3rd
Edition, edited by Debra Paul, James Cadle and Donald Yeates
Preamble: the island and the continental species
When BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT deems
a book worth publishing, it is certainly worth reviewing from a continental
point of view. Why? Because experience shows that the UK’s business analyst has not exactly the same profile as the variety on the
mainland.
On the British Isles, a business analyst covers
a much wider scope: “One of the most important aspects of a business analysis
project is to decide what the focus is and which areas need to be investigated.
For example, on some projects the focus may be to explore possible improvements
on how part of the organization works. In this case, we might begin by
examining all of the current working practices, including the staffing and job
roles, and the work may focus on analysing and evaluating the options for the
future business system. Another project may focus on the IT system needs and
whilst understanding the situation and all of the stakeholder perspectives is
important, the potential for the use of IT to improve the business system will
dominate the analysis.” (p .59)
Clearly, the island species covers a far
broader scope than the continental one. Of the hundreds of business analysts I
have met on projects, in training courses and seminars, ninety percent come
from an IT background. In the application or OLTP world,
I have met with dozens of ex-developers who became functional analysts and
expanded their horizon towards business analysis. In the OLAP or analytics
world, there is dominant share of DBAs who became business analysts. Suddenly I
realise that I am more of an island species as I evolved from sales, marketing
and finance into business analysis and studied computer science to make sure I
can communicate with the designers and developers.
A comprehensive introduction
The editors
take you on a journey through the analysis practice, defining the concept, the
competencies and introducing strategy analysis, business analysis as a process,
touching the investigation techniques and introducing stakeholder analysis.
After modelling the business process, defining the solution and making the
business and financial case, the requirements are discussed as well as a brief
introduction to modelling the requirements and delivering the requirements and
the business solution.
Delivering
this body of knowledge in fourteen chapters on 280 pages indicates this book is
a foundation for practitioners.
Models, models and… models
The 280 page book is packed with models, 112 of them are illustrated and explained as well as integrated in a logical process flow of the business analysis practice.
In that
sense, the foreword of president of the IIBA UK Chapter, Adrian Reed, hits the
spot when he calls it “an extremely useful resource that will referenced by new
and experienced practitioners alike”.
Novice
analysts can use this book as an introduction to the business analysis practice
in the broadest sense while experienced business analysts will consider it a
valuable placeholder for useful frameworks, concepts and material for further
study. The Reference and Further Reading sections at the end of each chapter
contain extremely useful material. With
regards to “further reading” there is a
caveat I need to share with you. It‘s not about the book itself but more about
models in general.
A caveat about models
Let me tell
you a little story from my marketing practice to illustrate my point.
A very
familiar model in portfolio management is the Boston Consultancy Group’s Share Matrix. It is used on a strategic level
to analyse business units and in the marketing practice, the product portfolio
is often represented and analysed via this model.
For those
not familiar with the model, here’s a little reference to the theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth%E2%80%93share_matrix
When I
worked for a multinational FMCG company I discovered what I called “Cinderella
brands”. These were brands with a small market share, low growth and considered
a dead end street for the marketer’s career. You could find product managers
with little ambition in that position, fixing up and manoeuvring to keep the
brand afloat while people higher up in the organization where waiting for the
right moment to axe the brand. I managed to convince the people with the axe
that an appropriate marketing approach cold not just save the brand but grow it
into a profitable niche product, sometimes contributing more than their
so-called cash cows. We built the business case on processed cheese with a
budget on a shoestring and proved our point that a model can never take over
from thorough analysis and critical thinking. After that, nobody mentioned
“dogs” anymore, “Cinderella” became the household name for forgotten brands
with unrealized potential. (And we got much more business from the
multinational.)
The
illustration below from an academic author shows exactly what can go wrong when
models take over from scrutiny and
critical thinking.
These are
the questions to ask when you look at a growth share market:
· Who
says cash cows don’t need substantial investment to maintain their dominant
market share and keep up with market growth? Ask Nokia if you doubt it.
· Who
says dogs need to have a negative cash flow? Sure, if your marketing spend is based on the same mental
models as those for stars and cows you will be right but guerrilla marketing
techniques may prove the opposite.
· Who
says stars’ growth will continue for eternity? Ever read “Crossing the Chasm”
by Geoffrey Moore? Especially in high tech marketing, novelties may only appeal
to the techies but never reach the mainstream market…
In fact,
question marks are in the only quadrant in the above model where some form of
nuance can be observed… Notice the
expression “analyse … whether…”
In
conclusion: follow the editors’ further
reading advice. It will help you to become a mature business analyst providing
your customers not only the “know what” and some of the “know how” as described
in the book, but also the “know why”. Wisdom may be harder to quantify but its
value is beyond doubt in the business analysis practice. By the way, from the
same editor, I recommend “Business Analysis Techniques” to increase your know
how.
Regular updates needed
The
business analysis practice evolves rapidly and the only criticism I can come up
with is the lack of an accompanying website with extra updates and reference
material. Let me add at least two of them:
a benefit map and the business canvass models are very much in the
business analysis practice today.
To conclude,
all you continental business analysts out there, buy the book and increase your
knowledge by an order of magnitude.
Available at http://shop.bcs.org, paperback ISBN: 978-1-78017-277-4
