Page 128 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

Business Analysis – Driving business agility through the COVID Pandemic

With the UK economy stuttering, businesses are having
to react and become more resilient, leaner and more
efficient. We are seeing a growth in the number
Business Change projects, stoking demand for Business
Analysis skillset.

Many organisations, having slashed costs, implemented
furloughs and /or freezing hires are now starting to
move to a recovery phase, building a foundation for
trading in this New Normal.

Strategies are moving to a longer-term and more
future-focused discussion on COVID-19. I recently read
KPMG ’s Global Recovery Framework. Their research
rather succinctly notes that “Long-term thinking,
patient capital mindset, and agile decision-making enable a transformational agenda across
businesses; the acceleration of digital transformation and focused responsiveness to customers,
actions that will determine the speed and success at which businesses can move out of Recovery and
into the New Reality.” Well put!

This is where the skills of the Business Analysts really come into play, helping business leaders create
agile decision-making frameworks and ensure organisations move forward despite the changes and
challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Business agility is now critical, and businesses must adapt to change because the future is
unpredictable. Survival may depend on this agility.

Businesses need to be constantly responsive looking for gaps, improvements, and ways to
implement changes, then continuously evaluate results and look to the next change, potentially start
all over again in fast decision cycles. Business Analysts to the rescue!

BAs bridge the gap between IT and the business, they speak both languages engaging with business
leaders, stakeholders and IT end-users to understand, identify and recommend data-driven solutions
that can add value, facilitate change and drive efficiencies. Evidence based data is the key. The best
BAs combine the creative instincts of a Project Manager, an Accountant’s eye for financial feasibility,
a business leaders understanding of culture and an IT experts knowledge of the technologically
possible, to advise on how to improve products, hardware, software, services or processes.

In short, they help executives and stakeholders make technology and process decisions by providing,
analysing and articulating data (to the extent where that data effectively makes the decision for
them).

Finding the right BA, with the breadth of knowledge and experience can be tricky and with many
businesses still wary of increasing headcount or cost, we have seen an increase in demand for our
BAaaS, Business Analysis as a Service.

The inherent flexibility of an ‘as a Service’ model means that whether it is the production of a
business case for an IT Project, requirements gathering or data analysis to help with project
implementation, BAaaS models such as Stoneseed’s can slot neatly into the business change gap.