While we can all agree that there are many important disciplines that could be involved in a project – Project Management, Change Management, Business Analysis, Quality Assurance, Release Management, etc., Business Analysis and its strong alignment with stakeholders and business needs, significantly increases project success, (and can negatively impact a project if done poorly or not at all).
At Millpond, we believe that Business Analysis is a professional discipline that, working collaboratively with other disciplines, significantly increases an organisation’s ability to align their business strategies, processes and projects with their organisational strategies, objectives, and goals. Appreciating the skills a Business Analyst can bring to a project is paramount for understanding how best your organisation can reap the rewards. Let’s explore Business Analysis, and the associated capabilities of these professionals, and why it’s important to include a capable and energetic Business Analyst in your projects and other change initiatives.
Business Analysis supports the alignment of projects with an organisation’s goals, and involving a Business Analyst (BA) increases a project’s chance of success through their associated skill set. Specifically, a BA works closely with stakeholders to gather and analyse detailed requirements. They help to identify potential challenges and risks so that they can be addressed early in the project lifecycle, minimizing the likelihood of negative impacts, including costly error. They ensure that the user is represented, acts as a liaison for them and advocates for them, while also championing the change and raising possible change resistance identified through their stakeholder relationships and dealings.
Let’s explore these benefits further…
Enhanced Stakeholder Engagement:
Business Analysis includes identification and analysis of stakeholders as well as the impacts of the changes on them. A good Business Analyst facilitates communication and collaboration among stakeholders. They develop communication plans to ensure stakeholders are informed and remain engaged throughout the project lifecycle, because clear and effective communication with stakeholders is crucial for project success. Business Analysts act as the conduit, and often the translator, between technical/development teams and business stakeholders. Ensuring each other’s requirements and constraints are understood, minimising the chance for misunderstanding, confusion and frustration. This communication channel can also assist with managing expectations, helping to improve overall satisfaction. This type of effective stakeholder engagement ensures that all those concerned are informed, consulted and on the same page for everything project related, and can increase enthusiasm for the entire project.
Business Needs Defined:
A Business Analyst helps stakeholders identify, understand, clarify, and document their business needs. As mentioned above, a Business Analyst’s ability to translate between business stakeholders and technical teams ensures the necessary level of detail is explored, validated and documented. Their interpretation and translation skills, in conjunction with their natural empathy, allows both groups to feel comfortable that their requirements have been understood by all.
Improved Business Processes:
Having analysed existing and documented future processes, Business Analysts can help identify problems, optimise existing and/or introduce new processes, to achieve goals and objectives. These processes aim to improve efficiency, reduce costs, remove unwanted redundancies and recommend improvements, for both immediate issues, and long-term operational benefit. Any such recommendations, including feature or change recommendations, are prioritised by the Business Analyst according to the greatest business value.
Support Strategic Planning:
A Business Analyst can provide insights to help key staff develop and implement an organisation’s strategic plans. This may include analysing market trends, customer needs, competitor strategies; identifying opportunities and threats; and developing strategies so the organisation benefits from its opportunities and mitigates any possible threats.
Enable Informed Decision Making:
Business Analysis provides valuable insights to inform leaders and enable strategic decisions. These insights, based on a thorough understanding of relevant factors, may include information regarding their own organisational culture, the business environment, market trends, and many more. This information is likely to include identification of opportunities, threats, and could be used in various decision-making scenarios.
Change Management Advocacy:
A Business Analyst can help assess the impact of changes on organisations, people, processes and systems. Ideally, the Business Analyst works with a Change Manager, contributing to relevant change management activities. These might include identifying stakeholders, analysing their needs, clarifying problems, supporting communication plans, assessing change readiness, identifying/mitigating risks and development/maintenance of change management plans and strategies.
Project Management Support:
As explored in the Business Analysis in Project Management Blog, ideally a Business Analyst works with a Project Manager on projects. The Business Analyst can actively contribute to relevant and key project management tasks, such as, (but not limited to): defining project scope (including prioritising of the most critical features), objectives and requirements; understanding business needs; gathering/analysing stakeholder requirements; managing change/risk; and quality assurance. Business Analysts’ insight gained from their engagements with the business at many levels, is invaluable to Project Managers as they focus on the planning and executing of projects.
Summing It Up
Overall, the involvement and utilisation of a Business Analyst in a project, can maximise the project benefits to the organisation, through their ability to build relationships with stakeholders, keep the focus of the project aligned with business objectives and promoting and facilitating a positive experience for all involved.
Further, the ability of Business Analysts to highlight risks through proactive identification, including growing change resistance, allows for early mitigation which in turn can reduce the time and effort that might otherwise be required if only uncovered later, or not at all.
Business Analysis monitors a project’s planning and implementation and strives for informed decision making with a focus on customers, stakeholders and alignment to the organisational strategy, objectives and goals.
Business Analysis helps projects ‘Hit the target!’
Millpond, based in Christchurch, stands as a valuable support system for business analysts.
Millpond’s comprehensive selection of courses and services accommodates a diverse range of backgrounds and skill levels.
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