Chris Pyatt is the Business Analysis Operational Lead at the University of Leeds. This is a summary of his talk at the BA Conference Europe 2021 on how his team created a BA service definition and the benefits that it brought.

The Value of a Business Analysis Service Definition

All too often, our business stakeholders and other project colleagues don't really understand what business analysts do or why we do it. It's not the fault of our customers and colleagues – it's our responsibility to communicate and explain, and to pitch our analysis services appropriately, so they can understand the purpose and value offered. The BA team at the University of Leeds decided to address the problem by creating a service definition to better shape our project engagements and improve understanding of what we do – (and don't do!).

A BA service definition is where business analysis offerings are grouped logically, explained clearly and aligned to desired project outcomes. A good service definition not only defines the business analysis services to the wider organisation, it shows the value of the services. A BA service definition helps the wider organisation understand the scope of the BA role, so the service can be used to better effect. For example, BAs can be brought in earlier instead of when a solution has already been decided upon.

There are two sides to the service definition, the inward facing and the outward facing. The value of the inward facing definition is that it makes it clear to the whole team what the team will do and will not do. It creates a consistency of role scope, is a planning aid and gives a better visibility of the breadth of the BA role, for skills development. Every BA in the team is equipped to answer common questions about their role.

The value of the outward facing definition is communicating the service to the wider organisation, and again making it clear what the BA team will and will not do. Going further, the outward facing definition explains the value offered. By offering a menu or portfolio of services it makes it easier to agree the work. The BA team can address the expectations of the stakeholders from the start and clearly define team boundaries, which is particularly important when working alongside other teams.

Defining Our Business Analysis Service

Having decided as a team that creating a service definition was a good idea, we went through a five-step process to create it. We collated information; applied context; considered why we undertake activities; grouped our activities and deliverables logically and then went through an iterative review and refinement phase.

1. Collating information

We gathered as much information as possible about what BAs do and produce. We looked at previous projects, job descriptions at all levels, the BCS and IIBA definitions and the national apprenticeship standard. We researched online to find out what other BA practices in other organisations were articulating. We made sure we looked at activities across the full lifecycle of a project.

2. Applying context

We then looked at our team in the context of the bigger picture of the organisation as a whole. We asked questions about which stakeholders we interact with, who are our internal and external customers and which business teams we work with. We looked at the types of projects we are involved in, including lessons learned. We considered what has worked and what has not worked with a view to how we would like to work differently in the future.

3. Considering why we undertake activities

'Why' is a powerful question. We took an in-depth look at why we undertake activities, not just from the BA team perspective, but from the stakeholder and customer point of view, putting ourselves in their shoes and seeking out and taking on board their feedback. We discussed how our activities benefit our stakeholders and achieve project outcomes. This led to our first thoughts about how we could document the rationale and benefits of our business analysis activities.

4. Grouping our activities and deliveries logically

We wanted to package our activities cohesively, to group our offering and make them easier to understand. So we printed out all of the information we had gathered and literally cut the information up into chunks with scissors. We moved the pieces of paper about on a large table, working as a team to consolidate the information and group it in a way that made sense, adding notes. Essentially this was a large scale affinity mapping exercise.

5. The iterative review and refinement phase.

We repeated the cycle of iterative review and refinement several times. Each time we would review the draft service definition, collect feedback, revise and reissue. Initially our list of candidate services was slightly long. The BCS book Delivering Business Analysis by Debra Paul and Christina Lovelock changed our thinking.

Delivering Business Analysis. The BA Service Handbook

The book includes the BA Service Framework based on research conducted by Debra Paul across various organisations. This helped to solidify our thinking. The BA Service Framework prompted us to further consolidate and combine our candidate services into a smaller number of service groups to improve the clarity of our offering.

Presenting Our Business Analysis Service Definition

As a starting point, we pulled our service definition into an Excel spreadsheet. This was useful as a working document but not the ideal format for communicating externally. So we kept the detailed spreadsheet as our inward facing document for planning specifics and deliverables and looking at our knowledge and skills base. We then created an outward facing document for our non BA colleagues in other teams and our stakeholders. Initially we tried a very short summary document, but upon review we felt that it was too brief for non-BAs to understand. We needed to provide fuller information so we created a Powerpoint slide deck to act as a pack of information that would be easy to print out and discuss.

The structure of this outward facing document was as follows. The first slide was 'What is a BA?'. The second slide (see below) was a list of our services.

For each of our six services we created a slide (see below) going into much more detail about each service. For each service there was more dtail about our offering with a detailed example, and a lower section on the related sub-services, with words pulled out in bold to make the information easy to skim read.

Our powerpoint slide deck also included outlining the types of projects we work on; an example project to show how we work across the lifecycle of a project; a FAQ section to dispel common misconceptions and a one page summary.

The Benefits and Outcomes of a Business Analysis Service Definition

There have been many positive outcomes from our creating a BA service definition.

• We now have a better clarity and understanding of the BA role both within our team and in the wider organisation, and have been able to communicate and promote our role through broader internal communications and promotions.
• Our approach has proved so successful, other teams now want their own service definitions.
• The BAs in our team can now better shape their project engagement and get involved with projects at the planning stage. They are also better equipped to answer questions and field 'out of scope' requests. There is now a greater consistency of the BA services we offer.
• The process of creating a BA service definition has been valuable for learning and development within our team, providing a useful framework for skills development.
• We often use our service definition to discuss current projects and link less tangible activities to service outcomes.
• Our service definition is great for new starters, it puts them on a firm footing as it tells them what is expected and how our service works.
• When BAs are embedded in a 'tribe' in an Agile environment, the service definition provides all important clarity of the BA role.

Promoting our Business Analysis Service and Plotting our Agile Journey

We are planning further communications to promote the BA role within our organisation. Our current service definition is a 'Version one', we expect further iterations based on feedback and the evolution of our service. We will use our service definition to plot our Agile journey.

If you are interested in creating your own BA service definition, feel free to use our approach as a starting point, and I'd recommend Debra Paul's BA Service Framework in the book Delivering Business Analysis.

Think about your context, projects, team position. Think about your stakeholders and customers and what would engage them. Think iteratively, and don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. You can always update your service definition, it's important to get something out there and being used.

Remember, it is not the job of the rest of your organisation to find out what your BA team does. It is up to you to communicate what you do, and why.

Looking to update your BA toolkit? Check out AssistKD's wide choice of business analysis courses.