Business Analyzing 101

UNDERSTAND THE REASONS FOR FAILURE
As the often-used adage goes, “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In order to avoid the same fate as the previous failures, you need to understand the reasons why they failed and learn what needs to change in order to succeed. Business analysts can perform root cause analyses on the previous failures and work with the project’s leadership and stakeholders to see what lessons can be learned. This can involve everything from document reviews to conducting interviews and assessing solutions currently in place. Some of the key areas to assess are:

Organizational: Did the project have the wrong people involved on the project from the leadership and the executive sponsor through to the project team’s personnel?
Cultural: Did the organization not have the right attitude towards the project or enough collective belief in its potential to succeed?
Technical: Did the project fail because the wrong technology was selected or built? Did the technology have insufficient capabilities to support what was needed?
Procedural: Did the projects not follow appropriate standards or methodologies to increase their likelihood of success? Were there critical errors in the execution or omission of certain tasks (for example, insufficient communications, ambiguous project planning or improper project change controls)?
Environmental: Was there something that occurred or was present in the organization’s market or political environment that made the project’s success untenable?
Iron Triangle Factors: Were the finances, scope and timelines originally set out reasonable, or were some of these factors inappropriate or too hopeful given other constraints?

Diagnose & Execute

Review the scope and objectives of the previous projects and assess what components are still needed today. Where possible, remove items that are no longer necessary or that greatly increase the probability of failure. Some items may be able to be deferred for a future phase once the project has demonstrated that it can achieve some initial successes.

From a business analyst’s perspective, this can entail reviewing requirements, project charters, plans and close-out documents, and organizational strategic plans. The BA may also perform a current state assessment to determine if any of the previous project’s objectives are already met. Based on an assessment of what matters to the organization today, the project team can adjust the framework for the new project to increase the chances of success.