IIBA CBAP – Tasks of Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

5. Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements

Business Analyst Planning and Monitoring knowledge Area Task organizes the efforts of business analysts and other stakeholders and produce outputs that are used as guidelines for task of all other knowledge areas. In this session, we’ll learn about tasks to identify business analysis performance improvements. Using this task, we can monitor, monitor and improve business analyst performance to ensure that commitments are met and improvement opportunities are realized. The purpose of Identify Business Performance Improvement Task is to assess business analyst work and to plan to improve processes where required. Using this task, we can determine the performance measures, analyze the business performance and identify preventive or corrective actions. There are two inputs to this task first, input is Business Analyst Approach and second, input is Performance objective and it describes the desired performance levels.

As part of this task, we need to report on business as performance, which can be informal and verbal or may include formal documentation. Reports on business analysis performance need to be designed and tailored to meet the needs of various types of reviewers. To improve business performance, we need to measure, analyze, report and recommend actions to improve performance. So we need to determine appropriate performance measures to evaluate business analysis performance.

Performance measures can be based on deliverable due dates, frequency of changes to business analysis work, the number of review cycles required, qualitative feedback from stakeholders and peers regarding business analyst deliverables. Some of the business analysis performance measures are accuracy and completeness of business analyst deliverables business analyst knowledge in terms of skills and experience effectiveness of business analyst in making deliverable self explanatory organizational support in terms of availability of resources to complete business unless his work significance or justification in terms of cost and benefits from business analysis, work strategic benefits in terms of problems solved or improvements achieved, timeliness in terms of delivering as per stakeholders expectations and schedule.

We can analyze performance results by comparing business analysis process and deliverables against defined or planned performance measures. The analysis may be performed on the business analysis process, the resources involved and the deliverables. Business analysis performance may be determined from the point of view of stakeholders who are the recipients of the business analyst’s work. And finally, we may recommend actions for improvements in terms of corrective preventive or improvement actions. Corrective actions such as peer reviews will establish a process to identify and correct mistakes. Preventive actions such as mistake proofing will prevent mistakes from happening, while improvement actions such as encouraging best practices will improve.

The business analysis performance guidelines and tools list resources that are required to transform the input into an output. Organizational performance standards may provide performance metrics or expectation for business analysis work. There is only one output from this task and it is the business analysis performance assessment, and it includes a comparison of planned versus actual performance, root cause of problems and proposed actions to address issues. To recap business Analyst Planning and Monitoring knowledge Area Task organizes the efforts of business analysts and other stakeholders and produce outputs that are used as guidelines for task of all other knowledge areas. In this session, we have learned about tasks to plan business analysis performance improvement. Using this task, we can monitor and improve business analysis performance to ensure that commitments are met and improvement opportunities are realized. In the next session, we will learn about involvement of stakeholders in performing various tasks of business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area.

6. Involvement of stakeholders

Apart from business analyst. IIBA Baba guide describes general list of stakeholders who are likely to participate in performing various tasks or who will be affected by it. In this session, we will learn about involvement of stakeholders in performing various tasks of business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area. By the the end of this session, you should be able to remember involvement of stakeholders in performing various tasks of business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area. This slide maps stakeholders involved in performing various tasks of business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area.

Please note that domain subject matter expert and sponsor are involved in performing all the tasks of this knowledge area and are the key stakeholders along with the project manager, domain subject matter expert as well as sponsor’s. Availability must be taken into consideration while planning business owners approach, both domain SME and Sponsor shall be able to identify appropriate stakeholders to plan their engagement. Domain SME may get directly involved in business owners specific work discussions and related performance improvements, while sponsor may get involved in reviews and approvals of plans and business analyst information.

Project manager determines if business analyst approach and governance is aligned with other project activities and project governance. Business analysis should work with project manager to identify stakeholders and also to identify business analysis specific performance improvements. Regulators approval may be required on business analyst approach in case if it is to be audited in certain cases. Regulator may also impose rules or regulations regarding involvement of specific stakeholders and also in business owners governance and information management. Customer and supplier may be identified as a source of external stakeholders, while end users may be identified as source of internal stakeholders. Please note that implementation, subject matter expert, operational support and tester are not involved in performing any task. Please pause and study the involvement of various stakeholders in performing various tasks of business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area.

To recap business analyst Planning and Monitoring knowledge Area task, organize the efforts of business analysts and other stakeholders and produce outputs that are used as guidelines for task of all other knowledge areas. Business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area includes following business analysis Task using planned business analyst approach, we can plan business analyst work from selection of a methodology to planning the individual activities, tasks and deliverables.

Using Plant Stakeholder Engagement task, we can understand which stakeholders are relevant to the change and the best way to collaborate and communicate with them. Using Plant Business Analyst Governance task, we can define a process for requesting, analyzing and approving change requests and describe how approval and prioritization decisions will be made for requirements and designs. Using planned business and information management tasks, we can define how business and information such as requirements and designs are captured, stored and traced for longterm use. Using Identify Business Analyst Performance Improvement Tasks, we can monitor and improve business analyst performance to ensure that commitments are met and improvement opportunities are realized.