A common factor of many successful project-based organisations are members of complimentary disciplines working effectively together on requirements that meet business needs and objectives, and organisations that struggle can immediately start improving results through multi-disciplinary team training to provide a standard platform.
Effective team work around requirements is common place in organisations who recognise the value of having multiple perspectives and voices sharing in the problem understanding and problem solving on projects. In such environments, teams tend to generate ideas and broaden perspectives that are more likely to result in satisfying the business objectives of requirements, transformation and value .
Yet on many projects adjoining roles do not work as collaboratively together as they could, to develop a complete and consistent ‘customer focused’ solution. People possess certain strengths and weakness, but alone do not have all of the answers, and it is often this ‘silo-mentality’ that is the root cause of changes emerging that negatively affect the time, cost and scope of projects.
“Take for instance an organisation that employs business analysts, project managers, analyst programmers and test analysts, as well as business owners and subject matter experts. Each of these roles have their own specialisation, but to be successful they have to work together effectively or the deliverables will not be of a consistently high standard for the stakeholders,” says Newbert.
Adopting a multi-disciplinary team approach fosters camaraderie and cooperation, and, on an effective team, the members contribute their best efforts, support each other, and enable high-quality, time-sensitive, and cost-effective project delivery.
A key means for building this type of project culture is through shared learning experiences that span the multi-disciplinary team, to bring requirements delivery towards a consistent model for the organisation whilst establishing mutual understanding for everyone.
Newbert believes that training is most valuable when inclusive of the associated disciplines, as this provides a common understanding and sets a standard for the organisation.
“Imagine a place where everyone rallies together towards the business and project objectives. Where the whole project team connects around business requirements and the business stakeholders live in a project world where they can anticipate how they will be engaged. And then again, the next time too,” says Newbert.
In-house training is a wonderful way to quickly establish standards, set expectations and transfer knowledge within an organisation, and rolling it out to the broader team gives everybody a deeper understanding and appreciation, as well as boosting communication and dialogue between the supporting functions.
For more information about Business Change Academy’s extensive portfolio of business analysis courses or to request an in-house training course, please visit businesschange.academy
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