Monday, June 25, 2012

What Makes a Business Analyst Stand Out From the Herd?

This is the third part of a six-part series on business analysts - why we need them and what makes a great one great.
Quality #2: Great BA's are great with people.

Establishing trust, both with the business team and the technical team, is critical to the success of a BA and it comes down to communication. A BA needs to be able to drive diplomacy, guide conversations, ask great questions, and funnel accurate information in such a way that multiple different personality types can understand it. Trust, once it is established, can be seen when a BA becomes the "go-to" guy or gal for both the business stakeholders and the developers. Once a BA is viewed as the universal problem solver, that's when you know that trust is strong.

A BA's job is tricky. They need to convince people to commit their time and effort to a project that is often not their top priority. It is rare that a BA has enough availability from stakeholders to elicit perfect requirements, follow a perfect schedule, or gather information in order. Average, even good BA's learn to cajole, coerce, and otherwise convince stakeholders to accommodate them – but great BA's make stakeholders want to participate.

Friday, June 15, 2012

What makes a business analyst stand out from the herd?


This is the second part of a six-part series on business analysts - why we need them and what makes a great one great. 

Quality 1:  A great BA focuses on business value and solving real business problems. 
Effective BA’s focus on business value before solutions, and always ask questions about the value of their work and the work of their teammates.  They understand that activities (even difficult ones) that don’t relate to the strategic goals of the organization have little value.  Great BA’s understand why what they’re doing has value and can articulate that value to any coworker or stakeholder on demand. In addition, they are always looking for ways to uncover more value for the organization by thinking the strategic goals of the business.   Whether that means merging two projects that overlap, or simplifying processes to cut development time, great BA’s are the voice of the goals of the company to functional groups across the organization. 

Because BA’s rarely have the authority to take unilateral action, the way they voice these needs and goals is critical.   Great BA’s are willing to develop compelling arguments for superiors to take action.  They are brave – being vocal may place them at a slightly higher level of risk (since they may be going against popular opinion), but they do this for the improvement of the company.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wondering if you even NEED a Business Analyst?

You do. Here is why.

Adding a missed requirement or feature in the business analysis stage will cost you one person's time.

Adding a missed requirement or feature during the development stage will cost you the development team's time, a project manager's time, and "retrofitting" costs.

Adding a missed requirement or feature during the testing phase will cost you the development team's time, a project manager's time, the test team's time, and the time of some users.

Adding a missed requirement or feature in the field will cost you the development team's time, a project manager's time, the test team's time, the marketing team's time, the sales team's time, and the time of some (now very annoyed) customers. Statistics show that making changes and additions this late is 18-22 times more expensive than figuring out the issue early with the help of a good BA.

That's why you need a BA. But what makes a BA a standout in the herd? The next series of posts will focus on specific qualities you should look for.