Comments on: How Do Business Analysts Measure Their Value? http://www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress/2008/10/06/how-do-business-analysts-measure-their-value/?&owa_medium=feed&owa_sid= I Help You Become a Higher Performer, Get Promoted, and Better Paid Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:37:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: simonstapleton http://www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress/2008/10/06/how-do-business-analysts-measure-their-value/comment-page-1/#comment-358 simonstapleton Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:02:43 +0000 http://www.SimonStapleton.com/wordpress/?p=723#comment-358 @Chris - sure there has to be a certain amount of hard measures that are completely within the control of the BA, e.g. achievement of milestones in the process - there needs to be objectivity in performance management. So I agree with you there. I also agree that the BA is a broker, and his/her service is to provide brokerage of information, and to add value using expertise and experience. Measuring this is much more difficult, but the value will be sensed and obvious to internal customers, albeit intangible to them. I think 'the process' should be the framework in which the value will be optimally delivered, and if this isn't the case then the organization needs to address it immediately. So often I've seen senior managers apply pressure to stick within a flawed process just because there is so much invested in it (assets, tools, but also reputations and politics). This is Corporate F**kwittism! @Chris – sure there has to be a certain amount of hard measures that are completely within the control of the BA, e.g. achievement of milestones in the process – there needs to be objectivity in performance management. So I agree with you there. I also agree that the BA is a broker, and his/her service is to provide brokerage of information, and to add value using expertise and experience. Measuring this is much more difficult, but the value will be sensed and obvious to internal customers, albeit intangible to them.
I think ‘the process’ should be the framework in which the value will be optimally delivered, and if this isn’t the case then the organization needs to address it immediately. So often I’ve seen senior managers apply pressure to stick within a flawed process just because there is so much invested in it (assets, tools, but also reputations and politics). This is Corporate F**kwittism!

]]> By: Chris Mahan http://www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress/2008/10/06/how-do-business-analysts-measure-their-value/comment-page-1/#comment-356 Chris Mahan Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:37:56 +0000 http://www.SimonStapleton.com/wordpress/?p=723#comment-356 You know, I agree with you there... Measuring to the process is only good if the process in place is the best way to attain the objective. If following the process does not result in the most effective return on investment, modify the process. One should note that a lot of things can't be quantifies on a spreadsheet. Some people disagree with that, saying anything can be measured. I disagree. For example: asking people how whether they would buy product A will yield different results than measuring actual sales of product A. Why? Because different elements are involved in the two decisions. Asking a client whether he's happy with service is different than having the client renew the service contract. Ask a business unit director whether he's satisfied with the performance of the IT team that provides its services, and you'll get an answer. You unfortunately don't know what he says to his friends at home about his IT service team. Developing a close--and I mean close, almost intimate--relationship with the business people is the only way to accurately measure performance for the IT team. This, most outside-facing organizations know. IT has a captive customer-base who is des-incetivized about speaking the real truth. The real test in the outside marketplace is whether customers are buying from you or from your competitors. In a company, unless it is as easy to use either IT or an outside vendor (it never is), there is no true "invisible hand of the market" that forces most-efficient decisions. Instead, the company must rely on the whoever takes care the oth business-IT interaction to be smart, ethical, capable, and empowered. It's going to be hard to create a paper process that will make things as efficient as that. Thus the Business Analyst is really acting as a broker/agent. In the outside world, these people are rewarded by lots of money, and they are ranked and their success recognized by how much money they bring in. Internally, you have no such measure. It's a tough one. I say pay the business analyst a percentage of the project budget upon milestone success. You'll drive the best and the brightest toward the best and most valuable projects. I think. Thoughts? You know, I agree with you there…

Measuring to the process is only good if the process in place is the best way to attain the objective. If following the process does not result in the most effective return on investment, modify the process.

One should note that a lot of things can’t be quantifies on a spreadsheet. Some people disagree with that, saying anything can be measured. I disagree.

For example: asking people how whether they would buy product A will yield different results than measuring actual sales of product A. Why? Because different elements are involved in the two decisions.

Asking a client whether he’s happy with service is different than having the client renew the service contract.

Ask a business unit director whether he’s satisfied with the performance of the IT team that provides its services, and you’ll get an answer. You unfortunately don’t know what he says to his friends at home about his IT service team.

Developing a close–and I mean close, almost intimate–relationship with the business people is the only way to accurately measure performance for the IT team. This, most outside-facing organizations know. IT has a captive customer-base who is des-incetivized about speaking the real truth. The real test in the outside marketplace is whether customers are buying from you or from your competitors. In a company, unless it is as easy to use either IT or an outside vendor (it never is), there is no true “invisible hand of the market” that forces most-efficient decisions. Instead, the company must rely on the whoever takes care the oth business-IT interaction to be smart, ethical, capable, and empowered. It’s going to be hard to create a paper process that will make things as efficient as that.

Thus the Business Analyst is really acting as a broker/agent. In the outside world, these people are rewarded by lots of money, and they are ranked and their success recognized by how much money they bring in. Internally, you have no such measure.

It’s a tough one. I say pay the business analyst a percentage of the project budget upon milestone success. You’ll drive the best and the brightest toward the best and most valuable projects.

I think.

Thoughts?

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