Proving Your ROI

  Business Analysis   Career Development   New Practitioners   ProjectsAtWork  

Are you considered a sunk cost? Is it challenging to speak clearly about your value as a business analyst? Here are some suggestions for bringing ROI into the conversation with four concrete ways that BAs reduce project costs.

As business analysts, we often face the perception that we are a sunk cost. Our organizations’ customers don’t typically pay for requirements documents. No, our customers pay for products and features and services, but not requirements and processes. As business analysts, the deliverables we create are knowledge products, not working products. They are means to an end, not the end itself. This is part of the reason our value is scrutinized and part of the reason it can be so challenging to speak clearly about our value.

On the one hand, the value of a great BA is assumed, unstated, and sought after. On the other, it’s a bit hard to put concrete words and numbers around that the accountants like. Instead of trusting our value is assumed (or hoping it will be), let’s arm ourselves with the concepts and language we need to have a conversation the accounts would revel in.

To meet this challenge, let’s apply Return on Investment (ROI) to the activities of business analysis. ROI is the overall return on the organization’s investment. We often ask if our project benefits outweigh the project costs — that&…

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