The Business Analysis Assessment Framework
Evaluating an Organization's Business Analysis Capabilities
Assessment Points for Initiative Management
- Deliverable Management
- Issue Management
- Risk Management
- Facilitation
Deliverables are the life-blood of any initiative. Properly identifying the set of deliverables and their dependencies is a critical step in any initiative. The ability to manage these deliverables is dependent upon the development of standards for the level of completeness of deliverables at various stages and criteria for validation and acceptance of those deliverables.
All initiatives have issues that arise unexpectedly. How these issues are managed and brought to a successful conclusion is a key differentiator of successful initiatives. An effective approach to issue management includes root cause analysis and attribution as well as the tracking of the rate of discovery and resolution of issues as a measure of the quality of the various business analysis deliverables.
The circumstances that can impact an initiative are often not entirely under the control of that initiative. Identifying these risks is an important way of providing additional visibility to the impact of occurrences external to an initiative. Proper tracking and characterization of these risk is important to avoid the benefits of an initiative being diminished for reasons beyond its control.
Meetings are one of the key opportunities for involved parties have an opportunity to share views and ensure alignment. Lack of clarity regarding the purpose of a meeting can waste significant resources and fail to add any significant value to an initiative. In addition, Consensus Building, Alternative Development and Idea Discovery have essential roles to play in any initiative.