The Career Journey from a BA to a BRM

It has been my belief for a long time that the BRM role is one of the most difficult roles to fill in the IT family. It takes a combination of skills that span the curiosity of a good BA, the discipline of a PM, and the courage of a junior high teacher. When you find someone who possesses all of these skills, it is a rare find indeed.

I had a bit of experience outside the world of IT before I entered the IT job family, as it was my second career. I will never forget one of the first projects I was on: we were in the process of building and deploying a homegrown ERP (this was the early 1990s). The application was in production, and we were fixing problems with it and installing patches on a weekly basis. I can remember that after one particular patch release, I went back to the BA on the project and explained that the fix we put in place really didn’t fix the business’ problem. I will never forget their answer: “I knew that wouldn’t fix the problem, but that’s what they asked for, so that’s what I built!”

I was amazed, if not completely bowled over by the answer! All of a sudden, I began to understand the difference between a good and bad Business Analyst. I began to think about how I would feel if I were in the business user’s place. In my opinion, the business’ expectation is that the BA comes in and helps to define the problem just as much as they define the solution. While a business user may only work directly in changing or developing a solution a few times in their career, this is what IT does each and every day. Therefore, I believe it is a reasonable expectation from the business that the BA fully understands the problem before they begin to build the solution.

So what are those skills and behaviors that make a good BA? Firstly, a good BA is someone who really understands the problem they are trying to solve at its core. A Business Analyst must analyze and synthesize information in order to propose a solution that truly solves business problems, rather than taking orders mindlessly and building whatever the business asks for without engaging in critical thinking. It is important for the BA to help their business partners think about why they are doing an initiative, so that the solution will really add value.

For example, our business partners wanted a solution to help them have better inventory control. They believed that the solution was to upgrade their inventory system. However, during the early phase of the project, the BA was mapping the ‘As-Is’ process and realized that the problem was actually the lack of process discipline. The business’ current solution would be a more viable if only their processes were more rigorous and defined. The BA took this information back to the project sponsor, who also realized that the root problem would not be solved by new software without process discipline.

The behavior displayed by the BA shows that they have a good foundation that could potentially make them a great candidate for the BRM role. The BRM can sometimes experience the same problem as BAs, in which they build what the business asks for without feeling confident that it will solve the underlying problem. Similarly, while the BRM does not get down to a requirements level during project initiation, they too need to have a deep enough understanding to know whether their proposal will solve the root problem. Additionally, the BRM also needs to stay involved throughout the life of the project and work closely with the BA to help them be “on the lookout” for issues that might indicate that the proposed solution is flawed.

Two key components of project value are the cost to build and implement the solution, and the business value achieved through using the solution. A good BA can significantly impact both of these factors. Cost can be controlled by keeping the project focused on the correct requirements, which not only helps curb scope creep, but also ensures that all of the key requirements needed to deliver value to the business are not missed. Furthermore, the analyst often has to ‘mine’ the requirements to really understand what is needed—a BA that goes into a requirements session with the business and assumes that the business will be able to clearly articulate what they need is likely to be disappointed when it comes time to deploy. Value realization can also be positively impacted if the BA keeps the business focused on ‘must haves’ and helps them steer clear of any ‘extras’ that could make the system more complex, more costly, longer to get into production, and unnecessarily complex for the end user. This approach helps to ensure that we don’t over-engineer the system, while also demonstrating that we have thoughtfully planned and built in the requirements needed to deliver value.

A Business Analyst who can influence both the ‘Cost to Build’ and the ‘Business Value Achieved’ successfully is a great candidate for the BRM role, since the BRM performs many of these tasks at a higher level. The BRM needs to be able to understand the link between business strategies and how technology can help the business achieve that value. There needs to be a clear link between understanding required outcomes and the process by which those outcomes can be achieved.

In order to be a strategic business partner, the BRM needs to identify key stakeholders within the business, establish a basis of trust through communication and engagement, gain a deep understanding of business goals, and make the link between those goals and technology solutions. Many of the skills and behaviors necessary to be a successful BRM can be developed and grown in the BA role. When you find a BA who can successfully deliver projects through understanding business needs and appropriate technical solutions, you will have a great candidate for a future BRM, who can then take that foundation and continue to build trust with the business and help draw business value through technology.