Feature

Business Analysts: A Key to Companies' Success

Companies look to business analysts to facilitate IT-business communication and help determine technology strategies that will drive greater revenue.

By Sam Cherubin and Kimberly Terribile

August 12, 2008 — CIO —

Business analysts and the work they perform are becoming increasingly important to companies.

Read related article: Hot Jobs: Business Analyst

Over the last several years, the business analyst role has evolved and developed beyond eliciting, analyzing and documenting software requirements. Business analysts are now taking prominent roles across the enterprise, to perform strategic problem and opportunity identification, conduct gap analysis and feasibility studies, and drive business solutions within their organizations.

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABoK) defines enterprise business analysis as a way for organizations to:

Identify, analyze and solve business problems and opportunities
Determine the feasibility of a solution
Define the solution scope and develop the business case
Continue to assess, refine, and validate the business need and solution
Evaluate the business benefits brought about by a solution

The work of business analysts does sometimes leads to a business case, but there are many other functions that enterprises business analysts perform, such as:

Driving business architecture discussion and development
Creating-functional decomposition of business areas
Providing thought leadership within their organizations
Assisting business areas in understanding the big picture (rather than talking in terms of project teams and business lines)
Aligning project portfolios with overall business strategy
Creating feasibility studies for new products, markets and systems
Making strategic recommendations for process improvements and streamlining across departmental divides and geographical locations


	Project Business Analysis	Enterprise Business Analysis
Stakeholders	System owners System users Project managers Interfacing systems	CIO Leadership team Directors VPs
Activities	Plan requirements Gather information Analysis	Meet with executive sponsor Gather information (current initiatives; critical organizational

By expanding the scope of what business analysis can provide, enterprise business analysts become organizational consultants—their tools, techniques and processes are tailored to specific opportunities, challenges, and drivers. Business analysts are uniquely positioned to do this type of work, because they can repurpose common project business analysis techniques, are able to collaborate across departments and functions, and have built extensive internal networks within their organizations.

Read related article: Why Business Analysts Are So Important for IT and CIOs

To encourage business analysts to begin thinking in strategic terms, organizations should:

Foster a culture that encourages problem identification and creating solutions
Ensure business analysts have the opportunities to learn leading-edge techniques that can be used to enhance both project business analysis and enterprise business analysis
Give business analysts the opportunity to participate and contribute to strategic conversations, particularly where additional research and analysis is needed
Encourage certification through the IIBA

The return on investment for organizations that recognize and harness the skills of business analysts is significant. By utilizing the unique skill sets these resources bring to the table, organizations create a win-win. A career path is provided for highly skilled and talented resources, and organizations have a means to understand strategic problems and opportunities to inform decision making.