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Shift Your Business Into Drive with a Balance Score Card

On January 9, 2015 / balance score card

To achieve a balanced business perspective consider using a Balanced Scorecard as part of your strategic planning initiative. A Balanced Scorecard is an approach that is used to align your business to the vision, mission, core values and strategy of the organization. The emphasis is to turn strategy into forward thinking actions that the senior team can implement against key performance indicators. To embark on a Balanced Scorecard, the company must have a mission and vision and know their financials, the present business structure and levels of employee expertise. They must also have extensive knowledge regarding customer satisfaction levels.

There are four key elements in a Balanced Scorecard: Customer, learning and growth, financials and business processes.

1) Customer: Research has shown that having a customer-centric view focused on satisfaction is one key to success. If the customers aren’t happy they’ll move on. Good or poor customer performance is a leading indicator for the future success or failure of a business. The ultimate question is this: What is the value proposition that you deliver on in your customer markets? Knowing your value as defined by the customer and having a clear understanding of what your customer is willing to pay is essential. This part of the Balanced Scorecard helps you focus on your markets and customers.

2) Learning and Growth: This part of the Balanced Scorecard includes your business culture, employee and business attitudes, self improvement initiatives and your investment in employee development. It is known that successful long-term businesses invest in the success of their people. High performance is driven by dedicated happy people. Most organizations today are operating on a knowledge platform. It is the unique knowledge of the people that keeps things going. Unfortunately, when people leave their knowledge leaves too and getting it back is painful. Things to consider include: employee satisfaction, retention, skills, experience and aptitude and the business’s beliefs, values and attitude. Ask yourself this: What kind of infrastructure is needed to foster long-term business success enabling us to grow and change to meet ongoing demands?

3) Financials: Data on company financials is important. The key is having the right kinds of data along with timely and accurate information. For management, just having return on investment information might not be enough. As data becomes more centralized, other financial data and key performance indicators become important. For example, consider cost-ease-benefit analysis or risk analysis to consider long-term impact. This is a slight shift that changes thinking.

4) Processes: This refers to the internal processes of the organization. Most businesses have a maturity line when it comes to processes. They are usually chaotic, reactive, proactive, service or value providers. These can all be measured. The management team needs to know what is working and what is not working in relation to the customers’ needs and the business mission. Understanding the present state of business processes allows for a focus on a desired future working state that will provide positive, measurable results for the business. The best people to do that work are the people who do the work. The key is to know what existing and future business processes must be focused on to excel as a business.

Having a Balanced Scorecard that is aligned to the mission, vision, core values and guiding principles of the business is an important part of your success. If constructed well it becomes part of a strategy map and a communication tool that allows you to easily share your work and progress with stakeholders. With a Balanced Scorecard you can forward think and create the success you deserve.

3 Requirement Categories to use in Strategic Planning and Business Analysis

On November 26, 2014 / business analysis, change management strategies, consulting, contract, purpose, requirements, solutions, stakeholders, strategic planning, technology, transition

Categorizing Requirements

Recently while facilitating the strategic planning program with a company in the technology industry we had to make some decisions on how to categorize the requirements. Since the company had a lot of different types of requirements we had to revisit the definition of a requirement (see article Four Requirements That Make a Difference in Creating Solutions).

Due to rapid growth, expansion and culture of the company (very employee centric) the items on their strategy map ranged from the strategic to the operational. The strategy map needed to be vetted. The senior team thought it prudent to review the options for organizing their plans to ensure they took a good approach prior to moving forward. Every organization I have ever worked with always wants to discuss the best way to organize their strategy map prior to proceeding.

The options discussed included categorizing requirements by either stakeholder, sequence or purpose.

Stakeholder: Organizing by stakeholder means grouping all the requirements by one stakeholder group or individual together. In this case it could be by department, business unit or by the business leader. The challenge is this approach is that often requirements are required by multiple stakeholders. Often stakeholder groupings are seen at the road map level (execution plan) and not the strategy map level in planning.

Sequence: Organizing by sequence groups requirements from the highest level with least details to the most detailed. This would mean that you would follow the standard requirements format.

Business Requirements – strategic, tactical, operational
Stakeholders – logical groupings that have influence and impact on the business
Solutions – functional and non-functional (quality)
Transformational – Implementation and Change

Purpose: Organizing requirements by purpose has to do with creating links in the process of the business. It has a lot to do with a logical grouping of activities or actions that must be taken. At the strategy map level this does not make a lot of sense. However, it can be argued that when you categorize strategic elements by business impact zones (Process, Technology, Business Development, People and Culture) you are categorizing by purpose. The challenge is something called traceability.

The technology client found it useful to review the different requirement categorizing options. In this case the leadership team was familiar with business analysis best practice and wanted to review the options.

Since we were dealing with a company that grew rapidly and had a vast amount of information in a strategy map that needed to be vetted it was logical to choose to categorize by Sequence Business Requirements. This allowed the leadership team to break down the strategy map into strategic, tactical and operational business elements. They ended up with three maps for each level.

They realized that as a leadership team they could focus on the things that would make a difference in their business (strategic) and their teams could handle the other components (tactical and operational). This provided the senior team focus. Great lesson learned.

This Weeks Red Question: In what way has your team(s) clearly categorized your business requirements so that your people focus with purpose?

3 Key Levels of Risk Planning and Analysis for the Business Enterprise

On November 5, 2014 / business analysis, business leadership, business planning, leadership, project management, risk management, strategic planning

Recently I delivered a workshop on Risk Planning and Analysis for the Business Enterprise. I was asked about the various levels of risk within an organization. In response to that question, I explained that there are many levels of risk that could be organized along standard company structure. My preference is to use three structure approach – – strategic, tactical and operational.

Strategic Risk: Generally strategic risk is at the enterprise level and requires a business risk management enterprise plan. There are many models that can be used. At this level risk management, planning and analysis should be part of the strategic planning process. An enterprise risk management plan should be created that addresses strategic planning elements, cultural risk appetite and attitude, governance, stress testing, identification, measurement, response and control. These elements should be brought forward as a standard in the rest of the organization. On a regular basis the organization should complete an enterprise risk environmental scan to ensure they keep their business risk artifacts current.

Tactical Risk:This level of risk is at the project management level. Often it is part of the project management process for key approved initiatives. Its objective is the successful completion of the project while addressing risk concerns effectively and efficiently as possible. Often tactical risk analysis requires that the organization have a risk management plan that provides the guidelines as to how risk is to identified, qualified, quantified, responded, controlled and monitored. Guidelines should be provided by the business enterprise so that project teams do not create their own risk management standards.

Operational Risk:The here and now of any organization is the operational level. It is what happening with the front-line of the business from your customer facing employees, the manufacturing floor equipment and product assemblers, to the field maintenance people. Operational risk varies by company and by industry. One thing is for sure, operational risk needs to be aligned with business guiding principles to ensure people and equipment is functioning appropriately. For example, safety is a huge issue in a number of industries. Therefore, risk response mechanisms need to be put into operational place to minimize risk impact.

Risk management, planning and analysis are a huge discipline that impacts all levels of the organization. It is not something that is meant to be done neither in isolation nor with a single group. When you consider risk management consider all levels of your company.

Maybe by putting together a solid risk management plan there will be a less of a need to carry a rabbits foot.

This Weeks Red Question: What is your integrated standardized risk management approach that aligns all levels in your organization?

Check out more about Richard Lannon www.richardlannon.ca

17 Ideas to Develop Your Technology Team

On November 1, 2014 / business analysis, business leadership, strategic planning, team building

Surprisingly, I get this question a lot. Really it came down to a plan that the people could get into. The key is to recognize that tech people want tech or hard skills training and the business wants business or soft skill training. Over a 4 year period I (we) developed a program that included:

Annual National Conference with focus on soft and hard skills training
Annual Regional Conference that focused on specific requirements for the region including hard skills and soft skills plus effective team building events
Individual SWOTs where the techie actually had say into the four quadrants
Individual tailored learning plans with SMART goals and objectives
The identification of levels for core competency development
Mentorship and Support tagging on company initiatives
One on one coaching sessions to build skills and sometimes just talk about what was important to them
Team hiring practices. All interviews would be conducted by HR for fit, the team for technical expertise and personal fit, the team lead for future fit and then head office for approval
Befriend HR professionals and leverage their expertise. We had 3 in our region
Working with your boss to best build your team
Sharing with peers the responsibilities of the job and cross training
Weekly meetings were people would do a quick round table of what they appreciated about the other person. We would record this and encourage people to put it in their personal evaluations
Monthly reports where we would do CAR stories (challenge, action, result) in three sentences. These could be placed in annual performance reviews
Opportunity to work with different teams in different locations across Canada
Opportunity to travel to work in different areas with different teams
Developed a cross-training matrix were people could back up other people when needed

These were the things we did to develop our technology team’s hard and soft skills. In the end it worked great. Skills improved and team members advanced to higher professional levels based on core competencies.

Questions: What are you doing to develop your teams?

A RACI Against Time

On October 7, 2014 / business analysis, business decisions, business improvement, business leadership, leadership, project management, stakeholders, strategic, strategic planning, team building, team lead

You just never know what is going to happen in your business life. Recently I had to work like crazy to get a bunch of deadlines completed to free my schedule so I could take an unexpected trip, half way across this wonderful country of ours, Canada.

As events unfolded, an unexpected team came together with each member naturally assuming a specific role. From leader and manager to subject experts, advisors, information generators, documentation creators, and experienced friends and family members, there was a natural stakeholder relationship created that fit a RACI – responsible, accountable, consult and inform. This was a good thing.

A RACI is a powerful tool for stakeholder analysis used to identify and understand key roles of individual team members in an organization. The simplest definition of a RACI goes like this:

Those who are Responsible:

These are the doers – the people responsible for the nuts and bolts. If you and your team are reporting to a sponsor who is the final person accountable for the work, then you belong in this category.

Those who are Accountable:

The buck stops here. This is the person(s) who has the most at stake in events and happenings. They’re the ones who have the final decision or must present key recommendations to others in a final presentation. At the end of the day they sign the cheque. In most organizations this would be the sponsor, but it really can be anyone who has the final call.

Those we need to Consult: The experts.

Every task needs people with the right information at the right time onboard, subject experts and advisors who can help the team leader gain a clear perspective. You might have that person(s) in house (internal stakeholders) or need to outsource to find them (external stakeholders), but either way, they’re vital for getting the job done efficiently and effectively.

Those we need to Inform:

These are all the stakeholders that need to be kept in the loop. They need to know what is going on from a logical and rational perspective with key information.

Though my recent RACI was unexpected, it’s really helpful to make RACI a formal part of your business’ planning process, particularly if you are going to be involved in any strategic, tactical or operational planning.

This will help clarify the different roles and responsibilities needed to complete projects, ensuring your people are able to work with focused intent and to the best of their ability.

Question: For which business initiative can you use a RACI to help putting your team together?

Four Requirements Types That Make a Difference in Creating Solutions

On September 26, 2014 / business analysis, business challenge, business decisions, business goals, business leadership, business objectives, business problems, opportunities, requirements, solutions, stakeholders, strategic planning

Recently I was working with a group of 25 professionals in developing their business analysis capabilities. Business Analysis as a profession has gained a lot of popularity over the last 10 years. All sorts of professionals and consultants are focusing on creating a tool kit so they can help businesses make better decisions.

One challenge I often see is the lack of understanding of the various types of requirements that a business has, and the ability to link those requirements. It concerns me, as there are a lot of professionals and business leaders doing things that are in no way connected to the business needs and the key strategic agenda items of the company at hand.

The first thing to consider is the definition of a requirement, and the second is to know the four key requirements and how to apply them.

A requirement is a condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a business problem or enhance an opportunity. It must satisfy a business constraint like a contract, standard, specification or formally imposed business rule.

There are four key requirements to consider when working on solving business problems or enhancing opportunities.

Business Requirements: These are generally high level statements as to what the business wants to achieve. They are inclusive of the business goals, objectives and needs. When creating business requirements that team must understand what is on the strategic agenda of the organization and why it is important. The values, guiding principles, strategic agenda items, strategic initiatives, stakeholders and outcomes of the company must be considered.

Stakeholders Requirements: These are bridge requirements. They are representative of stakeholder needs and the way they will interact with a business solution. This is often missed. Stakeholder requirements require the business to capture key needs that link and align with the business requirements.

Solution Requirements: These requirements describe the characteristics of a solution and need to align with both the business and stakeholder requirements. Solution requirements are functional and qualitative and are indicative of the behaviour and environmental conditions that a business solution needs to remain effective. Unfortunately it’s way to easy to offer solutions without taking into consideration the whole picture. This is a mistake. Jumping to solutions without first aligning them with the business and stakeholder needs can negatively impact the business, and leads to ineffective use of time, money and resources.

Transition Requirements: These requirements are about implementation and change. They are the requirements needed to efficiently and effectively transition a solution that meets the business and stakeholder needs into the environment. They need to be well thought out,and require a plan of action that creates business success.

The thinking that goes into understanding business problems and opportunities crosses all professional and business leadership boundaries. It does not matter if you are in Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance, Corporate Services or any other department. The reality is that understanding what a requirement is, gathering and capturing the right requirements, and linking requirements together is key to creating successful business solutions.

Richard Lannon

Shift Your Business Into Drive with a Balance Score Card

3 Requirement Categories to use in Strategic Planning and Business Analysis

3 Key Levels of Risk Planning and Analysis for the Business Enterprise

17 Ideas to Develop Your Technology Team

A RACI Against Time

Four Requirements Types That Make a Difference in Creating Solutions

Get to Know Richard

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