Business Analysis in times of recession

The question now isn’t how to do more with less, it’s how to make sure you’re around to do anything at all. While there are any number of reasons why each of us wants to keep his or her job, business decisions are typically made at the organizational level, not the individual level. Therefore, we need to focus our efforts on protecting the role of business analysis, rather than protecting the job of Mike or Sarah. Does business analysis still matter in these rough economic times?

Good business analysis helps you make sure you build the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. By focusing on an organization’s business objectives, tracing those to a viable solution with the necessary set of features, and then tracing further to detailed requirements, Business Analysts ensure that the organization’s efforts are focused on the right things for the right reasons. In the current economical situation, we have get it right the first time, and that’s exactly what business analysis lets you do.

In this environment, it’s easy to lose sight of the overall goals and instead fall into fire-fighting mode. The noise, worry and stress all around means that we need strong business analysis work, done by great Business Analysts, to make sure that requirements don’t get overlooked. A Business Analyst’s ability to focus the team, elicit and document the requirements, and manage them through the storm can relieve a great deal of stress for a great many people on the project team.

Finally BAs give Companies Options. In a time of change, BAs provide the necessary support and bridging required for any SDLC approach. If teams want to try Agile or iterative methods in order to speed time to market or reduce costs, BAs can support that transition by focusing the group on delivering the right thing for the right reasons even faster than before.