BA + QA = A-OK

Janis is an award-winning journalist and editor who has covered many industries beyond project management, including health care, financial services, higher education and retail sales.

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Topics: Change Management, Communications Management, Requirements Management, ProjectsAtWork

How can companies foster collaboration between business analysts and quality assurance professionals? New research recommends three steps to strengthen alignment between these complementary roles — and improve project outcomes.

Reports about the high rate of IT project failure are almost cliché. Everyone knows there is room for improvement. What is far less known are the original ways project teams can achieve better results.

A new report from Forrester Research suggests one path that could bring about higher-quality projects, and it is created by integrating two functional areas that historically rarely worked together — business analysts and quality assurance professionals.

“We are seeing so much change around software development as a whole,” says Mary Gerush, who wrote “Align BAs and Quality Assurance Professionals to Drive Higher Quality — and Happier Customers” with Margo Visitacion. “As Margo and I have worked together, me on requirements and business analysis and her on QA and testing, we keep finding a real increase in the overlap. The BA and QA roles are very complementary. When they work together to look at quality more holistically, it improves outcomes.” Fostering cooperation and collaboration among analysts and QA folks creates an aligned approach that improves both …

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