Preview – Introduction to background research

Reviewing existing documents

‘Background research’ is an investigation into the organisation’s performance, structure and ways of working. The BCS syllabus for ‘Business Analysis Practise’ implies that background research involves accessing documents rather than speaking to the stakeholders.

Before meeting the stakeholders, even before getting into the organisation, the business change team can gain information about the organisation from many sources, e.g.

• Organisation’s web site
• Social media sites
• YouTube
• Blog
• Companies House.
• Reports that are available to the public

Once inside an organisation, other information might be available, e.g.

• Procedure manuals
• Organisation chart
• Internal correspondence that the team is allowed to access
• Documentation, e.g. process models

Note that in some organisations, there may be restricted access to this sort of information.

Web sites, including social media sites

An organisation’s web and social media sites are a useful source of background information

The organisation’s web site includes implicit and explicit information about,

• Image and branding
• Vision, mission, values and culture, typically included in the ‘About Us’ page(s)
• Services and products
• Management team and management style
• Non management roles and featured employees
• Partners
• Target customers, e.g. corporate or individual, demographics, age, gender, etc.
• Geographical locations
• The customer journey, ie, the nature of the interactions that a customer may have with the organisation
• How to contact the organisation

All of the above can provide revealing insights into an organisation.

Organisation chart

Planning who to meet

Organisation charts show the groupings, roles, and inter relationships that operate within an organisation. This can help with planning who to meet and the order for meeting people.

Organisation structures

The structure of an organisation is typically hierarchical, possibly containing groups that can be organised in a number of ways, e.g. as a hierarchy or a network.

Hierarchies

Hierarchies may be,

• Narrow and deep
• Wide and shallow

In a hierarchy,

• Each employee has one manager
• Each manager manages one or more employees

(In a network, an employee may report to more than person, perhaps for different purposes).

The number of employees managed by one person is known as the manager’s ‘span of control’.

Creating groups within an organisation

Groups may be on based on aspects such as any or all of the following:

• Function, e.g. Finance and Engineering
• Geographic region, e.g. North and South
• Business sector, e.g. Retail, Manufacturing and Education
• Products, e.g. Trains, Boats and Planes

Centralisation and decentralisation

The overall structure of an organisation may demonstrate,

• Centralisation, with power at the top
• Decentralisation, with power distributed to various levels

Role holders

An organisation chart also identifies role holders, i.e. the names of the employees that fill the various roles.

Access to at least some parts of an organisation chart, e.g. the names of certain role holders, might be restricted.

Reports about the organisation

An organisation may produce various reports summarising its activities and performance. Some of these reports will be statutory, i.e. required by law. These will include reporting the financial position. The amount of detail in the report can depend on the type of organisation, e.g. public companies, private companies, partnerships, government bodies, not for profit and charities.

Other reports may be produced for either internal or external use. Such reports may be, for example, an analysis of the current financial health of the organisation.

Some reports are highly sensitive, with limited and controlled access to them, whilst others will be freely available.

A business analyst may allowed access to reports on an ‘as needed’ basis.

Procedure manuals

Procedure manuals, describing how certain tasks, procedures and processes are performed can be very useful to business analysts and other members of a business change team.

The manuals indicate whether activities are tightly controlled or whether employees are free to use their discretion in managing particular situations. Analysts can see if exception procedures, i.e. variations from the ‘normal’ situation, are described.

Models

Models may exist of areas such as,

• Business processes
• Data
• Systems and applications

Things to look out for

Explicit and Tacit Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge
  • Written down
  • Should be accurate and correct but needs to be checked
  • Examples include,
    • Standards
    • Procedures
• Tacit knowledge
  • Not written down
  • Intuitive
  • Exists at corporate and individual levels, e.g.
    • Corporate culture
    • Individual skills

We will consider this further shortly.

• Background research is considered to be performed by referring to documents
  • It will therefore normally uncover explicit knowledge
  • However, background research may also reveal aspects of the organisation’s culture, which is normally considered to be tacit knowledge.

Front story and back story

• Front story
  • What the stakeholders state as being the true situation
• Back story
  • What really is the true situation
  • Background research reveals aspects of the back story
    • This will be useful later when listening to stakeholders giving their front story