Do you have projects at work that remind you of the following lines from Ghost Busters (1984)?
Dr. Peter Venkman: This [place] is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together — mass hysteria.
I’ve just been given some great cats (BAs or Business Analysts … one of whom is actually called Cat) to work with us dogs (IAs) on my current project. While there’s a lot of confusion that exists out there about the role of BAs and IAs, I’ve been working on a solution to ensure that we all live together comfortably and play nice. My suggestion to the Powers That Be involves the intersection between process analysis, information mapping, and prototyping:
Business Analysts
- analyse the business processes and confirm our current understanding of how users currently work
- talk with the business and get agreement on how they want to work in the “to-be” state to mirror how users want to work
- have help from IAs to analyse the flow of information through the business processes
Information Architects
- have help from the BAs to produce information flow maps that mirrors the business processes and existing data models
- categorise information into discrete and logical groups that mirror how users think
- produce an indicative system site structure based on the information groups and their relationships to the business processes
- produce wireframes and (rapid) prototypes based on the established usability and accessability principles
Creating clarity and these points of intersection are very important as we’ve got some very tight timeframes to work toward without the fear that we’ll step on each others’ toes, still be able to produce the artefacts required by the business, do rapid prototyping until we gain user acceptance of the intended system design, and get the vendor to start building.
It’s a nice model for how we can all play nice together.
Dogs and cat’s living together? … hardly mass hysteria for this project now!
M
4 July, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Yes, i believe we can all “play nice”.
I think your proposal for a way forward is workable and should really help meet the tight deadlines. You have given the BAs the “stuff” they do well to work with and at the same time allow for the IAs to provide real value by assisting to progress the process maps.
The development of an information structure based on the business processes is vital. I believe the prototype will help users to understand the proposed system requirements and will result in a system that is both useable and accessible.
Yeah, very exciting.
M
5 July, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Matt you’re too politically correct. Tell the truth - most BA’s are a waste of time. A technically proficient BA using a good simulation tool can work with clients to model the flow in a low to high fidelity simulation which lets clients signoff on something meaningful. that can be used on the development side. Such BA’s perform a useful function. Unfortunately most seem just to do “busy work” which produces little of real value and that still needs to be interpreted by IA’s and developers. I say that unless they are capable of modelling high fidelity simulations then BA’s are part of the problem.
Another approach might be BA’s working up to a low fidelity simulation, with IA’s stepping in to take the model from a simplistic wire frame to a robust, real simulation that gives the client the real look and feel and lets developers build with confidence of what is desired. Otherwise, as too often happens, the client tells the BA what they want, the BA interprets and passes info/sketches/diagrams up the chain, the developers build, and the client says “I ordered a horse and you built me a cow!”.
The newest simulation products will force BA’s to upgrade or learn technical skills to become proficient simulation modellers or the BA function will disappear.
5 July, 2007 at 5:29 pm
@Myron: I think that the BAs are getting smarter anyway
More BAs with MBAs are appearing in more strategic roles.
@Matt: Love the analogy, thanks for the post
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