How do you explain your business analysis to decision-makers?

Business analysis is the systematic evaluation of an organization's operations to identify opportunities for improvement and inform strategic decisions. When explaining business analysis to decision-makers, I emphasize its role as a data-driven process that provides actionable insights. By conducting comprehensive assessments of processes, financial data, and market trends, we gain a holistic understanding of the business landscape. This, in turn, empowers decision-makers to make well-informed choices that enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and drive growth. The value of business analysis lies in its ability to bridge the gap between data and strategic outcomes, ultimately guiding the organization towards its goals.

One thing I have found helpful is to understand the needs and background of my audience, I think the Stakeholder analysis is something super important. Understand their personalities and motivations is important to try to send the message in the right "format". I have found the DISC analysis very assertive to know more about the stakeholders behavior and ways to respond to different scenarios.

Excellent business analysis is understanding and explaining the underlying cause and effect on the financial results. It identifies what decisions, actions, and events are causing the results that have occurred and offering new ideas and opportunities for decisions to continue to drive or change those results. The analytical cycle continues by then evaluating the future results against expectations and how to make necessary adjustments accordingly.

I tailor my business analysis explanation based on their background. For technical stakeholders, I emphasize data-driven insights and efficiency gains. For non-technical stakeholders, I focus on tangible benefits, cost savings, and improved processes. Flexibility in communication ensures alignment between our objectives and outcomes. But the general answer to this question is that I fill the communication gap between the technical team and business stakeholders.

Understanding the needs of your audience is critical. You may want to ask them what question(s) do they want answered. This will help guide the data you should be considering in your analysis. You audience may be higher level executive staff so sometimes keeping it high level makes sense. Provide details as needed but using real life stories or anecdotes to support your thesis is quite powerful as well

Take your stakeholders on a journey. Help them appreciate the context/vision/problem and what you have learned about the process, issues, opportunities and principles to apply when considering the future state and/or high-level requirements. Bring this situation to life by sharing the insight shared by the stakeholders you’ve engaged with and do so in a way that is transparent, and accessible for your current and future stakeholders.

I believe it is important to understand the problem and the pain points it brings forth to whoever is affected. Following this, a business analyst should not forget to include the right stakeholders in the solution defining process.

Any presentation or discussion should start with a detailed understanding of the key talking points to be discussed, the key problems that need to be solved, and the answers that we're looking for. Anchoring the discussion on these three aspects keeps everyone aligned with the problems at hand and minimises endless circling of unrelated or irrelevant topics, which can burn valuable stakeholder time and result in no meaningful outcomes.

Take guidance from problem management practices and how problem statements are structured. Be clear with the context, frequency of occurrence, current impact (to org and customer if applicable), and impact if no action is taken. Solution alternatives are collaborative and arguably a starting point for decision makers. The analyst may not have the skills/time to fully define a complete solution, but offer directional solutions that decision makers can pair with their own knowledge to reach an agreement (or offer a further approach to be analysed)

The most important question to ask when beginning any new analysis, project, or initiative is, “What is the problem attempting to be solved.” There may not be clarity in answering the question and/or different perspectives. You may have to meet with various constituents who affect or are effected by a process before you begin any data analysis. Starting with the end in mind helps build a work plan to ensure you achieve your objectives. Keep an open mind, do not rush to conclusions or make facts to support your conclusions or hypothesis, and be prepared with recommendations but leave space for the decision-makers. There may be more than one optimal solution, and executives often have their own vision.

To take it up a notch, these visuals and stories must be specific to the target audience’s alignment. Knowing who the audiences are (be it BUs, testers, developers, executive leads), it always helps to use terminology and representations with which that particular stakeholder audience is well versed with or rather comfortable with. Additionally, the narratives of these visuals and stories should cater to the specific audience such that the stakeholders can distinctly relate and identify how it will impact them in particular, thus adding value to it for the stakeholders.

Problem analysis involves identifying the main problem and establishing the causes and effects associated with that problem. A key element of this analysis is ensuring that "root causes," not just symptoms of the problem, are identified and subsequently addressed in project design.

Decision makers or top management always love to see visual things such as process, use case diagrams, context diagrams or matrices. You have to understand the suitable type of infographic to be used as per your context.

"When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. When you desire a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it." — Lois McMaster Bujold The proposed decision is not just a strategic move; it's an investment in the future success of the organization. Begin by clearly articulating the business problem or opportunity that the analysis aims to address. Use language that resonates with the decision-makers' understanding of the organization's goals. It helps in developing the scope of the project. This will lead to better decision-making, improved processes, cost savings, revenue growth, or other tangible benefits.

This is the most important part of any business analysis discussion. Even in product management, before discussing anything with the developers, a rough wireframe is needed for them to get an explanatory idea about what we are expecting. This always helps to have a better understanding and analyse any technical restrictions as well.

You should acknowledge where you may be making risky assumptions and how you plan to test these as early as possible to avoid wasted time and effort. If there are external risks you should have a plan in place to mitigate them. Your plan should incorporate 'two-way doors' at strategically important points to enable experimentation and re-planning.

Challenges are faced every step of the way from outliers to eventual repetitions especially when working with large data sets, filtration and data cleanup are essential areas of focus which I spend most of my time on to ensure when generating reports accuracy is maintained. Limitations do exist but its better to spend more time cleaning your data rather than creating new challenges as it does tend to effect your confidence and the validity of data. However, to ensure you are a reliable source of data for your company it is important to be transparent and honest while not over exaggerating claims.

Thru the years I have learnt that "those who decide" are not as interested in all the detailed aspects as I am. So it's important not to drown them in details. But you have to make clear that all detailed analysis aspect are there, and that you show them the tip of the iceberg!

I find it helpful to anticipate some kickback, so I like be open and honest and include some of the potential challenges and weaknesses into the presentation along with the strengths and opportunities as these can then be discussed or tabled for further discussion in a proactive manner rather than derail the process. It is hard to prepare for every eventuality during the presentation but if you have been thorough in your analysis and understand the business and your stakeholders needs and goals and have your supporting data at hand, you should be able to field any and all questions adequately.

In my experience, identifying and documenting assumptions, alongside meticulous risk analysis, is vital. Engaging with stakeholders helps uncover hidden risks. Analyzing requirements and devising solutions to address identified risks showcase your mitigation plan. Evaluating the impact and likelihood of risks and creating a risk matrix aids decision-makers. Evaluating its effectiveness and adjusting based on feedback is crucial in proposing a solution. Transparent communication about risks, assumptions, and solutions, possibly using visual aids, enhances understanding. Encouraging decision-maker feedback and being open to revisions fosters continuous improvement in the decision-making process in your organization.

Even the best business analysis is useless without a clear storyline and call to action. Make it as succinct and to the point as possible, with clear outcomes the client can expect from each step. If you have a "why" supported by data and analysis, what is urgent and important will be clearly evident along with the support required.

Back your analysis with data and relevant information resources and this will build trust in the decision maker. A decision can be different than the suggested analysis and in this case, ask questions to decision maker to learn the other factors which have contributed to the decision. A transparent leadership will enable their employees, customers and shareholders to thrive in meaningful way.

The decision making process is evidently dependent on what the end goal is, however, for most companies its profitability and financial analysis whether its forecasting or running by the numbers its always about maintaining the numbers or increasing them through strategic decisions.

This is in my opinion the most important step. As all previous steps lead up to this one. No point in outlaying a problem, it's risks and proposed solution if you can't leave the room with a decision. If you want to make sure the stakeholders listen in with full attention, it might be even worth highlighting your expected outcome at start of the meeting.

I find it helpful to have a basic high level project plan prepared with an estimated time frame for the project to implementation. In addition, the costs involved for the project to proceed as well as the costs to delay in time money and resources, ie cost of lost man hours due to reworks because of downtime on an old system etc so that the decision makers have all the required information they need to move forward. Remember that the costs to implement your solution will be over a short period of time, but the benefits will be long lasting whereas not moving forward with your solution has both costs and impact long lasting.

Following definition is the best way to describe what is business analysis: Business Analysis is a practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs (problems/opportunities) and recommending solutions that delivers valuable to the stakeholders.

I don't attempt to "explain". Most decision makers are NOT using Logic. They are driven by Emotion. Usually an expedient, short-sighted, self-interest perspective. In my 44 year career, I watched as employees made Traitorous decisions. Which damaged the company, as a whole. Just to advance their private and selfish interest. My best success came by building a trust-worthy reputation for Results. Once the business owner trusts me, I gain delegated authority. I BECOME the "decision maker". I also subscribe to Russo's Grace Hopper Theory. (She was a U.S. Naval Admiral who helped Invent COBOL computer programming language.) ... My strategy comes from a quotation by her: "It is easier to ask Forgiveness, than to get Permission".

Use executive summaries. Get to the point quickly and efficiently. Think 30 second elevator pitch. Think simple and effective messaging. Using a helicopter view means the audience can scan the landscape and drill into specifics on the ground as they require.

Could you add empathy interviews with the stakeholder(s)? Remember, you're there to support the stakeholder's decision-making cycle and you can't maximize your effectiveness until you understand the problem the stakeholder is trying to solve. Business insight analytics and visualizations rely heavily on understanding the stakeholder's problem and pain points as best as possible. Asking the right questions to really unpack it all will ensure that your presentation is well-received and the customer feels empowered by your assessment(s).

When the communication is with the top management the approach I choose to adopt is a "Top down method". You first communicate the synthesis of the Analysis i.e. the outcome of the analysis under the given situations, and later then you get into details. However if the communication of the analysis is for the functional level then it's better to take the "Bottom up approach" in communication; where you explain to them where they stand now and where they should ideally be, and how it all adds up to the ultimate goal of the key stakeholders.