4. Strategy Horizon
4.5 Feedback and Learning
Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide
Decision makers frequently delay launching initiatives until the information they have provides them with confidence that the initiative will be successful. These decisions to delay are made because decision makers lack the ability to learn quickly and make timely strategic decisions.
At the Strategy Horizon, agile business analysis provides just enough information to decide whether to begin a new initiative. Specifically, this means answering the questions:
- Is there a need to satisfy?
- Is the need aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives?
- Is it worth satisfying that need?
- Do we believe we have the right team to provide a good enough solution?
- Are we able to measure the success of the initiative?
Once the decision to start a new initiative is made, further analysis is done at the Initiative Horizon.
Communications between Horizons is a continuous process of feedback and learning. Analysis done at the Strategy Horizon provides useful information to teams at the Initiative and Delivery Horizons. Learning is created at both the Initiative and Delivery Horizons that enables effective decision making at the Strategy Horizon.
Continuous and timely feedback loops enable rapid decision making. The constant flow of information from multiple initiatives to the decision makers at the Strategy Horizon facilitates the making of timely strategic decisions.
At the Strategy Horizon, business analysis practitioners continuously analyze and communicate information that is available at the Initiative Horizon. Business analysis practitioners operating at the Strategy Horizon collaborate closely with the business analysis practitioners operating at the Initiative Horizon.
Agile business analysis at the Strategy Horizon involves analyzing large amounts of changing data with complex relationships. This generally involves multiple business analysis practitioners conducting analysis in different areas and multiple decision makers from different domains making independent decisions. For example, an accountant might be looking at changes to cash flows while a marketing manager is looking at changes in customer behaviour. Each independent decision may have an impact on the outcome of other decisions made elsewhere in the organization. Business analysis practitioners play a central role in facilitating the continuous feedback and learning between stakeholders within the Strategy Horizon.
Mapped Tasks From the BABOK Guide
Learn how Tasks from the BABOK Guide Knowledge Areas apply at the Strategy Horizon.
3.1 Plan Business Analysis Approach
This first step in planning the business analysis approach is making the determination that agile will be used as the approach. The level of plis lightweight and just wanning hat is needed to meet the needs of the horizon.
The agile approach is continually redefined and business analysis methods change and evolve as feedback
is received.
3.2 Plan Stakeholder Engagement
The plans for stakeholder engagement are relative to the specific needs of the Strategy Horizon.
The approach for establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with the stakeholders is an ongoing adaptive process and includes stakeholders from across all initiatives in the organization who havea longer view of theorganizational goals and strategy.
3.3 Plan Business Analysis Governance
Define how decisions are made about requirements and designs, including reviews, change control, approvals, and prioritization. Involves establishing a portfolio management approach and a decision framework for the entire organization. Governance and decisionframeworks are adaptive based on the evolving understanding of relative risk across the organization.
3.4 Plan Business Analysis Information Management
The approach for how business analysis information will be stored and accessed is defined through ongoing collaboration with all initiatives across the organization to ensure consistent processes. To facilitate continuous improvements, feedback and learning is shared with the other horizons.
3.5 Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements
Assessing business analysis work and planning to improve processes is continuous and based on ongoing feedback. Measures focus on the ability to learn and adapt based on ongoing feedback.
4.1 Prepare for Elicitation
Preparing for elicitation involves creating and supporting a framework for collaboration and learning or across all initiatives and using feedback to ensure continuous improvement in elicitation outcomes.
4.2 Conduct Elicitation
The focus of conducting elicitation is continuous and spans across all initiatives, throughout the organization, and spans beyond the boundaries of the organization. The focus is on ensuring that ongoing feedback is heard, and that ongoing organizational learning extends across allinitiatives.
4.3 Confirm Elicitation Results
Confirming elicitation results involves ensuring that feedback is both consistent and still relevant. At the Strategy Horizon, decisions can be based on both what is likely to be true and what is actualltrue. It is important to communicate a clear understanding on which elicitation results are assumptions and which are facts.
4.4 Communicate Business Analysis Information
Ensuring stakeholders have a shared understanding of business analysis information involves establishing and actively supporting an environment for constructive communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement throughout the organization. This can be done through visioning, the product roadmap, and story maps.
4.5 Manage Stakeholder Collaboration
Assessing business analysis work and planning to improve processes is continuous and based on ongoing feedback. Measures focus on the ability to learn and adapt based on ongoing feedback.
5.1 Trace Requirements
Tracing requirements at the Strategy Horizon involves determining if the changes in one initiative impact any other initiatives in the organization.
Efforts focus on ensuring initiatives contribute to business goals and measuring impact. Effective implementation at this level limits work in progress to shorten the delivery cycle.
Requirements maybe ambiguous and focus on organizational goals. Ensure feedback frameworks are in place to support the ongoing alignment to evolving organizational goals.
5.2 Maintain Requirements
Maintaining requirements is focused less on maintaining accurate requirements and more on understanding the accuracy of customer needs and lessons from customer experience, and determining if existing information remains relevant. This may involvea trade-off between accurate maintenance of requirements in favour of experimentation, continual change, and learning.
5.3 Prioritize Requirements
Prioritize Requirements focuses on the prioritization of organizational goals and initiatives rather than detailed requirements. Feedback and learning from inside and outside the organization is central to understanding what and how to prioritize goals and initiatives.
5.4 Assess Requirements Changes
Evaluating the implications of proposed changes to requirements and designs, the Strategy Horizon focuses on understanding how changes impact organizational goals and impact changes that extend beyond initiatives. Assessments are based on continuous feedback and learning.
5.5 Approve Requirements
At the Strategy Horizon, approving requirements involves empowering initiatives to understand what is doable through ongoing communication of evolving assumptions, constraints, and goals.
6.1 Analyze Current State
Analyzing the current state is done through collaboration, continuous feedback, and learning. As the current state evolves, it is continuously re- analyzed to understand the impact of the change.
6.2 Define Future State
Defining the future state is done through collaboration, continuous feedback, and learning. As the future state evolves, it is continuously re- analyzed to understand the impact of the change.
Multiple potential future states and different time horizons are continually being defined and re-defined while change is happening
6.3 Assess Risks
Assessing both positive and negative risk is ongoing for multiple potential future states and different time frames.
Assumptions and hypotheses around risks associated with the evolving multiple future states are continually explored and understood as a means of ongoing risk mitigation.
6.4 Define Change Strategy
At the Strategy Horizon, the change strategy is defined with the focus of aligning initiatives to organizational goals.
This includes impact goals or metrics to measure whether an initiative positively influences the strategy.
7.1 Specify and Model Requirements
The Strategy Horizon specifies and models the goals of the organization.
7.2 Verify Requirements
The Strategy Horizon ensures that the initiatives are meeting the goals of the organization.
7.3 Validate Requirements
The Strategy Horizon ensures that the initiatives are aligned to the goals of the organization.
7.4 Define Requirements Architecture
The Strategy Horizon ensures that the initiatives are aligned to the goals of the organization.
7.5 Define Design Options
While the detailed design options are defined elsewhere, the vision for the customer journey and high-level user experience can be defined at the Strategy Horizon.
7.6 Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution
The scope of analysis is do just enough analysis to decide to start an initiative or not. Ensuring continuous collaboration and feedback between initiatives aids this analysis. The strategy for the vision of creating value is defined at the Strategy Horizon.
8.1 Measure Solution Performance
Measuring a solution's performance involves measuring the feedback from all initiatives to determine if organizational goals are being achieved.
8.2 Analyze Performance Measures
Analyzing performance measures focuses on assessing the holistic value provided by all initiatives across the organization.
8.3 Assess Solution Limitations
At the Strategy Horizon, assessing solution limitations involves collaboration and communicating solution limitations across all initiatives. The feasibility of strategic options and value trade-offs are assessed.
8.4 Assess Enterprise Limitations
Assessing enterprise limitations involves continually understanding and communicating limitations to the realization of value across initiatives as these limitations evolve along with the solution.
8.5 Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value
The Strategy Horizon is responsible for recommending changes to goals or strategy. This includes recommending to start, stop, or change an initiative. Recommended changes are based on ongoing feedback and learning.
Strategy Horizon Techniques
Agile Extension
BABOK® Guide
