Keith Ellis Vice President Marketing IAG Consulting © IAG Consulting

Tough Question "Why are we doing this requirements stuff?!" 2

What are we going to talk about? o Some FACTS About VALUE from The Business Analysis Benchmark – 2009 o Dispel some Myths that get in the way of making improvement o Look at the future of BAs and make some predictions © IAG Consulting

A CANDID DISCUSSION ON VALUE Are you a great BA? Does your BA FUNCTION deliver Great Value? What is the difference between these? 4

MYTHBUSTING: CIOs Cant Just Hire Good People and Expect the Problem of Poor Requirements to go Away N=437 Source: Business Analysis Benchmark, 2009 Lower skilled people in higher maturity companies OUTPERFORM Higher skilled people in lower maturity companies © IAG Consulting

Define Requirements Maturity? o What elements would you look at to determine if an organization was Mature in Requirements Definition and Management? 6

Requirements: Are NOT a Document Documentation What is produced Process Who does what, when Techniques How are the steps done? Organization Develop services, resources, framework Technology Tools to enable analyst productivity or management Staff Knowledge, skill and ability of workforce Company Needs © IAG Consulting

What is Requirements Maturity? Level 1 – Performed (Ad-hoc) Level 2 – Defined (Individual-centric) Level 3 – Implemented (Consistent) Level 4 – Institutionalized (Part of culture) Level 5 – Continuously optimizing(Adaptive) Levels of Maturity: © IAG Consulting

Most Organizations are Level 1 or 2 Almost 75% of organizations have not implemented consistent requirements discovery & management practices, let alone institutionalized these practices across the enterprise. © IAG Consulting

Maturing Requirements is Valuable Requirements Discovery & Management Maturity of Organization In % of all projects A B C D A B C D N=437 Source: IAG Business Analysis Benchmark, 2009 © IAG Consulting 2009 Every Measure of Effectiveness Improves as Maturity Improves 10

Average Cost of a $250,000 Project by Maturity Level $356K $343K $309K $274K $261K $257K Maturity Level N=437 Source: Business Analysis Benchmark, 2009 Poor Requirements Affect Both Development and Maintenance Budgets Difference between these two numbers is Requirements Maturity waste… About $1 in $3 spent. © IAG Consulting

What Happens on Large Projects? Maturity Level N=437 Source: Business Analysis Benchmark, % 37% % of Development Budget Consumed by Poor Requirements Practices © IAG Consulting

Comparison of Project Success Rates: Maturity Level of Organization in Requirements Discovery & Management VERSUS Method of Development Utilized Requirements Discovery & Management Maturity Per Cent of Projects that are Successful N=437 Source: Business Analysis Benchmark, 2009 MYTH BUSTING #2: Requirements Are Still CRITICAL Regardless of your Development Approach © IAG Consulting

SO – WHATS THE VALUE OF BAS Have I answered the Question? 14

Where does RM Improvement Impact? Business Domain Technology Domain Business Analyst Productivity Efficiency in Achieving Business Objectives Major Change Efficiency IT Development Efficiency © IAG Consulting

What Impact Does Requirements Maturity Have on Business Stakeholder Groups? Here Going from to Project Success Rate:49%89% Projects that Hit Business Objectives of Development: 54%83% The Level 1 organization pays the following Premium: 35% more Time required to get to Equivalent Functionality on the AVERAGE project 56% more Time to get to Equivalent Functionality on Strategic (larger) projects ** ** From IAG Business Analysis Benchmark Study to 81.6% 53.7% © IAG Consulting

Illustration… o Two F500 organizations… One Level 4, one is Level 1 o 1,200 people o Each person gets 1 objective/year o Each objective gets the company $25,000 per year ($2000 ish per month) in incremental revenue once achieved o Each $500K in new revenue means the organization can add 1 person. o BY HOW MUCH DOES THE L4 OUTPERFORM THE L1 after 10 years Difference in Revenue © IAG Consulting

Average Difference Between ROA of Respondent and ROA of Respondents Industry Peer Group – by Maturity Level N=141 Source: Business Analysis Benchmark, 2009 Source: Reuters (comparative industry data) High Maturity Companies Outperform… © IAG Consulting

On Which Does the BA have the Bigger Impact? Business Domain Technology Domain or 19

LETS TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE BUSINESS ANALYST Predictions… 20

Some Thoughts on the Future of BAs o The BA role will always struggle: People understand the need for great requirements but tend not to take effective action The role has responsibility without authority The role is impacted by BOTH business optimization methodology trends AND Dev methodology trends There are certain activities that are very high value – and certain activities that are very low value As industry maturity rises… so to does the role become more demanding 21

My Predictions… o Lots more Level 4/Level 5 organizations and the emergence of ultra-high RM success stories o Emergence of 'professional' BA creates barriers to entry o We'll see a fracturing of the value chain: Low value tasks: decentralized, outsource, offshore, automate High value tasks: centralized, broader role, essential services o Far FAR FAR faster requirements elicitation o Tool explosion… then shakeout to fewer, more holistic, tools o Emergence of mass collaboration expertise o Rise in team-centric accountability organizational models o A swing back to data flow analysis – which seems to be getting lost in the shuffle 22

Closing Thoughts o Great requirements are not a document o Assess your current level of requirements definition & management maturity – be systematic about improvement o Focus: Understand the services your requirements organization offers. Value? Quality? © IAG Consulting

When you do answer the tough question… "Why are we doing this requirements stuff?!" o Impact on Timeliness o Impact on Budget o Impact on achieving Objectives o Impact on achieving Project Success o Impact on reducing Risk o Impact on Legislative Compliance o Impact on IP Protection o Impact on Organizational Competitiveness Catalyze your benefits 24