Welcome to this blog about challenges and solutions when
doing business analysis in large enterprises.
Business Analysis in many ways is analogous to agile
software development. It’s relatively
young (first professional BA organization
was launched only ten years ago), growing up fast (that same organization now has global reach and membership numbers in
the 30,000 range), and is being increasingly recognized as a key enabler
for Business-IT success.
And there’s another similarity too. Agile was a collection of principles and
practices that when applied to the ‘small and mid’ was very manageable and
added lots of value. But when placed
inside a slow-to-change, large scale enterprise with a multitude of traditions,
constraints, dependencies, and complicating factors, it would rarely succeed.
Then came ‘Disciplined Agile Delivery’ (DAD) championed by
Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, which added a layer of principles and rigor that
allow agile to handle enterprise-class problems and takes it to the next
level.
Business Analysis is going through a similar process of
maturation. The many practices,
principles, approaches, tools, need to be harnessed and guided by a disciplined approach that can be applied
in a repeatable fashion if business analysis is to drive successful IT projects. Hence the title ‘Disciplined Business
Analysis’.
With so much at stake and so many paths to explore, the job
of business analysis in large-scale enterprises is an exciting one. I intend to share my findings, observations,
and opinions on the topic via this blog and I welcome any comments, feedback,
or insights you can share.
