Slow and Steady BRMs Win the Race

by Gerry Robinson

I once worked with a wise man who was responsible for the upkeep of a popular community center. The locals were very fond of this place and would visit frequently, having gotten used to its comfortable setting and appearance. In fact, they were so attached to the center as-is, they resisted all possible change to it—yet the man had an idea that would make the atmosphere much more appealing to the public, and that was moving a centerpiece fixture to another location so that the staff could perform their work more effectively. However, the man knew that if he moved the table, the public would complain, and he would have to relent. So what did he do? He decided to move the fixture several feet once a month. Over the period of a year, it was moved to the intended place and the locals never even noticed. Not only can the staff now serve the public more efficiently, but the locals also happen to be as satisfied as ever.

There is a lesson in this story for strategic BRMs. BRMs have a very difficult job, dealing with people who have different objectives, work in different positions, and, most of all, have different chief stakeholders within the organizational model. These people also come from starting positions that did not include working with a formal BRM. All of these issues require the BRM to manage many different situations in a graceful way—and sometimes, the best way to do so is by taking it slow.

Successful BRMs employ a deliberate approach to growing the capability in a new organization. The first step they take is understanding how the organization has handled BRM in the past. If you perform this exercise, you will get a strong head start to developing a successful BRM capability in your organization. The benefits to this approach are significant:

• You will identify the history of business relationship in the past
• You will identify how the organization has prioritized BRM in the past
• You will learn other needed data points to determine how you go forward with a success roadmap

One of the most important data points you will gather is how the organization is modeled, and what spokes of the model were the “de facto BRMs” of the past. This will give you a sense of artifact development and how the rest of the organization sees BRM, especially within your branch of the organization. For example, IT BRMs are often born in the Applications tower of the organization. However, when they are moved out of Applications, it can be a blow to the leader of the Applications tower, as they had seen themselves as a key player in that function. These are important things to consider, and the best way to overcome them is with a healthy and paced relationship strategy.

With that noted, here are the most frequent sub-organizations wherein you (as the IT BRM) will need to be successful:

Applications

This is the peer group you need to work with the most actively. The applications often define IT for the business, as the business often identifies IT as the system(s) it uses. You can build a relationship with this group by becoming a part of the solution to the business problem that is asking for too much from IT. Demand management is key, and if Applications sees BRM as a tool in managing expectations, you will forge a relationship. However, one thing to be careful of is that the Applications tower is often the previous home of the BRM function, so there could be legacy overlap—or worse, political competition.

PMO

This peer group can be a great and crucial friend to the BRM, as the PMO has execution insight into the strategic portfolio. BRM and PMO complement each other very well, and a solid way of building a relationship with the PMO is by helping to bridge requirements to technology. Above all, you should use the PMO’s best practices and methods, be compliant with deliverables, and most importantly, advocate for the business’ involvement in the projects. If you can become an agent for the PMO to avoid soft stakeholdership, they will be great advocates of the BRM.

Strategy, Governance, and Enterprise Architecture

Of all the sub-organizations noted here, this one might be the best fit for you as the BRM, assuming that you do not have a dedicated spoke on the organizational chart. With the exception of governance, the BRM should be field strategists and field enterprise architects, which presents both opportunities and challenges within this group. The best advice is to understand how this peer group performs their work, and what they consider to be the scope of it. Once you have the answers to these two questions, you should work to assist the group as much as possible. For example, right before strategic planning time, you could create a deliverable out of the BRM group that highlights strategic topics mentioned by the business. Provide this to the planning group, and suggest methods and activities to help flush these topics out further. The strategy group will love you for it.

Infrastructure/Operations/Security

The infrastructure and operations peer group will see you as the BRM as positive for the organization when you help them plan capacity, while also understanding enough to know when a business request is too much for the current capacity. Additionally, if you can help this group handle major issues, that is a great way to build a relationship with them. With regard to security, the BRM that understands to get them in early will earn a loyal ally, because security often feels that it is never engaged early enough (and most of the time, this is true).

In closing, the BRM who wants to grow the BRM model in an organization must pace themselves. Organizations have cultures and history, and a BRM who is not careful can fall victim to the culture and become history. The best approach to success is to find some wins for your peer groups—and as you do, they will become your advocates and allies. Once this dynamic is established, your increased strength and credibility as the BRM will allow you to begin the task of maturing the capability.