10.50.1 Purpose
Workshops bring stakeholders together in order to collaborate on achieving a predefined goal.
10.50.2 Description
A workshop is a focused event attended by key stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a concentrated period of time. A workshop may be held for different purposes including planning, analysis, design, scoping, requirements elicitation, modelling, or any combination of these. A workshop may be used to
generate ideas for new features or products, to reach consensus on a topic, or to review requirements or designs.
Workshops generally include:
- a representative group of stakeholders,
- a defined goal,
- interactive and collaborative work,
- a defined work product, and
- a facilitator.
Workshops can promote trust, mutual understanding, and strong communication among the stakeholders and produce deliverables that structure and guide future work efforts.
The workshop is ideally facilitated by an experienced, neutral facilitator; however, a team member may also serve as the facilitator. A scribe documents the decisions reached and any outstanding issues. A business analyst may be the facilitator or the scribe in these workshops. In situations where the business analyst is a subject matter expert on the topic, they may serve as a workshop participant. This must be approached with caution as it can confuse others as to the role of the business analyst.
10.50.3 Elements
.1 Prepare for the Workshop
When preparing for a workshop, business analysts:
- define the purpose and desired outcomes,
- identify key stakeholders to participate,
- identify the facilitator and scribe,
- create the agenda,
- determine how the outputs will be captured,
- schedule the session and invite the participants,
- arrange room logistics and equipment,
- send the agenda and other materials in advance to prepare the attendees and increase productivity at the meeting, and
- if appropriate, conduct pre-workshop interviews with participants.
.2 Workshop Roles
There are several roles involved in a successful workshop:
- Sponsor: frequently not a participant in the workshop, but does have ultimate accountability for its outcome.
- Facilitator: establishes a professional and objective tone for the workshop, introduces the goals and agenda for the workshop, enforces structure and ground rules, keeps activities focused on the purpose and desired outcomes, facilitates decision making and conflict resolution, and ensures that all participants have an opportunity to be heard.
- Scribe: documents the decisions in the format determined prior to the workshop and keeps track of any items or issues that are deferred during the session.
- Timekeeper: may be used to keep track of the time spent on each agenda item.
- Participants: includes key stakeholders and subject matter experts. They are responsible for providing their input and views, listening to other views, and discussing the issues without bias.
.3 Conduct the Workshop
To ensure that all participants have a common understanding, facilitators generally begin the workshop with a statement of its purpose and desired outcomes. Some workshops may also start with an easy or fun task to break the ice and get the participants comfortable working together.
Establishing agreed-upon ground rules can be an effective method for establishing a productive environment for collaboration. Ground rules can include:
- respect the opinions of others,
- everyone is expected to contribute,
- discussion that is off-topic should be limited to a specific set time,
- discuss the issues, not the people, and
- an agreement on how decisions are made.
Throughout the workshop, the facilitator maintains focus by frequently validating the session’s activities with the workshop’s purpose and outcomes.
.4 Post Workshop Wrap-up
After the workshop, the facilitator follows up on any open action items that were recorded at the workshop, completes the documentation, and distributes it to the workshop attendees and any stakeholders who need to be kept informed of the work done.
10.50.4 Usage Considerations
.1 Strengths
- Can be a means to achieve agreement in a relatively short period of time.
- Provides a means for stakeholders to collaborate, make decisions, and gain a mutual understanding.
- Costs are often lower than the cost of performing multiple interviews.
- Feedback on the issues or decisions can be provided immediately by the participants.
.2 Limitations
- Stakeholder availability may make it difficult to schedule the workshop.
- The success of the workshop is highly dependent on the expertise of the facilitator and knowledge of the participants.
- Workshops that involve too many participants can slow down the workshop process. Conversely, collecting input from too few participants can lead to the overlooking of needs or issues that are important to some stakeholders, or to the arrival at decisions that don’t represent the needs of the majority of the stakeholders.
