Keeping a Community of Practice Alive and Kicking

This article is a write up of a talk given by Faizal Dawood and Craig Rollason at the November 2025 BA Manager Forum. They discuss the case for establishing and maintaining a CoP; and how to build momentum through running regular, purposeful events.

The Community of Practice

“A Community of Practice has been defined as a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.”

(Wenger et al., 2002)

The Community of Practice first evolved in the 1990s, as a way for organisations to retain knowledge when a member of staff leaves.

There is a spectrum of types of CoP, and people can be part of more than one community. There are professional communities, for example BCS, IIBA or IRM. There are organisational communities, for example a group of line managers. There are domain-based communities, with a focus on specific areas such as AI, Analytics, or business change. There are social communities, with organised ‘meet ups’ in a social setting. Finally, there are practice-based communities, around a role such as BA, User Researcher or Product Owner.

Structural Considerations for Practice-based BA Communities

CoP Personnel – your community may be entirely permanent staff or a mix of contract staff. It can be a challenge to make sure contract staff are also engaged, especially when their line manager is not a BA. A CoP brings everyone together with aligned goals, gaining from and contributing to sessions.

Reporting Structures – these can impact how well your CoP runs. Whether BAs report to other BAs or different professions, it is important that they feel connected and supported.

Communities and Sub-communities – you may be part of one large CoP or part of more than one, across departments. Communities must stay aligned – otherwise confusion and disengagement can follow. You do not want ‘analysis paralysis.’

Case Study 1: nationalgrid

When Craig Rollason joined nationalgrid there was no formal CoP. Craig talked to other BAs in the organisation and created an informal CoP, sharing knowledge such as how to write a business case and options analysis and selections criteria.

Fast forward six years, and there was a formal CoP in place with standards and processes established. Craig was the practice manager, so had the authority to involve people and look at new ways to share knowledge and improve performance across the board.

Case Study 2: Biffa

When he moved to join Biffa, Craig Rollason found that there was an established CoP with regular meetings, guest speakers and a problem-solving corner. Over time, the CoP was further enhanced by extending the time focus on key priorities such as the BA competency model, BA tools and templates and getting to know each other's strengths.

Case Study 3: Hippo

When he arrived at Hippo, Faizal Dawood became part of a CoP with 10 BAs. Faizal tasked himself with owning the monthly meet ups with a view to making other ceremonies more future proof by having a little more structure. Three years later there are now over 40 BAs in the CoP with more formal working structures. Formalised workstreams have created an opportunity for normal BAs to take a leadership role by heading up various workstreams which has allowed the Head of BA to have more strategic headspace.

CoP Challenges and Solutions

Whether a CoP consists of 15 BAs or 150, there are challenges which are universal including visibility; getting people involved; and keeping everyone engaged.

Attendance/Engagement. Often there are a small group of people who are highly involved, and others who are hard to reach. How do you engage with topics that people are interested in? How do you encourage attendance? CoPs may include attendance as part of formal objectives, which is a form of enforcement. Some more established CoPs deliberately give Junior BAs a ‘say’ in changes in the design and structure and activities of the CoP, to encourage their participation.

Project vs CoP conflict. If people are busy with project work, they may not be able to show up for the CoP due to urgent priorities. One solution is a company-wide CoP timeslot across all disciplines. This alleviates internal meeting clashes, and people have permission to spend time outside projects on knowledge sharing and development which makes them feel endorsed and engaged.

Senior level sponsorship and endorsement. Running a CoP can be time consuming and expensive, so endorsement from leadership is essential. You need to sell the benefits of a CoP. If you are a high performing team adding value and not just firefighting, you can ask for the time to optimise and improve the service and solve wider business problems. Leadership legitimising learning is a powerful message.

IR35 issue for contractors. It needs to be clear in the contracts of contractors, how involved in the CoP they need to be. This can be a grey area.

The Business Case for CoPs

To gain sponsorship you must present a business case – demonstrating direct impact on business objectives and bottom-line results. You should frame the CoP not as a social club, but as a strategic tool for knowledge management, innovation, engagement, better quality work, and employee development.

Make sure you emphasise the benefits, which include the following:

Improved employee engagement/lower turnover of employees
Improved relationships
Skills improvement
Empowered staff
More robust process, with fewer single points of failure
Financial benefits (see below)

Show the value, show the training and the certification – build evidence every year. It can be hard to quantify all the benefits, but you can show the development.

Lessons Learned

To create a successful CoP, you must:

Create a culture and environment which values learning and development. It is more challenging to run CoPs if your organisation does not actively promote learning.
Have the backing and commitment of management.
Hold the CoP in an accessible location, well facilitate and with interesting topics – you can survey to decide on topics.
Get feedback, keeping things current and getting agreement on goals and agendas and making sure people enjoy the social side and the human connection.
Integrate the CoP with the wider organisation in terms of timing and topics and using big events or projects as ‘lessons learned.’
Get the basics in place and match to where your organisation is in terms of maturity, identify the most urgent needs.
Think outside of the box. Craig held CoP meetings in a village hall which was geographically at a halfway point for his teams and cost £30 a day.
Make it fun. Have guest speakers. Celebrate successes. Have away-days. Meet at an art gallery to inspire creativity.
Showcase the CoP work externally to build support.
Create a BA Events calendar to show all the interactions BAs have with the community – for example at Hippo this includes virtual monthly meets, face to face regional meets, face to face B2B meets, daily ‘bench’ calls and weekly surgeries.

Negotiate attendance with project managers.
Focus on what will have the most impact. Look at effort vs. impact.
Share the load – rotate the facilitator for regular community sessions e.g. monthly meet ups and surgeries.

Faizal Dawood has years of experience in digital delivery in both the private and public sectors. He is a Business Analyst, and CoP facilitator, at Hippo.

Craig Rollason has a 30-year track-record in the energy, utilities, manufacturing, public, waste, and retail sectors. He is now a leadership coach and Head of Business Analysis at Biffa.

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