Business Analysis as a practice
Business Analysis practices are key to successful IT service implementation. They sit alongside technology and project management to land changes that are effective. This issue looks at how Business Analysis best practice makes a difference.?
Monetize your IT skills
IT professionals make their money by applying their technical knowledge. Knowing how to code in Python or Pearl; opening-up firewall ports and configuring cloud services. Well yes and no. There is no doubt that these are ‘sharp end’ IT skills, but they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
Everything we do in the IT department must eventually result in a business outcome, or no one makes any money, and no one gets paid.? To quote Warren Buffet “The business of business is business”.?
To look at it another way, we must monetize these IT capabilities.?? Business Analysis is the discipline that translates IT know how into business value.??
Business Analysis activities span the product lifecycle, and can be grouped into phases as described by the Business Analysis Service Framework (Debora Paul 2018)?
Situation investigation and problem analysis?
Many people when solving problems like to show how clever they are, and treat finding a solution like a race.? They don’t clearly define and agree what the problem is.? Different stakeholders with different perspectives may not even agree what problem is being addressed.? To be able to show that a problem has been solved we need a clearly articulated statement of what the problems is.??
For a business to invest in a changed product or service, they need to know what they will be getting for their money.? What problem will be solved or opportunity exploited?? Articulating the business need will give context to the initiative and a reason to do work.? Not only must stakeholders agree that there will be benefit, but that solving this problem/opportunity should be chosen over others.????
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Feasibility assessment and business case development?
Once there is agreement that there is a problem or opportunity to be solved, the next step is to understand the benefit to be had versus the cost and effort to achieve it.? At this stage we need some high level options, each with their own pros and cons, cost and benefits.
These options form the basis of the business case whose purpose is to justify funding.? The development of the business case may even require a mini-project in its own right to develop outline solutions.? The output is a structured proposal that explains to the budget holder why they should invest in the business change, what the benefits and risks are, what options have been considered, and which option is proposed.?
We know the questions that business leaders will ask before they commit their precious budget.? Logically answering these questions with assessment based evidence and detail removes uncertainty from the decision making process.?
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Business process improvement?
Any change to technology will result in a change to ways of working.? Either the business wants to do things differently, so a new process will define the technology requirement. Or a new tool is being implemented and ways of working change around it.? Understanding the as-is and to be processes allows stakeholders to understand what new roles are required and how individuals, including customers of the process, must adapt.????
A process is a transformation from input to output.? Process mapping and design ensures we can build a clear set of steps through the transformation.? Not having a process is like setting off on a journey without defining a route – there will be lots of wandering around!?
Defining a process aligns activities with technology and allows us to define measures and governance. Most people will not care about the detail of every step, so to implement the change, the process will be refined into work instructions and user guides.??
Requirements definition?
This is the classic business analyst activity of taking requirements from the business and specifying them as a to-do list for the developers. It requires a blend of soft people skills, to solicit and understand requirements, and hard definition skills to specify the requirements in a structured way.?
Once requirements have been captured it might be necessary to create models of the intended solution.? The captured requirements are played back to stakeholders for validation, are prioritised, and then taking forward for development.?
There needs to be enough information for the developers to be able to create a solution without making too many assumptions.? Equally the business analyst should bring their own subject matter expertise, so they can help the stakeholder understand ‘what good looks like’.?
Most stakeholders couldn’t design a form layout for best user experience, but they could say which solution they prefer if given a selection of options.??
Business Acceptance Testing?
Acceptance testing is often the hardest part of project.? Not because it is difficult to do, but because no one wants to do it. When costing the project this is the first thing that is cut, on the basis that ‘we will just get some users to do it’. Nobody agrees this activity with any actual users.
Two approaches can help.? First is that a test plan and exit criteria is defined before any development work.? This must include the names of those who will test. Second, if we do want to limit pre-release testing, then we can do a limited roll out of a beta version, and make it clear to users to expect a bumpy-ride.?
The point of testing is to replicate what users will find when using the tool, so why not let them use it, provided we fix fast when issues are found.??
Business change deployment?
The classic Kuber-Ross change curve describes how people react to change. They travel an emotional roller-coaster through shock, denial, frustration, depression, learning and acceptance.
We can let stakeholders make their own way along the change curve or we can plan and manage the change with them. We need to communicate what the change is and why we are making it.
Users must be trained and given the chance to raise concerns before the change lands. They will also need support until the change becomes the normal way of working.??
Next time...?
In our next blog we will look at some of the many businesses analysis techniques that help us through our journey.?
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