I work for an Insurance company with a fairly large IT department that does software development, COT package customization and integration, etc. We are currently reviewing the business analyst roles and debating the merits of having the project business analysts in IT or residing within the business units. I'd appreciate any assistance with identifying advantages/disadvantages to these options. Thanks... Saving Changes...
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Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Anonymous, the answere depends on the demand for business analysis by business unit. Units that consume 66% or more on a BA would be better served having their own with a dotted line to IT. It can increase unit buy-in, alignment and take the justification out of IT's budget. I personally like Application Group BA's with strong BPI and Data Modeling experience over data analytics. Where demand is low IT is often a better place for the BA. Again I would tend to specialize based on business process or application group. Saving Changes...
I agree -- it depends. BA's are great resources to document the current business processes and workflows and to work with the business to identify the painpoints with these processes and workflows. In other words -- great at defining the "as is" bbaseline. The BSA's - Business Systems Analysts - could then work with the business on the specific workflows/functions to be automated -- the places where the process or workflow would now interact with the IT system or systems. Saving Changes...
Again...it depends. I work for a large direct mail company and we have had both structures over the years. Decision making within the business is distributed with each functional area working independently on strategic initiatives. This tends to create some chaos for IT due to the fact that each business area demands satisfaction. In this scenario, having the business analysts as part of IT (preferably a centralized group within IT) helps bridge the natural gaps that form between the functional areas of the business. For example, marketing may dream up a new service that customer service or distribution cannot fulfill. The business analyst group reviews the request and helps determine potential "mis-alignments" in other areas and impact on the systems. In a company where decisions were more centralized, it may make more sense for the analyst group to live with the business. Saving Changes...
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