Delivering Business Analysis

The BA Service handbook

Debra Paul, Christina Lovelock

• Publisher: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781780174709
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Business analysis is a vital business change function with the potential to offer an efficient and valuable business service. Effective business analysis enables greater project success, informed investment choices and the delivery of beneficial business outcomes. A BA service is essential to modern businesses.

Delivering Business Analysis explores the creation and management of a BA service, including strategy definition, recruitment and continuous service improvement. The book explains how to move beyond the BA Community of Practice and embrace a service mindset, as well as how to deliver a BA service offering and move on to co-create business value.

This is the first publication to support senior BAs and BA team leaders within their organisations, helping them to engage with their customers and ensure they lead a team with the skills and tools to deliver an exceptional BA service. It is a key text for anyone driving or enabling successful change outcomes who wish to understand the benefits that accrue from adopting a service approach.

• A comprehensive manual, covering all aspects of establishing and maintaining a BA service
• Offers BA Leaders a timely road map for moving from a standard community of practice to a customer-focused BA service
• A variety of practical and informative case studies is included, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of BA service delivery and leadership
• This guide will enable BA leaders to attract, recruit and retain high-performing business analysts to their organisations
• Fully aligned with the syllabus for the BCS Professional Certificate in Business Analysis Service Delivery

1 INTRODUCING THE BA SERVICE

INTRODUCTION

Business analysis is a professional discipline that aims to ensure that work systems are investigated, requirements are clarified, and proposed business and IT changes are evaluated. Business analysis, when conducted by skilled practitioners, can help organisations to spend investment funds with focus and insight.

Many books explore business analysis. Typically, these books are aimed at individual business analysts, with the objectives of improving business analysis skills and knowledge, and offering frameworks and techniques for conducting business analysis. The extensive readership of these books reflects the increasing number of business analysts who wish to apply professional standards to their work.

However, in many organisations, there are teams or communities of business analysts who wish to feel part of a distinct profession devoted to business analysis practice. These business analysts understand that it is possible to have a business analysis career. They recognise that there are colleagues who are new to business analysis and they are prepared to offer support and mentoring to help them. In many organisations, grading structures exist for business analysts, required skills and competency levels are defined, training is delivered, and tool support is obtained.

Unlike other business analysis publications, this book is not aimed at the practice of business analysis but at the delivery of the business analysis service within organisations. It is relevant for anyone who is leading a business analysis team, representing business analysis within an organisation, or wishing to develop the role and reputation of business analysis across a wider community.

The aim of this book is to offer a resource that will encompass the areas that should be considered when establishing a business analysis service and to provide advice and guidance for anyone working within a business analysis context.

This chapter explores one of the key issues facing business analysis – the lack of understanding that surrounds the business analyst role, where problems lie if this is not addressed, and how this can limit recognition of the advantages business analysis can offer. Clarifying the role is of primary importance to anyone working within or leading a business analysis service. This chapter explains four key topics that underlie the formation and development of any team established to offer a Business analysis (BA) Service:

• the nature of the BA Service;

• situating the BA Service;

• the problems associated with role ambiguity;

•the development pathway for the business analyst role and the BA Service.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS AS A SERVICE

Different organisations use different terminology to refer to their business analysts. In practice, a team of business analysts may be referred to by any of the terms shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Possible titles for the Business Analysis Service

The terms used to identify a group of business analysts within an organisation will be influenced by a number of factors:

• size of the organisation;

• number of business analysts;

• how long the business analyst role has existed within the organisation;

• level of support and sponsorship for business analysis;

• development methodology in use;

• legacy structures and reporting lines, structures and re-structures;

• organisational conventions for other disciplines;

• industry influences;

• senior management influences.

Table 1.1 shows the implications of the terms often used to refer to a business analysis team.

Throughout this book, the generic term ‘the BA Service’ is used to refer to any team, community, group, function or department where there are business analysts who offer business analysis services. This reflects the importance of viewing business analysis as an internal service that provides skills and knowledge and has the potential to support the organisation such that beneficial outcomes are realised. The nature and characteristics of the service approach are discussed further in Chapter 2.

Table 1.1 Titles for business analysis teams that are in frequent use

Name	Implications
BA Practice	Medium–large (20–100+) number of BAs. Usually identified within the organisation structure. There is likely to be a recognised head of BA practice in place, who is likely to have responsibility for all business analysts.
BA Profession (or Professional Group)	Medium–large (20–100+) number of BAs. Likely that professions/groups for other disciplines also exist (e.g. design, testing, etc.). May be identified within the organisation structure or may be represented within a matrix approach.
BA Team	Small (<20) number of BAs. Usually identified within the organisation structure and the BA team leader is likely to have responsibility for all business analysts.
BA Community (or Community of Practice)	Any size. Usually indicates a voluntary network within the organisation. Open to BAs and those carrying out business analysis. Leadership roles in relation to the practice may be on a voluntary basis.
BA Chapter	Any size. If an organisation is using an Agile delivery approach, it is likely that chapters for other disciplines also exist (e.g. design, testing, etc.).
BA Centre of Excellence	Small (<5) number of individuals responsible for BA standards and guidance. Identified within the organisation structure, but unlikely to have a leader with responsibility for all BAs.

THE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE CONCEPT

The Community of Practice (CoP) concept has been defined as follows:

Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.

Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002

The CoP concept is at the heart of the development of the BA Service. The essence of a CoP is that it enables individuals to engage in discussions and information exchanges that they find beneficial. This may operate within a specific governance structure where there is a centralised team, or may be a topic-specific group where individuals are able to share their knowledge and concerns from across different line management structures.

It is not necessarily the case that a CoP is formed within just one organisation. Some CoPs bring together individuals from different organisations, both large and small, and the CoP members may originate from various locations or disciplines. Whichever is the case, the key focus is the desire to develop a community that is able to share knowledge, ideas and concerns regarding a particular shared interest.

Many organisations have applied the CoP concept to develop internal CoPs and these are typically concerned with a specific discipline such as project management, software testing or business analysis. When an organisation sets up a business analysis CoP, it is usually because the organisation has recognised that there is a need to develop further understanding of the business analyst role and the part business analysts play in information systems and business change projects. The CoP tends to be led by an experienced business analysis manager – probably supported by other experienced business analysts – with the authority to establish the community and provide a business analysis service that will meet the organisation’s needs.

Cross-organisational CoPs may also be formed because of the wish to share insights and experiences related to a particular area of interest. Sometimes, these may originate from legal entities such as charities or professional bodies; sometimes they may be set up because a small group of individuals believe there is a potential benefit to be gained from doing so. The cross-industry BA Manager Forum (www.bamanagerforum.org) is a good example of a CoP that originated when a small group identified the need for a networking forum for business analysts in leadership and managerial roles.

A CoP is not the same as an organised team that is focused on delivering service. While a CoP offers many benefits, these are not sufficient to deliver a BA Service that offers customers a relevant portfolio of services, defined activities and standards, and professional personnel who hold the required skills.

SITUATING THE BA SERVICE

Internal services, such as business analysis, payroll, procurement and internal audit, may be situated within the organisation structure as distinct functional areas or may be subsumed within other functions. For example, the payroll function may be the responsibility of the hu...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• BCS, THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE FOR IT
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Authors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Preface
• 1. INTRODUCING THE BA SERVICE
• 2. INTRODUCING THE BA SERVICE FRAMEWORK
• 3. RECRUITING AND RETAINING BUSINESS ANALYSTS
• 4. DEVELOPING THE BUSINESS ANALYSTS
• 5. ENABLING A HIGH-PERFORMANCE BA SERVICE
• 6. STANDARDISING THE BA SERVICE
• 7. APPLYING SOFTWARE TOOLS TO SUPPORT THE BA SERVICE
• 8. LEADING THE BA SERVICE
• 9. OPERATING THE BA SERVICE
• 10. DELIVERING A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED BA SERVICE
• 11. FOSTERING A BA SERVICE CULTURE
• 12. IMPROVING BA SERVICE QUALITY
• 13. MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BA SERVICE
• Afterword
• APPENDICES
• References
• Index
• Back Cover