When doing business analysis, we are expected to dive into a project and start contributing and making a positive impact right away. We face a lot of ambiguity in business analysis, however, and while business analysis is important, we should take care not to spend too much time on it or on doing the wrong things.
The following tips will allow you to spend quality time conducting an accurate business analysis:
- Adopt a "top down" analysis approach by clearly understanding the corporate vision and ensuring that the project goals and objectives are aligned with the business goals and objectives. Ensure the business objectives are clear and actionable to provide the project team with context while defining scope and, later on, the detailed requirements.
- Get senior management to provide a list of candidates for the business analyst to interview. This will ensure that the business representatives assigned to a project are appropriate; the business representatives should be in tune with the organization's future vision, at least in their areas of responsibility. The business analyst should interview these people one-on-one.
- Ask questions: What needs analyzing? Who needs to be involved? When will the project begin and end? The business analyst plays a crucial role in defining, clarifying, managing, and initiating changes to project scope. Your analysis should include specific processes such as business functions, data subject areas, systems, and business units, as well as determining how much money the business analysis effort will cost.
- Work together. The business analyst must work closely with the project manager regarding project scope. It’s important that both individuals be realistic, pragmatic, and cognizant of the underlying business goals and objectives.
- Assign your business analyst to receive and perform a first round review of all change requests. The business analyst will evaluate the request to ensure that it goes to addressing the problem that the project is attempting to solve. The business analyst can challenge requests that are not clear or are out of line with stated goals. This makes it easier for the project manager to address dealing with change requests and determining whether the request can be accomplished within budget and without extending the deadline.
- Review the solution design to ensure it fulfills all of the requirements and look for opportunities to meet additional business needs without increasing the technical scope of the project. On a typical project employing a business analyst, a significant part of the solution involves a technical implementation team that builds, customizes, and/or deploys software. Strive to make their job easier.
Business analysis means investigating the work of the business to find problems to be corrected as well as to improve current business processes; using your time wisely and keeping the above suggestions in mind will help with identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems.
For more information about business analysis, or for others questions and comments, please feel free to contact us at Oates & Company today.
