How the Business Analyst Role Impacts Project Success

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How the Business Analyst Role Impacts Project
Success
Barbara Carkenord, CBAP President, B2T Training
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How the Business Analyst Role Impacts Project
Success

• Value of Business Analysis to your projects
• What is Business Analysis?
• Why does a project need a PM and a BA?
• How does BA work differ from project management?

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The Value of Business Analysis
Business Analysis Decreases Costly Mistakes
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What is the cost of an error?
70,000,000
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Lost in Translation.
125,000,000
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The cost of poor data quality

• For an average organization, the cost of poor
  data quality is between 10 and 20 of revenue

What does that mean for you?
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Todays Landscape

• Industry Trends
• Industry Challenges
• Virtual Team Challenges
• Industry Report Card
• IT Response

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Industry Challenges

• Todays organizations are facing many challenges,
  some of which are
• Outsourcing of development - only successful with
  excellent requirements
• IT roles continue to specialize
• A lot of maintenance projects on complex,
  integrated systems
• Focus on customer facing software (websites)
• Quality initiatives

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VIRTUAL TEAM CHALLENGES
Involvement
Results
Clarity
Job Satisfaction
Trust
Innovation
-90
-80
-80
-60
-50
-47
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Industry Report Card

• 70 of projects failed to meet deadlines
• 50 - 60 of projects fail to meet the needs of
  the business
• 80 of issues stem from poor requirements
• 50 of project timelines now spent on rework
• 40 of defects are missed by QA and caught by the
  users
• Sources
• Standish Group Chaos Report
• Forrester Research

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What is a Requirement?

• A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder
  to solve a problem or achieve an objective.
• A sentence
• Structured text template
• A table or spreadsheet
• A diagram
• A model
• A prototype or simulation
• A graph
• Any other format that communicates

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Requirements Package
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IT Response

• 72 of CIOs surveyed by CIO Magazine said their
  Number One Priority is to improve the customer
  relationship.
• Only 10 of CIOs surveyed said that technical
  proficiency is an important skill to be
  successful. The most important personal skills
• Communication 70
• Understanding the Business 58

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Question for Discussion

• What are the differences between project
  management skills and business analysis skills?

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What is a Business Analyst
A Business Analyst is a person who acts as a
liaison between business people who have a
business problem and technology people who know
how to implement solutions.
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What is Business Analysis?

• International Institute of Business Analysis
  (IIBA)
• Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)
• definition of Business Analysis
• Business analysis is the set of tasks and
  techniques used to work as a liaison among
  stakeholders in order to understand the
  structure, policies, and operations of an
  organization, and recommend solutions that enable
  the organization to achieve its goals.

International Institute for Business Analysis,
http//www.iiba.com
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Project Life Cycle
8. Conduct post-implementation review
1. Plan the project
2. Scope the project
7. Implement the solution
Project Life Cycle
3. Elicit, analyze and document requirements
6. Test the solution
4. Design a solution
5. Build or buy the solution
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Role of the Business Analyst
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Profile of a Successful BA

• Today, the business analysis role continues to
  grow and requires
• Excellent communication skills
• Analytical and Problem Solving skills
• Understanding of business and its profitability
• Standards and Methodology
• Tools and Modeling
• Emphasis on verification and validation

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Why is the Business Analyst a Key Role?

• The Business Analyst has been described as an
  Agent of Change
• The BA holds a Unique Role
• Enterprise-wide awareness (Business and IT)
• Understanding of the business problem or
  opportunity
• Ability to clearly define analysis scope
• Ability to elicit, analyze, communicate and
  management requirements
• Verify requirements are met

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What is Project Management?

• PMI Definition of a Project Management
• Project management is the application of
  knowledge, skills, tools techniques to a broad
  range of activities in order to meet the
  requirements of a particular project.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), - Third Edition
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Question for Discussion

• Is managing a project a full time job?

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Why Does a Project Need a PM and BA?

• Having both a PM a BA is critical to a
  projects success
• Each role provides specialized capabilities
• Both have a common goal, but focus on different
  aspects to achieve it
• The roles often intersect but
• also diverge
• It is difficult to wear both hats
• effectively on the same project

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Roles that use Business Analysis Skills

• Project Manager
• Business Systems Analyst
• Systems Analyst
• QA Analyst
• Product Manager
• Strategic Planner
• Business Architect
• Solution Architect
• Developer
• ..and many more!

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Project Managers Role

• Typically assigned to the project first
• Responsible for planning the project and ensuring
  the team follows the plan
• Manages changes, handles problems, keeps the
  project moving
• Manages people, money, risk
• Chief communicator of good or
  bad news to the business sponsors
  IT management

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Business Analysts Role

• Usually assigned after the project has started
• Responsible for bridging the gap between the
  business IT
• Must have thorough understanding of the business
• Essentially the architect of effective business
  systems
• Job title, definition and responsibilities
  viewed inconsistently across
  the industry

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Skills Comparison Similarities

• Project Manager
• Strong communication skills
• Understands the SDLC
• Negotiation/ consensus building
• Strong interpersonal client management skills

• Business Analyst
• Strong communication skills
• Understands the SDLC
• Negotiation/ consensus building
• Strong interpersonal client management skills

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Skills Comparison Differences

• Project Manager
• Ability to see the
• big picture
• Directs project team
• Helps project team get things done
• Ensures the product is delivered on time, within
  budget

• Business Analyst
• Detail-oriented
• Elicits (listens) to people (SMEs)
• Helps SMEs describe how why tasks are done
• Ensures the product is built right according to
  the requirements

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Skills Comparison - Differences

• Project Manager
• Removes issue barriers
• Manages project change control
• Manages the Work Breakdown Structure
• Possesses management skills

• Business Analyst
• Identifies business issues
• Manages requirements change requests
• Performs requirements-related tasks in the WBS
• Possesses investigative skills

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Overlapping Responsibilities

• Project scope definition
• Project statement of purpose
• Project objectives
• Project business risks
• Client relationship
• Communication with SMEs technical team
• Quality Review of requirements,
• designs plans

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Overlapping Responsibilities
The bridge, Fall 2007
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Role Delineation of a PM

• Plan organize projects by determining scope,
  deliverables, milestones, schedule resources
• Manage project scope, risk, issues,
  communication, quality cost
• Interact, collaborate negotiate with all
  project stakeholders business partners/clients

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Role Delineation of a BA

• Gathering, documenting reviewing business
  requirements from SMEs
• Translating business requirements into functional
  system specifications to be developed by the
  technical team
• Testing the solution, training SMEs on the new
  system documenting new procedures

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Working Together 2 Roles / 1 Project

Initiation
Design Implementation Planning
Requirements
Construction
QA
Closure
SDLC
Implementation
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Examples of Cooperation (Dynamic Duos)

• Strong PM, Weak BA
• Result Requirements are rushed, some may be
  missed, rework needed late in the process,
  schedule and budget suffers
• Weak PM, Strong BA
• Result Too much time developing requirements,
  project falls behind schedule, scope creep
  often occurs
• Weak PM, Weak BA
• Result Project failure!
• Strong PM, Strong BA
• Result Success, great balance between thorough
  requirements-gathering and moving forward

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What if One Person has to do Both Jobs?
Helpful Tips

• Heighten awareness regarding conflicting roles
• Make your management and team aware of
  conflicting responsibilities and challenges
  associated with them
• Seek help in managing the schedule
• Seek help to gather and document the requirements
  
• Try to minimize involvement on other concurrent
  projects

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Question for Discussion

• Do you have a preference PM or BA?

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About B2T Training

• Founded in 2000 in Atlanta, GA
• Founding Partner of the IIBA
• Our focus is training BAs
• Cohesive business analysis curriculum
• Performance-based certification
• Mentoring services available