Archive for June, 2007

Are BAs strategic?

Published by
MariaMurphy
at 24 June, 2007 in strategic planning. 4 Comments

As a BA, I do deal with the operational aspects and this may be seen as the “bread and butter” work of a BA. However, the shift towards employing MBA graduates as BAs, means that we find ourselves able to add value from a strategic perspective as well. We are more focused on the client area and understand their business as well as being able to communicate and understand the technical requirements to develop systems.

I am a little disappointed that BABOK is not looking into strategic planning. I have found that in recent years, the work of a BA has changed dramatically. As BAs we are being required to approach projects from an “Outside-In” perspective. That is, we are asked to understand what the big picture or overall strategy is in order to map and build the requirements for the business.

When the business cannot fully articulate their needs, we workshop to help them create a vision of what the system will look like and make them aware of emerging technologies that may help. We provide prototypes along the way and it is a very collaborative approach between the business, architecture and BA team.

Requirements come from people

Published by
MariaMurphy
at 14 June, 2007 in requirements. 4 Comments

Recently I attended a session on the “7 Pillars of Wisdom-Requirements” by Suzanne and James Robertson. It was a great session and reinforced what I have been thinking for some time about why some BAs succeed and others do not.

The fourth pillar that they spoke about was that “requirements come from people”. This I believe is the key message for BAs. Yes business analysis is about the business and the system, but it is also about the “people”, the “users”.

My background before the BA life was business management and communication. My technical expertise has been learnt from experience at both the client and technology group end. I really agree with Suzanne and James that gathering requirements is a “sociotechnical” business. You do indeed need to find out who all the stakeholders are to find out all the requirements. You also need to keep them interested and motivated throughout the process and that’s about communication.

People love to talk about their business.  If you take the time to really listen you will uncover what they like and don’t like about a process and what opportunities they see for improvement. Getting initial interaction to get some high level requirements is the first step, but not the only step. The systems that are developed right, are the ones where there has been stakeholder engagement from start to finish.

Unlike some of my collegaues, as a BA, I don’t think the process finishes when I have delivered the requirements document. I believe it is only the start. Keeping the stakeholder engaged through the development and testing process means maintaining a level of enthusiasm and passion for the project. OK, I admit that sometimes this role may be filled by the project manager, but I find, that if as a BA you have developed a great working relationship with the client, your passion and enthusiasm for the project will help ensure you get requirements that are not only sound from a technical perspective (as you have uncovered all the needs for the system) but you also have a system that works from a useablity perspective. Happy User = Happy Client :)

What is Business Analysis?

Published by
MariaMurphy
at 9 June, 2007 in business analysis. 6 Comments

I find myself being asked this question a lot - What is a Business Analyst and what do they do? As a consultant when I start a new client engagement, there is always be a problem to solve and there will always be some level of analysis that needs to be done. I believe Business Aanlsyis is a core capability for a consultant so I ask myself why it so difficult to define?

Are we as BAs, focused only on systems or is it more about the business than the system?

Within the organisation I work for, we have recently set up a core capability team to look at Business Analsyis and develop some tools and templates for our collegaues. We found ourselves having to go back to basics and first define what we were talking about.

So here goes….. Business Analysis is a structured approach that focuses on understanding the customer’s needs and identifying how best to meet those needs through developing effective relationships with the business and technology groups. Business Analysts therefore are responsible for identifying the needs of clients and stakeholders to determine solutions to business problems. Responsibilities may include requirements development for systems but may also address process improvement or organisational change.

So yes, business systems analysis is about getting the system right the first time, but to understand what solution is required, you need to know what is the essence of the problem and issues that the business is hoping to solve through this a change in processes or through building a new system.

As a BA you need to ask questions including; What is the business? Its objectives and goals? How do the processes work? What are the requirement specifications for this particluar Business? What are the stakeholders needs? Who will be the users of this system? It is only after you have asked these and many other such questions, that you can start to articulate what is required to ensure we getting the right system for the business.

So I see a Business Analyst as a key facilitator within an organisation, acting as a bridge between the client, stakeholders and the solution development team. The role of a BA is becoming critical to projects as they are the “transltors” that help structure and define the requirements for the business, in a way that is understaood by the developers.

As a BA, I find my cleint area is glad to have someone to deal with that “techo” stuff and therefore the challenge is to ensure a level of common understanding and “getting the business system right” first time.

To BA or not to BA

Published by
MariaMurphy
at 9 June, 2007 in Business analyst. 0 Comments

 

I have recently found myself promoted to the Regional Lead role for Business Analysis within my organisation. In an effort to develop this as a core capability within the organisation, I have recently been asked to mentor other BAs and develop templates and documents to assist my fellow consultants.

I find myself disillusioned with my fellow Business Analyst as there is so much confusion about the role of a Business Analyst and I find that a lot of my colleagues are happy to delegate a lot of the core Business Analysis domain to other speciality groups.

So, I started this Blog in an effort to put my thoughts on Business Analysis out there and try to navigate through the volumes of conflicting advice and opinions out there.

Hello world

Published by
MariaMurphy
at 8 June, 2007 in passion. 3 Comments

I am Murphs and this is my BA blog.
It’s my thoughts on the issues and challenges out there for Business Analysts and some of the useful tools and techniques I have found to help my deliver my projects.

I love being a BA as it is challenging and I get to talk to a lot of interesting people about their business and what they want to achieve. Its both strategic and operational, and when the users are happy, I am happy :)