The Value of Added Value

I had the fortunate pleasure of being able to work with some fabulous Business Analysts (BA's) the other week as we were doing course work of the role of the business analyst.  Great questions came up about how to deliver value to the organization.  However, the most challenging question came up in "how to show the value of delivering this business value?"

What a great business analysis question!  How do I show the value of a business analyst that delivers value to the organization?  How do I show the time spent is value added?  How is the cost not only justified but then RETURNED to the organization?

This is the fun of a business analyst to ask the questions then about what you DO know.  What is it that you know you can measure today?  What do I know about the process today?  If there is a 'pain point' and you solve it, what is that worth to the organization?

Measures can always be identified and broken down based on the scenario.  Again, measure what you do know.  How long does it take you to complete a process (perhaps an average time frame).  Then if you change something in your process and re-measure the process, did it take less time?  More time?  This is the essential perspective of measuring - after a change, how do you compare to the baseline?

So if you're considering training and trying to justify it, can you identify activities that you do prior to training that might change based on your training?  Same thing with justifying the position of a business analyst or re-shaping your role to be an official BA - what are you doing now (and how can you measure it) and what will the process look like after the change (and what are the measures then).

Get Good In, Get Good Out...and Keep BA's Happy!

So I saw this posting and had to share it.  Funny how the first thing I thought about was how it applied to business stakeholders and business analysis.

But think about it for a few.  How many times have you read a business case and wondered how in the world the person came to the conclusion!?  I love the business case of a 12 month project that was submitted, but revenue projections show that they will be bringing in revenue on the second month of the project when the product will not official be available for sale until at least half way through the project!  

The thought that if you act like an adult and think about what value means and how to achieve it and spend some thought about what it will take to achieve this, then you will get more scrutiny from the BA than our minion is providing here.  Yet time and time again I see business cases submitted with the same amount of energy as the decision making being done above.  

Picking the project with the cooler sounding name will only make you cool as long as it takes to read the title.  After that the metal hits the pavement and you have to produce.  Projects fail if they were not well conceived to even start with.  And I adamantly defend BA's that projects do not fail because of bad requirements, but because they were not even setup to scope ANY requirements.  Some forethought to consider what might be involved, even a simple checklist can save a TON of resources!

Get the businesses to consider a simple checklist before submitting any kind of proposal, whether major project or small work enhancement:

• Is there IT components?  (Could there be IT components?)
• Do we do this work in house today?  
• What Legal issues are there?
• What Compliance rules do we have to worry about?
• Have we complied with Branding requirements?
• Who will be my testers to evaluate the solution?
• Do I know my budget?  Have I taken in account budget for any changes?
• Who are the people who use this process?
• Who are the people who support this process?
• Who are the people who pay for this process?
• Who has no clue about this process?  (Should they?)

And I could go on and on - but considering asking someone to look at these questions and for any question they do not know the answer to, then they must NOT submit their request and go find out.  A small checklist can save you a TON of time and headache from trying to work with a project manager to deliver an unrealistic project.  You may not be able to change the stakeholder's mentality but you can get them to consider a few conditions prior to asking for the world.  Then you'l be as happy as a BA with a 'bunch' of requirements!