Increasing a project's success
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Between 60-75% of projects fail to finish successfully. According to research, 25% of projects experience serious quality problems and 40% finish with unclear customer satisfaction, while only 35% are completed successfully. One key factor in ensuring project success is having clear business objectives. Business analysis helps organizations identify business needs and appropriate solutions to address them. It supports organizations in meeting objectives through alternative solution options. Business analysis focuses on the entire product lifecycle through six knowledge areas including planning, requirements elicitation, management and communication, enterprise analysis, requirements analysis, and solution assessment and validation. While not a guarantee of success, business analysis decreases project failure risk.
Increasing a project's success
- 1. Increasing a project's success Between 60% and 75% of the world’s projects that start fail and they do not finish with good results. According to the Standish Group, 25% of the projects that start have serious problems in their quality. 40% of the projects finish with unclear users satisfaction and just 35% of them finish with good results and acceptable quality. Shortage in business objectives is one of the most important key factors that cannot guarantee projects success. Having clear business objectives give certainty and feasibility to the projects to get measurable objectives. This clarity about the objectives is getting through business analysis practices whilst project life cycle is running on. Business analysis tasks permit to the organization identify "business needs, problems, and opportunities, and on determining the appropriate solutions to address them" (Weese and Wagner). These is the reason why business analysis discipline helps the organizations to reach their objectives through increasing the number of project’s success. Business analysis is a set of best practices that helps the organizations to setup successful any project. These set of practices support to the organization to meet its objectives through alternatives of solutions for resolving problems or exploiting opportunities. This discipline focus on all the product life cycle and it is divided in six knowledge areas. Planning and monitoring area permits to plan what, who and how to do the work along the project. Elicitation area works with the stakeholder to gather the project requirements and documenting them. Requirements management and communication area focus on to inform the stakeholder about requirements changes. Enterprise analysis area involves the work for getting business needs and propose a solution. Requirements analysis consists on organizing,
- 2. prioritizing and specifying the requirement the solution should fit. Finally, solution assessment and validation area is in charging of confirming the feasibility of the solution. Business analysis knowledge areas are a structured work that do not guarantee the projects' success but decrease the risk to fail. A key factor for project's success beside de set of practices is the business analyst role. "Business analysts must analyze and synthesize information provided by a large number of people who interact with the business, such as customers, staff, IT professionals, and executives."(IIBA). Also, business analyst keeps communication between the stakeholders and the project team. He or she is responsible to keep track of the requirement changes along the project. Proposes approach of solutions based on business need, problems and opportunities. Besides, business analyst selects the best solution that fit the organizational goals. In conclusion, this role has to align the business objectives with the propose solution. Business analysis is the doctor and medicine for the organization to survive. Such as a doctor "diagnoses the problem and recommends the treatment" (Blais), business analysis diagnoses organizational problems. Like a doctor prescribes medicine against sickness, business analysis communicates recommendation to solve problems. Alike a medical person looking for symptoms in human body to select best drugs. Business analysis observes strengths to exploit them increasing the organizational value. In the same manner a doctor after session intents change bad behaviors. Business analysis intents manage changes to keep alive
- 3. in all organization. Business analysis framework keeps the organization alive and generating value with the participation of the project management. Business analyst and project manager should work together to increase the project success. Both roles should work in in pair because the activities each do are useful for the other. First, “The project manager focuses on the project and the business analyst focuses on the product produced by the project” (Blais). Second, Project manager is center on build the product and the business analysis is center on the product. Third, project manager is worried about quality, time and cost meanwhile business analysis is worried about getting the maximum value by the product. Fourth, project manager work mainly with project team and business analyst work mainly with stakeholders. Business analyst and project manager are underlying roles that deliver maximum value to the organization. There is no a magical key for guarantying that a project starts and finishes with good results. Applying a successful business analysis best practices during the project is an opportunity to finish the project in good terms. Business analysis helps to select the best solution to resolve the problem or the need. Also, helps to confirm the hopeful result at the end of the project, ensuring the project finishes on time, with the negotiable quality and on budget.
- 4. References WEESE ANDWAGNER , (2011). CBAP®/CCBATM CERTIFIED BUSINESS ANALYSIS STUDY GUIDE. INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: WILEY PUBLISHING, INC. IIBA , (2009). A GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS ANALYSIS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE® (BABOK® GUIDE). TORONTO, ONTARIO,CANADA BLAIS, S.P. (2012). BUSINESS ANALYSIS BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESS (BABOK® GUIDE). HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY: JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC PM VALUE. ¿QUÉ ES ANÁLISIS DE NEGOCIOS?, RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://200.110.156.224/PMVALUE/CLAVE/ANALISIS. LEVESQUE, M. (2009, FEBRUARY 18). ACHIEVING PROJECT SUCCESS THROUGH BUSINESS ANALYSIS. RETRIEVED FROM http://www.amanet.org/training/webcasts/Achieving-Project-Success-Through- Business-Analysis.aspx EDUARDO HERNÁNDEZ RANGEL