Steve Bryant, Digital Channel Specialist at Direct Axis, talks about the golden thread of business analysis in solution delivery with Charlene Seini, in business analysis and the business stakeholder.
Job titles don’t always necessarily reflect responsibilities. Please tell us what you do and what your role entails?
Through our digital marketing agency partner, I am responsible for the digital advertising you see for DirectAxis and our joint venture partners, from the Search Engine Results Page to display advertising across social media and website banner placements, looking at the data behind the channels and devices to optimise spend and strategic direction.
In what way does business analysis interface, support and/or enable your accountabilities and responsibilities?
Business analysis helps me find the best solution for a particular set of requirements by giving me the tools to ask the right questions of the right people. The best solution could be anything from a new marketing opportunity, to a site optimisation required to improve conversion or customer usability.
In what way does poor quality business analysis impact and/or limit your ability to deliver effectively?
Appreciating there are often external factors such as, time constraints, budget constraints or misinformation, which can lead the analyst to make assumptions, however In my experience, the poor quality business analysis has always been where the analyst has not prioritised the time to understand the business, or data, or the requirement and sometimes all of the above.
How could Business Analysts focus and deliver better to better support your capability?
By understanding what I do, and how I use the data, the analyst is better positioned to propose solutions that improve my efficiency, saving me time and the business money.
The analyst is not the only party in this relationship and I feel that it is a business imperative to proactively share with, and include, the analyst as early as possible in a potential need realisation. It’s only when we collaborate together that we can be truly effective.
Business analysis is not exclusive to Business Analysts; it is a discipline performed throughout business change. What business analysis activities do you perform as part of your role?
The majority of my involvement falls in the business opportunity/requirement buy in process and developing, together with a business analyst, the business case that goes into business prioritisation, facilitating workshops and understanding objectives and goals, while interrogating the business needs behind them. Stakeholder engagement is something that is key to getting opportunities realised and forms an important part of my role.
‘Business Analysis And The Business Stakeholder with Steve Bryant‘ was first published in the 2016 Inter-View Report. You can learn more about business analysis and the business stakeholder by chatting on Twitter with @Steve_Bryant and @CharleneSeini.
