2 | Why Does Your Team Need Business Analysis Skills?
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Why Do IT Managers Need Business Analysis Skills on Their Team?
As organizations are under even more pressure than ever to bring products to the market place faster,
the level of integration needed to achieve this has caused a layer of complexity amongst enterprise
systems. The amount of money organizations are investing in software projects to do more with less is
staggering, but the cost of getting those projects wrong is even more troubling. While there are various
issues that contribute to project failures, a good number of them stem from improper requirements
development and management. According to research documented by the Project Management
Institute (PMI) in its 2014 report "Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management — A Core
Competency for Project and Program Success," here is what the impact of poor business analysis looks
like:
• For every $1 billion dollars spent on projects and programs, $51 million dollars was wasted due
to poor requirements management.
• Forty-seven percent of unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poor requirements
management.
• Sixty-three percent of the organizations surveyed, as a whole, somewhat value requirements
management as a critical competency for projects and strategic initiatives and thus this continues
to plague organizations with a lack of proficiency in the business analysis discipline.
• Only one in five organizations report having a mature requirements management process
resulting in continuous missed opportunities for project success.
• Organizations performing at the lower end of the spectrum are wasting 10 times more money on
projects and programs due to poor requirements management.
How Do IT Managers Make the Transition?
Making the transition will not be easy, as it is clear organizations still do not fully understand the role
of a business analyst. Mitigating the risk poor requirements have on projects starts with embracing the
need for skilled business analysis professionals. Understanding the value of business analysis skills
starts with the executive management team. Creating a framework that clearly identifies and supports
the business analysis role and responsibilities will be the first step to mitigating project failures.
