by Tim Coventry, CBAP,
Business Analysis (BAPL) CEO

Business analysis is about improving business performance. It is the foundation for innovation, business agility, cost reduction, cyber security, and risk control. Exceptional business analysis delivers better products and/or services to your customers, often through leveraging digital technology.

Business Analysts are Management Consultants but instead of following a proprietary method they have an open source method which is aligned to the IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge BABOK or The PMI Guide to Business Analysis. BA’s give professional advice about how to improve an organization’s efficiency. BA’s are a cross between a forensic analyst, translator and journalist working between business and technical solutions to resolve problems or take advantage of opportunities which improves business performance.

Effective Business Analysts engages and empowers stakeholders, allowing them to find better ways to deliver outcomes and value to customers.

Here’s the thing about exceptional business analysis

Business Analysts help your company to think about the “why” before going ahead with a strategy, which will help prevent technology initiatives from providing little or no value to your organisation.

Here’s an example of exceptional business analysis. A client sought a solution to manage their approval process and documents. These were associated with their major energy capital projects, having a value of up to $100 million.

We analysed the business process automation, mapped the future state processes, and explored the business and functional requirements through a series of stakeholder workshops. This was achieved by using aspects of our methodology and customising templates from our Business Analysis Centre of Excellence (BACOE) https://www.business-analysis.com.au/ba-portal/

Based on these documented processes and requirements, we developed an automated workflow solution.

The outcomes of the process automation solution were:

• increased consistency of the approval process
• an automated audit trail for the approvals
• an increase in document tracking, resulting in a greater efficiency with approvals
• reduced time spent on approvals by eliminating manual approvals
• reduced resource wastage on printing

In the final analysis, we found that by minimising the delays for approvals, this reduced the external contract resources required for approval processes. Within six months, the cost of developing the solution was paid for by the benefits of the automated workflow.

An exceptional Business Analyst requires a unique skillset that many senior executives have never experienced. However, you need to engage in a proper business analysis to provide a greater chance of project success.

As increasingly competitive organisations look to become more innovative to survive and prosper with technology, business analysis is critical.

If you want to deliver better products & services to customers, then increase your business analysis capability now!

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