Transcript Professional Business Analyst Skills (IS 6008)

IS Consulting Process
(IS 6005)
Masters in Business Information Systems 2006 / 2007
Programme in Professional Information System Practices
Fergal Carton
Business Information Systems
Last week
• Demo EBSCO access
• What is unique to the business?
– Business model (cost, products, design, customer satisfaction, …)
– Unique feature (products, production methods, IS, supply chain, …)
• Leading questions
– Revenue, headcount, …
– Current successes, recent announcements, …
• IS consulting profession
– Consultant, project manager, analyst
• Consultant skills
– Analytic abilities
• Analysis tools (IT audit example)
• Checklists, presentation matrices, …
• Adding value in reporting findings in a way that prioritises actions to be taken
– Technical abilities
– Project management abilities
– Example from Accenture
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
This week
• Key roles in ERP project
– Handout (UCC example)
– ERP project team example (PCB case study)
• ERP project proposal
– High level phases and deliverables (not tied to dates)
– Project timeline
• Consultant skills (cont.)
– Relationship building abilities
• Proposal writing
• SIB Industries handout
• BPM: Future of IT (Peter Keen article)
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Project team composition
• Example of ERP project team from consultant
– Client engagement level
– Project management
– Process leads (for each process affected)
• a process lead will have sub-process leads
– Technology leads
– Change Management leads
• At least 5 years experience
• Analysts below this not shown (at proposal stage)
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Project team composition: UCC
• Skills
–
–
–
–
–
Mix of technical and business skills
Representatives from every functional area
Data clean-up and migration
Application knowledge
IT implications
• Team members
– Full-time availability
– Power users
– Skill transfer
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Project team composition: PCB
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Key roles in ERP project
•
•
•
•
Mix of technical and business skills
Team members seniority and competence
Include all functions in team
Catch-22: the right person is busy!
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Our proposed approach segments the program delivery into four
components supported by a focused Enterprise Planning Team
Phase 1
Phase 2 & 3
Global
Prototype
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Model “to be”
processes
Create baseline
configuration
Assess organizational
impact
Generate functional
designs
Develop and build
development
architecture
Develop technical
infrastructure
requirements
Plan for build, test and
deploy
Build & Test
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Finalize detailed
configuration
Complete technical
designs
Build reports,
conversions, extensions
and interfaces
Build execution
architecture
Conduct integrated
system test
Develop training
Prepare conversion
plan
Define on-going
support organization
Deploy
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Plan system migration
and data cleanup
Conduct test fires
Train users
Implement help desk
support
Conduct business
simulation
Develop detailed
conversion plan
Convert site
Stabilize site
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Enterprise Planning
Run
•
•
•
•
•
•
Manage and maintain
production environment
Prioritize enhancement
requests
Perform break/fix
Establish and manage to
SLAs
Manage data center &
network operations
Provide help desk
support
In our standalone design build model, we deliver the ERP program
within 18 months, delivering the new capabilities in 2 releases
18 Month Program Window
1999
Jun
2000
Jul
Aug Sep
Oct
Nov Dec
Jan
2001
Feb
Mar
Apr
May Jun
Jul
Aug Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Mobilization
Global Prototype
Build and Unit Test
Integrated System
Test
U.S. Site
Preparation
U.S. Launch and
Stabilize
U.S. Launch
Ireland and Sales
Site Preparation
Ireland Sales
Launch and
Stabilize
Ireland and
Sales Launch
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Jan
The right combination of skills from EMC, Andersen Consulting and
Oracle positions us to successfully deliver this large, complex program
Global Prototype Organization
Steering Committee
Quality Assurance
Mike Ruettgers
Paul Noble
Dave Donatell
Bob Heise
Steve Reilly
Bob Dutkowsky
Colin Patteson
Phil Dolen
Advisory Committee
Stephen Kampe
Michael Rissi
Gary Bloom
Ron Veith
Program Office
Oracle Solution Delivery
Chris Bowers
Marty Ferguson
Janet Simons
Oracle
Representative
Enterprise Planning Team
Mike Langois
John Drake
Value Delivery Management
Terri Strauss
Develop New
Products
Mark McGloughlin
AC/Oracle - TBD
Product Delivery
EMC - TBD
Ravi Vuppala
John Tolmachoff
Demand
Management
Kathy Lyons
Justin Kennedy
Enterprise
Management
EMC -TBD
Vladimir Teofilovic
Technical
Franck Cincotta
Basil Yunan
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Change
Management
Carol Neville
Dan Lopolito
Relationship Building Abilities
• Build rapport and trust with the client
– Difficult to define
– Feature of all communication (not just face-to-face)
– Not just what is said, but how things are said
• Question effectively
–
–
–
–
Way to build rapport and control the direction of the conversation
Open questions, closed questions
Ask the right questions (preparation)
Ask them the right way (practice)
• E.g. avoid interrogating, vary styles, positive open questions, closed to
confirm, statement with a quizzical look/rising tone, etc..
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Communicate ideas succinctly and precisely
– Different areas use different language (e.g. finance, marketing)
– The Key is not the consultant’s knowledge of the area, but how the
consultant uses that knowledge to create value for the business
– Most impact when he/she talks the same language as the client
– May need to translate technical jargon into plain language
• Negotiate objectives and outcomes
– Client may not have a clear idea of what is wanted for the business or may
have unrealistic ideas which are not achievable within the project
– Disappointment for both the client and consultant results more from unclear
expectations than poor outcomes
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Convince others through verbal, written and
visual mediums
– Having good ideas is not enough
– Conviction results if ideas are communicated in a manner that is
appropriate to the audience
– Ideas must have substance - Use information to make a case for a
particular course of action
– Some information included in the initial communication and some
held back as a response to questions and/or objections
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Develop selling strategies
– Consultants must sell ideas, sell themselves and their organizations
– Consultancy does not respond well to a ‘hard-sell’ approach
– Focus on what you can offer the client with a view to building a
long-term, mutually beneficial relationship
• Work effectively as a member of a team
–
–
–
–
Consultancy team and extended client team
Requires careful definition of individual roles and responsibilities
Requires interpersonal, motivation and conflict resolution skills
Align interests of the team individuals with the overall task that the
team faces – sometimes necessary to compromise individual
concerns in the interest of the group, as a whole
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Demonstrate Leadership
– Ability to focus and direct individuals to act in a certain
way
– Draws together many relationship skills (e.g. articulate
vision, motivation, communication) into one behavioural
strategy
– Leadership is not a fixed property, but is situational –
may shift between members of a project as the project
evolves and the situation changes
– Leadership Core Competencies
• Project Management Institute (2005) Vol. 6, Issue 1.
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process