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1/28/2013 6:26 AM

	Andrea Finch
1 posts

Management Business Objectives

Good Morning,

I have been asked to come up with 5 personal "Management Business Objectives" for myself in my position as Business Systems Analyst. I need to have them by the end of January and I can't really come up with anything. Any suggestions? They need to be related to my position (within my sphere of influence) and they must be measurable.

Thanks!

Andrea

2/1/2013 10:34 AM

	Tony Markos
493 posts

Re: Management Business Objectives

Andrea:

You have tough management! Business Analysis to most (but not to me) is an unmeasurable "use what feels right" job. I had a discussion with an Agile BA consultant the other day and asked her what are the essential tasks that a BA performs on an Agile project. Her response: There are no standard tasks, everything depends upon the specifics of a project.

How do you establish metrics on the wind?

Anyways, if you want solid measurable tasks, learn about data flow diagrams. DFD's are used to document the as-is and to-be behavior of manual (yes manual) and/or automated systems to higher levels of abstraction. With DFD's you, for example, have glaringly obvious proof that you have evaluated the interrelationships between requirements. It is easy to establish metrics off of such work. And requirements analysis is much more about discovering essenital interrelationships than it is about identifying standalone requirements.

Tony

2/12/2013 11:12 AM

	Anthony Chen
63 posts

Re: Management Business Objectives

We have stages of organizational maturity which includes what individuals should be doing at each level

http://www.seilevel.com/downloader.php?id=16

Here are some metrics for analysts. In the first year I dont think there should be targets, there should just be a commitment to measure. Once you have a baseline you can establish an improvement program the following year. You absolutely should not be bonused on any of these, they should be a reference to help you to improve.

1) Perform an ROI analysis before and after every project

2) Measure my end user satisfaction level

3) Measure my end user adoption rate

4) Measure how many requirements defects I created

5) Measure how satisfied the development team was with my documentation

6) Measure velocity per unit of work - we have an estimating template here http://requirements.seilevel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Requirements-Estimation-Tool.xls

You can compare yourself to the targets in each of the areas of work.

2/14/2013 12:26 AM

	SH01
2 posts

Re: Management Business Objectives

Hi,

Re: In the first year I dont think there should be targets, there should just be a commitment to measure. Once you have a baseline you can establish an improvement program the following year

I agree totally with this statement! Working for a local Government in the UK, this is not always possible as they are obsessed with having a target but in my opinion it is totally arbitary and at times just used as a stick to beat people with, and most of the time setup to fail.

I am still learning as a BA and have undertaken my own training which i have funded myself, so any advice guidance would be much appreciated, as the organisation i work for have never set a structure around what the change lifecycle should really look like or when a BA, PM etc should fit in or even what they should be doing a each stage. I have my own understanding of this but it would be good to hear how it works in the real world from an experienced BA.

Speak soon,

Scott