At the end of my IIBA Webinar I tossed out a question to listeners: What are the quantitative benefits of business analysis?

It’s something I’ve been spending some time on. While there are many touted (and self-obvious) benefits of analysis , hard figures are hard to come by – and it’s hard figures that high-level executives want to see when we make the case for the profession. Fellow BAs have begun to take me up on the challenge and I have, at the same time, been meeting with CEO, CFOs, CIOs and others in upper-level management. So I thought it was time to throw out the question to the collective wisdom of the Modern Analyst community. What I’m looking for are measures that quantify either the benefits that have been derived from business analysis or the costs of doing it badly: metrics like the annual cost to projects attributable to a poor requirements analysis process relative to the annual project budget; estimated decrease in turnaround time due to improved analysis, and so on. I’m also looking for war stories – either horror stories of where things went wrong due to poor analysis or uplifting stories when things have gone well – with figures to back it all up where possible. Alternatively – if you have a source of stats on the cost benefits of good requirements that you think is helpful, please pass that one, too.

Readers are invited to post their contributions to this blog or, if confidentiality is required, to contact me directly at howardpodeswa@nobleinc.ca. Once I have a representative response, I’ll be summarizing and posting the results on this site.

(Attached jpg: Caption: “Hi-Lo”, Howard Podeswa, Oil on canvas, 2007, 10 “ x 10”. Description: “Hi-Lo” is a reconstruction of the painting “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt, created by measuring and graphing the high and low points in the original composition.)

Howard Podeswa of Noble Inc.

Blog Image: “Hi-Lo”, Howard Podeswa, Oil on canvas, 2007, 10 “ x 10”.

“Hi-Lo” is a reconstruction of the painting “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt, created by measuring and graphing the high and low points in the original composition.)