Chapter 4

The Business Analyst as Team Leader

In This Chapter:

• The Power of Teams

• Team Development through Stages

• Traversing the Team Development Stages

• Team Leadership Roles through Stages

• Best Team-Building Practices for the Business Analyst

• Quick Team Assessment

The need for effective team leadership cannot be overlooked. Technology, techniques, and tools don’t cause projects to fail. Projects fail because of people. Team leadership is different from traditional management, and teams are different from operational work groups. As we discussed in Part I, when leading high-performing teams, it is no longer about command and control; it is more about collaboration, consensus, and leadership.

As discussed in The Art and Power of Facilitation: Running Powerful Meetings, another volume in this series, team leaders must have an understanding of how teams work and the dynamics of team development. Team leaders develop specialized skills that are used to build and maintain high-performing teams. Traditional managers and technical leads cannot necessarily become effective team leaders without the appropriate mindset, training, and coaching.

In 1995 Fortune magazine’s Thomas Stewart predicted that project management would be the profession of choice in the coming decade. He cited current trends toward global initiatives, virtual teams, mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and reengineering, and alliances and partnerships—all linking companies in new ways.¹ The Project Management Institute has been alerting us for years that cross-cultural training and awareness, interpersonal skills, and language facility will increasingly grow to be conditions for professional success as a project manager. To manage twenty-first century projects, these characteristics are not just nice to have; they are vital.

Teams are a critical asset used to improve performance in all kinds of organizations. Yet today’s business leaders consistently overlook opportunities to exploit their potential, confusing teams with teamwork, empowerment, or participative management.² We cannot meet the twenty-first century challenges—from business transformation to innovation to global competition—without high-performing teams.

The Power of Teams

Examples of high-performing teams are all around us: U.S. Navy SEALs, tiger teams established to solve a difficult problem, paramedic teams, firefighter teams, heart transplant teams, and professional sports teams, just to name a few. These teams demonstrate their accomplishments, insights, and enthusiasm daily and are a persuasive testament to the power of teams.

Yet the business project environment, especially the IT project environment, has been slow to capitalize on the power of teams. It is imperative that senior business analysts understand how to unleash this power. Business success stories based on the strategic use of teams for new product development abound. For example, 3M relies on new product development teams for its success. These teams are cross-functional, collaborative, autonomous, and self-organizing. The teams deal well with ambiguity, accept change, take initiative, and assume risks. 3M has established the goal of generating half of each year’s revenues from the previous five years’ innovations, and its use of teams is critical to meeting that goal.³

Another success story is Toyota, which continues to boast the fastest product development times in the automotive industry, is a consistent leader in quality, has a large variety of products designed by a lean engineering staff, and has consistently grown its U.S. market share. Teams at Toyota are led by a chief engineer who is expected to understand the market and whose primary job is vehicle system design. The chief engineer is responsible for vehicle development, similar to a product champion at 3M.⁴

Economists have been warning us for years that success in a global marketplace is contingent upon our capability to produce products on a tight schedule to meet growing demands in emerging markets. The same is true of projects to improve business performance: It’s not enough to deliver projects on time and within budget and scope; it is now necessary to deliver value to the organization faster, cheaper, and better. In the business world, it’s important to learn how to form and develop high-performing project teams that can deliver project outcomes quickly.

For the business analyst who is struggling to understand how to build high-performing teams, a must-read is The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith.⁵ The authors talked with hundreds of people on more than 50 different teams in 30 companies to discover what differentiates various levels of team performance, where and how teams work best, and how to enhance team effectiveness. Among their findings are elements of both common and uncommon sense:

A commitment to performance goals and common purpose is more important to team success than team building.

Opportunities for teams exist in all parts of the organization.

Formal hierarchy is actually good for teams, and vice versa.

Successful team leaders do not fit an ideal profile and are not necessarily the most senior people on the team.

Real teams are the most common characteristic of successful change efforts at all levels.

Top management teams are often difficult to sustain.

Despite the increased number of teams, team performance potential is largely unrecognized and underutilized.

Adjourning teams can be just as important to manage as forming teams.

Teams produce a unique blend of performance and personal learning results.

Wisdom lies in recognizing a team’s unique potential to deliver results. Project leaders strive to understand the many benefits of teams and learn how to optimize team performance by developing individual members, fostering team cohesiveness, and awarding team results. Katzenbach and Smith argue that teams are the primary building blocks of strong company performance. Business analysts at all levels cannot afford to ignore the power of teams to meet the competitive challenges of the twenty-first century.⁶

Team Development through Stages

As a member of the project leadership team, the business analyst is partially responsible for helping to build a high-performing team, and fully responsible for building a high-performing requirements definition team. To successfully develop such a team, it is helpful to understand the key stages of team development. Using the classic team development model from Bruce Tuckman as a guide, contributing author Kimi Ziemski discusses the team development issues that could present challenges to team effectiveness. The Tuckman model has become an accepted paradigm of how teams develop.

Tuckman outlines the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.⁷ As the team transitions from one stage to another, the needs of the team and its individual members vary. A successful team leader knows which stage the team is in, and skillfully manages transitions between the different stages. Figure 4-1 depicts the typical stages of team development. The following sections outline the five stages of team development in detail. We then discuss the team leadership roles project team leaders need during each stage.

Figure 4-1—Stages of Team Development

Forming Stage

The forming stage involves the introduction of team members during the early formative stages of a team or as new members are introduced throughout the project. The goal of the project leadership team is to quickly transition the individuals from a group to a team. During the forming stage of team development, members are typically inclined to be a bit formal and reserved. They are beginning to assess their level of comfort as colleagues and teammates. There is likely to be some anxiety about the ability of the team to perform, and there might be hints of alliances being formed.

The mission, objective, and rationale for the project are the object of high enthusiasm, but seem elusive and ambiguous. The forming stage is often characterized as an organizational honeymoon of sorts because team members have high morale and positive expectations. These positive feelings might be accompanied by anxiety and concern about why they are on the team, and about their specific roles and responsibilities. At this early stage, individuals are typically focused inward. Although they have feelings of excitement, anticipation, and optimism, and might be pleased they were selected for the project, there is still anxiety because the job ahead is mostly undefined.

During this stage, the project manager’s job (with the support of the business analyst and other project leads) is to encourage people to not think of themselves as individuals but as team members by resolving issues about inclusion and trust. Team members may wonder why they were selected, what they have to offer, and how they will be accepted by colleagues new to them. Individuals have their own agendas at this stage because a team agenda has not yet been defined. It is during this stage that the team leaders present—and give the team members the opportunity to refine—the team vision, mission, and measures of success. Allowing the team members time and opportunity to express their feelings and collaborating to build team plans will help members begin to make the transition from a group of individuals to an effective team. During this stage, team members form opinions about whom they can trust and how much or how little involvement they will commit to the project.

Storming Stage

The storming stage emerges because team members likely have different opinions about how the team should operate. This stage can be disconcerting and is often thought to be nonproductive. However, going through the storming stage is helpful (and probably necessary) before moving on to more mature stages.

The storming stage is characterized by intra-group conflict. This is when boundaries and levels of authority are cemented within the group. In the best teams, natural leadership surfaces and conflict diminishes; in others, storming behaviors linger and need to be managed. Despite the name, this stage does not necessarily have to be highly emotional. There are times when it will be characterized by a higher-than-usual level of chaos as parties try to straighten out and evaluate their roles, their responsibilities, and the lines of communication.

Storming is generally seen as the most difficult stage in team development. It is the time when the team members begin to realize that the task is different or more difficult than they had imagined. Individuals experience some discrepancy between their initial hopes for the project and the reality of the situation. A sense of annoyance or even panic can set in. There are fluctuations in attitude about the team, one’s role on the team, and the team’s chances for success.

The goal of the team leaders is to quickly determine a subset of leaders and followers and to clarify roles and responsibilities so that the team will begin to congeal. Individuals will exert their influence, choose to follow others, or decide not to participate actively on the team. For those that choose to participate actively and exert their influence, interpersonal conflict might arise. Conflicts also might result between the team leaders and team members, particularly if the leadership is felt to be threatening or seen to be vulnerable or ineffective.

For team leaders who do not like dealing with conflict, the storming stage is the most difficult period to navigate. Although the inevitable conflict is sometimes destructive if not managed well, it can be positive. A conflict of ideas, raised in an environment of trust and openness, leads to higher levels of creativity and innovation.

The job of team leaders is to build a positive working environment, collaboratively set and enforce team ground rules that lead to open communication, and gently steer the team through this stage. The tendency is to rush through this stage as quickly as possible, often by pretending that a conflict does not exist. It is important to manage conflicts so they are not destructive. It is also important, however, to allow some conflict, because it is a necessary element of team maturation.

Norming Stage

Norming is typically the stage when work is underway. The team members, individually and collectively, have come together and established a group identity that allows them to work effectively together. Roles and responsibilities are clear, project objectives are understood, and progress is being made.

During this stage, communication channels likely have a good level of clarity and team members are adhering to agreed-upon rules of engagement during exchanges. Cooperation and collaboration replace the conflict and mistrust that characterized the previous stage.

As the project drags on, fatigue often sets in. Team leaders should look at both team composition and team processes to maintain continued motivation among members. Plan for short-term successes to create enthusiasm and sustained momentum. Celebrate and reward success at key milestones rather than waiting until the end of a long project. Continually capture lessons learned about how well the team is working together and implement suggested improvements.

Performing Stage

During the performing stage, team members tend to feel positive and excited about participating on the project. There is a feeling of urgency and a sense of confidence about the team’s results. Conflicts are resolved using accepted practices. The team knows what it wants to do and revels in a sense of accomplishment as progress is made. Relationships and expectations are well-defined. There is genuine agreement among team members on their responsibilities. Team members have learned their roles and have discovered and accepted each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Morale is at its peak during this stage, and the team has an opportunity to be high-performing.

During this stage, the best course of action for the team leaders is to lightly facilitate the work, consult and coach when necessary, encourage creativity, reward performance and achievement of goals, and generally stay out of the way. The performing stage of team development is what every team strives to achieve. It is difficult, however, to sustain this high level of performance for any length of time.

As we compare our project teams to high-performing teams outside the business environment (e.g., professional sports teams, heart transplant teams, special operations teams, paramedic teams, firefighters), what do high-performing teams have in common? They are small but mighty, highly trained and practiced, heavily invested in honing their skills, and they have a coach (sponsor) who removes barriers to success.

Some teams will reach and sustain high performance, optimizing their dynamic to become truly high-performing. Other teams might be in this stage sporadically or only within subsets of the team. It is a pleasure to observe and to be a part of high-performing teams when they occur.

Adjourning Stage

Adjourning can be thought of in the context of loss and closure. This stage of team development can be easily overlooked, as it occurs before and during a project or phase and for a short time after a project or phase is finished. During this stage of team development, the team conducts the tasks associated with disbanding the team and, to a certain extent, severs the everyday rhythm of their contacts and transactions.

There is some discomfort associated with this stage. Surprisingly, even teams that have had performance issues can experience sadness or grief during this closing stage. The project leadership team should act quickly to recognize the accomplishments of individuals and the team as a whole and to help team members transition to their next assignment.

Traversing the Team Development Stages

The stages of team development are very much an iterative dynamic. Any change in its make-up throws the team back to the very earliest stage of development, even if for a very short time. This is due to the natural evolution of teams, the addition of new members, removal of support, or changes in roles. The balancing and leveling of power is a constant dynamic in teams. As a member of the project leadership team, acquaint yourself with the cycles of team development, understand what the team is experiencing, and manage the implications of team development changes so that they have the most productive impact possible. Table 4-1 briefly characterizes the first four team development stages.

The shifting of practical power among the core leadership team members might cause the team to revert to the forming stage. Although this reversion might last only a short while, it is still a necessary part of the dynamics that help the team operate well. Team members then have to accustom themselves to the new order. The time spent in any of the stages subsequent to the reentry into forming can vary; but make no mistake, the team will experience storming again before regaining a foothold in the norming or performing stage.

Table 4-1—Team Development Stage Characteristics

Team Leadership Roles through Stages

Many team development models are available to guide team development at any given point in the project life cycle. David C. Kolb, Ph.D., offers a five-stage team development model that provides team leadership strategies to use when developing the teams from their initial formation through to their actual performance.⁸

At each stage of the model, Kolb suggests that the business analyst and project manager continually adjust their leadership styles to maximize team effectiveness. He contends that a team leader subtly alters his or her style of team facilitation depending on the group’s composition and level of maturity. The seasoned business analyst moves seamlessly between these team leadership modes as he or she observes and diagnoses the team’s performance.

As mentioned in The Art and Power of Facilitation: Running Powerful Meetings, the business analyst needs to strive to acquire the leadership prowess described by Kolb and outlined in Table 4-2. It is even more important for the business analyst to know when and how to assume a particular team leadership role as teams move in and out of development phases during the life of the project.

Table 4-2—Five-Stage Team Development Model

Facilitator

When the business analyst performs as the facilitator, the main goal is to provide the foundation for the team to make quality decisions. When the team first comes together, the business analyst uses expert facilitation skills to guide, direct, and develop the group. Requirements include understanding group dynamics, running effective meetings, facilitating dialog, and dealing with difficult behaviors. Facilitation skills include:

Understanding individual differences, work styles, and cultural nuances

Leading discussions and driving the group to consensus

Building a sense of team

Using and teaching collaborative skills

Managing meetings

Facilitating requirements workshops and focus groups

Mediator

Transitioning from facilitator to mediator poses a challenge for the new business analyst. It requires refrain from trying to control the team and lead the effort. The business analyst must be prepared to recognize when conflict is emerging (as it always does in teams) and be able to separate from it to mediate the situation. Although the facilitator does not have to resolve the conflict, he or she must help the team members manage it. Meditation skills (which are discussed at length in The Art and Power of Facilitation: Running Powerful Meetings) include:

Conflict management and resolution

Problem-solving and decision-making techniques

Idea-generation techniques

Coach

Coaching and mentoring take place at both the individual and team levels. Coaching is appropriate when trust has been established among the team members and communication is open and positive. The business analyst as coach uses experiences, perceptions, and intuition to help change team member behaviors and thinking. Coaching tasks include:

Setting goals

Teaching others how to give and receive feedback

Creating a team identity

Developing team decision-making skills

Consultant

As the team begins to work well together, the business analyst transitions into the role of consultant, providing advice, tools, and interventions to help the team reach its potential. The business analyst then concentrates on nurturing the team environment and solving problems. Consulting tasks include:

Assessing team opportunities

Supporting and guiding the team to create a positive, effective team environment

Aligning individual, team, and organizational values and strategic imperatives

Fostering team spirit

Collaborator

Few teams achieve an optimized level of teamwork and sustain it for long periods, because it is so intense. At this point, both the work and the leadership are shared equally among team members. The business analyst might hand off the lead role to team members as their expertise becomes the critical need during differing project activities. Collaboration skills include:

Leading softly

Sharing the leadership role

Assuming a peer relationship with team members

Clearly, project team leaders need to understand the dynamics of team development and adjust their leadership styles accordingly. Once a high-performing team has emerged, it is often necessary for the team leader to simply get out of the way.

Best Team-Building Practices for the Business Analyst

The business analyst has dual team-building requirements: (1) in general, he or she helps the other team leaders (the project manager, lead technologist, business visionary) build a high-performing project team; and (2) he or she is more directly responsible for building a high-performing requirements team.

As a member of the core project leadership team, the business analyst strives to help the core team members determine who should take the lead during different activities. For example, the project manager takes the lead during planning and status-update sessions. The business analyst leads requirements elicitation, analysis, review, and validation sessions. The business representative should assume the lead when talking about the business vision, strategy, and benefits expected from the new solution. The lead architect and/or developer leads discussions on technology trade-offs. The challenge is for the core leadership team to seamlessly traverse through the leadership handoffs so as not to interfere with the balance of the team.

More specifically, the business analyst leadership role involves forming and developing a high-performing requirements team by determining the appropriate business and technical representatives needed to traverse the requirements activities and securing approval to involve them.

As the requirements team comes together in workshop or review sessions, they are subjected to the same team development stages as the larger project team. The business analyst must deal with the challenges of each stage of team development. The goal for the business analyst is to optimize the dynamics and expertise of the requirements team members to foster innovation and creativity when determining the business requirements. Best practices include:

Fostering the core team concept (small-but-mighty teams, co-located, working collaboratively)

Building a solid, trusting relationship among the project team members and stakeholders

Bringing in subject matter experts, subteams, and committees when needed to augment the core team

Encouraging frequent (if possible, daily) meetings among the core team members

Meeting face-to-face with customers often

Devoting time to allow the requirements team to traverse the stages of team development

When forming the requirements team, spend enough time training it on the requirements practices and tools that will be used, so that the team members are comfortable with the process before they jump in head first.

As a project leader, the business analyst needs to focus on team dynamics and on building a high-performing team. It is not enough to develop requirements engineering knowledge and skills. It is also important to understand—and use—the power of teams.

Quick Team Assessment

In Harnessing the Power of Teams, Jim Clemmer states that “Despite all the team talk of the last few years, few groups are real teams. Too often they’re unfocused and uncoordinated in their efforts.” ⁹Clemmer developed the following set of questions from his consulting and team development work. This team assessment and planning framework can be used to help newly formed teams come together and get productive quickly or to assist existing teams to refocus and renew themselves.

Why do we exist (our purpose)?

Where are we going (our vision)?

How will we work together (our values)?

Whom do we serve (internal or external customers or partners)?

What is expected of us?

What are our performance gaps (difference between the expectations and our performance)?

What are our goals and priorities?

What is our improvement plan?

What skills do we need to develop?

What support is available?

How will we track our performance?

How/when will we review, assess, celebrate, and refocus?

Use this approach to team building by having your team develop answers and action plans around each question.