In this article about business analysis mentoring , I’d like to explain why I think BA mentoring can be so valuable in helping you through the professional development minefield. I will share a story to illustrate how a mentor could help you both avoid mistakes and accelerate the development of the most relevant skills.
Table of Contents
What is a Mentor?
A mentor is an experienced and successful professional who provides guidance, advice, and support to someone else (i.e. a mentee).
Mentorship is a relationship in which the mentor helps the mentee grow and develop professionally.
What is a Business Analyst Mentor?
A business analysis mentor typically have years of experience working in the field and can offer valuable insight and guidance to those starting out or looking to further their career.
What is the Importance of a Business Analyst Mentor?
Mentors can play a vital role in your professional development. Mentors can help you learn new skills, navigate your career, and provide support and advice when you need it.
A business analysis mentor can introduce you to new opportunities and help you network with other professionals. Having a mentor is a great way to get ahead in your career and set yourself up for success.
Business Analyst Mentee – Case Study
Mentee – Scenario
My story, regarding mentoring business analysts, is about a business analyst who had the sole responsibility for running a series of workshops for the first time.
He’d done all the preparation he could:
- He had completed the process models he wanted to review;
- The room was booked;
- The participants had confirmed their attendance along with a few who had been forwarded the invite;
- He had the whiteboard, projector, flip-charts and pens.
He ran the workshop and felt that it was acceptable but there was definitely room for improvement.
Mentee – Areas for Improvement
There seemed to be a lot of people in the room with opinions about what was wrong or what needed to be considered.
However, when he asked for a definitive answer to a question there was silence. Or someone would refer to another person who needed to be consulted who was not at the workshop.
Some of the attendees liked to talk at length about the issues but didn’t have any useful input on how to resolve them.
He came away with a lot of issues that needed to be resolved. He had to speak to a lot of people and set up smaller meetings to resolve the issues that had been raised.
Often he would have to return with decisions that were proposed and agree it in the workshop environment.
So what had he done wrong? How could he could improve his results in the workshop?
Many of you will have some ideas about what could have been done differently.
Perhaps he should have reviewed the list of participants to make sure all required subject matter experts (SME) were required.
Maybe he wasn’t controlling the attendees. No one should be allowed to attend who doesn’t have a clear role in the workshop – don’t allow any passengers!
If he had access to a business analyst, experienced in running workshops, a discussion of only a few minutes could have saved him hours of follow-up meetings.
More importantly, he would have started the workshop with confidence, managed it effectively and would have earned the respect of the attendees.
If you haven’t guessed already – that business analyst was me!
It was ten years ago and I like to think I run better workshops these days (!) but I still benefit from experienced guidance now as much as I would have done then.
Benefits of a Business Analyst Mentor
I firmly believe that access to a BA mentor can transform your professional development. You can benefit from a quick consultation on a challenge like the story described above. The biggest benefits, however, come from building a longer term relationship with a mentor.
The mentor who knows the context (e.g. the project, the company) and has a strong relationship with their mentee can ask just the right questions. He/she will know when to help their mentee find their own answer and when to make suggestions based on their experience.
One of the biggest benefits of a mentor is their flexibility. You can ask your mentor to provide guidance on your business analysis plan; give you feedback on a deliverable or advise you on what book you should read
to understand a new technique.
Training courses are written to deliver a specific skill. Usually there will be a case study but it is unlikely to be related to your industry and certainly won’t recognise the challenges you face in your organisation. Sometimes they can be customised to suit a particular organisation but that adds to the expense.
Don’t misunderstand me, I believe training is important and is most cost effective at delivering new skills rapidly to a group.
Your mentor, on the other hand, will understand your specific situation and can adapt their guidance to suit your needs.
Steps to Consider When Finding a Business Analyst Mentor
There are a few things that you should keep in mind when finding a business analysis mentor.
- First, you need to find someone who is experienced and successful in the field.
- Second, you need to make sure that the mentor is willing to invest time and energy into your development.
- Finally, you should build a rapport with your mentor and establish trust. Once you have found a mentor that meets these criteria, you can start working on your career development!
There are several places you can locate a mentor or you may wish to consider signing-up with Business Analyst Mentor. You should start by looking at any schemes run by your organisation.
If your organisation doesn’t run a scheme you could consider starting one.
An alternative is to encourage your local chapter of the IIBA to set up a mentoring scheme. It is a big task to set up a proper mentoring scheme so a simple alternative would be to ask the chapter simply to provide a forum for mentors and mentees to meet.
Summary – Business Analysis Mentoring
In this article, about mentoring business analyst, I provided a brief story taken from my own experience of what can go wrong when you are lacking experience.
I explained how a mentor provides personalised, timely, expert guidance and how this can be benefit you. I explained how only mentoring can deliver a truly personalised approach.
Training is effective at rapid delivery of a one size fits all approach to a group.
You may have an alternative view on mentoring or have a mentoring story you’d like to share.