Business Analysis as a Critical Pillar in Business - Coursework Example

Title: Business Analysis Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name and Code: University: Date of Submission: Business Analysis Summary Business analysis is an instrument applied by the business analysts, sometimes in the management team, to determine the past and present economic conditions and plan for future company operation and process improvement. In most cases, the types of business analysis may well be used with respect to the type of business industry. At the inception of the arithmetic, back in 35,000 BC, then the calculators and other relevant technologies was the subsequent marking of the beginning of business analysis (Business Analysts Handbook 2010). Fresher tools, since then, have been developed to enhance the mastery of ones undertaking through the computations of calculus and logarithms, the days of Aristotle, Adam Smith and analysis theories, all built the foundation for business analysis today. Business analysis systems are numerous considering their wide application in various business activities and process facilitating business change (Hamnett 2004). They range from PESTLE, EPTALYS, MOST, SWOT Analysis and CATWOE. More concentration is going to be given on the industry sector specialist’s business analysts for a specific industry, so as to shape the development of the business in improving the industry with particular competency, and encourage formation of overall team work of business analysts trend on the specific specialization within a business sector, to enhance mastery of methodology in solving issues in a particular department (Debra et al. 2010, p. 203). Introduction At the inception of the arithmetic, back in 35,000 BC, then the calculators and other relevant technologies was the subsequent marking of the beginning of business analysis. Fresher tools, since then, have been developed to enhance the mastery of ones undertaking through the computations of calculus and logarithms, the days of Aristotle, Adam Smith and analysis theories all built the foundation for business analysis today (Debra et al. 2010, p. 214). Business analysis is responsible for diagramming processes and reengineering structures in a business’s today. Back in 1777, Adam Smith brought the works of business process, the making of a pin. He illustrated that by recognizing the steps in a process, through evaluation, one can apply the division of labor in the production process where the skilled workforce will greatly enhance the quality and quantity of production (Robin 2007, p. 134). In the same line of association, in 1892, the United States census was taken, using the implementation of the technique device of electro-mechanical relays was invented by Herman Hollerith that applied punch cards as a means of storage and counting, making the process to take 7 weeks as opposed to 7 years in the 1880. The punch card concept was derived from the textile business and their use in looms. Further, US marks the census as the first one in large scale count that the demography was effectively taken. What Is Business Analysis? Business analysis is an instrument applied by the business analysts, sometimes in the management team to determine the past and present economic conditions and plan for future company operation and process improvement. In most cases, the types of business analysis may well be used with respect to the type of business industry. Much of Business analysis encompasses congregation of a number of types of information, recording the information into an automated computerized system, generating reports and scrutinizing the reports for probable identification of the solution, approach to the industry or improvement within the company. Business will undertake an examination in the existing fiscal year information in contradiction of the previous years in an effort to evaluate the business cycle (Debra et al. 2010, p. 207). Business analysis reserves the ability to provide crucial economic information with regard to the present business situations. Categorizing current product developments, gauging the opportunities and strength of any market or capitalizing on evolving industry advantages are all consequences of business analysis. Business analysis in an extent benefits to reduce uncertainties in the industry, for example, slow or low sales, problem of overstocking and cyclical consumer demand, so as to determine the right inventory for each period. Consistent information gotten from the business analysis offers the management enough room to undertake critical business decision regarding company activity operation and process improvement (Demand Media, Inc. 2011). Why Business Analysis Is Important In an Organisation, How Business Analysis Is Important In an Organisation Business analysis systems are numerous considering their wide application in various business activities and process facilitating business change. They range from PESTLE, EPTALYS, MOST, SWOT Analysis and CATWOE (Iba 2009). PESTLE is used in the examination and evaluation of varying external factors; political influences and pressures, economic (global and local) impact to the company, sociological, environmental (world and local surroundings), technological impact of the new innovations, and legal effects of the legislations and government impositions. The HEPTALSYS is applied in the evaluation of in-depth early phases of business development with regard to market opportunity, product solution, execution plan, potential return, human capital management and Margin of safety. MOST is a fundamental Business Analysis technique for the scrutiny of the Mission, Objectives or goals to achieve, Strategies of moving forward, Tactics on the strategic actions to advance on a project (MOST). SWOT analysis is popularly used in most business identification of the market strength and opportunities, with respect to deep consideration of the internal and external threats and weaknesses. Customers Actors Transformation process World View Owner and Environment (CATWOE), is brainstorming technique to determine what exactly the company is geared to achieve. Various company perspectives apply different CATWOE approaches to appropriately position the business at a highly competitive edge over its customers and for guaranteed growth. Business analysis techniques are applied in the extensive field of business analysis. Thus the business analysis, in overview, is designed to bring about, but not limited to the values, objectives, and financial, social and tangible concerns of business. Further, the evaluation is to shape the company policies and constraints that determine the way to undertake activities, and the events in the industry that may stimulate growth. The content, including the documents, correspondence and messages that enter and leave the company can easily be controlled through the effectiveness of the business analysis on the aspects of the company activities (Robin 2007, p. 156). For the realization of the business analysis in various departments and companies, the basic steps and procedures have to be undertaken. The choosing of process teams and leaders where the staff between three and five from different departments is engaged in a specific process analysis, from where each leader is selected to lead each respective processing group. The whole procedure goes through process analysis training, process analysis interview, and process analysis documentation. Finally, the review cycle stage is undertaken where the documented evaluations are reviewed by the staff working in the process. Possible appropriate improvement, are discussed in an effort to determine the mental image of the problem analysis on the process map, before strategic solutions are met to come up with the measures for process enhancement (Tull 2003). Business Analysis in the Past 30 Years At this point it is quite evident that the business analysis processes have undergone immense changes, improvements and developments in order to adapt to the daily changes in the business industry of every company. Research and various writings have confirmed that the operations in business activities have presented the business to various opportunities and challenges that need to be determined prior to any investment. The escalating sophistication in the industry since 1980s to date have called has called for development in every sector of business dealing, and business analysis is not an exception. In the 1980s, the concept of information evolution was being applied to depict the PCs and information. A fundamental role of the business analysis was to facilitate data control and manipulation to obtain useful information whose value is significant in the improvement of the business performance. The BA steered the quest for the comprehension and application of the information derived to drive better processes that increase returns to the company. It is at this period that significant business analysis involved change in the communication to company stakeholders through change of languages to understandable ones. For instance, Toyota Production System manuals were translated to English that marked the use of the term ‘lean manufacturing’ which went public in the 1990’s as the Machine that changed the World. During the same period Japan concentrated on the lean Manufacturing principles to bring down the levels of waste through the application of the Scrum and eXtreme Programming (Demand Media, Inc. 2011). By the 1980, the Central Computer and Telecommunication Agency (CCTA) launched the Structured System Analysis and Design method (SSADM) as a highpoint for the documentation, collection, and design of software development. This period was also marked by the invention of the constraint theory of system management, which professed on the improvement of the production accounting system by contributing the concept of throughput accounting, which improved the quality of information regarding the company costs, reimbursements, and revenue. In 1986, Motorola invented the Six Sigma for the storage of factory faults to a certain percentage of tolerance moving the company into a Total Quality Management (TQM), though the adoption of the managing software development controls mechanism. In 1987, more emphasis was put on procedure as opposed to the processes. Subsequently, the British government in 1987 convinced the International Standards Organization (ISO) to take on the standard BS 5750 as an International Standard accruing from the fact that other countries like the United States were also using the same military standards. In response, today we mark of ISO 9001relating to quality procedural standards on software development. From 1988 to 1995, the software lifecycle processed were fully launched encompassing the enhancement of support and business lifespans of a software product as per ISO/IEC 12207 (Tull 2003). Business Intelligence (BI) incepted in 1989, reserved the capability of defining the capture, reading the meaning of information from to facilitate efficient decision making process in an economical manner. The development was later followed by managing the Software of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) that facilitates the measure of software development maturity of potential defense contractors, on the other hand, following into a design for process improvement. Changes from 2000 The click of the new millennium marked the inception of rapid organization change with the popular phrase ‘dot.com’ and most of the business analysis was outsourced. More companies started going global and this called for more development support technologies for sustainability and competence in getting opportunities and skills. In particular, the business analysts knowledge and experience faced challenges in regard to the diversity of the world industry, this called for intensive and extensive thinking to meet the demand by companies for innovation and enhancements. An important skill was effective communication through the internet, conferencing, and video calls which came into operation at this period. The early years of the year 2000’s saw the inception of the Business process Management Systems increasing in the work layout (Kathleen 2007, p. 82). In the same time, the correlated representation language was undergoing significant change that lead to the establishment of development tools, the Business Process Management (BPM) that was still on the verge of improvements. The Capability Maturity Model Integration, launched by the Software engineering Institute to attempt to enhance the utilization of the development models for the program development an in conjunction with the ideas adopted from SPICE. In 2001, XP consultants got into a unit in an effort to enhance their interest in the lightweight method of programming. As a result, they established the manifesto for the Agile association that characterized the numerous lightweight approaches under one umbrella, Agile. In the business analysis industry, much has shifted from specialization or division of labor to increase the influence of the traditional extent of control. At this period, the alliance was less of a hierarchical and encouraged a cross functional system of working. There was an escalating propensity to bring to play the teams on the understanding of vertical competencies rather than horizontal relationships in delegation of tasks. In effect, the BA team was constituted of developers and testers, plus other members from different departs in an effort to bring to light the idea of diversified functional piece of work in managing the matrix management in the different life cycle of projects (Kathleen 2007, p. 78). Business Analysis Now Today, the business trend is concentrating on the local, short term and problem specific strategy in an escalating extensive view for the entire business enterprise architecture. In effect, this strategy has improved business production to focus on core business activities and be able to utilize the upcoming opportunities in the market. Presently, business analysis is more focused on the Information Technology as a strategy to solve most of the difficulties and challenges in the business operations. Moreover, the industry has also recognized that business analysis is a professional to pursue because of the specialization and competency demanded by the market today. More business is coming to accept the fact that business analysis is a professional skill that is highly required for the success and stabilization of any origination. The ability to model and comprehend the business operation and subsequent analysis is key in the business world today. The cost minimization that business analysis through Information Technology brings to any business is substantial and ought to be endeavored in every stage. For instance, in case one enhances the business, through comprehension of its dealings, one will be in a better position to bring beneficial change both in the long term and short-term. The trend in the professional qualification, ISEB &CBAP, quest for professional recognition of the skills that individuals possess in the verge of improving the skill with regard to business analysis to improve the quality of business process. Business Analysis In Future The broad experience in various fields in the industry with competency of a series of business analysis techniques tend to bring up new tasks in the business, as well as calling for quick proactivity in realizing productive levels of professionalism. The same sectors within business with a range of business analyst domain experts will increase motivation, experience, exposures and technique acquisition, all in the specialist business improving their efficiency (businessanalystmentor.com 2011). More concentration is going to be given on the industry sector specialist’s business analysts for a specific industry, so as to shape the development of the business in improving the industry with particular competency, and encourage formation of overall team work of business analysts. Trend on the specific specialization within a business sector to enhance mastery of methodology in solving issues in a particular department. Conclusion Business analysis is a critical pillar in any business that is geared towards short term and long term success. It has gained its reputation for effectively identifying business needs of companies, and being able to come up with the solution to business difficulties (Barbara 2008, p. 262). The solutions developed are of immense benefit to the organization directly contributing to the system development component, processes enhancements, company restructuring and strategic planning, not to mention policy development in the light of organizational change. All these are steered by the business analyst (BA) whose contribution in developing software systems is core in the business stability and efficiency (Iba 2009). References Business Analysts Handbook 2010, Business Analysis: A potted history, viewed 14 April, 2011, Businessanalystmentor.com 2011, Trends in business analysis – my perspective, Viewed 14 April, 2011, < http://businessanalystmentor.com/2009/03/17/trends-in-business-analysis-my-perspective/> Hamnett, C 2004, Business Analysis: Trend to greater equality reversed by the 'winner-take-all' society, Viewed 14 April, 2011, Debra, P, Malcolm, E, Hindle K, Yeates D, Rollaston, C, Cadle, J, Tudor, D 2010, Business Analysis British Comp Society Series, British Computer Society, London, pp.198-256. Robin, G 2007, Aligning Business Analysis: Assessing Business Analysis from a Results Focus, Adlibbed Ltd, New York, NY. pp. 124-188. Barbara AC, 2008, Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis: J Ross Publishing Series, J. Ross Publishing, Michigan. pp. 203-254. Iba 2009, A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (Babok Guide), IIBA, New York, NY. Kathleen, BH 2007, Professionalizing Business Analysis: Breaking the Cycle of Challenged Projects Business Analysis Essential Library, Management Concepts, London. pp. 67-98 Tull, C 2003, Mastering business analysis with Crystal Reports 9 Volume 9 of Mastering Business Analysis With Crystal Reports Wordware Applications Library, Wordware Publishing, Inc., London. Demand Media, Inc. 2011, Business Trend Analysis, Viewed 14 April, 2011, Read More