Chapter 3
The Business Analyst’s Leadership Role
throughout the Business Solution Life Cycle
In This Chapter:
The Business Analyst’s Role in Strategic Planning and Enterprise Analysis
The Business Analyst’s Role in Requirements and Design
The Business Analyst’s Role in Construction and Testing
The Business Analyst’s Role in Solution Delivery
The Business Analyst’s Role in Operations and Maintenance
Throughout the Business Analysis Essential Library, we have used the business solution life cycle (BSLC) model as a framework for our discussions about the role of the business analyst. This model, shown in Figure 3-1, depicts the major deliverables produced, as well as the skills and techniques employed by the business analyst during each project phase. The business analyst partners and collaborates with other key project leaders, the project manager, business representatives, and technical leads during all phases of the BSLC.
Figure 3-1—The Business Solution Life Cycle
The Business Analyst’s Role in Strategic Planning
and Enterprise Analysis
The business analyst is largely responsible for providing information, processes, and tools, as well as for facilitating an organizational focus on strategy execution through projects. During the strategic planning and enterprise analysis phases, the business analyst conducts competitive analysis and benchmark studies, identifies potential solutions to business problems, conducts feasibility studies to determine the optimum solution, and prepares the business case for the proposed new initiative to arm the executive team with the information it needs to make quality project investment decisions. A high-quality decision is one that is likely to attain the goals of the organization, is well reasoned, and is consistent with available information and with organizational goals and objectives.
The foremost business analysis leadership skills needed during these phases include:
Soft Skills and Techniques
Facilitation and consensus building
Conflict management
Consensus decision-making
Customer management
Communications
Stakeholder management
Management of politics and power
Technical Skills and Techniques
Business modeling
Benchmarking
Feasibility analysis
Cost versus benefit analysis
Business case development
Business metrics and measurement development
Benefits management
Product sizing
Refer to another volume in this series, The Business Analyst as Strategist: Translating Business Strategies into Valuable Solutions, for a detailed description of the activities and deliverables produced and the role of the business analyst during the strategic planning and enterprise analysis project phases.
The Business Analyst’s Role in Requirements and Design
During the requirements and design phases, the business analyst conducts requirements elicitation, analysis, specification, documentation, validation, and change management activities. At the same time, the business analyst works with the solution designers to make the necessary tradeoffs to deliver the solution on time and with the required scope of features and functions.
The business analysis leadership skills needed during these phases include:
Soft Skills and Techniques
Problem solving
Communication
Conflict management
Consensus decision-making
Negotiations
Customer relationship management
Managing politics and stakeholders
Organizational change management
Facilitation skills
Stakeholder management
Technical Skills and Techniques
Requirements engineering
Requirements elicitation
Requirements validation and verification
Requirements partitioning and decomposition
Requirements allocation
Requirements change management
Requirements specification and documentation
Requirements risk planning and monitoring
Requirements baseline management
Alternative solution identification and analysis
Requirements understanding modeling
Proof of concept
Scope decomposition and progressive elaboration
Business writing
Issue resolution
Problem solving
Refer to two other volumes in this series, Unearthing Business Requirements: Elicitation Tools and Techniques and Getting it Right: Business Requirement Analysis Tools and Techniques, for a detailed description of the activities and deliverables produced during the requirements and design project phases.
The Business Analyst’s Role in Construction and Testing
During the construction and testing phases, the business analyst continually validates the requirements and early system prototypes and builds end-user procedures, education, documentation, and transition plans.
The business analysis leadership skills needed during these phases include:
Soft Skills and Techniques
Problem solving
Team building
Communication
Consensus decision-making
Negotiations
Customer relationship management (managing politics and stakeholders)
Organizational change management
Technical Skills and Techniques
Requirements change management
Requirements traceability (to physical components)
Business writing
Verification and validation
Development and implementation of policies, procedures, business rules, and training manuals
The Business Analyst’s Role in Solution Delivery
The business analyst assumes the lead role during solution delivery to ensure that the implementation plans are well communicated and accepted by the business groups undergoing change. During deployment, the business analyst conducts training, facilitates the implementation of business procedures and policies, and works to ensure that the solution is delivering the expected business value.
The foremost business analysis leadership skills needed during these phases include:
Soft Skills and Techniques
Organizational change planning and management
Communication
Conflict management
Consensus decision-making
Negotiations
Customer relationship management (managing politics and stakeholders)
Organizational change management
Mentoring and coaching
Technical Skills and Techniques
Training
Timely issue resolution
Prioritization
Problem solving
Root cause analysis
Corrective actions
Quality management
Identification and implementation of procedural work-arounds
Solution value measurement
The Business Analyst’s Role in Operations and Maintenance
During the operations and maintenance phase, the business analyst identifies, prioritizes and implements enhancements to the solution to continue to add value to the business. The business analyst continually monitors the performance of the solution, ensures that defects that arise are corrected, and reports on actual benefits of the solution to the person(s) who sponsored the project and are accountable for the business benefits. Finally, the business analyst determines when the solution is no longer adding the required value to the organization and recommends deactivation and replacement.
The most important leadership skills needed during these phases include:
Soft Skills and Techniques
Problem solving
Communication
Customer relationship management (managing politics and stakeholders)
Organizational change management
Mentoring and coaching
Technical Skills and Techniques
Measurement analysis
Metric analysis
Cost/benefit analysis
Solution value measurement
Qualitative and quantitative analysis
Root cause analysis
Corrective actions
Identification and implementation of procedural work-arounds
So there you have it—a broad overview of the business analyst’s leadership role throughout the BSLC. Read on to examine key aspects of the leadership acumen needed and recommendations for a path from business analysis to business leadership.