The Power of Three: BA, SA and PO Working Together to Achieve Project Success

by Valerija Savina

2nd International Business and System Conference BSC 2013

Hurray! Another day to create value by developing new solutionsand gaining lot of knowledge and new skills!

Mean SW solution:just software not business solution

inconsistent

Rule to prevent users

from mean SW solution:

Right requirements

at the right time

for the right SWsolution

Signs Your Project is Breaking the Rule

Organization team:Don’t understand the specific business problem that software aims to solveDon’t have higher level view of the businessDon’t think about cost effectiveness of stated req'tsDon’t think about transition requirements

SW solution delivering team:Nobody knows rationales for requirementsNobody understands how the pieces fit togetherDevelopers get requirements from many sources

Action plan

Involve mindsets of three BA practitioners: Business-oriented Business Analyst,

System Analyst and Product owner

Agent – Business-oriented Business Analyst

Habitat: Organization (business)Distinguishing feature: Business need-orientedDomain:• Business and stakeholder requirements• Answers to Why? What?• Solution validations and assessment• Black belt in transition requirements analysis

/!\ Good at digging into the organization's soul

Collaborates with stakeholders and system analyst

Agent – Business-oriented Business Analyst

Agent - System Analyst

Agent - System AnalystHabitat: Solution delivering teamDistinguishing feature: Technical-orientedDomain:• Solution requirements, details of the system implementation• Answers to How?• Black belt in non-functional requirements analysis

/!\ Good at stealing personalities (designer, tester, project manager)

Collaborates with BA (and stakeholders), product owner and developers

Agent - Product Owner

Agent - Product Owner

Habitat: Solution delivering teamDistinguishing feature: Product leaderDomain:• Product economics• System features from A to Z• Understands how the pieces fit together

/!\ Single authoritаtive source of req'ts for developers/!\ Stands up for the product

SIA FMS (Financial Management Solutions) is a regional leader in business software development, project management and consulting. We develop, implement and support the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system Horizon. FMS also provides IT system integration, contract based development services and works with an extensive range of business analytics and financial planning solutions.

We have 2 teams delivering requirements:• Horizon Experts team• SA team

BA’s in Product Development Projects

BA POSA

1) Customer ExpertExpert

2) Customer ExpertSA

3) Expert ExpertExpert

Extras for Product Development Projects

BA POSA2) Customer ExpertSA

+ SA team is source of innovation

+ PO is validating req’ts

+ PO is a single point for integrators and sales force

+ SA team are potential Experts

BA’s in Custom Solutions Development Projects

BA POSA

1) Customer SASA

2) Customer SASA 2

3) SA SASA2

4) SA SASA

Extras for Custom Solutions Development Projects

BA POSA2) Customer SA

SA 2+ Benefits of pair-analysis (quality, motivation)

+ PO is a great help for project manager

+ PO is single point for integrators

+ SA2 can be entry level specialist

• Know your business requirements• Make sure you have business-oriented BA on

your side to take care of your business needs• Ask who is PO on your SW development

project

Homework for Organizations Owning Solutions

Homework for Solution Delivery Team

• Make sure you know rationale for your requirements

• Ensure you have product owner to take care of the solution

• Collaborate with your customer

Homework for you – BA Practitioner

Six Thinking Hats is a book by Edward de Bono.

Three Thinking Hatsfor delivering requirements for successful business solutions

Business-oriented Business Analyst

System Analyst

Product Owner

Thank you!