Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »May 23, 2008 — CIO —
Most line-of-business execs, project managers and software developers who have worked on application development teams can attest to the importance of good business analysts.
In many instances, in fact, today's business analyst can affect the outcome (good or bad) of a software project. "When business analysts aren't able to carry their weight, it's evident to everybody on the project. They usually know something is going on," says Carey Schwaber, a senior analyst of application development at Forrester Research "I've seen projects where a bad business analyst was the critical failure factor."
Sure, executive boardroom support is key at the kickoff, but the CEO or CIO isn't down in the trenches every day, hammering out compromises, grinding out specs and pushing all involved toward the finish line. "It's funny," Schwaber adds, "we have a lot of prerequisites for success with software projects, and it's not just executive support. It's also good business analysts."
While most employees might have a sense of what a traditional business analyst does, not everyone knows how BAs do their jobs' effectively. "It's easy to understand what their role is," Schwaber says, "but it's hard to understand what makes them good at it or bad at it."
So what do the best business analysts do so well? Here are six critical skillsets and professional characteristics that make business analysts invaluable.
They understand the specific business problem that software aims to solve. To Ron Bonig, CIO of the George Washington University, the best business analysts have an ability to determine the actual business problem and then help figure out a solution.
"The ability to properly frame and structure a problem is 75 percent of the effort to discern a solution," Bonig says. "I see people attempting to solve the wrong problem every day, and it usually stems from an inadequate problem statement that either leaves them floundering among irrelevant details or confidently determining a solution that bears no relationship to the core issue."
Good business analysts should fall back on what Bonig calls the "old list of questions taught in Journalism 101"—who, what, where, when, why and how. "If one can describe the problem using these attributes," Bonig says, "a solution is generally well within reach." Business analysts who answer these questions at the outset of software projects (Bonig says he uses this method all the time) will have a better chance of success.