusses the types of relationships that business analysts may have with the different categories of customer.

Table 10.1 Business customers and their relationships with the BA Service

Customer role	Business analyst relationship
Consumer	Consumers of the organisation’s products or services These customers may not have direct contact with business analysts. However, the BA team has to understand their needs in order to support the success of the organisation. Techniques such as the Kano model and value network analysis may be particularly relevant when considering consumer needs. These techniques are discussed later in this chapter
Business employee	Business employees are typically the frontline staff who operate the business processes and systems, and interact with the consumers of the organisation’s products or services These are the people who are responsible for defining what is required of the product or service, so business analyst engagement with them is likely to be considerable
Manager	The BA Service in some organisations has been recognised as having the capability to work with senior executives on strategy analysis and the strategic execution portfolio. However, even where business analysts work primarily with operational staff, there is a need to understand the executive managers and their perspectives on the business analysis work In some organisations, business analysis is not well understood or is perceived to have a limited scope. It may be that the business analysts are seen as the team who ‘write down the requirements’. The BA leaders are those people who are likely to have the greatest opportunity to interact with senior executives and champion the BA Service and the value offered by business analysis Even where the business analysts are not working at an executive level, they need to consider the views of the executives with regard to any business analysis projects or assignments. Failure to do this could result in a project being derailed at a late stage or delivering a solution that does not address identified issues or problems
Owner	The business owners are those ultimately responsible for the health of the business. For example, they may be shareholders or charitable trustees. These customers may be remote from the business analysts and any interactions may be indirect, via the business managers who are responsible for ensuring the delivery of the owners’ requirements However, in some organisations, such as small private limited companies, it is the owners who have the overall vision for the organisation. Accordingly, they may be involved in change projects at an overview level and may identify the general business requirements to be delivered
Partner	Many organisations work with partner companies to deliver their products and services. This results in business analysts needing to work with partner organisations in a variety of situations. For example, the partner organisations may be responsible for running internal functions such as human resources or finance, or they may provide the operational service for the organisation’s systems Engagement with partner customers is essential on some projects if the delivered solution is to be successful
Reseller	Resellers are intermediary organisations who resell products or services to consumers. Resellers are often the ‘sales force’ for the organisation, so may provide frontline services to the consumers in a similar vein to the business employees. Therefore, business analysts may need to engage with reseller customers to determine the requirements of the consumers as well as their own requirements

Given these different categories, building stakeholder relationships with customers can be time-consuming and complex, requiring due consideration if it is to be successful. BA leaders have to support business analysts in doing this and ensure that the nature of the relationships is understood.

Given these different categories, the relationships that business analysts have with the ‘customer’ can be varied and are often indirect. One way of representing these relationships is to think about the interactions that business analysts have with customers as relationship streams that show the extent to which a direct relationship may exist.

Examples of different relationship streams are shown in Figure 10.4.

Figure 10.4 Example customer relationship streams for business analysts

Understanding who the direct and indirect customers are is important if the business analyst is to represent the customer when working on change projects. The information that can be obtained from each customer needs to be clearly understood, as this is often constrained as follows:

• A particular customer role may provide only a limited view of the system of interest; for example, a business employee working in a sales team may only understand the sales viewpoint and may be unaware of the issues relevant to the service delivery team.

• An individual may have some strongly held views that do not represent the views of other stakeholders; for example, senior stakeholders that focus on meeting their targets and objectives.

•Some customers may have deep insights into a business sector or industry domain but very little knowledge of other areas; for example, a domain expert with knowledge of an industry domain but little understanding of how a particular organisation works.

Governance customers

Business analysis customers may also be found within the change programmes and projects; business analysts have to collaborate with their fellow change and IT professionals. One of the key elements of a BA leader role is to ensure that business analysts understand the roles performed by their fellow change professionals. It is sometimes the case that other roles are misunderstood, leading to overlaps, duplication and conflict. There is sometimes a sense that one role is of greater importance than another. However, all change professionals should be attempting to achieve the same thing – delivering business changes successfully in order to achieve the desired business benefits.

There are several business change roles that need to interact with business analysts and are reliant on the information, support and deliverables offered by the business analysis team.

A structure that identifies different governance customer categories is shown in Figure 10.5.

Figure 10.5 Categories of governance customer

The governance customer roles are described in Table 10.2.

Table 10.2 Governance customers and their relationships with the BA Service

Customer role	Business analyst relationship
Accountable executive (project sponsor)	Accountable to the business executives for the outcomes from the change programme The BA Service supports various aspects of the change initiative and the achievement of the objectives for which the accountable executive is responsible. Depending upon the nature and size of the change initiative, the business analysts may work closely with this person
Business architect	Responsible for creation, maintenance oversight and the business architecture artefacts Works with business analysts to identify the impacts of proposed changes and where existing capability, processes or data may be leveraged to enable the implementation of the changes
Programme manager	Responsible for delivering the objectives of a change programme The business analysts ensure that a holistic view of the business changes is adopted, so may work very closely with the programme manager to ensure that project interdependencies are understood and managed
Project manager	Responsible for delivering the objectives of an individual change or development project The BA Service delivers services specific to a project, such as defining requirements or improving business processes (see Chapter 2). Therefore, business analysts work very closely with project managers
Product owner	Responsible for the management of the product backlog A business analyst may hold the product owner role on some projects or in some organisations. If this is not the case, the product owner will require support from the business analysts in prioritising and managing the requirements or work items for the project
Change manager	Oversees the deployment of changes and ensures that all necessary actions are taken to enable deployment This work is supported and, where appropriate, enacted by business analysts. For example, the definition and delivery of training in the application of new processes or systems
Project support office staff	Ensure adherence to the organisation’s standards for business change initiatives Business analysts need to be cognisant of the project support office standards and apply them as necessary. They may also provide input into decisions made regarding standards and templates (see Chapter 6)

Development project customers

Product development customers are those who work directly with business analysts to develop the deliverables of projects. The actors within the development team work closely with the business employees and managers who have specific responsibilities to enact on behalf of the organisation.

A structure that identifies different product development customer categories is shown in Figure 10.6.

Figure 10.6 Categories of product development customer

The product development customer roles are described in Table 10.3.

Table 10.3 Product development customers and their relationships with the BA Service

Customer role	Business analyst relationship
Solution architect	Responsible for the overall design of the product Works closely with business analysts to ensure a holistic view is adopted and all aspects of the solution are defined in order to meet the needs of business customers
Software architect	Responsible for the design of the software product Works closely with business analysts to ensure that the needs of the business customers are met
Product developer	Responsible for the creation of the product. Works closely with business analysts and the business staff to ensure that requirements are fulfilled accurately and any ambiguities are resolved
Software tester	Responsible for ensuring that the product has been tested sufficiently to identify and manage any software problems Works closely with business analysts, particularly during business acceptance testing
Domain expert	Provides information about the business domain within which the organisation operates. For example, domain experts may be specialists in areas such as the financial services or transport industries. Domain experts may be employees of the organisation or external consultants Business analysts work with domain experts when in-depth knowledge of the business domain is required to support the product development process

WORKING WITH CUSTOMERS

The majority of customers for the BA Service are internal to the organisation. Even where external customers will be affected by the changes, business analysts are likely to work with business representatives rather than the end consumer themselves. While these individuals may be viewed as colleagues, they should still be considered as customers and the service delivered should address their needs and expectations.

The need for professional respect between the various disciplines has never been greater. With so many calls upon the limited change resources, and increasing economic and competitive pressures, organisations have to change to keep up. If change professionals are able and disposed to collaborate, they have the potential to provide the support that their organisations need. If change professionals engage in ‘land grab’, whereby they fail to recognise the value of specialist expertise and attempt to take on the work of their colleagues from other specialisms, this will undermine collaboration opportunities and has the potential to result in poor-quality work that may risk the success of projects and organisations. Research (Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml, 1991) has shown that there are five service dimensions used by customers to evaluate a service provider. While these dimensions were identified with regard to the consumer customer rather than the internal customer, they are highly applicable to business analysts.

The five dimensions are described in Table 10.4.

Table 10.4 Five business analysis customer service dimensions (adapted from Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml, 1991)

Service dimension	Description
Reliability	The capability of the BA Service to perform the services that are offered at the required level of quality
Assurance	The credibility and professionalism displayed by the BA Service. This generates a sense of confidence and trust in individual business analysts
Tangibles	The physical evidence provided when performing the services. The BA Service may deliver documents, run workshops or meetings, and communicate using different mechanisms – all provide tangible evidence of the quality of the service provided
Empathy	The care and attention offered to the customers by business analysts, including treating them as individuals with their own needs and requirements
Responsiveness	The attitude demonstrated when working with customers. Business analysts need to show that they are willing to help and support customers in a timely fashion

These dimensions are helpful when establishing a BA Service because they support the delivery of a service that is valued by customers. They also highlight that while customers want to be able to rely on the deliverables or outcomes from a service (reliability and tangibles), they also want to have a good customer experience (responsiveness, assurance and empathy).

Understanding customer expectations

In evaluating the quality of the BA Service, customers consider the gap between what was expected and their perceptions of what was delivered. Therefore, it is critical that the customers’ expectations with regard to the business analyst role and the services delivered are understood. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the importance of expectations with regard to the business analyst role and how role ambiguity can lead to misconceptions and lack of recognition. The development of a service portfolio for the business analyst role helps to overcome role ambiguity and will help to build relationships with internal colleagues. However, problems can arise even when the BA Service is clearly defined, and customers know what to expect, if the delivery of a service fails to meet customer expectations in line with the five dimensions described in Table 10.4.

Customer expectations are not the same as customer requirements. Discussing expectations of the BA Service with current or potential customers will reveal interesting insights: ‘What do you need from the BA Service?’ is quite a different conversation to ‘What do you expect from the BA Service?’ (see Appendix 11). When something goes wrong and relationships break down, expectations (whether unmet or uncommunicated) are generally a contributing factor. Expectations are usually considered so implicit to both parties that ‘they don’t even need saying’, and the word ‘expectation’ is not used until after a product or service has been delivered and the phrase ‘that’s not what I was expecting’ makes an appearance.

The Kano model was developed by Professor Noriaki Kano and his colleagues from Tokyo University in 1984 and sets out a model for analysing customer satisfaction (Kano et al., 1984). The model (see Figure 10.7) distinguishes between three types of feature required by customers: basic or essential, performance and delighter.

Figure 10.7 The Kano model (adapted from Berger et al., 1993)

1. Essential: the requirements that are expected to be delivered by the product or system. In other words, these features comprise the minimal set that offer the basic functionality in the view of customers. Such requirements may not be requested specifically, as they are often assumed to be available. They are taken for granted when delivered by a product or service, so do not increase the customer’s level of satisfaction. However, customers are dissatisfied if these features are not provided and the requirements are not fulfilled. For example, customers expect that a car will have basic features such as central locking and air conditioning. They would be dissatisfied if the car locking feature did not work centrally as expected, but customer satisfaction would not increase if this was provided.

While the essential features do not contribute to customer satisfaction it is still the case that service providers need to know what they are so that they can be delivered.

2. Performance: the attributes of the product that a customer may request as additional options. For example, there may be a request for a car to have heated seats. Such requirements are typically expressed by customers and, if fully provided, can increase customer satisfaction to a great degree. However, if required performance features are not provided, customer dissatisfaction may result. Performance features may increase the amount charged for a product or service.

3. Delighter: the product or service features that are likely to delight the customer and hence offer the potential to deliver the highest degree of satisfaction. These features are those where a service provider can gain significant goodwill and loyalty from customers because the customer may not even be aware that they are available or desirable. Requirements regarding delighter features may be uncovered through considering and eliciting tacit knowledge or through service providers thinking innovatively about customer issues and finding ways to address them. A good example of this is the provision of heated front windscreens in cars.

A key milestone for a BA Service is establishing a shared understanding of the essential attributes with all customers. As many people have had different experiences of business analysis in other settings or organisations, expectations can vary significantly. Dissatisfaction with this BA Service may be down to an expectation set by working with business analysts elsewhere or possibly by ambiguity regarding the role (as discussed in Chapter 1). This may be reflected in expectation statements such as: ‘I would expect the BA to cover when the project manager is on holiday’ or ‘I expect BAs to have SQL skills.’

The Kano model feature types and their implications for the BA Service are described in Table 10.5.

The ‘best service’ from a customer point of view would have all the essential attributes; it would also maximise the performance attributes, minimise the indifferent attributes and provide as many delighter attributes as possible for a price that the customer is willing to pay.

The Kano model and the BA Service Framework

It is helpful to consider the BA Service Framework (explained in Chapter 2) with regard to the levels within the Kano model. Each service within the framework may have different levels of requirement. Relevant examples are shown in Table 10.6.

Table 10.5 Kano feature types and the implications for the BA Service

The Kano model reflects that customer expectations change over time and, accordingly, the value associated with a feature is likely to diminish. While a feature may be at the performance or delighter level initially, at a later stage customers may expect the feature to be provided and will disappointed if this is not the case. For example, an in-built satellite navigation system in a new car was originally seen as a ‘delighter’ but is now likely to be deemed a ‘performance’ feature. Eventually, it is likely to be considered ‘essential’ by customers of new cars. This is likely to be the same for the BA Service. The work business analysts conduct, for example, to determine the requirements to automate a business process, are now expected, and delighting customers is more likely to result from adopting a digital innovation approach whereby new process features are offered that customers had not anticipated.

Table 10.6 Features offered by the BA Service at the three Kano levels

Customers and conflict resolution

The nature of providing a service, particularly one in which we are attempting to co-create value with customers, will inevitably lead to situations where conflict can arise. Customer expectations is an area where conflict can arise when there is a lack of communication about what is expected, or when the expectations are known but are not met.

Conflict is not necessarily an issue in itself. The nature of business and IT change means that there are often different stakeholder perspectives to consider, which can result in requirements that are inconsistent or even opposing. Problems tend to arise when conflicts are ignored or when one party attempts to impose solutions or ideas without taking account of other views.

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict MODE Instrument¹ (see Figure 10.8) assesses behavioural responses to conflict situations. The different responses are based upon two behaviour dimensions:

• assertiveness: the extent to which a party attempts to satisfy their own concerns;

• cooperativeness: the extent to which a party attempts to satisfy the other person’s concerns.

Figure 10.8 The Thomas-Kilmann conflict styles

Individuals are capable of using all the conflict resolution modes shown in the model, but may have a preferred or default style for approaching conflict situations. At first glance the Compromise mode may seem most attractive, but this can lead to an outcome where no one is completely happy. The only route to a ‘win–win’ resolution is through collaboration. However, this doesn’t mean that all situations require or even have the potential for a collaborative outcome. In some circumstances, a speedy decision is required, and a competing stance may be the best approach. In other situations, the conflict is best ignored as it is likely to be short-lived and attempting to move towards a compromise or collaborative result may inflame the situation.

Raising awareness within the BA Service of the different conflict resolution modes and encouraging a collaborative approach wherever possible, enables the BA Service to work with customers to find solutions that fully satisfy all concerns. This requires exploring issues in depth and using active listening to understand what is needed. Effective collaboration may take the form of a constructive disagreement to understand each person’s perspective and to find a creative solution to a problem.

Political awareness

One of the factors that often needs to be considered when working with stakeholders is the incidence and level of internal politics and the impact this can have on working relationships. The Baddeley and James model, shown in Figure 10.9, offers insights into workplace behaviours.

Figure 10.9 Political awareness model (adapted from Baddeley and James, 1987)

This model identifies four behavioural types:

1. Inept behaviour (the donkey) is displayed by those who do not have awareness of the internal politics, and often fail to understand why others behave as they do. They are focused on protecting their own feelings and egos. The resultant behaviour is obviously self-serving and may be detrimental to both the situation and the individual.

2. Clever behaviour (the fox) is displayed by those who are highly aware of internal politics and are also keen to serve their own agendas. The resultant behaviour is likely to be manipulative and reflect attempts to exercise control of situations.

3. Wise behaviour (the owl) is displayed by those who understand the internal politics and have sufficient self-awareness to act in a way that is beneficial to each situation.

4. Innocent behaviour (the sheep) is displayed by those who do not have an awareness of the internal politics and lack self-awareness. This results in behaviour that is well-intentioned but may result in individuals being exploited or ignored.

Unhelpful political behaviour needs to be identified and understood so that a strategy to work with the individuals concerned can be formulated. These four categories can help to identify the nature of the behaviour demonstrated by individuals and may provide a means of understanding underlying motivations. Recognising and managing political behaviour is often difficult but can be supported by the use of techniques to analyse and influence customers. These techniques are discussed later in this chapter.

Value network analysis

Value network analysis examines an organisation or business area from the perspective of the roles engaged in the value network and the value exchanges between these roles. The value exchanges may be tangible or intangible.

The value network analysis technique was developed by Verna Allee (2002) and shows the ‘touchpoints’ between roles associated with the work of the business system. These touchpoints are where interactions take place between the BA Service and its customers, in other words, where customer service happens. They provide the opportunity for the BA Service to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Value network analysis is a useful technique to understand the relationships between stakeholders and the BA Service by highlighting the touchpoints where stakeholders have contacts with the BA Service, and their expectations with regard to the value exchanges.

Value network analysis diagrams will vary between organisations and even teams within organisations. The roles defined will depend upon various factors, including the terminology, standards and approaches adopted by an organisation. An example value network analysis for a BA Service is shown in Figure 10.10.

Figure 10.10 Partial value network analysis for a BA Service

This diagram shows interactions between various roles. The dotted lines represent intangible exchanges of value proposing items and the solid lines represent tangible exchanges. In this diagram, the following exchanges are shown:

• business user to business analyst: intangible exchange of requirements information;

• business analyst to business user: tangible exchange of requirements documentation;

• software developer to business user and business analyst: tangible exchange of prototyped requirements;

• business user and business analyst to software developer: intangible exchange of feedback on prototypes.

The nature of these value exchanges, for example, how the exchange takes place and the way in which communication is facilitated, creates opportunities to build relationships with stakeholders and customers.

Building stakeholder relationships

Good stakeholder relationships are essential for the success of a BA Service. Chapter 1 discussed the need for role clarity in gaining recognition of business analysis work, but stakeholder relationships are a further key element in ensuring that the organisation involves business analysts when relevant.

Effective stakeholder relationship building requires a number of factors to be defined for the BA Service:

• an overarching vision;

• values and ethics;

• a knowledge-sharing culture.

The vision and values for the BA Service were discussed in Chapter 1; the culture of a BA Service and the development and importance of a knowledge-sharing culture are discussed in Chapter 11.

Active-Constructive Response model

Building better relationships with individuals and other teams is an important goal of the BA Service, but it may be difficult to identify practical steps to enable this to be achieved. One way to improve relationships is to consider the communication options available, in terms of levels of energy and tone, when responding to information or news.

Sharing positive information and experiences will amplify the positive impact for the individual. When an active-constructive response (Gable et al., 2004) is received, they experience even more positive emotions and the exchange helps to strengthen and build the relationship. Figure 10.11 illustrates the response options available to the business analyst.

For example, in the situation where a colleague shares the news, ‘I have had some really positive feedback from my project team’, different responses (adapted from Reivich, Seligman and McBride, 2011) can be mapped to different parts of the model, as shown in Table 10.7.

The only response option that builds the relationship is the active-constructive response. Responding in any other way, due to lack of time, energy or interest, means an opportunity has been missed to invest in improving the relationship.

Table 10.7 Example of Active-Constructive Response model

Response	Examples
Active/constructive	‘That’s great.’; ‘What did they say?’; ‘Who was it?’
Active/destructive	‘That makes a change.’; ‘They are probably going to ask for a favour.’
Passive/constructive	‘That’s nice.’
Passive/destructive	‘I just got some feedback too… .’

ANALYSING CUSTOMERS

Given the range and volume of customers who will work with business analysts, it is usually necessary to determine the level of priority each customer attracts. Some customers’ views need to be taken into account when deciding on business changes, whereas other customers’ views are not given such prominence. In some situations, there may be customers whose views are not considered at all.

Figure 10.11 Active-Constructive Response model for business analysts

The BA leaders may be required to clarify which customers are of the highest priority. There are several models that may be helpful when doing this:

• the power/interest grid;

• the Stakeholder Salience model;

•the responsibility assignment matrix (RACI).

The power/interest grid

The power/interest grid is essentially a matrix whereby customers and other stakeholders are mapped according to their level of power and their level of interest with regard to a particular situation. There are various versions of the matrix, including a 2 x 2 matrix, 3 x 3 matrix and a 2 x 3 matrix. The essence of the matrix (irrespective of version) is to allow business analysts to consider where a stakeholder, or stakeholder group, should be located on the matrix and then to use the position occupied to determine the amount of effort required to work with the stakeholder and the associated management strategy. A 3 x 3 version of the power/interest grid is shown in Figure 10.12.

Figure 10.12 3 x 3 power/interest grid (Paul, Cadle and Yeates, 2014)

The position occupied by a particular customer will differ depending upon the circumstances. For example, at the outset of a project, the finance director for an organisation may not have a high level of interest although they may be extremely powerful. In this situation, it may be necessary to adopt a ‘keep satisfied’ management strategy. However, if the project begins to run into difficulties and there is a risk that the budget will need to be extended, the finance director may become very interested and may need to be actively managed as a key player.

Stakeholder categories

Alongside the power/interest grid, it is useful to consider if stakeholders are generally in favour or against the aims of the planned change, project or service. Table 10.8 shows different categories² of stakeholder (based upon the attitudes held) and how each category may be engaged to support a change.

Table 10.8 Stakeholder categories

Using the information gained from both the power/interest grid, and the stakeholder categories shown in Table 10.8, it is possible to understand the following:

• the current level of engagement of each group;

• the target level of engagement required from each group to successfully deliver the change initiative or project;

• the actions that can be taken to achieve the required level of engagement.

Table 10.9 provides an example stakeholder engagement analysis based upon a typical project scenario. In this example, the owner is too busy, business employees see potential negative impacts of the proposed changes and partners have competing priorities to accommodate.

It would be a useful exercise to consider the different stakeholders of the BA Service, analyse the categories and determine the current and required level of engagement. This will inform the creation of a BA Service Communications Strategy (see Appendix 10).

Customer salience

Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997) proposed a model for analysing stakeholder salience. Their research considered the relationship between an organisation and different stakeholders. The relationship was analysed in terms of three dimensions: power, legitimacy and urgency.

This model can be extremely helpful to anyone engaged within a BA Service, given that it can be applied successfully to analyse customers (as a sub-group of stakeholders) when conducting business analysis. Therefore, the three dimensions may be applied to the BA Service as follows:

Table 10.9 Example stakeholder engagement analysis

1. The power of the customer within the context of the project. Does the customer have the power to influence requirements, options and outcomes?

2. The legitimacy of the customer. Are the customer’s actions and requirements desirable and appropriate within the business context? Does the customer have a legitimate right to exercise the power held?

3. The urgency of the customer’s needs according to timing and criticality. Does action need to be taken in the immediate future or short term, to address the customer’s requirements? Is the customer a key partner with regard to the project?

The assessment of these three attributes helps to identify the salience of the stakeholder or customer. This then determines the level of priority that should be assigned to each customer’s requirements.

The extent of stakeholder salience is not fixed, but may vary over time and is only relevant within the context of the situation. Again, this is a relevant consideration when working with customers. For example, a customer who exercises significant power on one project may have only limited power in another context.

Combining these three dimensions results in the identification of seven different classes of customer. This is represented in the model shown in Figure 10.13, which has been adapted from the original Stakeholder Salience model and shows the relevant management strategies from the power/interest grid in Figure 10.12.

Figure 10.13 Customer salience model (adapted from Mitchell et al., 1997)

These classes of customer can be extremely useful within the BA Service, when analysing priorities and deciding on courses of action. The classes are described within the BA Service context in Table 10.10.

Table 10.10 Customer salience and the BA Service

Customer class	BA Service description
Dormant	Power: customers who hold positions of influence but are not engaged or interested in the situation or project. For example, senior executives from other areas of the business. It is important that BAs are aware of them but they may not need to manage them actively. However, it is important to recognise when their involvement would not be helpful and ensure that they do not become engaged, particularly as they do not have legitimacy. Alternatively, it is also important to recognise when their involvement would be helpful and try to gain their engagement and increase their legitimacy
Definitive	Power/Legitimacy/Urgency: these are the customers with whom the business analysts should work closely in order to ensure that the project will align with their values and needs. For example, the project sponsor is a definitive customer
Dependent	Legitimacy/Urgency: these customers are likely to be those who are impacted by the project but have little power to influence the outcomes. For example, the business staff who will need to carry out the new processes and use the new systems. It is important to engage with these customers because they may be able to gain power and thereby frustrate or resist the changes
Demanding	Urgency: these are people who are likely to be outside the project but make demands regarding the work and the outcomes. Again, it is questionable whether they fall into the category of customer (or stakeholder) but they may believe they have a right to be heard. These individuals can take up a lot of time and energy, but it is always important to be aware that they may be able to gain legitimacy (perhaps through alliances with other customers)
Dominant	Power/Legitimacy: customers who hold positions of influence, are not engaged or interested in the situation or project but have a legitimate interest in or influence on the outcomes. For example, senior executives from related areas of the business. It may be helpful to engage their interest and raise their sense of urgency in some situations
Dangerous	Power/Urgency: these are people who have power and want their needs to be met but don’t have any legitimacy in the situation. It is questionable whether they should be categorised as customers (or even stakeholders). For example, this may be an executive who wishes to influence a project (possibly to meet a personal agenda) but doesn’t have the legitimate right to do this. These people may be customers in the broadest sense, but may have very limited influence within the context of a change project. However, their power may enable them to disrupt the project or inhibit the desired outcomes
Discretionary	Legitimacy: these customers do not hold positions of influence, although it is perceived that they have a legitimate interest in the project. However, they do not have a sense of urgency with regard to the actions underway

The RACI matrix

The RACI technique is widely used in business analysis as an approach for analysing and defining levels of responsibility for particular tasks.

The RACI categories represent the areas shown in Table 10.11.

Table 10.11 Categories within the RACI matrix

Category	Description
Responsible	The role or individual responsible for taking ownership of the work to complete a task and deliver any associated deliverables
Accountable	The role or individual accountable to the organisation for the success or failure of a task and associated deliverables. There is only one accountable role or individual for each task or deliverable
Consulted	A role or individual who may be consulted so that they can provide additional skills, information or guidance to support the completion of the task or production of the associated deliverables
Informed	A role or individual who should be advised of any key aspects related to the task such as decisions or outcomes

Business analysts need to understand the various customer motivations and desired outcomes if they are to work successfully with different project customers. Examples of customers with RACI responsibilities are summarised in Table 10.12.

Table 10.12 RACI responsibilities of project customers

Role	Motivation/outcome/RACI categorisation
Project sponsor	Accountable for the realisation of the business case
Domain expert	Consulted regarding domain information
End user	Consulted regarding usage and organisational information
Project manager	Accountable for delivery of the project objectives
Software developer	Responsible for developing the software element of the solution
Software tester	Responsible for testing the software element of the solution
Solution architect	Responsible for defining and designing the holistic solution

Influencing techniques

The BA Service occupies a central role in most business change and IT projects. While the project manager has to coordinate the activities undertaken and monitor progress towards the project goals, the business analysts have to ensure that the outcomes desired by customers stay at the forefront and that a holistic view is taken of what is needed to achieve the business objectives. Achieving this can be extremely difficult as it requires the business analysts to work collaboratively with a variety of customers and stakeholders, as discussed earlier in this chapter.

The difficulties in defining the role of the business analyst were described in Chapter 1. However, the BASF (see Chapter 2) requires business analysts to work closely with their customers, irrespective of which service is conducted. This is not always straightforward, as business analysts regularly encounter a broad variety of roles, individuals, priorities and values, all of which have to be considered. This situation is further complicated by the different authority levels of the customers. Some individuals may have greater authority and seniority than the business analysts, some may be peers, and some may have limited authority, typically occupying more junior roles. Figure 10.14 represents some of the BA Service customers and identifies where they fit within this 180° influencing schema.

Figure 10.14 BA Service customers within a 180° influencing schema

Within the customer community, there may be many different perspectives and varying opinions on the desired outcomes. Ultimately though, business analysts need to focus on the desired outcomes from the change project and have to engage with the personalities, views and values amongst their customers to ensure these outcomes are achieved.

Influencing approaches, such as Cialdini’s six principles of influence (Cialdini 2007) and the Outcome Frame, can help business analysts to influence customers and work successfully with them.

Six principles of influence

Cialdini defined six principles that underpin why people are influenced to make certain decisions or act in a particular way. These six principles can help business analysts working within a BA Service to work effectively with their customers, particularly where they need to influence them to support the project in a particular way. The principles are summarised in Table 10.13.

The Outcome Frame

An outcome focus is essential when working as a business analyst. The service viewpoint is concerned to deliver a service that has the potential to offer value to customers. For example, the essence of the BA Service – ‘situation investigation and problem analysis’ – is the need to understand why a project is needed by asking ‘What is the problem to be solved?’ and to determine what might be done to address the root causes of the problem. The Outcome Frame identifies six questions that help to ensure that there is a focus on achieving the desired outcome, which helps to influence customers to work towards this. Thomas, Paul and Cadle (2012) provided an Outcome Frame consisting of the following six questions:

Table 10.13 Cialdini’s six principles of influence and the BA Service

Cialdini principle	Description
Reciprocation	People in all societies will try to repay a gift or favour in some way, even when the original gift was not wanted or considered to be of value. Reciprocity occurs because of the sense of obligation placed upon the recipient – people tend to dislike having a sense of obligation, so will act to repay a perceived debt. The reciprocation principle can also apply when one party has conceded something to a second party. The sense of concession can result in the second party feeling obliged to support another proposal The reciprocation principle can offer business analysts a basis for negotiating with customers. For example, when trying to resolve conflicts in views or requirements
Consistency	People like to be consistent once they have made a commitment to follow a particular path, so it can be difficult to influence them in a different direction. This is due to a desire to keep to – if not justify – a decision once it has been made and can cause people to behave in ways that may not be beneficial to them. Cialdini also highlights that where an individual has written down a statement, whether it is exactly what they believe or want or not, they have a strong tendency to commit to what they have written and to act accordingly Understanding the consistency principle can help business analysts to appreciate why customers may be so keen to adhere to particular ideas or requirements. Addressing these situations may be helped by considering the other influencing principles. For example, reciprocity may provide a basis for achieving a compromise
Social proof	People behave in a way that aligns with others. They tend to define ‘correct’ behaviour as that demonstrated by others because this demonstrates social acceptance or desirability. Where people are observed acting in a particular way, the actions are deemed to be appropriate Using this principle, the business analyst may be able to influence customers by highlighting where other colleagues have behaved or acted in a particular way
Liking	People prefer to agree with or be influenced by those that they like or find they relate to. If approached by a friend, most people will tend to agree to a proposal. However, it is also the case that people tend to engage with anyone who they feel is similar to them in terms of their backgrounds, views, values, etc. This principle emphasises the importance of interpersonal skills for anyone working with customers and, therefore, is highly applicable to business analysts. It is the responsibility of the business analyst to engage with their colleagues and stakeholders and positive engagement will improve the chances of influencing
Authority	People tend to accept and follow information provided by someone with authority or where there is reference to an accepted authority. Personal authority can originate from various sources, such as a designated role or acknowledged expertise. The use of information that is based on analytics or research can also help to bestow authority This principle is well established with change projects as a hierarchy of authority often exists and business analysts are able to exert influence by referring to the project authority. For example, a conflict in requirements that cannot be resolved through discussion and negotiation is likely to be escalated to the project sponsor
Scarcity	This principle relates to a person’s desire to gain, access or participate in something if the opportunity to do so is limited. People often make decisions, or may be motivated by, the sense that there is a potential loss if the opportunity is not seized Understanding this principle can help a business analyst to influence customers where a decision is needed. For example, the business analyst may be able to identify the potential impact of delay when discussing a proposed solution

1. What is the outcome you want?

2. Where, when and with whom do you want it?

3. What will you see, hear and feel when you have achieved the outcome?

4. What will having this outcome do for you (what are your motivators)?

5. What stops you from having your desired outcome already?

6. What resources do you need to achieve your outcome?

Maintaining an outcome focus is vital when working within a business change project. Without this, it is too easy to be diverted away from what is needed and to waste effort on areas that will not have the desired impact or deliver the required benefits. Keeping in mind the questions provided by the Outcome Frame will help to maintain an outcome focus. For example, thinking about a customer’s motivators and what is preventing them from accepting an outcome will help to identify what might be done to influence the customer towards achieving the desired outcomes.

The collaboration continuum

Business analysts must collaborate with many other professionals to deliver the portfolio of business analysis services and co-create business value. However, while there is often discussion about the need to collaborate and sometimes assumptions are made that this has occurred, true collaboration can be difficult to achieve and sustain.

‘Collaborating’ is often used as a catch-all term to encompass many levels of ‘working together’, but it is helpful to consider a more specific definition:

Collaboration has several characteristics (Patel, Pettitt and Wilson, 2011) as follows:

• high level of trust;

• shared objectives;

• significant investment of time;

• productive and open communication;

• compatible ways of working (including decision making).

If any of these characteristics are missing from a relationship, it is unlikely that true collaboration will occur and, accordingly, the benefits of collaboration will not be realised. The collaboration continuum shown in Figure 10.15 represents levels of trust and integration and shows the nature of the working relationship at the different levels.

At one end of the continuum, individuals or groups are in competition and are actively working against each other. At the other end, the boundaries between groups are completely removed and they converge to behave as a single integrated group. The model clarifies that collaboration is only possible where there is a high level of trust and of integration.

Figure 10.15 The collaboration continuum (adapted from Himmelman, 2002; Mashek and Nanfito, 2015)

BA leaders must strive to create a climate (see Chapter 11) within the BA Service where people are encouraged and enabled to collaborate with customers and genuine collaboration is recognised and rewarded. Milestones along the journey to collaboration should be recognised and celebrated. However, it should also be accepted that merely stating ‘we need to collaborate more’ will not in itself increase trust and integration, so this should not be considered a solution to any problem!

The continuum can also be used to consider the different levels of integration that may exist across business analysis within an organisation. A Community of Practice approach (discussed in Chapter 1) may facilitate a level of integration in the communication/cooperation area of the spectrum. A BA Service approach provides the organisation with the ability to move into coordination and beyond.

CONCLUSION

The BA Service works closely with customers, so it is important that business analysis work is conducted with a customer-oriented focus. This requires business analysts to understand the different customer categories and characteristics, and to develop good working relationships with their customers.

Many techniques exist that can help business analysts manage relationships with customers. These techniques help business analysts to deal with customer concerns, influence customers and resolve conflicts. They can also provide insights that are extremely useful when dealing with difficult situations involving customers.

1 See www.kilmanndiagnostics.com/overview-thomas-kilmann-conflict-mode-instrument-tki

2 Developed from categories defined by Civil Service Learning – Stakeholder Assessment. Available from: civilservicelearning.civilservice.gov.uk/sites/default/
files/resources/ManagingBusinessPerformance_WLA_
StakeholderIdentification_V2_140512.pdf