Hi and welcome back to the BA Mindset series.
I’m Yulia Kosarenko, author of the book
“Business Analyst: a Profession and a Mindset”.
If you’ve watched previous videos, you may be wondering
what else can we say about the BA mindset.
We’ve already talked about the complexity of business problems
and the importance of getting to the root cause, or multiple root causes of the issue.
Today, we will look at it from the opposite angle – and will talk about making things simpler.
The next principle of the BA Mindset is: Simplify until nothing can be removed.
Are you wondering how is this relevant?
Imagine a project where an organization is looking to implement new technology
or off-the-shelf product to support existing business functions –
for example, order processing or managing accounts receivable.
A business analyst is assigned to the project and starts analysis
by discovering and capturing the current business process.
This may be a painstaking and laborious exercise,
as business processes tend to become more complicated over time.
How does that happen? I think each of us can think of a few examples.
What is a process? It’s a sequence of steps that leads to an outcome –
in the best-case scenario, to the outcome you were aiming for.
This is what a process may look like in theory –
for example, if you analyze existing process documentation.
Not very complicated, is it?
If the factors that you need to evaluate at each decision point are known,
then you only need to follow this flow chart to reach a specific predictable result.
If you are a business analyst working on automating the existing process,
this shouldn’t be a problem, right?
But that’s in theory.
In practice, the business process that is executed every day may be hard to recognize.
There will be additional steps not mentioned in the documentation.
Data expected by certain activities will not be available.
The resulting loose ends will be dealt with based on gut feeling or prior experience.
Some workers will use data from special spreadsheets
that they maintain on their own desktops – their secret expertise.
There will be special instructions from the previous manager.
And there will be steps that have been routinely skipped for years, and nobody noticed.
This is what a real process may look like in practice.
Why does it happen? It’s like entropy –
the system’s randomness tends to increase over time.
When we let things be, they tend to decline into disorder.
Let’s call it the “Business process entropy law”.
A business process is likely to become more complicated
with each business change
unless a special effort is applied to optimize and simplify it.
And this law of entropy doesn’t just apply to processes:
unnecessary procedures are created for bureaucratic reasons – also known as red tape.
Reports become more detailed as new fields and dimensions are added and nothing is removed.
Forms are modified to add more parameters without analyzing what is no longer needed.
More mapping tables are created instead of using unified codes.
And interfaces are patched up instead of re-engineering them.
By the time your project starts, everyone would have grown
accustomed to this process and doesn’t question it anymore.
In this minefield of complexity, business analysts are often
struggling even to understand the current state,
let alone identify how it needs to change.
And this is exactly why you need your business analyst mindset.
Patching things up and adding a fix on top of another fix
may be faster in short term and is not very taxing from an analysis perspective.
Automating the existing process can be almost mechanical –
just capture what we do today and give your notes to the developer.
But what would be the value?
The truth is, simplifying takes more effort than leaving it as is.
A more simple, elegant and economical solution may require
that you shift your perspective, let go of what you are used to,
and look at the subject of your analysis from a different point of view.
And persuade others to do the same.
A simpler solution, process or interface is usually more stable,
viable and cheaper to maintain. Getting to a simpler solution, though,
may require more analysis and even redesign.
How do you know what needs simplifying? Start with a simple question.
Whether it’s a screen, a form, a report or a process step,
ask yourself and others whether it makes sense. Will a simpler solution suffice?
Here are some questions to ask.
Is this step essential? What will it achieve?
Can these sequential activities be done together, by the same person?
Why is this condition checked more than once?
Is this validation done too late and requires retracing too many steps?
Are all the approvals necessary? How frequently is this declined?
Don’t be afraid to questions whether something has become too complicated.
Is there too much information on this page?
Are we providing too many options?
Can we predict the most likely path and reorder steps accordingly?
Can these decisions be simpler if we use better data?
Can we avoid this bottleneck?
All these questions will probe for different areas for simplification and optimization.
If you ever doubt whether these seemingly small improvements have value,
think of how many times each step will be repeated by multiple users over a long time.
Both efficiency and inefficiency add up.
Here is the way Bill Gates put it:
Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency…
Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
What do you think? It makes a lot of sense to me.
Have you ever heard this advice on how to pack for a trip?
First, collect everything you think you might need.
Then, go through this pile, and discard everything you can survive without.
This will leave you with only bare essentials that will hopefully fit in your backpack.
This is the logic we should apply to design solutions to business problems.
Understand what is essential. Simplify until nothing can be removed.
This is what I wanted to share with you today.
Next time when you are analyzing an existing business process, form, or procedure,
think from this perspective: what is essential, and what is not.
If you allow me to use another quote, this one is attributed to Albert Einstein:
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
This is it for now, thank you for your continued interest
in the principles of the BA mindset.
In the next episode, we will focus on communication and sharing. Until next time!