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Business Analysis can be fun
Current IssueQ2 2010 Q1 2010 Nov 2009 -Jan 2010 |
Business Analysis can be funQ4 2010 Print The very mention of ISO9000 or Six Sigma has many business people scuttling for cover. Quality systems can be seen by some as excessively bureaucratic and restrictive. Add Business Analysis to the mix and the confusion is complete. But it doesn’t have to be so! An early protagonist of quality systems was W. Edwards Deming, a statistician and electrical engineer from Harvard who is credited with revitalising Japanese industry after World War II. In the 1980s, Deming was asked to work with Ford Motor Company on their “quality problem”. He famously stated that Ford didn’t have a quality problem; they had a “management problem”. Six years later Ford’s CEO announced that for the first time since the 1920s, Ford was America’s number one car manufacturer and that much of the turnaround could be attributed to Doctor Deming. How did he do it? With lots of process and quality procedures realised through major computerisation? No, he did it with people. Certainly his approach focussed on business processes but contrary to the management strategy of the time, which focussed on staff numbers, Deming focussed on individuals and how they contributed to the process. Automation, in Deming’s view, was a tool to increase process efficiency and provide people with more satisfying work. Business Analysis is the manifestation of the ideas of Deming and other organisational thinkers. Business analysts develop Stakeholder (read: people) requirements and relate them to the needs of the organisation. Functionality is derived from these stakeholder needs not the other way round. The power of a solid Business Analysis practice is only now being recognised by organisations as the low success rate (32%) of IT projects continues to absorb huge financial outlays for mediocre results. Business analysts believe that the solution to business problems lies in a balanced approach to people, process and technology. One definition of quality is the ability to set and meet customer expectations. This is what Business Analysts do and the recognition of Business Analysis as a profession equal to Project Management is just around the corner.
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