| Canan Ünverdi, PMP, Customer Services Manager |
What Is Business Analysis?
Business analysis is the work of understanding an organization's structure, culture and operations, identifying its needs and recommending solutions so that it can reach its goals. The solutions usually take the form of process improvement, organizational change and strategic planning.
What Makes a Good Business Analyst?
The person who performs business analysis is called a Business Analyst. To understand business processes and how the organization works, a Business Analyst must first be able to look at the system from above. After first treating the system as a whole, it needs to be broken down into parts systematically. Each time the system is broken down, the focus should be on one specific point, which should be analyzed in detail. Even while working on a single process, the rest of the system must be kept in mind. The human interaction factor must always be taken into account during the work.
A business analyst who comes across as trustworthy and observes ethical rules will be widely accepted among stakeholders.
Strong communication significantly increases a business analyst's success. Listening actively and attentively is the most important part of communication. Active listening means asking the right questions where needed. The business analyst's words and body language should show that they value the other person's thoughts. Written communication is as important as verbal communication, because everything in business analysis is done in writing. Words must be used very well, and topics must be expressed clearly in grammatically correct sentences.
A business analyst should be able to bring certain people together around the same goal and guide people in meetings with a conciliatory attitude. An analyst with leadership qualities will manage meetings and agendas well and keep meetings productive.
Since they work with stakeholders from various units of the organization, a business analyst generally needs basic business management knowledge and industry knowledge related to the business being analyzed.
Project Management and Business Analysis
The most important area of interaction between Project Management and Business Analysis is defining and managing requirements and, ultimately, managing the project.
The knowledge area in which requirements are gathered in projects is known as scope management. However, requirements are gathered continuously throughout a project's lifecycle.
Especially at the start of IT projects, during enterprise analysis, during request analysis and during the move to production, requests or change requests are always being made; in short, requirements keep coming and information keeps being gathered.
If requirements are not gathered and analyzed effectively enough, the project scope is not defined clearly and completely, and as a result it is hardly possible to plan time, cost and resources. Failure to gather requirements sufficiently and manage them well directly affects the success of the project.
Requirements Analysis is also closely tied to project Quality Management. Since conformity to needs and requirements is defined as 'Quality', a project is not considered "successful" if needs were not identified correctly, even if it is completed on time and within the planned budget.
Stakeholder management, that is, uncovering and managing stakeholders' expectations and needs, is the most important task in a project. The greatest responsibility for this task falls to business analysts. The Project Manager informs stakeholders about the project scope and involves them in the project during the needs identification phase. The project manager plans how stakeholders will work with the business analysts.
Carrying out needs analysis effectively and efficiently and correctly planning quality control, verification and validation activities are indispensable for running a project soundly. Business analysts hold the most important role and responsibility in carrying out these activities successfully.
Can the Same Person Be Both Business Analyst and Project Manager on a Project?
PMI has a study on this topic. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of separating and combining these two important project roles.
The same person can be both Project Manager and Business Analyst on a project because:The project is small. It is a short, low-budget or narrow-scope project.
. The project's risk is low.
. Organizational processes do not support different people taking on these roles. Some organizations work with their own specific processes and templates, and these organizations usually do not want two separate roles.
. The corporate culture does not support different people taking on these roles.
. Very few departments or business areas are affected.
. There is a small, high-performing project team.
. Project resources and budget are limited.
. The organization's success criteria may require it; the organization is focused on working with a low budget.
Project-Focused or Product-Focused?
The Project Manager is focused on the project: they set baselines, project constraints, communication and solutions to project issues, and make sure resources work on activities. The Business Analyst, on the other hand, is focused on the solution, that is, the final product. In sizable projects, each role is a full-time job, and it is hard to be effective when one person does both. Taking on both roles increases project risk, and the quality of the project and the final product may have to be compromised. The project manager can do product-related work and the business analyst can do project-related work, but for most projects these roles still need to be separated.
The two roles also have different goals. A project manager's goal is to meet the project objectives (PMBOK 4th Edition, Section 1.6). The business analyst's goal is to help the organization reach the business objectives it has set for itself (BABOK 2.0, Section 1.2). This may not look very different, but it is an important distinction. Organizations launch projects to achieve business objectives. In some cases, business analysts propose solutions that may conflict with the organization's project objectives. Although it often looks like a tug of war, this is a healthy environment for the organization. While the project manager wants to finish the final product on time and within budget, the business analyst aims to develop a product that customers can use easily.
The Project Manager and Business Analyst should be different people on a project because:
. There are many components involved in creating the final result, product or service.
. The project affects many system interfaces, or there are standards the project must comply with.
. Many stakeholders are affected. Some projects affect many stakeholders even though they do not affect many processes. For example, at the end of the project only one department's process will change, but that department may have hundreds of employees. The business analyst is the best person to know the difference between the 'as-is process' and the 'to-be process' and to work closely with stakeholders to make it easier for them to accept this change.
. Stakeholders disagree on requirements and their priorities. When there is a disagreement about requirements, focusing on resolving it should be the first priority. But when the project has a business analyst who understands the final product, the outcome, the dependencies between processes and how they affect one another, it will also be possible to propose a solution to the organization at the point of disagreement.
. The project has many releases. When the project is planned to go live step by step, it makes sense to assign a separate business analyst to say which requirements will become operational at which step.
. Requirements are incomplete and unclear, and they change constantly. In such cases, the project can be run with an Agile approach. The business analyst will help the project manager by defining the requirements in detail in each cycle (sprint).
Organizations that separate these roles are more successful than their peers at delivering the highest quality solution and maximizing customer satisfaction.
Sources
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/business-process-analysis
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/515874
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/process-mapping
Would you like to see PaperWork in your organization?
Request a Demo
