IIBA gaining momentum and finally mature enough to provide value

The IIBA continues to gather momentum in the business analysis and architecture community and is finally over its post-natal difficulties.

After earlier (perhaps over harsh) criticism from my side on the initial versions of the BABOK, I am finding real value in the community materials and (even more) the discussions.

I found the initial form of the practice to be at once too high-level and too "traditional" systems analysis focused for the increasingly varied role of the business analyst/ architect in organisations (see here and here). This was quite a feat since high-level and systems-level analysis do not always happily mix! It was descriptive, but not hugely insightful.

To see how this has changed, delve into the latest monthly newsletter or even better into the related online commnunities which contains a great range of interesting articles on topics as broad as developing business architecture to truly impact an organisation to BA handicraft (eg. handling constraints, assumptions, dependencies and risks and the definition of business analysis models). 

I can only encourage people involved in any facet of business analysis (from financial engineers, business architects, demand-managers, business strategists, management consultants, process, business and systems analysts to software engineers) to get into this community. Business analysis is a great blend of soft and hard skills that requires an incredibly broad often conflicting capabilities from the practictioner/consultant and this is reflected in the contributions to the IIBA online.

On a slightly geeky note, my favourite article this month is, in fact, one on BA-handicraft rather than any strategic contribution - the author argues that the best way to handle "CADs" (Constraints, Assumptions and Dependencies) is to basically convert them to risks or requirements and manage them accordingly - that is, to give them priorities/impact values and probabilities. The author argues that this will result in a more meaningful discussion of these items (which too often get lost in projects) and shift the discussion to a dialogue rather than a "cover your arse" list of things that were "signed off" on. 

I could not agree more and - as many of my colleagues would, I hope, attest - I have been pushing this approach (and in particular the use of impact/ probability/ maturity/ certainty) in our eBusiness practice for years. This stuff is - obviously - not rocket science, but discipline and rigour in this space are so crucial to success in projects and increasingly business in general, that I believe it is worth emphasising again and again!

The enterprise is the story

A smart collegue pointed me towards Tom Graves as an Enterprise Architecture consultant, who "gets" the need for the application of different methods to make Enterprise Archtiecture a meaningful function/activity within an organisation (story, emotion, direction, not just TOGAF et al) - the presentation here (http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian/the-enterprise-is-the-story) gives a feel for his work.
I like it and it resonates very much with my own thinking on narrative/stories as the heart of any larger initiative to develop an organisation - it feels like some of the valuable assets that architects bring to the table could actually be harnessed for the enterprise by the application of some of these ideas (rather than just getting put on a shelf in the IT-architecture department) - and will certainly be reading some of his books - reviews to follow....

Twinstan's interesting links roundup on Diigo (weekly)

• E-Commerce News: Cloud Computing: Architecture Is Destiny

• TOGAF 9 introduces a very appealing concept of Capability-based planning for Business People

  Not sure what is new about this, but it is at least a nice 1-pager on capabilities.

• The New York Times - Ebb and Flow at the Box Office

  cool graphic

• Design Strategy at a Glance | Flickr

  Great overview of the design process.

• YouTube - Do You Speak English? - Big Train - BBC comedy

  OK - not a business architecture related link, but one of my favourites...

• BBC News - In graphics: Eurozone in crisis

  A cracking simple infographic from the BBC - "makes one proud to be..." and all that... as long as you don't look at the figures, of course...

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Twinstan's interesting links roundup on Diigo (weekly)

• How the BA Can Take Advantage of Free Online Diagramming Tools > Business Analyst Community & Resources | Modern Analyst > Business Analyst Articles & Systems Analysis Articles | Modern Analyst

  the perfect tool is not yet there,but this shows a good selection of free web drawing tools

• Book Reviews | ManagerTools.com

• Before You Think Outside the Box, Think Inside of It

  Refreshingly obvious!

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

"Thinking in Systems" - my favourite book this year

As some of you may have noticed, my reading this year has largely been around systems thinking (see here and here for earlier book reviews and thoughts on the topic).

This is largely a result of my ignorance regarding this approach to analysis and modeling, combined with a gut feeling that it is a "must-have" capability for a really good business architect or consultant.

Having been disappointed thus far by the competition, Donella H. Meadows' (sadly deceased) introductory book, "Thinking in Systems - a primer" has really impressed me.

Her book starts as a relatively dry introduction into some of the key concepts in systems thinking (she calls it the "systems zoo" - stock and flows, stabilising vs reinforcing feedback loops, response delays), but then moves on to describe some typical system archetypes in the real world (from business to government to the environment and back again) that really show how the thinking can and should be applied.

Even more interestingly, she then moves on to describe typical system traps and then defines her personal list of "leverage points" to address them.

As a consultant, this initially feels like it could be the holy grail of business architecture; it provides a lexicon to think about problems in complex environments, recurring patterns to look for and a process for identifying a solution. But, before you all run out and buy the book, let me bring you back from your euphoria; Meadows is smart enough to drag expectations back down - understanding is just the start, enacting the change necessary to move forward is the next challenge.. and enacting the change without building in more counterproductive issues to boot. On this topic, Meadows has little to say.

This notwithstanding, let me be very clear - this is the best book I have read on systems thinking (please note, there are still a load of books on my list, including the seminal work, "The Fifth Discipline", so this could change ;-). It is short, well structured and keeps you interested throughout.

So impressed was I that I actually ended up reading it twice. Indeed, this is the first book in a long time that I have added to my Amazon must-read list for business analysis and architecture.

As I have already talked about in a previous posting, I am convinced that the combination of systems thinking and visual thinking is a winning recipe for the consulting industry and this book has already gotten me thinking about how that might look in practice (hopefully more to follow on this soon, time permitting!).

Now go and buy it.

Systems thinking - book review

Another short post. As mentioned earlier this year, I am merrily working my way through the enormous backlog of books that I built up over the Christmas holidays.

The latest book was "Systems thinking - managing chaos and complexity: a platform for designing business architecture". Just from the name, I had high expectations. Add to this the author, Jamshid Gharajedaghi, a protege of Russell Ackoff (Mr Systems Thinking) and I was really looking forward to this book.

I was disappointed. Now, the difficult thing is that I am not sure whether to be disappointed with the book, or myself; I did not understand half of the thinking in the book. Every time I thought I had a grip on a concept and how it related to the other parts of the frameworks presented, Gharajedaghi applied it in a way that I could not follow.

I am intuitively drawn to systems thinking (with its emphasis on the whole, on the interdependence of working parts in a system, organisation or problem and the analysis of their relationships with one another) and am sure that this book does provide lots of good material for those that have truly understood the basics, but as a primer, I have been defeated.

Next on the list: "Thinking in systems" - perhaps I will have more luck with this one - post to follow later this year.

Blue ocean strategy in 8 slides

Another short posting today.

When I first read "Blue Ocean Strategy" a few years back, I was not so impressed - it was a good synthesis of thinking that had preceded it, but I failed to see what is new...

Several years on, I haven't really changed my mind about the content - it isn't new - but I guess I have gained an appreciation for what a professor during my undergraduate days used to call "masterful synthesis" ("there are no new ideas, just new configurations of old ideas", paraphrasing Audre Lorde) and I suspect I am a good deal more open to the fact that even small changes and innovations in business can be truly difficult to achieve.

BlueOceanStrategy.com is a really nice website that covers the core tools and techniques from the book; the strategy canvas,the "four actions" framework and others. If you haven't read the book, go here first!

And even "better", there is an 8-page summary deck. Now all that I have to do is work out where the blue ocean is in the IT consulting space.. which turns out to actually be quite difficult even with the nice tools.

Darn!

Visualising the customer experience

OK, I admit that it is becoming a bit of a theme in my blog, but the value of visualisation tools to enable change in organisations, to clarify target-state goals and to motivate projects can hardly be over-emphasised.

I stumbled across a great blog, "Designing Change" that I would recommend - there are some great examples of customer experience visualisation (and I do not mean wireframes and visual design, but rather conceptual visualisation).

The challenge with such imagery (as I have found painfully, not being the most visual of people myself), is to find the right metaphor for the particular concern that you have. Of course tools and methods can help there a lot (and I have already posted several entries on this - see for example here, here and here). But the best way to get going is through "inspiration" (or copying, as I prefer to call it). Here is a great collection of conceptual visualisations to get you going (from a guy called Dave Armano who has impressed me a few times on his blog:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Have fun.

Design thinking & strategy - a book review

As threatened in an earlier post, this entry is another book review.

"Design thinking; integrating innovation, customer experience and brand value", edited by Thomas Lockwood (of course, available via amazon), brings together a bunch of big names in design management and provides a nicely balanced overview of current ideas about the role of design in innovation, service delivery, but in particular in developing brands.

I especially liked the contributions by Kevin Clark & Ron Smith from IBM Corporate Markting (on the value of leveraging design professionals and skills to provide insights in all aspects of the business), Erik Abbing & Christa van Gessel (who provide a 4-step method for brand-driven innovation) and Mark Jones & Fran Samalionis from IDEO (who have put together a nice framework to design new service innvoations).

Despite the many interesting essays, I was underwhelmed by the book as a whole. I guess it is my nature (or background, or both), but I was looking for a more complete answer, showing how design thinking can be applied / integrated into the business - beyond the straightforward application of ideation and visualisation techniques to the product and brand development process.

Using design thinking (and at the very least design techniques) combined with more analytical/structured methods in the business strategy space to bring the "outside-in approach" into an organisation and to give those ideas traction feels like an idea on the brink of maturity - in a couple of years this is going to be entirely mainstream.

Nevertheless, if this book was anything to go on, there is a lot of work to be done before then. The tools need to mature to be applied in the broader business strategy arena (ie. outside of the product development space where they are most at home). It feels like progress is being made quickly (with new blogs and companies popping up daily) - it is a fun time to dig into this space!

Given my own more analytical background, I personally find it rather frustrating trying to create rather than deduce, but also all the more rewarding when it pays off - I hope to be posting later this year on the topic of design thinking in the context of business architecture as my ideas mature.

As such any help that can be found in books like this on methods and approaches are thoroughly welcome!

BA Body of Knowledge 2.0 available online for free

OK, I admit it; I am a little miffed that the IIBA has released the latest version of the BABOK (see also previous entry) for free at Google Books, but it is definitely a good reference.

Beyond the convenience of the whole online book experience, I like the fact that book comes with a neat little web-cloud that gives you an immediate overview of the book. Once this is expanded to work across all the books and into a snazzy visual navigation widget I will be more than happy ;-).

Business model design & another disrupted flight

Predictably enough, I had another problem with flights today (see previous posts for the saga of my experiences on a weekly basis on flights between Germany and the UK). Today's installment was the diversion of my flight from Duesseldorf to London Heathrow to Amsterdam. In fairness this was due to a medical emergency and I was really impressed with the way the staff on board handled it, but nevertheless I do begin to feel ever so slightly unlucky with my air travel!

I am now at Heathrow slowly getting into holiday mode and was just checking through the latest feeds on netvibes when Osterwalder's busines-model-design blog jumped out at me again. I already wrote a little bit about this blog a while back (see here) and I have been really impressed with the clarity of his approach of using a simple framework to inspire business model innovation. His latest blog entry is on google book search (which is in general a really cool and interesting thing!) - he does a really good job of simplifying down the motivation to this new product and what it could mean in a highly competitive industry. Take a look here.

My flight out has just been called, so wish me luck.

Killer innovations blog

Another weekend, another wedding. This time near Cambridge in a beautiful castle / private school a la Hogwarts. And guess what, the flight to and from the UK was delayed (as I have already warned here and here, this is definitely going to be an underlying theme of many of my blog entries!).

And once again, this gave me an opportunity to catch up on a view podcasts. I really enjoyed a recording of a livecast given by Phil McKinney (www.killerinnovations.com) about the creative economy. His message was simple; creativity is not innate, it is a skill and can be learnt. He provided a couple of ideas on how to do this in the presentation, but on his website he provides loads more.

I rather liked his "FIRE" approach to innovation (Focus innovation search, Ideation, Rank ideas, Execute), having failed frequently to get the most out of "creative" sessions with both colleagues and clients. In particular, the "Ideation" step (basically asking sufficiently difficult questions to force a more challenging discourse) got me thinking. It is so easy for "innovation" to become "trial and error" or "change for change's sake".

Phil McKinney has been doing Killer Innovations for quite some time now (though I have only really followed it for the last year or so, since a colleague recommended it to me). What I like about the cast is McKinney's enthusiasm and his passionate belief in what he is saying; I don't always agree with everything he says, but it is consistently thought-provoking! Give him a try!

The need for information architecture

Coming from a "nuts and bolts" kind of systems analysis background, I have to work hard at taking a more user experience driven view at development projects. Though I have worked on this front for several years now I am consequently constantly looking for structured approaches to user experience design and the varied facets (or "planes" as Garret refers to them in his seminal primer on user experience disciplines).

I found an interesting set of presentations recently on slideshare from the euroia2008 (the European Information Architecture summit). Predictably enough, these presentations focus on information architecture and do not provide anything like an overarching user experience framework, but they do give a few ideas about where things are going in this space and some nice concrete examples of approaches to try out.

Much to my surprise, it turns out it isn't just about a having a sitemap and a navigation structure ;-). Definitely worth a browse! The slides are here

Latest postings from Telco 2.0

"2.0". Just reading the phrase already puts me on edge. There is so much 2.0 rubbish out there. That said, the guys from Telco 2.0 really do seem to have a good grip on what could happen in the telecommunications industry. They just posted another article on their "two-sided" business model thinking - basically the telco-provider as intermediary offering network services.

Although much of it feels a little like wishful thinking, the story they tell is definitely well structured and understandable. Here is the summary version:

Telco 2.0 - Introduction to 2-Sided Markets

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: telecoms internet)

Visual problem solving on the "back of the napkin"

I am just back from a weekend in London. I left the office really early on Friday (around 12:30) because I had hoped to get to the opening of a friend's new office in Notting Hill in the evening.

Unfortunately, the airlines conspired against me once again (see also my earlier posting on reading a Peter Drucker classic whilst struggling to get to Scotland a couple of weekends ago). I ended up flying to London Heathrow, rather than City from Duesseldorf via Stuttgart.. not the most direct route one can imagine! I arrived at the restaurant around 21:00. I suspect this will also not be the last time that I start a posting this way.

But there is a bright side. As with my trip to Scotland, the delay was not a complete loss as it gave me the opportunity to read another book from my backlog; "The Back of the Napkin - Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures" by Dan Roam. Given all the hype surrounding the book, I had high expectations that were only partially fulfilled.

Don't get me wrong. The book is well constructed and provides lost of thought-provoking examples of using visualisation to identify, frame, explain and sell ideas (much as the subtitle promises) and - even better - it provides a conceptual framework for structuring the analysis and visualisation of problems. However, it did not blow me away with its insight as I had been hoping.

Either way, it is well worth reading. For those not inclined to invest the 2-3 hours, Mr Roam has kindly produced a cheat-sheet for the key ideas and provides it for free on his website. And being the master presenter that he is, there are also a couple of presentations of his ideas on youtube (here is the 5 minute primer and here is an hour long presentation for Authors@Google.

Business analysis basics - library

Over the last few years I have collected a list of key books that I think provide a basic primer for the business analysis discipline - it is a mix of software engineering, user experience, business administration and psychology. It can be found at the following link on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Business-nbsp-Analysis-nbsp-Basics/lm/RLA7LQ1I97H2W/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_2

Enjoy!