This article will introduce business analysis facilitation workshops and will include where it came from, why it is used, the basic principles and the different styles.
In essence, the workshop enables a group of people to collaborate in achieving a common goal – hence, the rugby scrum is a good analogy although you shouldn’t expect to get this muddy!
Table of Contents
What is a Facilitation Workshop?
A facilitation workshop is a guided learning experience where participants explore a specific topic or issue. workshops are typically interactive, with participants working in small groups to discuss and solve problems.
The IIBA BaBOK Guide defines workshops as:
A workshop is a focused event attended by key stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a concentrated period of time. A workshop may be held for different purposes including planning, analysis, design, scoping, requirements elicitation, modelling, or any combination of these. A workshop may be used to generate ideas for new features or products, to reach consensus on a topic, or to review requirements or designs.
Facilitation Workshop Background
Facilitation workshops have been around for a while and is used in many different spheres of industry in different ways to which the business analyst will be familiar.
For example, it is used in the public and not for profit sectors when it is necessary to reach agreement on a subject where there are many parties with different perspectives and needs.
Facilitation Workshop Purpose
Facilitation workshops can be used for the following reasons:
- For gaining consensus between a number of people on a subject;
- Exploration of a subject where people all are familiar but have a different perspective;
- Agreeing the direction and scope;
- Identifying and agreeing items of consideration such as requirements;
- Examining possible solutions;
- Reviewing and approving artefacts.
Facilitated Workshop – Who is Included
A facilitated workshop typically includes the following:
- Group of stakeholders – typically a representation of their particular domain or expertise;
- Facilitator – the person who runs and facilitates the workshop;
- Scribe -a Scribe may be present to support the Facilitator. A Scribe will typically note items from the workshop, help with the flip-chart note taking for example.
Facilitation Workshop Principles
Much of the work that makes a workshop successful takes place before the workshop itself. Planning, preparation and well-defined objectives that are agreed in advance are essential for success.
The workshop itself needs good workshop facilitation to ensure it achieves its objectives and the attendees are appropriately engaged and satisfied with the outcome.
The facilitator needs to understand the objectives and to ensure the workshop is steered towards achieving those objectives. This takes skill and experience, not least because different attendees will have different needs and expectations which must be balanced against achieving the objectives.
Most experienced business analysts will be comfortable with facilitating a workshop but, in some cases, it is beneficial to use an experienced facilitator. For example, strong characters who are likely to introduce conflict or a large number of stakeholders may justify engaging a professional facilitator.
It is important to note that a workshop is a very public forum with, typically, important stakeholders present so care must be taken to ensure success and avoid loss of credibility. This is especially true when you consider the number of people attending and the amount of valuable time they will be committing.
Facilitation Workshop Styles
Workshops can range from highly informal brainstorming or creative style through to a very formal and structured style.
The objectives will drive the style that best suits. For example, the informal style will be most beneficial during exploration when the high level scope of a project is being established and it is most important to gather input from all attendees and a high degree of precision is not required. It may also be useful when it is necessary to achieve a shared level of understanding amongst the stakeholders so it is important that the workshop can follow the questions raised by the stakeholders.
Formal Workshop
The formal style will tend to be more beneficial as a project evolves away from exploration and commitment is required. For example, it may be necessary to acquire sign off from the stakeholders for the scope or requirements for a project. In this case, the workshop structure will be quite rigid and the stakeholders will be required to resolve issues and make assumptions in order to achieve sign off.
Informal Workshop
The informal workshop requires as much preparation as the formal to be successful. The facilitation however can be somewhat looser as it is important to give attendees the opportunity to contribute and to express their concerns or ask questions.
Round Robin Workshop Style
The round robin style
of workshop is when a facilitator goes round participants and invites each to make a suggestion. This has benefit that everyone is given the opportunity to contribute but also has the implication that people may feel they are put under the spot.
Post-It Exercise Workshop Style
The post-it style of workshop is when workshop participants are given a block of post-it notes for them to write their suggestions on each one. This has the benefit that workshop attendees have time to think and consider and don’t feel they are are put under the spotlight.
Typically, the facilitator, will cluster or group the participants post-it notes into logical groupings or themes to support the the topic in discussion.
Facilitation Workshops Ice-Breaking Techniques
When participants are new or to start with some energy in the facilitated workshop – the facilitator will typically start-off with an ice-breaker or two.
Common workshop ice-breaking techniques include:
Personal introductions
Participants simply state their name and tell the group something about themselves. Sometimes the facilitator may pick on theme, perhaps joyful when asking the participant to select something about themselves;
Fact or fiction
This is where the participant is asked to write a few things that are a factual about themselves and one which is fiction. The group then need to determine which one is fiction.
Facilitated Workshop Venues
The venue of a workshop is important – and depending upon the size of the participants the venue becomes even more important.
Sometimes, the room will need to be organised and include the right equipment such as pens, flip-charts, tables and chairs.
For long workshops – lunch will need to be considered and organised. Having an agenda for the day will ensure that that the workshop runs to plan and also helps ensure that any logistics is also catered for.
The recent pandemic has meant that workshops have been facilitating remotely using tools such as Zoom, MS Teams and collaborative tools such as MIRO.
Facilitation Workshops – Business Analysis Workshops
A BA will tend to use a business analysis workshops in one of the following ways:
- Understanding a problem domain (as a precursor to determining requirements) to understand the overall context;
- Establish project scope;
- Establish requirements;
- Walk through business process (current and proposed);
- Walk through requirements for sign off;
- Walk through straw man or draft use case model for validation (see – How to identify candidate use cases);
- Walk through use case model for sign-off (see Use Cases – an Introduction).
Conclusion – Facilitated Workshops
In conclusion, workshops are an essential tool for today’s business analyst. They can be used very effectively to achieve results quickly where there are many parties and different points of view but they must be used carefully.
Good preparation and clear objectives are essential for success. Without this, there is a real risk of loss of credibility in front of, potentially, important stakeholders which can set the project back rather than accelerating its progress.