How Business Analysis Ensures Your Development Project Takes Flight
What is Business Analysis?
Business Analysis enables change in an organisational context by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business analysis enables an enterprise to articulate needs and the rationale for change, and to design and describe solutions that can deliver value.
Business Analysis serves as the bridge between business needs and technical solutions. By clearly defining project objectives, identifying stakeholders, and documenting requirements, business analysts ensure that development teams have a clear roadmap to follow.
Business Analysis performs strategic, tactical and operational initiatives for the business considering the current state to the future state. The Business analyst follows the Business Analyst Core Concept Model (BACCM) as the heart of the Business Analysis.
What is BACCM?
Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM) is composed of six terms that have a common meaning to all business analysts and help to discuss both business analysis and its relationships with common terminology. All the six terms are core concepts of the model.
- Change
The “Change” is the process of transforming the system, environment etc. as the response to an identified need. This is to optimise the performance of the enterprise.
- Need
The “Need” can be a problem or opportunity that needs to be addressed in the enterprise. Needs can cause changes by motivating stakeholders to act.
- Solution
The “Solution” is the specific way to satisfy multiple needs identified within a specific context. This specific solution should satisfy the needs of the stakeholders by solving the problems they face and making sure the stakeholders benefit from the opportunities.
- Stakeholder
The “Stakeholder” is a group of individuals that have a connection to the Need, Change and Solution. The stakeholder can be internal or external to the enterprise and can connect directly or indirectly.
- Value
The “Value” is the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to a stakeholder within a context. Value can be a return, gain or an improvement but also can be a decrease in value
in the form of losses, risks, and costs. Value can be tangible or intangible.
- Context
The “Context” is the circumstances that influence, are influenced by, and provide an understanding of the change. Changes occur within a specific context. The context is everything relevant to the change that is within the environment. It can be a behaviour, process, product, project, etc.
Why is Business Analysis important for development?
- It helps stakeholders understand the business needs.
- It helps to align development with business goals.
- It can help teams identify challenges they may face in meeting the business’s needs and plan ways to overcome them ahead of time.
- It can help the stakeholders to identify the opportunities.
- It Improves Communication between parties.
- It helps drive useful change which can make a business more competitive and successful.
What will happen without correct Business Analysis?
- Increased Risk of Failure: Projects without proper business analysis are more likely to fail due to unforeseen challenges, scope creep, and lack of stakeholder alignment.
- Blurred focus and decreased efficiency of the project: Trying to multitask and keep everything in mind they become less productive and have less time to anticipate all possible edge cases or alternative flows.
- Unmet Business Objectives: Without a clear understanding of business goals, development efforts may not deliver the desired outcomes, resulting in missed opportunities.
- Project Delays and Cost Overruns: Inaccurate or incomplete requirements often result in project delays, rework, and increased costs.
- Strained Relationships: Miscommunication and misunderstandings between business and IT teams can arise without effective business analysis, leading to strained relationships and project conflicts.
Benefits of Business Analysis
- Enhance Performance: By gaining a detailed understanding of the project’s specific needs and requirements, the performance of the project will increase significantly.
- Improved Project Success Rates: Through thorough requirements gathering and stakeholder alignment, business analysts reduce project risks and increase the likelihood of successful outcomes.
- Improve Project RIO: Achieving a stable Return on Investment (ROI) can be done by adopting practical solutions for the enterprise.
- Optimised Business Processes: By identifying inefficiencies and bottlenecks, business analysts help streamline operations and improve overall organisational performance.
- Increased Customer Satisfaction: By ensuring that products and services meet customer needs, business analysis contributes to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Risk Mitigation: By identifying potential risks early in the project lifecycle, business analysts help organisations develop strategies to mitigate them, protecting valuable resources and investments
