Teaching and training: common challenges faced by Business Analysts

“You teach best what you most need to learn”. I love this quote by Richard Bach and firmly believe in it. It is the teacher or trainer who needs to keep himself or herself updated and learning so that one can give back the best. As BABOK® also has identified, a business analyst needs to have and develop teaching skills as well.

Think about the following related situations

• As a lead business analyst, you need to train the team of business analysts who are fresh to this role.
• When a business analyst needs to train the end-users or domain SMEs on how to use the solution.
• When a business analyst needs to explain the features to developers and QA teams.
• Or it could be a formal business analysis training or exam preparation training.

We may not use the exact word ‘teaching’ but it is implicit. So what are the common challenges and what are the solutions? Let’s take a look.

Heterogeneous audience

In this situation, due to some constraint or another, a business analyst needs to teach a heterogeneous group of participants. Each group thus has a set of sub-groups. Each sub-group has a different set of experience levels, skills and expectations. Unlike a requirements workshop, wherein you do need to have different kinds of stakeholders together, this is a training session. It can sometimes be a real challenge to meet the expectations of each of these sub-groups.

The solution? As far as possible, ensure that the group you are going to train is on the same page. Ensure that the participants have similar expectations. If it is tough to find common ground, then what we can do is list the top 3 expectations from each sub-group at the very onset. Throughout the sessions, ensure you are taking care of the different expectations by asking different questions to each sub-group or giving them explanations that are tailored to their requirements. If possible, also ensure that the hands-on activities are arranged accordingly.

Keeping the participants engaged

This is a common consideration for any speaker or teacher. It is about sustaining the interest of the audience. Sometimes training or teaching sessions can become monotonous, or the topic at hand may not be exciting to begin with. To some, it may be hard to understand. To others, it may not be something they can relate to.

The solution? Use common learning methods such as VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) in multifold ways to make the concepts clearer. Also, storytelling is one of the best ways in which we all connect the best and learn. A good dash of humor doesn’t hurt either.

Balance of theory and real life

Another challenge can be around how to strike a balance between theory and practical learning. We need to understand the fundamentals to be able to apply what’s been learned to real-life situations, but we must teach theory to understand the fundamentals. The real world may not be as idealistic as the theory sounds, but many of the techniques of business analysis have evolved from real world patterns. If you get into practical aspects without explaining the fundamentals, it will quickly become an issue. If you only focus on the theory with the least practical applications, then again there is a miss.

The solution? The answer may look simple but it can be difficult in practice. We need to continue to alternate between the two. Starting with the fundamentals always helps. Backing it up with suitable real-life or practical work (hands-on sessions, demos) is a must. We need to continue to connect those dots after covering all the related theories. Starting with simple hands-on activities helps; don’t jump right into complex situations. Again, it all depends on your target audience.

The key to all of this: “Never stop learning!”

Thoughts?

Author info

Swati Pitre, CBAP®, is Sr. Business Analyst with 18+ years of industry experience across various domains and geographies. Her specialties include Product Development, BPM, Process Improvement Consulting, Business Analysis/CBAP®/ CCBA®/ ECBA® Training.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.