Last time I took on the subject of IT and the Business working relationship. Is it an “Us vs. Them” relationship or a collaborative, mutually beneficial working relation where you appear to be on the same team. Now I wish to take a look of this subject from the organizational perspective.
Kupe recently wrote on this subject at BA Times, where he discusses the point of whether your “internal customers” really wish to work with the IT department. So how does the Organization get rid of the “Us vs. Them” mentality within the organization?
Organizational Structure
Take a look at the Organizational Structure, do the Business Analysts (BA) within the organization report to a single Manager or Director, or are they dispersed throughout different departments of the organization. Do they report up to a Business or the IT Manager/Director? If they report to business, are they perceived as part of the business or business partners to work with the IT folks to achieve technology solutions. How are they perceived by the IT Team, as their business partners, SMEs or IT folks that are the “business-face” of IT. If they report to IT, how do the business units perceive them, as IT employees that they must work with to get technology solutions.
I have work in organizations that have had each reporting structure. I have had a third structure suggested to me, where the Business Analysis Office (BAO) is a separate unit within the organization that does not report to either the business or IT. Would this make them perceived as an independent unit to assist both the business and IT in achieving needed IT business solutions?
Seating Chart
Even if you decide that the organization is best served by the BAO reporting to IT, where should your BAs sit, within the IT Department or with the business units they are to support. One of the roles of the BA is to identify business needs and make a business case for a solution to that need. To do so, the BA should sit with the business people that perform the day-to-day tasks of the business. The BA needs to understand the daily challenges of the business and they can not do that tucked away in the IT Department.
I actually recommend splitting the BA role within the organization into two roles: Enterprise Analyst and Business Analyst (Business Systems Analyst).
Enterprise Analyst
The Enterprise Analyst (EA) would be the analyst that needs to sit with the business to understand the day-to-day challenges that the business people within the organization. They work with the business people to identify gaps that need filled and competitive advantages that can be gained. These are the analysts that will perform market analysis, capability gap analysis, SWOTs, feasibility studies and so forth to help identify business needs. They then build the business case for a solution, business or IT, to that business need. The EA should support the business case, being the one that knows the most about the case, before the governance body (Project Review Board). Once approved, they turn the business case over to the Project Management Office (PMO) and a new project is born.
Business Analyst
Business Analysts (BA) work with the PMO and IT enterprise application development team to make the solution to the business need a reality. The BA may report to the PMO or as suggested above to a separate BAO within the organization. This BA would take the business and functional requirements defined by the EA and refine them to give more detail to the application development team to help define the solution. The BA could use the EA or other business partner as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) during the project lifecycle.
The EA is the strategic role and the BA is the tactical role of business analysis. The EA helps the organization achieve its strategic goals through enterprise analysis activities. Unfortunately, this is the role of business analysis that most organizations are missing. This with a lack of an internal Business Analyst Body of Knowledge and Enterprise Architecture keep more than just the BAs within the organization repeating processes that cause a great waste of time. So every organization should strive to have both roles of business analysis performed for the organization. Ensure that enterprise analysis activities are being performed to further the strategic goals of the organization.
Kupe recently wrote on this subject at BA Times, where he discusses the point of whether your “internal customers” really wish to work with the IT department. So how does the Organization get rid of the “Us vs. Them” mentality within the organization?
Organizational Structure
Take a look at the Organizational Structure, do the Business Analysts (BA) within the organization report to a single Manager or Director, or are they dispersed throughout different departments of the organization. Do they report up to a Business or the IT Manager/Director? If they report to business, are they perceived as part of the business or business partners to work with the IT folks to achieve technology solutions. How are they perceived by the IT Team, as their business partners, SMEs or IT folks that are the “business-face” of IT. If they report to IT, how do the business units perceive them, as IT employees that they must work with to get technology solutions.
I have work in organizations that have had each reporting structure. I have had a third structure suggested to me, where the Business Analysis Office (BAO) is a separate unit within the organization that does not report to either the business or IT. Would this make them perceived as an independent unit to assist both the business and IT in achieving needed IT business solutions?
Seating Chart
Even if you decide that the organization is best served by the BAO reporting to IT, where should your BAs sit, within the IT Department or with the business units they are to support. One of the roles of the BA is to identify business needs and make a business case for a solution to that need. To do so, the BA should sit with the business people that perform the day-to-day tasks of the business. The BA needs to understand the daily challenges of the business and they can not do that tucked away in the IT Department.
I actually recommend splitting the BA role within the organization into two roles: Enterprise Analyst and Business Analyst (Business Systems Analyst).
Enterprise Analyst
The Enterprise Analyst (EA) would be the analyst that needs to sit with the business to understand the day-to-day challenges that the business people within the organization. They work with the business people to identify gaps that need filled and competitive advantages that can be gained. These are the analysts that will perform market analysis, capability gap analysis, SWOTs, feasibility studies and so forth to help identify business needs. They then build the business case for a solution, business or IT, to that business need. The EA should support the business case, being the one that knows the most about the case, before the governance body (Project Review Board). Once approved, they turn the business case over to the Project Management Office (PMO) and a new project is born.
Business Analyst
Business Analysts (BA) work with the PMO and IT enterprise application development team to make the solution to the business need a reality. The BA may report to the PMO or as suggested above to a separate BAO within the organization. This BA would take the business and functional requirements defined by the EA and refine them to give more detail to the application development team to help define the solution. The BA could use the EA or other business partner as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) during the project lifecycle.
The EA is the strategic role and the BA is the tactical role of business analysis. The EA helps the organization achieve its strategic goals through enterprise analysis activities. Unfortunately, this is the role of business analysis that most organizations are missing. This with a lack of an internal Business Analyst Body of Knowledge and Enterprise Architecture keep more than just the BAs within the organization repeating processes that cause a great waste of time. So every organization should strive to have both roles of business analysis performed for the organization. Ensure that enterprise analysis activities are being performed to further the strategic goals of the organization.
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