IT Consultant

One of the critical roles of the Business Analyst (BA), or Enterprise Analyst (EA), in the area of Enterprise Analysis is to identify business need. There are many factors, or many ways that the BA can identify what the business needs. It can be a result of market research or an identified new opportunity brought about by actions of a vendor or competitor.   It could be derived from a strategic goal or initiative of the organization.  It could have come from a business user complaint about a current system issue and/or the subsequent Root Cause Analysis. It could also be derived from an Enterprise Analysis activity that the BA performed, such as Capability Gap Analysis, SWOT Analysis or Product Feasibility Analysis.

If this vital role is not performed than the organization in Cincinnati, Dayton or other business community would not realize the benefits of identifying some business needs that need to be addressed, possibly gaining greater competitive advantage, possibly achieving strategic goals or taking advantage of an opportunity presented by the market.

Once identified, the business need should be documented in the Business Case of a project to develop a solution for this business need. The business need defines the problem for which the business analyst is attempting to find a solution. The way the business need is defined determines which alternative solutions will be considered, which stakeholders will be consulted and which solution approaches will be evaluated. One pitfall that many business analysts fall into is trying to define the business need by the solution. They start with the solution first instead of the problem first. This reduces the solution alternatives that receive consideration and may bring a lesser valuable solution to deployment than what could have been achieved. So starting with the business need (problem) and solution scope, then developing alternative solutions will bring the most valuable solution to the organization, and the business analyst’s recommendation, to light. 

We all learn from our mistakes, what pitfalls to developing the Business Case have you encountered in your career?