As part of the 2016 Inter-View Report Charlene Seini, Senior Consultant at Saratoga, interviewed bright minds from various leading companies about the importance of business analysis in solution delivery. Here are seven key insights Saratoga found invaluable:
1. The project manager
In what way does business analysis interface support and / or enable your responsibilities?
"To solve a problem, one needs to articulate the problem, measure the extent of the problem, determine the root cause, improve the current state of affairs and monitor the solution to ensure it is sustainable."
Kweku Essel, Project Manager, Old Mutual Personal Finance
2. The business stakeholder
How could business analysts optimally focus and deliver in order to better support your capability?
"By understanding what I do, and how I use the data, the analyst is better positioned to propose solutions that improve my efficiency, saving me time and the business money. The analyst is not the only party in this relationship and I feel that it is a business imperative to proactively share with, and include, the analyst as early as possible in a potential need realisation. It's only when we collaborate together that we can be truly effective."
Steve Bryant, Digital Channel Specialist, Direct Axis
3. The test analyst
What is the impact of poor quality business analysis on your capability to deliver effectively?
"When requirements are brought into the sprint without having the necessary analysis performed, further analysis is completed to identify gaps in the requirements which often results in rework, and re-estimation of tasks. Needless to say, the later gaps are identified, the more costly it becomes for the overall project."
Stephanie Nayager, Senior Automation Engineer, FIS
4. The change manager
In what way does business analysis interface support your role as a Change Manager?
"Business analysis defines the change through requirements gathering, and change management helps ensure that the appropriate stakeholders are engaged with the business analyst. The gathered business requirements shape the change, which I need to understand and communicate to the rest of the stakeholder group to help them transition."
Amanda Foster, Change Manager, Woolworths
5. The systems analyst
How could business analysts optimally focus and deliver in order to better support your capability?
"Business analysts need to try and understand the technical implementation of their requirements. If developers can understand the business domain, then BAs need to try and understand the development world as well. This mutual understanding will lead to better solutions and faster project delivery."
Jacques du Preez, Systems Analyst, Entelect Consulting at FNB Business
6. The software developer
Does business analysis interface support and/or enable your responsibilities?
"When business analysis is performed correctly, it provides me with clear guidelines of what to do. It illustrates the business need for a feature and how we should create it. It speeds up the development time and ensures that business complexity is explained and then correctly translated into code."
Ewald van Niekerk, Team Leader, Britehouse
7. The interface designer
In what way does poor quality business analysis impact your capability to deliver effectively?
"Inaccurate requirements lead me on a wild goose chase, whereby I specify a solution which ends up being worlds apart from what the end user wants, which in turn leads to failing user acceptance testing and therefore a failed project."
Movement Musasiwa, Software Designer, Afrosoft Holdings
Saratoga continues to be a proud partner of the BCMG Inter-View Report. The full article and insights from 'The golden thread of Business Analysis' was originally featured in the 2016 Inter-View Report. For more business analysis insights follow @SaratogaSA and @businesschange.
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