Often when people
talk about the Business Analyst being a trusted
advisor within the organization, they are speaking about advising senior
management of the organization. That role of the business analyst is that of a
Management Consultant, the role of trusted advisor goes much beyond consulting
or advising management. The business analyst has to become a trusted advisor to
everyone within the organization. Whether they are an IT Business Analyst,
Business Architect, Process Analyst, Agile Business Analyst or Business
Intelligence Analyst they will work with many people within the organization;
and they must garner trust from everyone with which they work to gain the
needed knowledge from those individuals or assist them in doing their tasks. So
let’s look how the business analyst works with and advises others within the
organization.
The Project Manager
The Business Analyst works with the Project Manager in
managing the project to a successful completion. Although their focus is
different; the project manager is focused on the project and the business
analyst is focused on the product or solution, their goal of a successful
completion of the project is the same. Like many members of the project team,
the Project Manager relies on the requirements developed by the business
analyst. The business analyst can advise the project manager throughout the
project on concerns from both the business and technical stakeholders and may
advise on activities or tasks to respond to those concerns.
The Project Sponsor
and Business Stakeholders
As the major decision maker of the business stakeholders,
the business analyst advises the project sponsor on upcoming project business
analysis activities, product features, solution scope boundaries and works with
the project sponsor and project team to resolve any issues that the business
stakeholders raise. The business analyst works with the business stakeholders
to draw out, analyze and document the business needs and requirements for the
solution to resolve those needs. The rest of the project team and organization
rely on the accuracy and clarity of those requirements. The business analyst
works with the business stakeholders and project sponsor to validate and
approve the requirements.
The Enterprise
Architect
Although Enterprise Architect is considered a business
analysis role, in larger and more complex organization these will be two
distinct roles; therefore, I list them separately. However, realize that in
smaller organization these roles may be performed by one individual. The
enterprise architect will be concerned with the architecture of the solution
being considered; they will be develop the technical architecture for the
solution based on the requirements of the project. They will put that technical
input to the requirements during their development, then use those requirements
to ensure the technical architecture of the solution is aligned with enterprise
standards. During the development of the architecture and the solution the
business analyst advises the enterprise architect on the business perspective
of the requirements.
The Business Relationship
Manager
The Business Relationship Manager is responsible to ensure
that the project sponsor is included in all correspondence necessary and that
the project team understands the business perspective of the solution scope; in
this respective, this is a business analysis role. The business analyst will
advise the business relationship manager the same as the project sponsor and
ensure that they both are included in all communication and fully informed as
to solution scope. They will ensure that
the project sponsor and business relationship manager understand the technical
side of the solution scope.
The Development Team
As development of the solution is about to begin the
business analyst will hold a requirements review session with the development
team and business team. This allows to get everyone on the same page with
respect to the requirements. This gives the development team the opportunity to
raise issues with the requirements, especially if features or components are
functionally impossible to deliver. Also difficult to deliver features and
components, and alternatives to those can be raised at this time. It is
possible that the enterprise architect or business analyst has raised and
considered alternatives prior to the requirements review. Like the enterprise
architect, the business analyst will advise the development team on the
business need and perspective of the requirements during the development phase
of the project.
The Quality Assurance
Team
Like the rest of the project team, the quality assurance
testers will rely on the requirements for the solution. The quality assurance
team will build their test cases on the requirements. The business analyst will
put the business perspective on those requirements so that the quality
assurance team understands the business reason and relative importance of the
requirements.
Organizational
Management
As the organization is expecting to receive some benefit
from the change and its solution, the business analyst, possibly through the
project manager, must advise business management of any changes in that
expected benefit as the project progresses through its life cycle. Once
delivered the business analyst will measure solution performance against
developed success metrics and advice management on benefit realization.
So as you can see, the business analyst, as a trusted
advisor, advises many individuals in many roles within the organization. They
advise inside and outside of software development and process improvement
projects. They advise on topics of business needs and perspective, technical
constraints, data, business processes, architecture, communication needs,
requirements, user acceptance testing, solution validation and more topics.
They use numerous techniques and models to bring shared understanding of these
topics across the project team and organization. So when interacting with
anyone within the organization, or as someone in one of these other roles
within the organization and interacting with a business analyst remember the
business analyst’s duties as a trusted advisor.
Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP is a senior business analyst in the
Cincinnati, Ohio area. He has over 28 years of business and IT experience,
including 16 years of business analysis and 15 years of consulting experience.
Aaron is an avid Business Analyst, Business Process Analyst, Project Manager,
Blogger, Mentor, Trainer and Presenter.
He is a champion for the IIBA®, business analysis as a profession and
the recognition of its practitioners.
You may connect with Aaron on LinkedIn or follow him
on twitter @TheWittyBA.
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