Project Management

Please login or join to subscribe to this thread

Level of maturity of the BA practice and requirements management in your organizations/projects

linkedin twitter facebook   Benefits Realization   Business Analysis   Requirements Management  
avatar
Francisco Herrera
Community Champion
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico

In a recent project management course, I shared with the participants the different existing Project Management Institute (PMI) standards on Business Analyst (BA) and requirements management. I also emphasized the importance of having a BA on the team.



My experience in predictive projects has shown me that, in most cases, the project manager assumes this role. However, the executing team is usually responsible for collecting the requirements, without having the necessary maturity in their management.



I would like to know your opinion on the maturity of the BA practice and requirements management in your organizations and/or projects.



Questions for reflection:


To what extent is the BA function implemented in your organization?
How are requirements managed in your projects?
What are the main challenges you face in BA and requirements management?
Sort By:
avatar
Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Francisco -

A lot depends on the organizational maturity of the department or company. Large financial and healthcare companies in Canada have well established BA practices and it is common to have one or more BAs assigned to projects early on to manage the requirements management lifecycle. Smaller companies or those operating at a lower level of delivery maturity might try to combine roles.

And in organizations which are moving to more adaptive approaches, senior BAs might work hand-in-hand with product owners or even become POs over time.

Kiron
avatar
Francisco Herrera
Community Champion
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
I completely agree, Kiron. Organizational maturity is a key factor. Larger companies can dedicate BAs, while smaller ones might combine roles. In agile environments, senior BAs can even evolve into product owners. Thanks for you answer! Francisco.
avatar
Sanitheya Dunbar Dallas, Tx, United States
Hi there! I work in banking wearing many hats primarily as System Analyst but also manage the vendor, perform QA before implementation, write the requirements, etc. The main challenge as a BA gathering requirements is pulling out the details from stakeholders, especially when implementing a new product. It's my job to know the system to be able to ask those questions. Sometimes it requires multiple meetings and using some of the BA methodologies. Finally the sign off. Stakeholders have a tendency to come back later before implementation wanting something extra. Having a firm process in place for management helps the BA to know if anything comes up after would be part of 2 implementation
avatar
Jari Anttila Principal Consultant and Founder| Anttila Consulting Helsinki, Finland
I was starting a new topic but this is close to what I had in mind.

As you mentioned, today, it seems that executing teams are responsible for collecting the requirements. Before agile came, we had people specialized to do the requirement engineering. At some point, it seems that it has changed, and somehow, it is today assumed that anyone has the required skills to do it.

I'm seeing many projects struggling to define the requirements, and I'm suspecting that it is due to the lack of maturity to do it.

Have you faced this kind of situations?
avatar
Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hola Francisco, espero que estes super bien! Por esas cosas del destino, fui uno de los que parcipo en la creacion del rol y fundacion del IIBA. Luego, trabaje con PMI como autor y revisor de sus estandares. Ademas, he trabajado en implementar el rol en varias organizaciones. Primero, decirte que como sabes hay dos guias del PMI. La que mejor muestra como interactuan ambos roles es la guia practica;
Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. Segundo, hay mucho para escribir, pero la base es la siguiente. Las empresas esperan que generemos soluciones, donde solucion es igual a "la cosa" a construir (producto/servicio/resultado) mas (+) "el proceso" (proyecto o programa) de construirlo. Entonces, respecto de requerimientos, tenemos los requerimientos de "la cosa" (aca trabaja el BA) que son la base para definir los requerimientos de "el proceso" (aca trabaja el PM). Tercero, el BA comienza por hacer un analisis empresarial entendiendo la situacion actual de la organizacion en el contexto y ayudando a definir como la organizacion se transformara desde la situacion actual a la futura deseada. Cuarto, el BA continua trabajando con la solucion cuando el proyecto finaliza para monitorear si los objetivos planteados en el caso de negocio (o como llamen al documento que sirve para tomar la decision de asignar recursos) se cumplen. De no ser asi, levanta la mano para retomar el loop.

Please login or join to reply

Content ID:
ADVERTISEMENTS

"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."

- Margaret Thatcher

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors







Vendor Events

See all Vendor Events

Newsletters

Jun 3: The Career Problem Facing New PMs
May 20: Your PM Career as a Project Life Cycle
May 13: The Big Lie After Layoffs

See all newsletters