Communications With Stakeholders
I'm outgoing and honest, have strong communication skills, and am able to convey 'tech speak' into language that is easy to understand.
My experiences include interviewing business and technical stakeholders and facilitating workshops to gather requirements and goals; running brainstorming sessions to uncover creative solutions; and leading joint application development sessions (JAD) to elicit combined requirements.
When I work with business stakeholders to document their processes, I’m often asked "what is a business process model?"
Most people have cooked a meal at some point, so I like to describe a business process model as a recipe:
| Recipe | Business Process Model |
|---|---|
| Describe the dish being cooked, including all the ingredients needed. | Provide an overview of the end-to-end process, including the groups, individuals' roles (example: Database Administrator), applications and workflows needed. |
| List how the ingredients are added together, and how to prepare and cook the items. | Describe the business workflows in detail - list each procedure in order, describe how the workflows relate to each other, how the applications connect with each other, and how data is integrated across the applications. |
| List substitute ingredients if some items are missing. | List contingencies to complete a process when something doesn’t work. |
| Describe how the dish looks when it’s done. | Describe the end result (output) of the procedures. |
Project Steps...
I've had several labour jobs including general construction, and after awhile I realized how similar the project steps were to an IT project.
Since then, whenever I describe the steps in an application project to non-technical teams, I present a construction analogy:
| Construction Plans | Project Plans |
|---|---|
| Define what is being built. For example, a 3 story house with a basement apartment; main floor with a kitchen, bathroom and living room, and a top floor with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room. | Project Initiation: Define the project at a high level. For example, a transactional website that allows users to register, do financial transactions, manage their personal information, and allows the business teams to administer the application. |
| Planning: | |
| Develop the Scope: Overview of all features and functions being built. | |
| Develop a Roadmap: Objectives, deliverables, and key milestones. | |
| Create a Blueprint: dimensions of all rooms, features on each floor; plumbing, HVAC and electrical setup. | Requirements: Create business requirements and functional specifications for all features and processes, and how the system will be designed. |
| Lay the Foundation: Build the frame and install the electrical, HVAC, and the rough plumbing. | Develop the Data Layer: Configure the network, servers, databases, and data transport protocols. |
| Build the Structure: Floors, drywall, insulation, exterior driveways and walkways, etc. | Develop the Application/Business Layer: Code base, Business logic, and the Service interfaces (ie. API’s). |
| Complete the Finishing: Add fixtures, interior textures, mechanical trims, electrical outlets, etc. | Develop the Presentation Layer: User Interface, navigation, display, event / request connections, etc. |
| Final walkthrough with builder - make any adjustments if needed. Approval, and occupy. | Testing: System tests, User Acceptance tests, Business Approval test, and launch. |
| Maintenance and Renovations: Yes, there will be fixes, add-ons, and occasionally renovations. | System Maintenance and Upgrades: Dealing with problems experienced by end-users while using the application, and making enhancements. |