(English) No more lost in translation of business needs to IT solutions!

How nice would it be if information technology would provide a big shiny button? Pressing it would solve all business issues. Almost like magic.

We can imagine that well renowned business system, that cool web service or a clever custom solution by our own IT department. A button – that can fix our slow, un-efficient or non-functioning situation.

Even if not necessarily making good business sense, and because we have the pressure to make profit – we actually need this button very urgently!

This dream is many times provided to our IT people. Lacking the necessary organizational skills, nor the time to spend on a specific subject, it’s natural they’d prefer a clear description of a particular business problem and need.

In fact for delivering optimal IT solutions the business people –  mostly busy putting out fires – would have to invest in good understanding of the business processes, as-is and to-be, relating to the issue at hand. Spend required time for prioritizing business change projects and aligning them with the long term goals for the company’s Information Technology. Well it’s clear this many times is wishful thinking.

With such different standpoints, it’s not hard to imagine the end-result. It’s like talking two different languages. Leading to vaguely defined requirements and solutions not meeting all the system user’s needs.

What went wrong? Or, where is my button? A re-make of a solution is necessary when the problem is persisting. Costing more and taking more time. It is widely known that failed IT projects count for a large percentage of what is invested in companies IT projects. Much of these failures are due to poor requirements definitions.

How can we do better next time, not repeating the same mistake? If we are left with a feeling of lacking mutual understanding, there is obviously a need of a translator. Someone who understands both languages, the language of the business and that of IT. This someone is the Business Analyst!

The Business Analyst is the smoother between the IT and Business stakeholders. The Business Analyst can bring structure and formalize requirements. This may lead to increased foresight which is important for business development.

Next time when you want to succeed in your IT projects, make sure to include the business analyst in the project team!

E. Sophocleous Toth
IT development, analysis and optimization specialist
MSc Digital Media Technologies
Conicon LTD

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