Stakeholder Analysis (BA Planning & Monitoring)

Previously we learn about plan business analysis approach. Now, still in "Business Analysis" knowledge from IIBA - BABOK, we will learn about conduct stakeholder analysis. At a glance from the title, this analysis definitely related with person or people. We as a BA will deal with not just a circumstances but also politics (the other name of stakeholder). So let's begin our study.

 

2.2 Conduct Stakeholder Analysis

#Purpose

Covers the identification of stakeholders who may be  affected by a proposed initiative or who share a common business need, identifying appropriate stakeholders for the project or project phase, and determining stakeholder influence and/or authority regarding the approval of project deliverables.

#Description

Stakeholder analysis is performed as soon as a business need identified and will usually be an ongoing activity as long as business analysis continues. Stakeholders may be grouped into categories that reflect their involvement or interest in the initiative. The roles, responsibilities, and authority over the requirements for each stakeholder must be clearly described.

#Input

Businees Need : Identify and analyze the position of the stakeholders affected by the business need.

Enterprise Architecture : Describe the organizational units that exists, their interactions with other organizational units, customers, and suppliers, their responsibilities within the organization, and the roles and relationship within each organizational unit.

Organizational Process Assets : These include organizational policies and procedures, forms that must be completed, suggester or prescribed methodologies, templates, and project authorization guidelines. They may be mandated or expressed in the form of guiding principles.

#Elements
Stakeholder roles must be identified early in the project in order to help ensure timely delivery of requirements deliverables.

1. Identification
Understanding who the stakeholders are and the impact of proposed changes on them is vital to understanding what needs, wants, and expectations must be satisfied by a solution.

2. Complexity of Stakeholder Group
The complexity of interactions with a stakeholder group may be affected by factors such as :

• Number and variety of direct end user.
• Number of interfacing business process and automated system.

3. Attitude and Influence
Assess stakeholder attitudes toward and influence over the initiative. Factors to consider include:

Attitude towards:
 --The business goals, objectives, and solution approach:

• Do they believe that the solution will benefit the organization?
• Will the benefits affect them directly?
• Will the benefits be accrued elsewhere?
• Are the possible negative effects of the initiative on this stakeholder greater than the rewards?
• Do they believe that the project team can successfully deliver the solution?

 --Attitude toward business analysis :

• Do the see value in defining their requirements?
• Do they present solutions and expect the requirements to be contained in that solution and believe that will enable them to avoid requirements definition?

 --Attitude towards collaboration :

• Have they had success on previous collaborative efforts?
• Does the organization reward collaboration?
• Is the organization hierarchical in nature, rather than being team based?
• Are personal agendas the norm?

  --Attitude towards the sponsor :

• On cross-functional efforts, do all the SMEs support the sponsor?
• Are there SMEs who would prefer another sponsor?

 --Attitude roward team members :

• Have key members of the project team built trusting relationships or have there been prior failed projects or projects phases involving those people?

Influence : Understanding the nature of influence and the influence structures and channels within an organization can prove invaluable when seeking to build relationships and work towards building trust.

• Influence on the project. How much influence does the stakeholder have on the project?
• Influence in the organization. Authority or positional power.
• Influence needed for the good of the project. The BA should analyze how much influence is needed to make the project succeed compared with the amount of influence the key stakeholders, such as the project sponsor have.
• Influence with the other stakeholders. Within most organization there is an informal way influence occurs. It is best to be aware of this informal influence structure.

4. Authority Levels For Business Analysis Work
Identify which stakeholders will have authority over business analysis activities, in relation to both business analysis work and product deliverables. Stakeholders may have authority to :

• Approve the deliverables
• Inspect an approve the requirements
• Request and approve changes
• Approve the requirements process that will be used
• Review and approve the traceability structure
• Veto proposed requirements or solutions

#Techniques

1. General Techniques

• Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria Definition (9.1) : The BA should, as part of the stakeholder analysis, identify which stakeholders have sufficient authority to accept or reject the solution.

• Brainstorming (9.3) : May assist in identifying needs and requirements that lead to possible stakeholders, or in creating a listing of possible stakeholder roles.

• Interviews (9.14) : Interviewees may be able to identify other stakeholders.

• Organization Modeling (9.19) : Assess to determine if the organizational units or people listed have any unique needs and interests that should be considered.

• Process Modeling (9.21) : Any person involved in the execution of business processes affected by the solution will be a stakeholder.

• Requirements Workshop (9.23) : During requirements workshop, the BA may ask participants if they can suggest other stakeholders.

• Risk Analysis (9.24) : Risks to the initiative may result from stakeholder attitudes or the ability of key stakeholders to participate in the initiative.

• Scenario and Use Cases (9.26) and User Stories (9.33) : Identified stakeholders roles may serve as a useful starting point for identifying actors and roles.

• Scope Modeling (9.27) : Scope models should know stakeholders that fall outside the scope of the solution but sill interact with it in some way.

• Survey / Questionnaire (9.31) : Useful for identifying shared characteristics of a stakeholder group.

2. RACI Matrix

The RACI matrix describes the roles of those involved in business analysis activities. It describes stakeholders as having one or more of the following responsibilities for a given task or deliverable :

R : Responsible
A : Accountable
C : Consulted
I : Informed

3. Stakeholder Map

Stakeholder maps are visual diagrams the depict the relationship of stakeholders to the solution and to one another.

#Stakeholders

• Domain SME : May be able to recommend other business experts to assist in defining requirements.
• Implementation SME : May be able to identify and recommend stakeholders.
• Project Manager : May be able to identify and recommend stakeholders.
• Tester : May be able to identify and recommend stakeholders.
• Regulator : May require that specific stakeholder representatives or groups be involved in the process.
• Sponsor : May be able to identify domain subject matter experts to help with requirements definition.

#Output

• List of required roles 
• Names and titles of stakeholders 
• Category of stakeholder
• Location of stakeholder
• Special needs
• Number of individuals in thee stakeholder role
• Description of stakeholder influence and interest
• Documentation of stakeholder authority levels

Next : Business Analysis Activities