Research08

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The Yin and Yang of the IT/Business Relationship

Key Statement

Source: Howson

Business and IT’s Differences Are Not Absolute

Yin (IT)

Passiveness

Cold

Water

Yang (Business)

Movement

Initiative

Heat

Fire

Goal: Strike a balance…

Source: Howson

IT and Business Comparison

Source: Howson

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI)

EFP’s tend to go into business roles while ITJ’s tend to go into IT

Your Prof is an “ENFJ.” His type does not thrive in IT.

So, what did he do? He went into IT and stayed there!

Source: Howson

Further Comparison: Business and IT People

IT People	Business People
Prefer: Concentrating Relying on facts Using logic and analysis Organization Details Representative Careers: Computer Science Data Analysis Mathematics	Prefer: Interacting with people Relying on facts Using a breadth of skills Emphasizing interpersonal skills The big picture Representative Careers: Marketing Management

Optimally, business people and IT people cover each other’s weak spots

For example, a manager can rely on an analyst to review details, while the analyst

can rely on the manager to communicate the results effectively

Source: Howson

Using Incentives to Achieve Balance

Common Business Incentives	Common IT Incentives
Rewarded to increase revenue: Designing new products Testing new market segments  These incentives include risks	Rewarded for minimizing risk: Cutting costs Providing a stable environment  Stable operations require minimal risk

Move to the Middle…

Source: Howson

Hybrid Business-IT People

UB’s analytics program emphasis

Your Professor is one

Hybrids are motivated to understand “the other side”

Hybrids hailing from the business have an edge in ready-made

business credibility while those from IT have to prove themselves

Source: Howson

The Case of the “Annoying” Lead Business Analyst

Situation

At a P&C insurance company the business analysts resided with the BI center of excellence, a business organization

A lead business analyst who had “grown up” with the business and learned the BI applications always questioned IT, forcing them to substantiate rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates

She was right! The IT department “padded” their estimates and the ROM estimator did not understand technology and so could not question them

What do you think happened?

The Case of the “Annoying” Lead Business Analyst (Cont’d)

Results

The business supported and promoted this lead business analyst

The analyst’s questioning was validated: IT was inflating their estimates for BI solutions!

Over time, this led to a formal review phase where business and IT both expected, prepared for and worked through the results of these ROM Q&A sessions. Better estimates resulted

The ROM estimator relocated to another part of the company

Effective Partnering

Source: Howson

Effective Partnering (Continued)

Joint commitment to a common goal

Business shouldn’t “throw requirements over the wall”

IT shouldn’t be wary of business people

BI intersects business and technology, without the partnering of both, you will not be very successful

Source: Howson

The Case of the Antagonistic IT Manager

Situation

A leading IT Services company was migrating their data from legacy applications to a new BI platform

Two senior business leaders attempted to collaborate with the IT leader

The IT leader took pride in dictating the delivery schedule with no consideration of the business drivers

What were the results?

The Case of the Antagonistic IT Manager (Cont’d)

Results

Over time, the business leaders reached out to your Prof, whom they perceived as more collaborative

Your Prof worked with this IT leader to improve his openness. This was sometimes effective

After your Prof left, he kept in touch with the IT leader. Unfortunately, this leader’s career underwent some pain after a reorganization left him vulnerable

Moral

Don’t antagonize business people with “purse strings.” If they don’t retaliate now, they will retaliate later!

How to Develop A Strong Partnership

Work to understand each another

Business: IT must deliver common solutions

IT: Recognition of why timely response to business requests is critical

Recruit hybrid business – IT people

“I look for ‘bridge people’,” A COO at Travelers Insurance

Ban technobabble, a.k.a. techno speak

Practice an elevator speech confirming BI value using business terms

Source: Howson

How to Develop A Strong Partnership (Cont’d)

Team building

Bring IT and businesspeople together

Consider the MBTI

Provide incentives for enabling the business

Consider organizational structures. Think

Career paths

Shared resources

Knowledge sharing

Relevant expertise

Source: Howson

How to Develop A Strong Partnership (Cont’d)

Involve each other

Invite business and IT to each other’s meetings

Bring everyone together to solve issues on an ad hoc basis

Have IT study the company’s mission statement and business unit plans

Have lunch together

Hire a woman. They

Comprise less than 25% of IT and this percentage is declining

Bring listening skills, empathy and intuition

Source: Howson

Perception of Partnership

IT perceives a good partnership, business

and hybrid folks disagree

Business feels pain from

Slow IT responsiveness

Misunderstood requirements

IT says no to the business more than the

business says no to IT

Prof has noticed:

IT tends to be their own worst enemy

Most business people are reasonable

Source: Howson

The Case of the Reasonable Business BI Leader

Situation

The IT leader of a major client reporting portfolio committed his team to delivering in four months

He made this commitment using requirements that were later replaced

Business leadership accepted this four month commitment

A new business BI leader arrived, heard the month commitment and concluded IT supported it

When IT received new requirements they realized the original commitment could not be met

Everyone attributed the timetable to the new BI leader. Nobody wanted to tell him the reality

What do you think happened?

The Case of the Reasonable Business BI Leader (Cont’d)

Results

The project managers reset expectations and requested more money

The BI leader reviewed the recommendations, accepted them and required delivery on the revised schedule

During these conversations, the BI leader confirmed he thought the four months was too aggressive but was going on what the original IT leader had told him

The BI leader was reasonable while the remaining IT leaders were stressed and agitated

 Your Prof has seen this time and again. Sometimes you have to send difficult messages but “cooler” heads will prevail

The Impact of Partnership on BI Success

Source: Howson

Business Alignment is Critical

“Alignment” and “partnership” are different

Alignment: Working toward a common goal

Partnership: Recognizing each partner has an interest in the other’s success

BI must

Support the company’s objectives

Align with the company’s strategic goals

Business and IT alignment means each add value

Source: Howson

Business Alignment is Critical (Continued)

The customer is not always right!

Alignment does not mean business says “jump” and IT reacts

A rigorous demand management process is crucial

Alignment means IT and business define the best direction together

Partnership empowers IT to

Lead as required

Say “no” (a very powerful word) when necessary

Source: Howson

Aligning With IT is Also Critical

Having a solution “under the desk” of a business’ “shadow IT team” isn’t optimal

“Going it alone” can have negative consequences on

Scalability

Maintenance cost

Budget

Vendor support

BI Demand Management Is Crucial

Everything is relative: One professional’s top priority may not be the enterprise’s top priority

Apply the Pareto Principle: Confirm the 20% of projects with 80%+ impact

Establish a steering committee (discussed in more detail later) and work with them to establish a demand pipeline

Publish and review the demand pipeline regularly with all stakeholders

The Case of the Under Engineered BI Demand Management Process

Situation

A BI team at a major P&C reinsurer assumed a “customer service” mentality

Their demand pipeline contained over 100 requests, many several years old

Many BI requests considered “high priority,” even the old ones

What do you think happened?

The Case of the Under Engineered BI Demand Management Process (Cont’d)

Results

In responding to everything they gained a reputation for non-responsiveness

Their demand management pipeline was assumed by another organization whose management perceived was more competent

The Case of the “Just Right” Demand Management Process

Situation

A BI group at a major P&C organization

Set up two groups to actively prioritize demand

A “BIA Steering Committee” of senior leaders that met monthly

A “Working Committee” of middle level leaders and subject matter experts (SMEs) that met weekly

Assigned ownership of BI request prioritization for various delivery “tracks” to Lead Business Analysts responsible for advocating for and negotiating with their business partners

Presented project interdependencies at a monthly portfolio management meeting to ensure internal alignment

What do you think happened?

The Case of the “Just Right” Demand Management Process (Cont’d)

Result

The demand pipeline was refined to support the Pareto Principle: it was distilled to the 20% of requests that had 80% impact

The Case of the Non Scalable BI

Situation

At a major P&C insurer, IT was perceived as not responsive

IT professed to have “seen many partners come and go” and fostered a “bunker mentality”

The business installed a “Shadow IT” BI team reporting to Actuarial

This BI team favored Microsoft Access solutions on local servers, some stored under desks

IT declared “war,” aggressively fighting proactive support. Since the CIO was a well respected former underwriter with personal ties to the CEO, this was tolerated

Every e-mail “chain” became a “death spiral” of recriminations between the two teams

What were the results?

The Case of the Non Scalable BI (Continued)

Results

While Actuarial BI was initially successful the antagonistic relationship with IT and the lack of scalability took its toll

Key systems would be unavailable for days, quality assurance was non existent and team members suffered health issues

When the head of the Actuarial BI department left a new management team was hired who started fresh, with a more scalable technology stack

IT’s antagonism continued until this new BI leadership found alternative IT support

An Example of BI and Business Alignment

Source: Howson

Consider a BI “Step Diagram”

Situation

At a major insurer, your Professor was impressed with senior BI leadership’s use of a “step diagram”

This diagram depicted a series of histograms over time that projected increasing progress toward mutually set goals

It was shown often and updated as key milestones were met

Results

With monthly steering committee meetings and weekly working meetings, this diagram reinforced progress against plan and strategy

The diagram effectively reinforced goals and progress for everyone from the most senior leader to entry level individual contributors

Sample Abstracted Step Diagram

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Project

Scalable BI

Foundation

Self Service and

Standard Reporting

Dashboards

Analytic

Sandboxes and

Tools

Proactive Analytics

Replace each item as relevant for your situation…

Reference List

Howson, C. (2014). Successful business intelligence: Unlock the value

of BI and big data. New York. McGraw Hill Education.

ISBN: 9780071809184