Hi,

What would an analysis head's responsibilities be? Im working on establishing an analysis unit that already has five analysts.

Regards,

 Hadeel

Hi:

The head analyst should  "lead the charge."   He/she should do what is the most important thing to do - and which is the hardest thing to do:  Come up with a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the essential functionality of the system and - especially - the interrelationships (i.e., data flows) between those functions.  In other words the head analyst, especially on larger scale projects, should be the strong integrator.

Tony

I would divide the responsibilities of the analysis manager into two main categories:

• analysis centric responsibilities, and
• management centric responsibilities.

As a manger you need to be ready to tackle all the various tasks that come with a leadership position:

• Establishing clear job descriptions, roles, and responsibilities for your team,
• Creating a list of competencies expected of your team members for each role (Junior BA vs. Senior BA vs. Team Lead, etc.)
• Managing the performance of your team members by setting objective goals and measuring if they are being met,
• Motivating and inspiring your team members through a clear mission, guidelines, and personal example
• Dealing with human resources type issues: hiring, firing, individual performance issues, complaints, morale, etc.

As an analyst you will need to build the level of business analysis maturity:

• Determine the analysis tools, techniques, methods, and processes which would work well for your given environment; be specific and avoid the temptation of making the BABOK your guidelines.  You need to be specific and pick only a handful of tools or else you will have a hard time maintaining consistent deliverables among your team members.
• Clearly document the role of your team aka "How does your team provide VALUE to the business?"
• Clearly document any guidelines around your adopted analysis processes, tools, and techniques,
• Coach and mentor your team members to become more effective analysts,
• Provide training and learning opportunities for your team,
• Review the quality of the deliverables created by your team and provide feedback and clarification where needed,
• Again - make sure your team's activities ad VALUE!!!

Hope this helps!

- Adrian