| Selçuk Kalafat, PMP – Customer Services Manager |
We can define analysis meetings as meetings held with key stakeholders where requirements are elicited, prioritized, detailed and validated. Having these meetings run by qualified consultants is important so that later phases of the project can move quickly and with fewer corrections.
Below, I have tried to summarize my recommendations for running effective analysis meetings in 8 steps.
1. Opening the Meeting and Building Rapport
Always start the meeting with a positive approach. For example, small compliments to the teams you will work with about their invitation, their hospitality and so on make a good start. You can open by mentioning your past successes and the customer satisfaction you have delivered, in a way that increases their confidence in you for the new project and confirms they made the right choice.
2. Starting the Analysis
Always introduce yourself. State your role in the project. Explain why you are there. Ask the participants for permission to ask questions about their organization, current operations and expectations from the new system. Also find out whether the participants have any questions they would like to ask before the analysis starts.
3. Understand the Current Situation
Ask your customer to summarize the main outlines of their current business area. This will give you valuable data that shows you the background of your analysis.
That said, it is often more efficient to do some preliminary work beforehand to learn about the current situation, present the results of your own research before asking questions and ask them to fill in the gaps. Understanding the participants' roles and why they are involved in the project is especially valuable information you will use in later stages.
4. Learn the Details of the Current Business Process
You have now reached the stage of the analysis meeting where you learn the details of the current business process. These details will help you understand which of your customer's problems the new project will solve. Sample questions:
. What is the purpose of this process?
. How does this process start?
. Who is the person/department responsible for this process?
. What is the output/result of this process?
. Do you currently have a system for tracking this process?
. If there is an existing system, can you share sample screenshots?
5. Identify Problems and Areas for Improvement
In this step, say that you want to focus on the problems they face in current operations and the areas for improvement. You can ask questions such as:
. Which stages of the process could be improved?
. What kind of problem does what you describe cause? (Ask if it is not very clear)
. Do you currently produce a report/output that lets you track this problem?
. If yes, can you tell us how often the report/output is produced and which system produces it? Can you provide a sample report/output?
. If not, can you tell us your report/output needs?
6. Understand the Desired Way of Working
After learning about current operations and their shortcomings, you can start listening to your customer's own proposed solutions. There can be significant differences depending on whether the stakeholder you are listening to is from the IT team or from a business unit. Because IT teams interpret the requests they receive from business units before passing them on to you, there may be some differences between the original request and what reaches you. Understanding the expectations of the business units, the end users, must be taken into account for the value the solution will deliver. If your first point of contact is the IT team, remember to also confirm requirements and scope with the business units before you shake hands.
You can ask your customers questions such as:
. If you had to choose 3 priority requirements, what would they be?
. Can we go through each priority requirement in detail?
. Why is this requirement important for your business unit?
. Apart from these 3 requirements, which requirements would you describe as “nice to have”?
7. Closing the Meeting
You should close the meeting by summarizing the topics discussed and listing the agreed action plans.
. Summarize the main topics discussed in the meeting.
. Go over the mutually agreed items and set the responsible person/company and target date.
. Remind them that you may ask to meet again if needed.
. Agree on who will send the meeting notes.
. Thank the participants for their time.
In addition, it is helpful to share information about the next steps of the project.
8. After the Meeting
If you agreed that you would send the meeting notes, send them to your customer and ask whether they have any additions or corrections.
The recommendations here are general advice for a first analysis meeting. They may need to be adapted to the situation and circumstances. As a Business Analyst, do not forget the importance of the preparation you do before the meeting and the impact of building a solid communication foundation with your customer in your first meeting.
Have great meetings 🙂
Sources
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/business-process-analysis
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/515874
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/process-mapping
https://businessanalystlearnings.com/ba-techniques/2013/2/28/requirements-workshop-technique-exploring-the-power-of-collaboration
http://business-analysis-excellence.com/business-requirements-meeting/
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