Leaderboard

‘Analysis Paralysis’ and ‘Extinct by Instinct’: Analysis Paralysis (or Paralysis by Analysis) is the result of Behavioral Science driven and it defines an individual or group process when over processing, over analyzing or overthinking of any critical situation could cause forward motion or decision making to become more paralyzed meaning that no solution or course(s) of action is decided upon. The situation may be too complicated and decision is never made with respect to the fear of change that a potentially larger than problem may arise. A Person or Individual or Group and Leadership should take an immediate decision with less or agreed time frame based on the Business Analytical solutions. A person may desire the perfection solution, but may fear that a decision that could result in error, while on the way to a better solution. On the other end of the time spectrum is the phase extinct by instinct, which is making a fatal decision based on hasty judgement or a get reaction. Analysis Paralysis is generally happened due to fear of either making an error, outweighs the realistic expectations or potential value of success in a decision made in a timely manner. An overload of options, can overwhelm the respective situation and causing this “Paralysis” rendering one unable to come to a conclusion. It should be a larger problem in many critical situations where decisions need to be reached, but a leader or person is not able to provide a response last enough potentially causing a very bigger issue than they would have. Leader should take a decision based on the data availability, past experience and how risk was handled with mitigation. Business Analysis Core Concept Model: A Person or Group and Leader who ever is taking a decision in any large organization should consider the following Business Analysis Core Concept model under any critical situations. 1. Value 2. Solution 3. Need 4. Stakeholders 5. Context 6. Change. Definition: We deliver a Value from a Solution to a Need of Stakeholders within Context of Change. Decision Making: A person or Individual or Group and Leadership must be an effective in understanding the criteria involved in making a best decision and also in a position to assist others to make better decisions under critical situations. Business Analytics Practices (Iterative Methodical Exploration): Data Driven Decision Making Include: i) Descriptive Analytics ii) Predictive Analytics iii) Prescriptive Analytics Effectiveness Measures during Decision Making Process Include: Measures of effective decision making include: i) The Respective Stakeholders are presented or available in the decision-making process. ii) Stakeholders understand the decision-making process end to end and the rationale behind each decision. iii) The pros and cons of all available options are clearly communicated to stakeholders. iv) The best decision reduces or eliminates Risk, and any remaining uncertainty is accepted. v) The decision made addresses the opportunity at hand and best interest of all stakeholders. vi) All stakeholders understand all the conditions, Environment, and measures in which decision will be made vii) A Best decision is made What causes analysis paralysis? Analysis paralysis establishes itself in the inability to make a best with respect to overthinking and over processing the available options, possibilities and data. It's one of the main and major causes for project interruptions, exhausting project level planning sessions (PLP and PLC Processes), the gathering of unnecessary data, and slow movement between every phases or stages. 1. Personal Analysis: Causal personal analysis can occur during decision making process. With respect to overwhelming information and data on hand and fear of change or taking decisions, unable to make a rational decision by decision maker. 2. Conversational Analysis: Analysis paralysis can occur at any time regarding any issue in typical conversation and either analysis paralysis or Extinct by Instinct not been predicted by business. It is likely to occur during conversation, elevated and intellectual discussions. During such intellectual decision-making process or intellectual discussions, analysis paralysis involves the over analysis of a specific issue to that point where that issue can no longer be recognized or accepted, and actually the subject of the conversation is lost. It can also lead to major risk in such large organization. Business analysis core concept model will deliver the best decision during decision making process or intellectual decision-making discussions. Preventive and Overcoming: The following possible ways help to prevent or overcome of analysis paralysis and Extinct by Instinct. 1. Set Limits 2. Clarify Objectives and Priorities 3. Perfection is not the key 4. Incremental development or Agile approach rather than Waterfall, based on methodologies defined in Project Management Plan. 5. Stakeholders involvement during Analysis Phase. 6. Defining Scope of the Project. 7. Define Goals and Deliverables in well advance. 8. Define the Success Criteria. 9. Take small Iterative steps 10.Regression 11.Change Number of options. 12.Add or Remove emotion 13.Random selection 14.Talk about it 15.Make your best decision Business Analysis key Techniques to prevent from Analysis Paralysis and Extinct by Instinct: The following overall integrated, best and powerful Business Analysis Techniques can be used to make best decision in large organization. These techniques are helpful to avoid 'Analysis Paralysis' and 'Extinct by Instinct'. 1. Interviews 2. Legal/Regulatory Information. 3. Survey or Questionnaire 4. Workshops 5. Presentations 6. Assess Requirements Changes (With respect to Cost and Time estimates, Benefits, Risks, Priority and Course of Action) 7. Decision Modelling (Decision Trees, Decision Requirements Diagram) 8. Bench Marking and Market Analysis 9. Business Cases 10.Business Rules Analysis 11.Data mining 12.Estimation 13.Observation: Active/Noticeable, Passive/Unnoticeable. 14.Stake holders List, Map and Personas Important Business Analysis Techniques Explanation (Random Basis): i) Bench Marking and Market Analysis: The objective of market analysis is to acquire this information in order to support the various decision-making processes within an organization as well as improve organizational operations, increase customer satisfaction and increase value to respective Stakeholders. ii) Decision Trees/Decision Requirements Diagram: A decision requirements diagram is a visual representation of the information and data, knowledge, and decision making involved in a more complex business decision. Key elements: Decisions, Input Data, Business Knowledge Models, and Knowledge Sources. The above nodes are linked together into a network to show the decomposition of complex decision making into simpler building blocks. Guideline and Tools: The following Business guideline and tools can be used to avoid Paralysis Analysis. 1. Governance Approach 2. Policies 3. Validate Performance Measures With respect to Analysis Paralysis and Extinct by Instinct, the above Business Analysis Guideline & tools and Techniques along with preventive and overcoming ways method will helpful to Organize organization data with high accuracy. High quality data would be used for data driven decision making which definitely avoid overthinking, over processing, fear of change & confusion and so on. The respective data outputs/outcome will definitely provide more confidences to Leadership or Decision maker to make effective decision on time with safe and secure manner. References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct_Instinct https://www.iiba.org/ https://businessanalystlearnings.com/blog/2014/2/10/managing-analysis-paralysis Thanks and Regards, Senthilkumar Ganesan, Email: [email protected] Mobile: +91-7598124052.

Misuse of tools and techniques is a very common phenomenon. Misuse of a tool primarily happens because of two reasons 1. Intentional Misuse (it is better to call it as Misrepresentation) 2. Unintentional Misuse (due to lack of understanding of the concept) Pareto analysis or the 80/20 rule is a prioritization tool that helps identify the VITAL FEW from TRIVIAL MANY. 80/20 implies that 80% of problems are due to 20% of the causes. Intentional Top 20% causes might not be the ones leading to bigger problems - usually it is observed that causes with smaller effects occur more often. Applying the Pareto principle will divert the focus of the team to the causes that have a smaller effect on the customer while the actual cause might be languishing in the trivial many Prioritization without keeping in mind the goal - Pareto will help if the significant contributors identified help us achieve the goal. However, it is seldom checked whether the VITAL FEW will help us achieve the goal or if there is a need to take a larger number of causes. As an example, if our goal is complete defect elimination, we will need to consider all causes. If our goal is elimination of 95% defects, we will need to cover more of the cause. Unintentional Going strictly by the 80/20 rule - some people take the 80/20 principle in the literal sense. They will do a Pareto plot and blindly apply the 80/20 principle. What needs to be noted is that 80/20 is a rule of thumb and it is not necessary to always have 80/20 split. It could also be 70/30 or 90/10 Keeping the total to 100 = 80+20. This is one of the most common misunderstanding of the 80/20 rule where one beliefs that the sum should always be 100. It could be 80/15 or 75/25 as well Unclear about the purpose of using a Pareto Analysis. Pareto can be used while defining afocus area and also in Root Cause Analysis to identify significant contributors. In the former, data is for problems and their occurrence while in the later, it is causes and their occurrence. Due to lack of clarity of purpose, if problems and causes are clubbed together in the same Pareto, then meaningful inferences cannot be drawn. Treating Pareto as a non-living tool - Pareto is usually done once and the same result is treated as sacrosanct for a long period of time. Pareto chart only provides a time snapshot. Over a period of time, the defect categories or causes and their occurrence numbers might also change and hence if Pareto Analysis is done at different points of time, it might yield different results Some that could fit in both categories Small data set - Pareto Analysis will help if you want to prioritize vital few from a big data set. Doing a Pareto analysis on 4-5 categories will seldom yield a good result Completely ignoring the trivial many - Pareto analysis helps identify the vital few but it does not say that one should ignore the trivial many. It simply states that first fix the vital and then move on to trivial. However, most people consider that if they fix the top 20%, they do not need to work on the remaining. Pareto can be used to continuously improve the process by repeatedly prioritizing the causes that you need to focus on Doing Pareto at a high level only - Like most of the tools in Root Cause Analysis, Pareto can also be used to drill down. E.g. Pareto can be done first to identify the top defect categories and then a second level Pareto can be done for the top defect categories (using the causes)