by Chuka Madukwe At the outset of every engagement, we spend time architecting the project to ensure that there is alignment between the organisation’s strategy, the proposed deliverable of the project and the approach to be adopted. Over the years, we’ve seen many, uhm, less than optimal practices across the industry. We decided to write them up in a “cheat sheet” for project architects. Project architecting for anti-progress Make roles and responsibilities unclear. In fact, why even consider them at all? Just assign people to the project and hope that they will get on with it. This way, the real “diamonds [&hellip

There’s been a lot of banter recently about ‘banking culture’, how it’s all wrong and it’s at the heart of many of the bank’s problems – particularly that of investment banks. The industry has become synonymous with society’s ills – greed, immorality, recklessness – and bankers are emblazoned in scandal. They’re responsible for everything from miss-selling insurance products to being conduits for money laundering and rigging Libor (or, if you like, Lie-bor). All of this comes in the wake of a financial meltdown. Caused by bankers. Saved by the taxpayer

BSG recently completed a challenging project stage at the world’s leading insurance market corporation. To maximise the learning on both sides, we facilitated a review session using Edward de Bono’s 6 hats approach. Here’s how we did it… BSG (UK) 6 hats project reviews from BSG (UK)

In the context of BA’s as agents of change, it is essential that there is clear line of sight between the organisation’s strategy and the change to be introduced by the project. The benefit(s) are the descriptions of what measurable improvement will be introduced by a particular change initiative. This tool helps identify (and track) traceability from strategy all the way through to the change delivered by a specific project. BSG (UK) Benefits pyramid version 1 from BSG (UK)

For the second year running, the UK International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA) published the results of an industry-wide Business Analysis survey. For that same second time round, the BSG BA team, many of whom completed the survey questionnaire, reviewed the results and discussed some observations. BSG (UK) – Reflections on 2012 IIBA BA survey version 1 from BSG (UK)

Compliance related fines totalled more than $3.5bn in 2012. Financial sector compliance has moved from the business pages to the front page. LIBOR, regulations, capital adequacy, anti- money laundering and other industry terms are becoming discussed as regularly as last week’s football results. We’ve observed in many clients that when people speak about compliance it tends to be reactive – a problem has been identified and it needs to be fixed. Businesses tend not to see compliance in a strategic fashion as it has traditionally been a cost centre that has not contributed to the bottom line. A seismic perception [&hellip

BSG’er David Reinhardt was interviewed for The BA Coach’s popular BA podcast series.   In this episode, you will get to hear from a top-notch BA in UK, creating ‘Aha’ moments for his clients in every engagement. His passion for doing work that can goes beyond just being a ‘project’ can serve as a great example for us to learn from.He shares many insights and tips that can help practitioners understand that our profession is a social profession and that collaboration is at the heart of a project well done

Compliance is just a business case for another form of business change. In a recent assignment to assess FATCA readiness at a banking client, we discovered that the three different banking products each had a different front-office origination process. In the wake of this discovery, part of our recommendation set was, unsurprisingly, to consolidate processes and reap the various benefits that accrue from this. It all seems so obvious – but is it really? All too often All too often compliance projects start with a specific endpoint – ensure that we get the compliance projects relevant tick in the relevant [&hellip

BSG (UK) Business Analysts recently attended the Business Analysis Conference Europe 2012. Shortly after the conference, the BSG delegates collectively identified a number of trends which cropped up across the conference topics. 2012 10 xx bsg uk reflections on ba conference europe version 1 from BSG (UK)

Compliance. Why is it important? Supporting notes can be found here (Slideshare)