About This Book

An organization’s ability to achieve strategic goals through programs and supporting projects depends on its ability to establish a future vision, set strategic goals, select the most valuable projects, and then execute flawlessly. Organizational strategic alignment is achieved by converting strategic plans and goals into a valuable portfolio of programs and supporting projects, as depicted in Figure I-1 Strategic project leaders and project teams execute the project plans to meet objectives and deliver project outcomes, adding value to the organization.

Figure I–1—Organizational Strategic Alignment

As the role of the business analyst evolves and matures, senior business analysts will emerge as the key individuals in the organization who have the depth of business acumen and technological proficiency to serve as both business and technology experts. In this capacity, business analysts will become involved in an array of activities designed to devise a strategy to reach the organization’s future business vision by achieving strategic goals.

As the business analyst elevates into a leadership role as the business and technology strategist, he or she serves the executive team by facilitating, informing, and enabling the most favorable business decisions during the strategic planning and enterprise analysis phases of the business solution life cycle (BSLC). This book examines the emerging critical role of the business analyst during these first two phases of the BSLC, depicted in Figure I-2.

The business analyst, in collaboration with project and portfolio managers, provides the executive leadership team with the information, processes, tools, and capability to make the best decisions regarding:

•    The future vision of the organization

•    Strategic plans and goals designed to realize the vision

•    Strategic measures to gauge progress along the way

•    Programs and supporting projects that facilitate the most valuable change initiatives

•    Organizational capabilities that can achieve project objectives in the fastest time to market, to realize project benefits at the earliest possible moment

•    Organizational change management strategies for implementing new business solutions and optimizing returns on project investments

Figure I–2—The Business Solution Life Cycle

The knowledge, skills, and techniques needed by the business analyst to conduct pre-project business analysis activities are referred to collectively as enterprise analysis. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is currently drafting A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK^™ Guide), which defines enterprise analysis as follows:¹

Enterprise analysis is the knowledge area of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK^™) that describes the business analysis activities that take place for organizations to (1) identify business opportunities, (2) build their business architecture framework, and (3) determine the optimum project investment path for the enterprise, including implementation of new business and technical system solutions.

The enterprise analysis knowledge area consists of the collection of pre-project activities for capturing the future view of the business to provide context to project requirements elicitation and solution design for a given initiative and/or for long-term planning. In some large complex organizations this work is treated as an investigative, feasibility, or business architecture endeavor and is managed as a stand-alone project.

During enterprise analysis activities, the business requirements for future project investments are identified and documented. Business requirements are defined as high-level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of the enterprise. They describe such things as the reasons why a project is initiated, the things that the project will achieve, and the metrics which will be used to measure its success.

As chairperson of the committee that drafted this enterprise analysis chapter of the BABOK^™ Guide, the author is very familiar with the subject of enterprise analysis. This book builds further on the concepts presented in that chapter of the BABOK^™ Guide, and provides additional information, tools, techniques, and best practices. Figure I-3 is a standard flow chart of basic enterprise analysis activities.

Figure 1–3—Enterprise Analysis Activities