How a Business Analyst Can Motivate Stakeholders

Most of my success as a business analyst comes down to motivating stakeholders. Motivated stakeholders thoroughly cover the scope of a solution with meaningful requirements, resulting in a customer happy with the solution.

Prepare for Success

I focus my curiosity on the business, its stakeholders, and the values of all involved. I want to understand how a solution adds value to the company. Finding what’s important to each stakeholder helps me guide their motivation. For example, if a key manager values her time, I encourage stakeholders to keep meetings with her focused and brief.

Forming an alliance with one or more business management stakeholders goes a long way to deal with problems that may arise during discovery. I worked on a project where two stakeholders disagreed on feature development priorities. My business ally resolved the conflict outside of the discovery session. In an agile scrum setting, the product owner makes an ideal ally as the solution’s internal champion. 

Create a Value Mindset

The value mindset centers on business value rather than solution implementation. To create a value mindset, I ensure that all stakeholders appreciate and agree on how a solution improves their business. This mindset orients stakeholders towards the solution’s goal, overcoming obstacles and resistance in the discovery and development process. 

Also, I show appreciation to business stakeholders, thanking them for contributing their time and energy to discovery. Understanding that it lies outside their day to day responsibilities, I encourage them to contribute throughout the process. I keep technical stakeholders informed about how the business will use the solution. Those stakeholders should see the solution as a way to deliver business value, not just a project to finish.

If the business value of a requirement is not obvious, I connect the two. Our team once built a system that improved productivity so much that I told the developers it was like going from a simple text editor to an integrated development environment. Putting the value in their terms motivated them to create even more value.

Set Goals and Boundaries

I clearly define the scope of a solution, encouraging stakeholders to focus on business needs within the scope. If a stakeholder brings up a need outside the scope, I capture the topic for later discovery. I acknowledge the capture, so the stakeholder feels heard and knows his or her need didn’t just drift away. If a stakeholder offers a solution idea, I respectfully ask about the business need it would meet. Then, we explore the gaps between the idea and what the business needs.

Additionally, I set a goal for stakeholders to discover and understand all requirements within the solution scope. Encouraging stakeholders to ask questions about requirements and ideas can flush out more requirements.

Deal with Obstacles and Conflicts

If a roadblock arises in discovery, I put it in the context of business value. I worked on a project where an IT stakeholder claimed it would create a security vulnerability to the operations systems that integrates with it. The risk wouldn’t offset the solution value, so I asked what it would take to mitigate the security risk. The IT stakeholder didn’t know, and put me in touch with IT’s security specialist. My business ally and I collaborated with the specialist to mitigate the risk.

I consider business allies essential for resolving stakeholder conflicts, such as how a business process should work. While I strive to understand as much as I can about the business, internal allies have more experience and insights into the company and other stakeholders. As such, they are better positioned to make difficult decisions and compromises. 

Cover the Scope

Throughout discovery, I ask “what else?” after getting a business need from a stakeholder. I encourage stakeholders to think about what the need depends on and what depends on satisfying the need. We need to discover assumptions as well as needs to cover the solution scope.

When walking through a business process, I ask about exceptions that could arise. Once discovery has found all of the business requirements, dependencies, and exceptions, I summarize what we have done to show the stakeholders how much we accomplished. I express appreciation to everyone, thanking them for devoting their time and energy to cover the solution scope, which will result in a well-fitting productive solution. I realize the stakeholders may think of other requirements later and encourage them to bring them to my attention at any time.

Motivation Pays Off

If you are in a business analyst role, I recommend ...

… starting with curiosity about the business, its terminology, and the stakeholders working on the solution. Learn what the business values, such as their product, service experience, or keeping prices low. Pay attention to what each stakeholder values, such as efficiency or new business opportunities. Motivate stakeholders by connecting their values to the business needs.

... encouraging stakeholders to speak up regarding business needs within the solution’s scope.  While expressing appreciation for each contribution to the discussion, ensure everyone understands its value. Anticipate others contributing to the discovery process and covering the solution scope.

… setting goals and establishing boundaries to focus discovery efforts within the solution scope. Maintain respectful interactions, keeping disrespect out of bounds.

... escalate business issues to their business management ally or the appropriate manager.

Encouraging stakeholders to contribute and appreciating all contributions leads to a complete solution that meets or exceeds the business needs.