Background

The Ministry of Justice’s Probation Digital had multiple priority projects underway. There were a number of development teams delivering against these priorities and required more business analysts (BAs); however typically the BAs weren’t working on the client side of business analysis. Instead they were frequently focused on the technical side of business analysis i.e. looking at what the product would do, but not necessarily considering the client need.

In addition, the existing internal BAs did not possess all the required skillsets to deliver the range of projects.

Probation Digital wanted to bring in BAs who were highly skilled from a reputable organisation that specialised in business analysis, to ensure they received the right level and range of business analysis skills. In particular they wanted BAs who were skilled and experienced at working with the business and end users, not just technical development teams, to ensure the solutions met the business needs. They also wanted to benefit from the technical and quality assurance provided by using an external organisation.

How we helped

Delivery: going above and beyond the contracted outcomes

CMC was successful in being awarded a contract to provide Business Analysis as a Service to Probation Digital. We worked with Ian Tidmarsh, Head of Business Analysis, to ensure a clear understanding of the skills required. Following this, we provided skilled and experienced BAs to support a number of projects.

As part of our initial discovery, we identified that requirements capture on one critical project had not been undertaken rigorously. We ensured the requirements were robustly understood and documented. Our team developed strong relationships with the development teams and technical architect to drive the project forward successfully. This included working with the development teams to ensure agile ceremonies were used effectively.

In addition to having the skills and experience required to deliver the project specific outcomes, we delivered value from our position as a cross-project service to look holistically across the projects. This included identifying areas outside business analysis which needed to be addressed to ensure the projects delivered their required outcomes. For example we identified the need for business change to support delivery. Additionally we realised some architectural solutions being considered were not necessarily appropriate, and suggested alternatives or explained why they were not an appropriate solution based on our analysis. This persuaded the development team to use our analysis to work out what the business needed.

Another key contribution of our service identifying the need to focus on establishing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The development teams had been focusing on the final solution without testing along the way. Our analysis enabled the identification of an MVP allowed us to test and prove or disprove hypotheses. This focus on breaking down the work into smaller elements to realise early value was critical in enabling the project to move forward.

Skills: providing what Probation Digital needed when they needed it

Following contract start, we realised the requirements were different from what we expected, so we flexed our approach and personnel to fit the actual need. As skills requirements became clearer or changed along with the project needs, we brought in different people and expertise. For example we focused more on the data side of business analysis on one project, and business process skills on another. We used our in-depth understanding of business process engineering to analyse and explain how technical solutions would resolve business problems, ensuring the solutions were aligned and mapped to the business needs. We also made use of our data analysis skills, and created technical backlogs of work to create the MVP.  This included translating the outputs of our analysis into technical tickets for the development teams to build. We also created multiple user stories to steer solution development.

Providing a service allowed us to focus on different skills as projects progressed, for example exchanging personnel where appropriate. This ensured we continued to provide the business analysis needed to achieve project outcomes.

Assurance: ensuring the quality of our delivery and providing additional value

One of the key reasons we were appointed was the additional oversight and added value which our service assurance delivered. Our Head of Business Analysis, Lyn Girvan, is a renowned thought leader in business analysis and agile, a published author, and a frequent conference and keynote speaker both in the UK and abroad. As the Quality Lead to the business analysis service, she provided an ongoing layer of high-quality assurance over all our activities. We believe in encouraging continuous improvement at all levels of our organisations, so she provided ongoing mentoring to all our BAs working in the service. This support included suggesting additional options for delivery, providing additional delivery insight from her expertise, reviewing their outputs to ensure they were high quality, and suggesting additional tasks or approaches where they would add value to the client. She also ensured a holistic overview across all work packages to identify opportunities for cross-project learning, synergistic working and delivery improvements.

In addition to the quality assurance, our Service Manager oversaw delivery to required outcomes, ensuring that milestones were met, risks managed, issues addressed, and any questions resolved. The monthly reporting was robust enough to enough effective contractual and delivery governance, but sufficiently light-touch to keep reporting and management overheads and effort low.

The difference we made

All our business analysis work was delivered to a very high standard. Additional skills and approaches were brought in and used which were over and above what was available internally.

Additional value added included proposing a “happy path” for a person’s journey from Courts into Probation. This was used at a project away day as the basis to flesh out the MVP and create the future roadmap outline for V1.0 and V1.0+.

Our people integrated seamlessly within the Probation Digital teams, creating a collaborative and supportive working environment. The success of our service was demonstrated in the subsequent contract extension.

But don’t take our word for it – see what our client has to say below.