Question

Answer

How might we capitalise on storytelling to showcase the value co-created by business analysis?

We initially tell the story of our analysis, focused on business and beneficial outcomes, for our respective projects or project stakeholders. We often look for opportunities to share this more widely with interested parties (perhaps our LinkedIn network), teams and centres of excellence (i.e. our BA centre of excellence). Sharing in this way helps further in raising or maintaining the awareness of the value of business analysis.

How to make our story Climax more interesting?

To make a story more interesting to an individual it has to resonate and be relatable to them. Therefore, by considering who is going to receive and benefit from the information we share, we can tailor or pitch it appropriately. Bringing personal experiences (i.e. of the teams or clients involved) or real-life situations, can also help. We try to also leave our stakeholders with a very clear idea of the most relevant and important points. Finally, we can use more interesting ways to deliver or visualise our analysis (i.e. animations, graphs, Gifs etc).

During the requirements validation phase, what techniques do you use to play back the requirements?

Whatever technique we use, it is important that we do not alter the requirement so that they differ from its intended end state. However, we always try to make each requirement concise and relatable, affiliated to processes or other related BA model. If the requirements relate to a specific phase in the process or features/components in the solution, grouping and displaying the requirement and model together might help. We also aim to focus on the highest priority items first.

Any top tips around traceability and documenting the story throughout the project?

Ensure traceability is considered from the outset and updated/recorded as your analysis progresses. Keep it transparent and treat your traceability matrix as a product. Doing so will help consider the audience, presentation and usability. Also, don't forget that traceability extends to all disciplines across change, so ensure you engage development, vendors, architects, process teams, the BAs and the business. The full matrix needs to be connected or connectable to ensure the view of traceability is comprehensive.

How we use storytelling to deliver our deliverables?

We use a lot of visualisation techniques, diagrams, models and infographics. From a wide-ranging toolkit, we look to select those most appropriate based on the change/project, stakeholders, client, situation and available tooling. We ensure the deliverable is both obvious and central to the specific story.