Changes that embed, win.
Business analysts make business change happen: for the specific scope in need, and by delivering required, fitting and effective solutions for the stakeholders who want it.
Business analysts help organisations to seize their opportunities and mitigate their threats; they use business analysis to solve stakeholders problems. They have the empathy to understand that those they seek to serve don’t need what they want, want what they need and don’t care about how they get it. They probably never will.
At the heart of our decision making is our belief in value, in our perceived understanding of what something is worth, in how we can get the most out of it.
We default to the cost and our judgements on time and quality to decide what option to choose and how to get there.
Brief, compatible, and beneficial messages delivered to an engaged stakeholder, will earn attention, trust and action. Supportive detail will be explored following. Sometimes.
Strategic analysis is not the same as business analysis is not the same as systems analysis, but together they shape our choice to build the right product for the right people and to build the product right.
“That’s the way we do things around here” is how each of us experiences the organisational culture, and business analysts engage with this presence every day.
Change climbs a grand staircase. The first step is the simplicity of awareness—’What is it?’, then it rushes up to become personal—’How will it affect me?’, before it slowly trudges to the top—’How can we improve it?’. Making better even better. Sometimes.
Time is a precious resource since our days are thrashing with noise. Smart business analysts make it easy for the stakeholders they work with, by helping position the options in a way that is meaningful and is helpful.
Most of all, business analysis starts (and often ends) with what we do and how we do it, not in all the technical stuff that happens in the middle to design and implement the solution.
Your tactics can make a difference, but your strategy—your commitment to a way of being and a need to be fulfilled and a benefit to be realised—can change everything.
If you want to enable change, start by shaping the experience. Start by forming a tightly-knit team. Start by getting key stakeholders in sync.
Change beats analysis—so much that change is analysis.