“In my experience, business analysis is often blamed for providing impractical solutions to stakeholders. I have frequently heard from stakeholders, particularly staff and managers, questioning the relevance of process models, strategic plans, and similar outputs, especially when there is no intention to implement them within their organization. To counter these criticisms, I make a distinction between the planning phase and the implementing phase, using the metaphor that even the best architectural plan may not result in a constructed building. Although various reasons might contribute to this mindset among some practitioners and managers, this essay focuses on defining performance measures for evaluating the effects of business analysis on an organization. Personally, I have always wondered what happens to a project I am involved in after it is completed, and we move on to another project.

Upon studying the IIBA guidelines, I learned that monitoring is integrated with planning in the business analysis knowledge areas, underscoring the importance of performance evaluation. Like many products and services that offer after-sales support, business analysis must also assess its performance during and after the project. Several measures can be used to evaluate business analysis, including accuracy and completeness, knowledge, effectiveness, organizational support, significance, strategic alignment, and timeliness. Accuracy and completeness primarily assess whether the outcomes of business analysis are delivered as stipulated in the initial agreement and how many revisions are necessary to fully satisfy stakeholders. A common saying in my country is that if a project’s deliverables are finalized in only one version, it might indicate inadequate quality. Organizational support measures whether the business analysis process is adequately backed by sponsors, including top management. I have seen many projects fail to complete on time or at all because clients withdrew or suspended financial support for various reasons. Significance is an essential measure; it evaluates whether the investment in cost, time, and resources for the business analysis outweighs its benefits. Defining a true measure for value creation is challenging and not straightforward. Timeliness measures the expected duration for business analysis against the actual time taken, and delays in project completion are a frequent issue in the projects I have been involved with. Strategic alignment checks whether business objectives have been met and whether planned improvements or identified problems have been adequately addressed. However, since the effects of some business analyses may not be apparent in the short term, assessing the true impact of their outcomes can be difficult, if not impossible. Effectiveness gauges whether outputs are clear and self-explanatory or if they consistently require someone to interpret them. One issue I have observed is that many international consultancy firms now favor visual presentations over formal reports, which, although initially appealing, may lose their effectiveness over time as those who could explain the symbols and figures may no longer be available. Finally, knowledge assesses how experienced and skilled business analysts are in a project, a factor often difficult to evaluate accurately until after the project has concluded.”