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Tag: change management

Change Management Strategies for Successful AI Implementation

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not simply a matter of technology; it is a cultural, operational, and strategic transition within an organisation. It involves replacing the old order with fresh systems, workflows, and behaviours that are part of evolving AI implementation. Therefore, organisations must adopt effective change management practices to facilitate the successful implementation of the hybrid model. 

Organisational change management is necessary to ensure people accept AI, have their goals synchronised to reflect the application of AI’s potential and utilise the tools optimally. It will outline practical approaches toward change management to help organisations facilitate an easy transition towards AI while setting the stage for long-term success.

Understanding the Role of Change Management in AI

AI organisational change is not only a change of technical systems but encompasses creating a new organisational culture that considers AI as its basis. Employees may not accept change initially because it threatens their income-bearing positions, or they may feel uncomfortable with new technologies and processes. This is the role played by change management that aims at preventing organisational obstacles by averting them and dealing with resistance.

Implementing AI successfully involves:

  • Changing organisational culture in adopting technology for its use
  • Creating artificial intelligence competencies amongst staff members through the sharing of AI learning courses
  • Integrating artificial intelligence’s vision into the business strategy for better value in the community

Key Change Management Strategies for AI Implementation

Now, let’s understand some of the key change management strategies for AI implementation: 

1. Establish a Clear Vision and Communication Strategy

Establishing goals and objectives is the primary way to initiate AI change management. A high level of AI understanding amongst key stakeholders must be achieved in an organisation. It also prevents expectations from running high to ensure that everyone involved remains in check, attached to less uncertainty and more trust.

Pro Tip: Get seasoned staff members to hold town hall meetings or newsletters where issues of AI implementation and its effects are discussed, along with getting feedback from employees.

2. Develop a Strong Leadership Team

Effective leadership plays a pivotal role in managing change. Creating an AI steering committee or cross-functional team provides someone to ensure that the company stays on track and a focal point for guidance. Managers must be advocates of change, showing how AI makes sense for the organisation’s greater good.

A leadership team focused on change management strategies can:

  • Encourage and motivate employees to adapt to new technological inventions
  • Insist on standards by which its performance affects productivity towards improvement 
  • Ensure that both technical and non-technical employees feel the same level of comfort

3. Invest in Employee Training and Development

AI implementation brings new skills and competencies into an organisation. Providing employees with lessons on AI learning enables them to know the technology better, including how to address and work with it efficiently. Skills enhancement programmes also manage the fear of obsolescence, helping support operational AI enhancements.

Consider these training strategies:

  • In-house AI workshops: Train employees on how to use tools powered by artificial intelligence.
  • Online AI courses: Promote upskilling amongst employees across leading courses such as the Executive Programme in AI for Business offered by IIM Lucknow and Imarticus Learning.
  • Mentorship programmes: Human resource managers should assign employees to work with their efficient IT counterparts.

4. Adopt a Phased Implementation Approach

Implementing AI incrementally rather than all at once reduces resistance and allows employees to adapt gradually. Phased rollouts also provide the opportunity to troubleshoot challenges and measure progress effectively.

The phased approach typically involves:

  1. Pilot Programme: Introduce AI in specific departments to test feasibility.
  2. Evaluation Phase: Gather feedback and assess performance against goals.
  3. Full Rollout: Expand AI implementation across the organisation based on lessons learned.

5. Foster a Collaborative Culture

AI adoption is most effective when employees across departments collaborate. Integrating AI into collaborative tools encourages teamwork and knowledge-sharing. A shared understanding of AI processes leads to smoother adoption and fewer bottlenecks.

Additionally, creating forums where employees can voice concerns helps foster a sense of involvement and reduces resistance to change.

6. Monitor Progress and Adapt Strategies

Change management doesn’t end with AI deployment. Continuous monitoring and evaluation are essential to identifying roadblocks and optimising AI use. Use performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of AI implementation and adjust strategies accordingly.

Key metrics to track include:

  • Employee adoption rates
  • Productivity and efficiency improvements
  • Customer satisfaction metrics post-implementation

Overcoming Common Challenges in AI Change Management

Finally, let’s look at some quick tips to overcome common challenges in AI change management: 

  1. Resistance from Employees: Involve all the employees as early as possible by putting their fear into writing. This is evidenced by their provision of AI learning courses, which show that the technology is not a replacement for them but an assistant.
  2. Lack of Alignment: To secure board-level engagement with AI, the goals must be aligned with organisational objectives to guarantee that all AI activity delivers tangible value.
  3. Data and Privacy Concerns: Ensure the transparency of specific guidelines for managing organisational data to develop confidence between personnel and consumers.
  4. Underestimated Training Needs: Ongoing training is vital to keeping the AI system’s brakes active. Train your employees often so that they are familiar with new additions to the AI features.

Conclusion

Strategies in managing change form the main basis of the effective implementation of artificial intelligence. From communication and directive roles to small implementation steps and training, management has to act comprehensively to master organisational change properly with AI. 

By opening access to AI learning courses and supporting collaborative efforts in this area, you can ensure your workforce is ready to accept this change confidently. Only by following all the strategies listed above can firms maximise the possibilities offered by AI and become more competitive.

If you want to enhance your organisation’s AI expertise, consider enrolling in the Executive Programme in AI for Business. With a focus on practical AI strategies and real-world applications, this course equips business leaders with the tools they need to succeed in the AI-driven future.

What Are the Types of Change Management

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

What is Change Management?

Change Management is a process that helps organizations/firms to cope up with advancements. With all the technological enhancements going on, they need to adapt quickly to the changes. Their employees also have to learn and adapt to new working methodologies to grow. In this article, types of organizational change management & individual change management will be discussed.

Types of Organisational Change Management

• Evolutionary Change Management – It is one of the oldest and most experienced forms of change management. It is a part of natural selection where man has evolved and so do his thinking. It may not be evident in a short period but when we compare the state of today’s industries to the state of industries fifty years back, we might witness a lot of change.

• Revolutionary Change Management – This type of change management occurs when organizations/firms are forced to change due to extreme/foreign forces. It may be from the government, protests, etc. Firms have to cope up with these types of changes otherwise it may become a matter of survival of the firm in the market.

• Directed Change Management – Directed Change Management is a younger model of change management than the aforementioned models. It is designed to achieve a specific target/vision. Organizations have to use their custom models, strategies & processes to achieve the desired goal. It is of three types which are as follows:

1. Developmental Change Management – Whenever any organization brings changes in its working culture, methodologies, standards, etc. they have to cope up with the developmental change management. Examples of developmental changes are an increase in sales/capital, a shift in communication standards, etc. The firm has to make sure that each employee learns and adapts to the new changes. If they fail to do so, it will ultimately hamper the firm.

2. Transformational change management – It is a complex and challenging type of change management faced by companies/firms. They have to work on a vision/aim in which the future is uncertain. The hit and trial method is widely used to generate more information. Examples of Transformational change are shifting of business on a digital/virtual platform, complex mergers & acquisitions, etc.

3. Transitional Change Management – Transitional change occurs when the present state is going to be changed into something completely different and better. Examples are the launch of new services/products replacing the old ones, shifting of work locations, IT shifts, etc. The firm has to ensure that each employee should let go of the old working environment both mentally and emotionally to grow and develop.

Individual Change Management

The aforementioned change management types were in respect of organizations. Personal change management is also important for a person to adapt quickly to the changes and play a part in the development of the firm. it is also categorized into four types as follows:

• Exceptional Change Management – In this type, an individual has to make sure that personal trouble in any field should not affect all other parts of life and living.

• Incremental Change Management – In this one, an individual has to cope up with monitory hikes, new responsibilities to adapt to a new role.

• Pendulum Change Management – When a complete swing of the present state to another state happens, this type of change occurs. An individual has to make sure he survives

• Paradigm Change Management – This type of change occurs when a change in beliefs, morals of an organization happens. An individual has to learn new characteristics of the firm

Change management is a very interesting field and one can find various change management courses available in the market/internet to know more. There is a lot of competition in the market for market share, the firms which understand the importance of their employees make sure they grasp new things quickly and help in the development of the firm. This article was all about various parts of change management.

How Augmented Analytics Is Helping Business Analysts Build Prediction Models

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Gartner, a popular IT Research company, recently released their universally accepted Hype Cycle. In this Gartner Hype Cycle 2018, the augmented analytics is predicted to be the hottest topic in business intelligence. This article will shed light on what augmented analytics is and how is it helping businesses.

What is Augmented Analytics?
Augmented analysis or Agile business analysis can simply be explained as a fusion between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI). On a more technical note, Augmented Analytics is an approach that uses machine learning and natural language generation to automate the insights. With this technology, the traditional hectic process of converting raw data to insights will be automated and improved.

Augmented Analytics isn’t exactly a brand new technology. It had been growing at a slower pace over the past years. But with the recent advancement in AI technology, Augmented Analytics also found new heights of evolution.

The Impact of Augmented Analytics
Analytics Automation is a largely desired capability among new-gen enterprises. The current system primarily relies on manual methods to process raw data. The current automation of the change management processes is limited to simple forecasting and visualization of data using analytics tools. The Augmented Analytics delves deeper and provides actionable predictive and prescriptive guidance along with the historical reports and dashboards.

Elimination of human biasing is another critical aspect of this technology. Since Augmented Analytics can be free of any particular research question, it gives the organizations the flexibility to explore hidden layers of insights. Eventually, it will result in executives of enterprises concentrating more on strategies rather than the daily routine manual tasks.

Some experts compare Augmented Analytics to the evolution of automobiles. Both systems are very complex and have thousands of parts to make them function properly. But a user does not have to know all these parts to use a vehicle. Similarly, Augmented Analytics enables its users to carry out complex analyses without the need for coding skills. The technology abstracts the complexity away.

So, non-technical analysts will be capable of running complex analyses. According to Gartner, the hardest tasks of analytics are expected to be automated within the next two years. Hence making machine learning and data science more open and accessible.

Is Augmented Analytics the Future?
Currently, enterprises are relying on data scientists to carry out data analysis. The scarcity and the high cost for a good data scientist are preventing medium and small-scale businesses from effectively using their data. But with the aid of Augmented Analytics, the data analysis will be cheaper, easier and better – enabling more businesses of all sizes to benefit from analytics.

Augmented Analytics is not yet mature enough to implement in the industry. But, reports suggest that the growth rate in this technology is immense enough to disrupt the business intelligence and analytics market shortly. Right now the lack of good data scientists is causing major trouble for the industry and Augmented Analytics is expected to resolve all these troubles. In short, Augmented Analytics is indeed the future of business analytics.

How do I get Certified in Change Management?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

What is Change Management?

Change Management is a process which helps organisations/firms to cope up with the changes/development. Whenever a firm takes on a new project or training course to develop their business capacity, it requires a change. You must have heard that “change is the nature of development.” But it is the employees of any particular firm who have to adapt quickly. If they fail to do so, the company might witness a loss.
Change management helps individuals to grasp new technologies faster and adapt to the current circumstances. There are a lot of jobs in this field ranging from Talent Manager to Change Management Manager. The average salary in change management in the United States is $115,173 per year. One can get a certification in change management in various ways. Let us see how to get certified in change management in this article.

How to train

There are business schools that offer MBA courses with specialisation in Change Management. With all the technological advancement/innovation going around, it can be tough for even the top ones to cope up. This can be a very effective degree for people who want to understand and revolutionize business.
There are online courses available for distant learning. Almost all the top business universities have their change management online courses. One can analyse their strengths and can choose in which way they want to train. There are various types of change management courses and let us discuss which courses are best.

Few effective courses in change management

• The Change Management Foundation Certificate created by APMG International & Change Management Institute (CMI) is one of the best courses to understand organizational change. There are various training modules available in this course which will help you to identify any type of organizational change. It will help you to motivate people during a change and quickly adapt to the changes. There is an MCQ test consisting of fifty questions and you have to pass it to get the certification. Training modules are recommended but are not compulsory for taking the test.

• The Change Management Specialist (CMS) certification which was developed for the Management and Strategy Institute (MSI) is one of the best courses for people who have a prerequisite in this field. The certification program will teach you to find common causes of organisational change failures. Well-tested theories/models in change management will be taught in this course. There is also an exam and the trainees who qualify it get 30 Professional Competency Units (PCUs) & Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units.

• The Prosci Change Management Certification is one of the best courses available which is not online. This course requires a 3-day in-person commitment. One has to bear the exam fee, accommodation charges, and training charges. This certification campaign takes place multiple times in a year and happens at different locations globally. It will teach the trainees the Prosci ADKAR model which is used to deal with organizational/project changes. They will also provide the opportunity to use this model in any of their ongoing project for experimental and faster learning. One will get to learn about change management communication.

A Change Management Certification will help you understand and cope up with the developments that require a change in the working atmosphere of a company/firm. It helps you to be agile (be able to adapt quickly) in terms of ever enhancing technology. It helps you in breaking down the change process into simpler parts and then implementing them on your team. This article was all about ways to get a Change management certification and some of the best courses available in the market. I hope it helps!

What are the Best Change Management Strategies?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Change is the only constant! Organizations have to introduce timely changes in their strategies, structure and operations to evolve and to match the ever-changing business environment. However, any attempt to change will have to deal with the inertia, and this is possible only with a diligently planned strategical approach. An announcement on introducing a change could stir panic in employees if they have no clue about what the change is all about. To avoid this, you need to communicate with the employees and educate them on the changes you’ve planned and why those changes are important. We are going to discuss some strategies to make changes as smooth as possible.

Change Management Strategies

Plan carefully
Planning is everything. Before introducing any change or even announcing it, you need to have a clear idea about what you want to achieve and how are you going to introduce it among the employees. Document the changes and things to do to achieve them, craft a detailed timeline and have a clear response to the potential concerns of the employees.
Be transparent
Confidentiality is a part of the change. It is a usual practice to keep the plan confidential among the top management. However, it is wise to announce the change before any rumour makes rounds among the employees. Rumours make it even more difficult to convince the employees as they have already made up their minds that the change is going to affect them and that’s the reason the management wants to keep it confidential. Announcing the change and promote discussions about it will help clear the doubts and prepare them to deal with it.
Tell the truth
Never try to sugarcoat the facts or try to be overly optimistic. This will only help to make the employees suspect the worst is to come. If there are any short-term negative outcomes, discuss them. Acknowledging the potential; drawback sand the effort to mend them will induce confidence among the employees and they will appreciate the efforts of the management.
Communicate
Communication is the key to win the game. Explain why the change is important and what benefits do the management expect from this. Be open to questions, hold team meetings to discuss the changes.
Build a Roadmap
This is important to make the employees understand the current situation of the organization and what is the organization aiming at. This will also help you communicate that the management has a clear thought and strategy to deal with the change.
Conduct Training Sessions
If the plan of change involves the introduction of new technology, make sure that you arrange adequate training sessions for the employees. Announce that the training will be available for them. This will eliminate the insecurities among employees that they will be left behind when the organization introduces the new technology because they do not have the skill or experience to use it.
Proposals for Incentives
One effective way to introduce the change is to propose some incentives to the employees. This will send out a message that the change could be beneficial for them and encourage them to engage with the plan and to adapt to the change with time.
Redefine Organizational Values
Employees would be ready to adapt and fit in with the organizational values. So, introduce a change in the cultural values of the organization and make it a culture of continuous improvement. The employees may respond positively to a new way of working if you introduce the new organizational value of a continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Change is a big thing, especially for employees. So do not expect them to change overnight. You need to help them prepare for the change and to deal with it. Ensuring their participation in every stage of the change is the best way to be transparent and to convince them that the change will bring positive outcome to them as well as the organization.

What are the Different Change Management Models?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Change management is one of the major challenges you might encounter. It is possible that your team rebel against the changes you are trying to implement. It is a hard task indeed! No wonder that 70% of all change initiative taste failure. This is where change management models come into play. There are many change-management models for you to choose from. These change management models offer a plan of action to implement the changes, rather than jumping head-first to the crisis.
McKinsey 7-S Model
This is best used before you begin a change in the organization/team. This is used to comprehend why a change is essential at a given point of time. It helps you figure out what are the changes you should bring in. It essentially helps in introspection of a strategy, or to perform an analysis. McKinsey 7-S model is based on analysing the 7 elements: 4 soft elements and 3 hard elements.
Soft Elements
Shared Values – company values
Skills – core competencies of the employees
Style – leadership style
Staff – employees
Hard Elements
Strategy – business strategy
Structure – hierarchy
Systems – business processes and rules
This model suggests that the elements mentioned above should be aligned to ensure the success of an organization. For instance, if you are adopting a strategy to penetrate the market, you need to ensure that you have the right skills. The leadership style should be in a way that guides the staff towards the new strategy. You need a structure that supports this, and the values and systems should be in line with the goal.
Lewin’s Change Management Model
Once you decide on what change do you want to bring in, you can use Lewin’s change model to execute it. However, this is suitable for large-scale change.
The model operates in 3 steps
Unfreeze: In this step, you are going to let the employees know that you have decided to make some changes to break down the status quo.
Introduce the change: You start making the changes slowly, with proper planning.
Refreeze: You have already made the change and made those changes a part of the process to follow from here on.
Deming Cycle
This is suitable for small changes. This is done in four steps.
Plan: In this step, you identify the limitations and inefficiencies of the current process, contemplate and come up with a new strategy to improve it.
Do: You have decided what changes to make, now it’s time to implement them on a small scale so that you know how the new process work.
Check: You inspect the newly adopted process to see the improvements. You need to check if it is working better than the old one, and also if it is feasible to work in the long-term
Act: If the new process shows good results, you scale it up and implement them company-wide. If it does not show the expected results, you call off the changes and go back to the old process.
Conclusion
Changes are part of improvement. You need to revive the process and operations to derive better results and profit. Bringing in changes to replace a full-fledged running system is challenging, risky and scary. Reading about the implementation is very easy but is a herculean task to implement the changes.  You need to follow a proper plan to execute the new strategy without messing things up.  The change management models discussed above will help you plan a big change and to implement it.

Three Modes of Business Analysis Consulting

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

A consultant for BA normally is a collaborator, expert, or an additional pair-of-hands when facing clients. The book by Process Impact’s Principal Consultant Karl Wiegers is about these three modes of interactions. Let us explore these to learn more.

1. The independent model:

The Expert:

The expert works with clients who have pain-areas and approach you to fix them through training personnel, process validation/assessment, or alter and review some process/ project documentation or deliverables. The expert can only help with the tools like the assessment of ineffective processes and practices, possible solutions to the root causes, the current position report or a roadmap to effectively reducing the causes of pain. Managers, practitioners, employees and the management need to work on culture changes and sustained improvement techniques to ease their own pain.

The collaborator of ideas:

The consultant is an expert collaborator of ideas supplying solutions and ideas that make processes and performance in them more efficient and productive. According to Karl Weiger’s personal experience out of ten generated ideas, two are bound to be ridiculous, another two not suitable to the culture and process, three could be obvious and tried already and only two or one novel, innovative and brilliant in the fit. Being client and technology appropriate is vital.

The Agile Coach:

The BA may also coach and become the expert consultant using his advice to study the current practices and help discover better ways of doing the tasks. On a bigger scale, they could be of use to maintain, monitor practice standards, and establish them from a

Centre of Excellence for business analysis. The BAs role could involve preparing training materials, developing methodologies, creating process and guidance documents, templates for project deliverables, and such.

Difficulties faced:

The NAH and NIH issues are general syndromes that creating resistance in organizations. By NIH-not invented here most expert-offered solutions get rejected because the people using it do not trust it. By NAH-not applicable here complaints clients disapprove solutions citing they wouldn’t work in their environment since they were different. The BA expert consultant and coach cannot implement their solutions and rarely get any feedback regarding the outcomes. This means change management is crucial to organizations who hire such experts to provide solutions which cannot work in isolation.

2. A many-handed mode:

Often the extra pair-of-hands mode has many benefits where the domain of the consultant is exploited since the company may lack time and staff resources though they can perform the task themselves. The client is allowed to independently assess deliverables with the consultant working on his own.

Ex: Hiring experienced BAs on a fixed-term contract basis for specific developments in a software project.

The consultant here performs the regular BA tasks like eliciting requirements, identifying users, writing specifications, and so on until the on-site project work is completed. Often deliverables are iterated and worked till the final product is acceptable. At times you may do the novel and innovative task. In such cases, a vision statement is absolutely mandated covering the following assessment parameters since the outcomes are fuzzy.

For whom? (targeted client)

For Who? (statement of opportunity and specific needs)

Is a? (Deliverable type)

That? (Key takeaways)

Unlike? (current process)

This deliverable? (The new deliverable differentiators) 

3. The side-by-side collaborator:

Collaboration is the key parameter in this mode where the consultant needs to work for side-by-side the client organization’s staff in creating deliverables, identifying solutions, making decisions and setting priorities. It could be an extended off-site engagement that is collaborative or in the independent pair-of-hands-mode of operation. It includes reviews of the governance process architecturally, making environment peer reviews, working on reviews and product objectives, developing e-learning presentations, drawing up review processes and training of staff, recording e-learning training courseware scripts and such.

Concluding notes:

It is always best to use the three consulting modes depending on the engagement type and the specific project needs. There will be times when as an expert you may not agree with the mode selected and that’s where one will have to keep the client’s best interests in mind no matter your role. Often you will function as all three-The consultant, the expert and the collaborator of ideas.

Want to learn more about Agile courses? Do a course at the Imarticus Learning Academy where careers are born and honed.

"Agile Requirements With Karl Wiegers: What’s The Big Deal? "

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Software companies are using Agile methodology and even the BAs are calling their work ‘Agile Requirements’. According to Karl Wieger, there is a huge difference between the activities for requirements on traditional and agile projects. Rather the work specified as “agile requirements” is not very conceptually different having evolved from the traditional waterfall methods. The major areas where requirements activities are handled differently are discussed below.
Responsibilities and roles:
In Agile the elicitation, specification, reviews and analysis of requirements is a collaborative team-process with the product owner, analyst, key stakeholders, developers, and other business user representatives.
The roles in Agile need the PO to be responsible for the backlog of products and preparing the user stories for implementation. The developers ensure the information of the user stories is sufficient for development. Some projects may have the BA as a PO while others may use a dedicated BA to help the PO prioritize and elaborate user stories.
Timing:
Timing of the requirements is crucial to projects. Traditional methods create a detailed project requirement report at the very beginning including the basic sequencing, estimation and prioritization chores. Agile, however, relies on a just-in-time approach where requirement details are generated before the implementation of sets of functionalities.
This approach no doubt ensures the information is up-to-date. But, it can be blind to the dependencies of requirements and implications on the architecture. That’s why the teams look at the broad project scope and architectural requirements in early iterations. Adding functional requirements happens on an on-going basis and in small doses of releases, unlike the traditional processes. While agile can produce more small marketable releases in one project cycle any error in the requirements of a traditional project can be expensive to re-work or re-do.
Both methods focus on risk mitigation to enable forward movement on the project. However, agile teams anticipate rework, refactoring and testing making them ready to accept iterations and rework.
Fig-1. Standard requirements that occur with agile iterations.
Deliverable Forms:
User stories are in reality use case individual flows. The traditional BA may use cases to flesh out the functional requirements. In contrast, an agile project uses the specific requirements of a user story in writing the granular acceptance tests and ensuring the right implementation of the story.
Using the very same information one method describes what to build while the other specifies how to know if you’ve built it right and functional. Tests are very useful in discovering the chinks in specifications. Using just one method is hence a limited view. Ideally, the incorporation of both views is good. However, Agile teams are limited by the roles of the team and specify that the product owner writes the acceptance criteria and user stories.
Terminology:
While traditional methods use functional requirements and use cases Agile projects call them acceptance criteria and user stories. No matter what you call the terms it is essential that apt communications help the testers and developers do their job better. This leads to efficiency and effective productivity.
Detailing and Documentation:
Light-weight documentation is the norm on Agile projects unlike the document-reliant traditional practices since developers and customers frequently communicate and collaborate.
The requirements are precisely developed by the BAs or as a team responsibility through recorded conversations and very few standard regulation-required documents.
Many Agile user stories list the help of the analysis visual model and acceptance criteria to list the highest/ riskiest-impact functionality. The costs of acquiring information are high and to save time projects should adapt to just-enough recorded documentation for risk management.
Prioritization:
In Agile, backlog prioritization is continuous and undergoes many iterations. Items remain on the backlog when under-development and get discarded if not workable. This is not the case with the traditional methodology where the requirements are prioritized at the project onset and not really reviewed frequently. The impact of prioritization on ALL projects needs dynamic management of the backlog as an essential best-practice.
Concluding Notes:
Projects need to define their business-value and ensure that their business-processes and project activities add value to their prioritized practical methods. While Agile is certainly beneficial for projects the BAs practices and principles falls more into a traditional role. It is also true that most Agile teams lack BA specific organic expertise.
To learn how the “agile requirements” are somehow different and special do an Agile course at the reputed Imarticus Learning Academy.

How do You Become a Business Analyst?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Sawan Arora, a student of the online Agile Business Analyst & Scrum certification course talks about his experience at Imarticus.
We caught up for a chat with Sawan Arora, a student of the online Agile Business Analyst & Scrum certification course. Here’s what he has to say about the program.
Hi, my name is Sawan Arora, and I have recently completed the Agile Business Analyst & Scrum Prodegree at Imarticus Learning. The course curriculum is excellent and includes business analysis, agile & scrum, project management, and additionally, you get access to a lot of SAP instructional videos.
Initially, I was a bit nervous about joining an online Agile & Scrum certification course because I was not sure how it would be in comparison to a classroom training program. But as soon as the course began, and I attended the sessions, it turned out to be a smart decision, and it was a significant step towards my career goals.
The faculty at Imarticus is definitely at par; no exceeds industry standards. The knowledge level they have and their skills are excellent. I was trained by Mr. Mukhraj Saberwal, who has over 18 years of experience. His lectures were terrific, and all his sessions were very interactive. The entire class would interact with him extensively, and there were a lot of queries and doubts that we used to pass on to him.
It was just like we were in a classroom training program because whenever we asked any questions, he was prompt in his response.
There is a lot of good content to learn and knowledge to gain during these 160 hours of training, and you get access to an LMS portal from Imarticus that has all of the learning material on it. You can access it anytime, anywhere as long as you have a decent internet connection. LMS was an essential aspect of the learning journey.
On completion of the program, you get 35 PDU’s from IIBA, and that makes you eligible for the CCBA or ECBA exams if you have the required experience. The course in all really helps you know the skills a business analyst should have – you get a good exposure of agile and scrum methodologies, and hands-on knowledge of project management.
So, no matter if you are an experienced professional or a fresher, if you want to learn business analysis, I would highly recommend you join Imarticus Learning.
Not to forget, you also receive access to Imarticus Learning’s placement portal where you can find a job on completion of the course.
Do you want to kickstart your career as an Agile Business Analyst or Scrum Master? Click here and inquire about the program now.

The Framework That Changes Everything

Posted on by Imarticus Learning
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Everybody is talking about Scrum-Agile principles, its framework, and success. Well, Scrum is not a technology suite. Rather it is an implementation toolset to revamp the way organizations function and think. And this framework when looked at from its core aims and values needs to be adopted across the organization and affects every employee. Scrum has the answer to implementing productive AI, ML, VR or AR technologies and changing the very way we think across industrial infrastructures, technologies applied and size of organizations. Everyone is set to benefit and think in Scrum.
The implementation benefits:
Scrum efficiency brings great results to teams who use Agility related principles on the Scrum framework because in this philosophy it is all about being effective and robust as a team and managing projects under a talented SM to infuse the mindset, values, and practices into the equal-members Scrum team. They flourish on getting self-organized, communicating effectively and contribute through being constantly contributive in all transactions private and team-wise. Thus the talent pool allows efficient scaling and functional management.
Drawbacks:
The framework is a recent addition and is yet evolving to deal with rapid technological changes, increase in data capabilities and scaling issues. Though compatible with many evolving technologies the basic Agile premise of the main project being sub-divided into achievable product backlogs dealt with in short sprints with Scrum values implies that a uniform Scrum mindset is being applied across all processes of the organization. This is hard to achieve and can negatively impact performance, productivity, and efficiency when not adhered to. And this is true also because of the vast variety of verticals, processes, and ownership to which it is being applied.
Key Scrum functions:
Since nearly all industries wish to implement the Scrum benefits, we need to look at the core functions listed below.

  • Revamping team structures: The movement to cross-functional teams and hiring an effective CSM is at the core of up-scaling.
  • Scaling design: This cannot be isolated and needs to factor in the various strategies, compliance, and inter-departmental integration to induce Scrum oneness across the framework.
  • Monitoring the product backlog and release management: This factor is crucial in large projects and best achieved with an efficient CSM, the Scrum team and product owner working together effectively.
  • A productive backlog: This crucial element needs team consensus, constant CSM monitoring, and a knowledgeable CSPO.
  • Mentoring Support: The CSM is the unofficial manager of the team leading through effective Scrum value implementation and lies at the very heart of success as a team.

Why Scrum is popular:
Here is how Scrum is instrumental in such success.

  • The Scrum growth has been exponential in terms of its adoption by nearly 65 percent in the IT sector.
  • Scrum is effective in handling timely schedules, and preventing project costs overrun which is an important factor according to the McKinsey report for project failures.
  • The framework is simple and compatible with all verticals and sectors as long as you have an efficient SM.
  • The Scrum-Agile framework has been tried and tested across large, medium, small and startup environments successfully.
  • The SM is essentially the Scrum values leader and unofficial team manager to induce the Scrum state in all processes and persons associated.
  • Scrum requires smaller teams and results in higher efficiency and productivity across departments.
  • Scrum basic assumptions are collaborative teamwork in the framework where all are equal, self-organizing and responsible for team performance.

Conclusion: 
The software when working for Agility in Scrum incorporates items like product backlog and sprint planning features important to developing the framework for Scrum operations. But Scrum goes beyond the IT industry and can be used as an effective management practice in all sorts of situations and even in personal life. Scrum is a philosophy and is definitely set to impact all who learn it across all levels of the organization.
In parting, to imbibe Scrum effectively one will need formal training. It should involve hands-on practice on industry-relevant situations and is a process that benefits from the mentorship of a certified SM. It is also important to get your training at a reputed organization like Imarticus Learning where the Scrum Alliance issues your certification. You also earn a 2-year alliance membership for free which provides you with efficient peer-support when you implement Scrum values and transition teams to an Agile state. Why wait? Grab this opportunity today.