Chapter 1
To Meet or Not to Meet, That Is the Question
In This Chapter:
Think Before You Meet
Meeting Types
The business analyst uses different types of meetings—one-on-one interviews, small-group working sessions, or formal requirements elicitation workshops—and various facilitation techniques to get the job done. The ability to plan and facilitate effective meetings, bring a group to consensus, and drive resolution of issues and conflicts is essential to the successful business analyst. Therefore, meeting planning and facilitation is at the core of the business analyst’s skill set. As Ellen Gottesdiener notes in Requirements by Collaboration:1
The cost of ineffective meetings is staggering. The average person attends seven to ten meetings a week, half of which are unproductive, and the average meeting involves nine people … who have as little as two hours’ prior notice.
People come together in teams to complete project work, and yet the underlying group meeting process is often poorly managed. The successful business analyst becomes adept at planning and facilitating sessions for groups of people, conscious and respectful of the participants’ time. As facilitator, the business analyst is ever mindful that when people work in teams, there are two equally challenging dynamics at play. Being results-oriented by nature, people focus on the purpose of the meeting, so that work is actually accomplished. Frequently this is the only issue team members consider. The second dimension of meetings is the process of the group work itself—the mechanisms by which the group acts as a team and not simply as people who happen to be together in a room.
If due attention is not paid to the meeting process, the value of bringing people together can be diminished. Expert management of the meeting process can enhance the value of the group to many times the sum of the worth of the individuals. It is this synergy that makes project work rewarding. The astute business analyst examines the group process and discovers how to quickly transition a group of people that have come together in a meeting into a highly effective team. The goal is for the group of people at the business analysis meeting to be viewed as an important resource whose time and effort must be managed just like any other corporate asset.2
Think Before You Meet
Meeting facilitation and management skills are often overlooked by both project managers and business analysts, the critical project team members who lead multiple kinds of meetings. Because it is clear that meetings are very expensive activities when the cost of labor for the meeting participants and the opportunity cost of spending time on a more effective activity are considered, the professional business analyst takes meeting facilitation and management very seriously.
The first thing to determine is whether a meeting is truly required. For the business analyst, the answer to this question is often a resounding “yes,” but let us explore the question a little further. According to Miranda Duncan3, there are several reasons to hold a meeting, which are shown in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1—Purposes and Goals at Meetings
| Meeting Purpose | Goal |
| Information exchange | Acquiring or disseminating information, or both |
| Self-awareness or consciousness-raising | Building support |
| Learning | Imparting knowledge and skills |
| Creative thinking | Generating ideas, innovation |
| Critical thinking | Analysis, goal setting, problem-solving, decision-making |
| Accomplishing tasks | Creating work products, e.g., requirements statements and models |
| Team building | Building relationships and commitment |
Clearly, the business analyst needs to accomplish all the goals in Table 1-1 from time to time. However, it is not always necessary to hold a meeting to accomplish a goal. Sometimes alternatives to holding a meeting just might work as well or even better. Consider the alternatives shown in Table 1-2.
Table 1-2—Alternatives to Meetings
| Meeting Purpose | Non-Meeting Alternatives |
| To generate ideas | Surveys, worksheets, anonymous brainstorming |
| To share information | Conference calls, emails, communiqués |
| To solve a problem or make a decision | Surveys, multivoting by secret ballot |
Contemplate the following questions to determine whether a meeting is needed:
Is sufficient information available at the time of the meeting to present, consider, and decide on a course of action?- Is the objective of the meeting clearly defined? Is there a specific result to be achieved? Are there actions to be taken?
- Is there a less costly way to achieve the same result?
- Is it clear who must attend to attain the meeting’s objectives? Are they able to attend—or to be represented by someone authorized to make decisions on behalf of their group?
- Are there compelling secondary advantages to holding a meeting (e.g., team building, problem solving, brainstorming, information sharing)?
Meeting Types
Once it is clear that a meeting is needed to accomplish your objectives, consider the type of meeting that will best suit the situation. Types of meetings are shown in Table 1-3.
Table 1-3—Meeting Types
| MeetingType | Meeting Description | Examples |
| Informational meeting | An arranged gathering of two or more participants to share information |
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| Workshop | A facilitated set of activities designed to guide and promote participation of selected stakeholders to work toward a defined outcome or results |
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| Interview | A one-on-one meeting for the purpose of obtaining information, identifying issues, and building consensus on key concepts |
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| Focus group | A facilitated group interview of persons with a common demographic for the purpose of obtaining information, identifying issues, and building consensus on key concepts |
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| Working session | An arranged gathering of two or more participants to analyze a business process, develop requirements understanding models, generate ideas, solve a problem, or make a decision |
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The business analyst typically uses all the meeting types listed in Table 1-3. Workshops, focus groups, and informal working sessions are most effective when conducted by a business analyst who is also a skilled facilitator—one who brings meeting design, process, tools, techniques, and expertise to produce the desired outcome. The greatest challenge for the business analyst is to effectively facilitate the various types of meetings throughout the project. The ultimate goals are to:
- Identify and document the true business need
- Foster a collaborative environment for identifying, analyzing, verifying, and validating the requirements
- Enable stakeholders with differing needs and priorities to make decisions, work out conflicts, and resolve issues
- Foster creativity and innovation to produce the best solution to meet the business need
- Encourage the various stakeholders to make decisions based on value that will be created for the business versus individual groups’ needs and wants
Why is facilitating effective meetings so challenging? Table 1-4 lists just a few of the meeting inadequacies and adverse results that we will address in the remaining chapters of this book.
Table 1-4—Meeting Inadequacies and Results
| Meeting Inadequacies | Result |
| The meeting purpose is unclear because of inadequate planning or facilitation |
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| The meeting agenda and facilitation techniques are not designed to achieve the intended outcome |
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| Too many meetings are needed to accomplish the objectives |
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| The meeting results are not transcribed and provided to the participants for their review and refinement in a timely manner |
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| Meetings are too long |
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In the following chapters we explore general meeting planning and management techniques and facilitation practices designed to avoid the pitfalls that lead to unproductive meetings. Read Chapter 2 to gain an understanding of the basics of planning, facilitating, and managing effective meetings. Refer to Chapter 2 whenever you are planning meeting agenda items and thinking about facilitation techniques to ensure that you do not skip any critical preparation steps. Chapters 3 and 4 provide you with an understanding of the art and power of facilitation and hopefully will motivate you to seek out other books, classes, and new experiences so that you can become an expert facilitator.
The remaining chapters provide information about meetings that are planned, organized, facilitated, and managed by the business analyst.
Endnotes
1. Ellen Gottesdiener. Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs, 2002. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
2. Gerard M. Blair. Groups That Work. Online at www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art0.html (accessed August 9, 2007).
3. Miranda Duncan. Effective Meeting Facilitation: Sample Forms, Tools, and Checklists, 1996. Available online through the National Endowment for the Arts’ Lessons Learned Toolsite, www.nea.gov/resources/Lessons/Duncan2.html (accessed on August 16, 2007).