I began my career at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young where doing business analysis and implementing large scale systems was my job. At that time, I just thought everyone intrinsically knew you had to understand the business and all the requirements before you begin designing a system (whether custom built or off the shelf). When I got out in the real world that”s when I realized corporate America had not yet fully embraced the idea of conducting business analysis internally and the profession itself was actually in its infancy. I was ever so grateful for the appearance of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) in the 2003 / 2004 timeframe to start to bring a level of legitimacy to a profession that was deeply needed in IT shops across the country.
In some ways, I feel I have grown along side the profession. Very early in my career the IIBA did not exist, then mid-way in my career it came to fruition, and now as they continue to drive new, and different conversations about the role of business analysis in the modern corporation; I find myself in the same position – attempting to provide leadership in an ever evolving and still much needed field.
I give you this background to give you context to my ah-ha moment as I sat in yellow belt training. To me, it is a rigorous and well tested process for conducting business analysis whether the solution is technology or not.
As we walked through the methodology it sounded curiously familiar to the Enterprise Analysis chapter in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BA BOK). The interesting part is that regardless of what you call the activities, every organization should be doing them and have people proficient in doing them.
The six sigma continuous improvement methodology follows the DMAIC approach which involves:
- Define
- Measure
- Analyze
- Improve
- Control
Define simply has to do with defining the problem. As business analysts” we can use problem statements to define this, we also typically scope a project from a business perspective where you may create a context level dataflow diagram. The purpose of this activity is to simply understand the problem and put some boundaries around what you are trying to solve.
The Measure activity is what really intrigued me and seems to be the area we have been missing in the business analysis world. Many times we present information based on hunches or previous experience whereas with measure, you focus on the facts. This is an extremely powerful aspect of the six sigma methodology. It says, ‘you think there is a problem, but let”s find out if there really is”. In other words, what may at first seem like a problem may not be the problem at all but you can only determine that through gathering metrics. The six sigma methodology recommends things like the time series plot and pareto charts. If you are not familiar with these types of artifacts, I recommend taking a class or at a minimum, googling to get more information.
Analyze again provides power and I think this is an area we are still struggling with as business analysts. In this field, there continues to be this behavior where a solution is decided before true analysis is even done. As an example, on a project I was on, the leadership team insisted the problem was the technology supporting a specific business area. Essentially, they said the technology was no good. After doing a root cause analysis, it was determined the real issues had to do with amount of time it took to make a request and receive a response from the IT team. The technology itself was not the problem, the process around it was.
Improve has to do with offering up solutions. Again, it is important to look at all possible solutions to a particular problem. From the example above, one the solutions was to improve the process and response time for the business from the IT team. Although it may not be widely supported in your organization, I still challenge you to look at a problem from all the angles and provide objective solutions (even if the solution has already been dictated to you). At the very least, you may uncover some additional requirements through your detailed analysis. There are several benefits you will reap from this approach. As you begin to provide valuable information to your leadership, you will become the go-to person. Leadership typically wants a well rounded picture before they make decisions. You can help provide a view of all the possible solutions. In addition, you will be adding to your repertoire of skills and improve your own marketability (which is important in this world of ever increasing lay offs).
Control has to do with monitoring a project all the way through its lifecycle and evaluating the results at the end. This is yet another opportunity for business analysts to take it to the next level. In the last 10 years of my career, we continually fall down in this space. We don”t do a good job of measuring whether we were successful or not. When we don”t do a good job of measuring success, every project begins to look like a failure. If you look at the statistics, there are still a high number of IT projects seen as failures. What are we doing wrong? There are several pieces to the problem (which I will save for another article) but one piece most definitely is not establishing critical success factors up front (another six sigma trick) and then measuring against those at the end of the project.
In conclusion, whether you are a business analyst, business architect, customer engagement manager, client engagement manager, enterprise business analyst, system analyst, project manager, or any other title we can come up with and whether you are a six sigma shop, a BA BOK shop, PMI BOK shop, a Lean shop, or an Agile shop – I hope you are doing these activities. We should all be doing these activities to make our projects more successful.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 am
my current role is business analyst but in my organisation there is no such postion as title. Here we call it as Sr.Executive Operations and Asst. Manager Operations like that. I want to master in BA hence try to understand the industires methodlogy and the courses that exist for this role. The message given here was very useful and simple to understand.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:57 am
Hi, this is really very interesting, I am working in six sigma driven co. but,. along with that i am looking to become BA. can u please suggest me the courses if available and the name of the institutions. i found your comments on the Business analyst.com
November 6th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Great article! I agree with you there is a lot of room for the Six Sigma tool kit with any business analysis work. You don’t have to carry the job title of ‘Black Belt’ to be able to implement the tools!
I am assembling a site to provide free content, resources and discussions for Six Sigma Analysts. Those interested in the article above may be interested:
http://www.six-sigma-analyst.com
February 9th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Hi,
Great article. I’m thinking of a career move. I want to learn more? What degree would you recommend for this field?
March 5th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Hello,
I am struggling to become “the” business analyst, article is very informative. yes Six Sigma is reflects our focused thoughts on business problems and help to find out the best solution. What else i need to become successful BA?
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:59 am
hi dhanraj, I want to be a BA if u have found the way can u please share that with me
May 12th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Hi,
I am presently working as Business System Analyst from last 2.5 yr my role and responsibilty are Documentation of process, business requirement, software requirement and leading the testing team. I wants to do certifcation to get the true BA title.
Anybody suggest me to how to get it.
Regards,
Amit
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:38 am
Hi Amit,
I m currently working as SQA Eng from 5 yr. but i would like to become an BA. So can you help me. What step i have to take?
Please mail me on :- dusanedigvijay@gmail.com
Regards,
Digvijay
August 2nd, 2011 at 1:01 am
hi amit i want to be a BA can u suggest me how should i start
December 8th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Hi Digvijay,
This is Nityaa .I am working with one of the mnc in banaglore .I wanted to move my career in to busniess anlysis.Currently i am into changemanagement(itil) .Please guide me.
Regards,
Nityaa
November 11th, 2011 at 7:59 am
Hi i am also working a a business Analyst and also preparing for BA title.
June 15th, 2010 at 5:42 am
Hello – 6 Sigma is a process improvement technique using data and statistics. It uses a phased approach called DMAIC methodology, and measures defects in process output, analyzes the defect data using statistics and gives insights into process steps which can be improved to reduce defects and improve the process itself. Business Analysis, or for that matter any discipline, if it follows a customized DMAIC approach, well and good, but that does not mean 6 sigma and it is no where near to 6 sigma. Pl dont get mixup between 6 sigma and DMAIC. When you use 6 sigma, you certainly use DMAIC, but if you use DMAIC for any other purpose other than process improvement, then it does not mean you are doing 6 sigma. To do 6 sigma you have to statistical analysis, not just DMAIC.
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:23 am
Correct.. Six Sigma methodology involves a fair degree of hypothesis testing through the analysis of data collected through time in order to identify the root cause of the problem/issue.
I would like to raise an interesting point around the BA role… this job title tends to be used very loosely in certain organisations where a BA is usually nothing more than a starting grade project person… as a results, this role tends to lose some of its glamour… which is a bit unfortunate.
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:10 pm
i m from an IT sector interested to become an business analyst …. what steps should i take
January 17th, 2011 at 5:46 am
Hi,
I am working in Insurance industry since last 5 years..got to know that some IT companies like TCS, accenture etc hiring..BA’s for insurance projects….
How I can reach the same…..Please suggest any short term courses or certification..
January 24th, 2011 at 9:19 am
I have 1 yr exp in fiance & Data Management. I want to opt for BA as my career in life coz i am very good at observations, analysis but dont know the actual terms & methodologies to apply in corporate world…Can you please guide me in shaping my career for BA?
Please contact me at amitchummy@yahoo.co.in
Regards,
Amit $antwani
January 25th, 2011 at 6:13 am
Hi I am into US Residential mOrtgage and have above 5 years of experience in it.
I am looking to change my career into Business Analyst Can you please guide me in shaping my career for BA?
Please contact me at loksundeep@gmail.com
Regards,
LokSundeep
February 10th, 2011 at 6:06 am
Hello,
I have just started my new job as BA and done MBA in marketing but I want study more relating to this BA for better growth.
Pls suggest..
Regards,
Shankar Rao
March 30th, 2011 at 6:13 am
Hi,
A very valuable insight on Six Sigma indeed. This article was really helpful and has given me a starting point for one of the problems which I am assigned to look into.
Thanks to the author
Regards
Suraj S
April 26th, 2011 at 1:18 am
Hi,
I am working in Steel Pipe industry since 1 year in Accounts department. I have done MBA Finance. I want to change my career into Business Analyst please guide me.
Regards,
imran kazmi
June 30th, 2011 at 12:50 am
I am working in cement industry since 2001. I have done MBA finance. I want to build my career in BA changing my present status.
Regards,
Shyamal Sarkar
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:56 am
Hi, this is really very interesting, I am working in six sigma driven co. but,. along with that i am looking to become BA. can u please suggest me the courses if available and the name of the institutions.
October 10th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Hi
Im working for investment bank from past three years and I want to become business analyst. I do not have any IT knowledge. So without IT skills I can jump for this profile. So please advise me on which IT course do i need to go for?
Im really confused because of many answers like C, SQL, VB etc. So kindly help me to come out of this.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:16 am
Hi,
I have 4 years IT experience using Java/J2EE. I am interested in pursuing a career as Business Analyst. Please provide me some information in this regard.