It is often said that the BA role is very broad. This is certainly true, and practitioners often find themselves having quite a different perspective to others in their organisation. Crucially, a skilled BA will have the ability to zoom out to the macro-level, examining the situation holistically as well as zooming in to examine detailed processes and tasks. This unique perspective—both broad and deep—allows BAs to see things that their colleagues might miss.

The Business Analyst Perspective when examining Risks and Impacts

This ability to examine breadth as well as depth is particularly useful when examining risks and impacts. These are two terms that are often misunderstood or conflated, so it is worth reflecting on exactly what they mean.

The term risk can be defined as:

"A problem situation that may arise with regard to a project or business situation." (Paul & Cadle, 2020)

Therefore, a risk can be thought of as something that might (or might not) happen. Typically details of the risk will be captured including probability, level of severity if it does occur, risk management approach and so on. Each risk should have an owner responsible for taking any mitigating actions, and the owner should provide regular updates on progress.

Risk management ought to start very early in the business change lifecycle and should continue throughout. A good business case will examine not only costs and benefits, but also risks and impacts.  

BAs often have the ability to identify risks that other people cannot. Since analysts speak to multiple stakeholders, they can synthesise views and 'join up the dots'. Not only that, it is often possible to spot what is being missed. For example, if a major transformation programme was being pursued and the BA spots there has been absolutely no customer input, this would imply there is a massive risk that the ultimate solution would be rejected! Flagging this early, and taking the necessary actions, could positively change the outcome of the entire project.

The Difference between Impacts and Risks

If risks are events that might happen, then impacts are things that will happen if a particular option is pursued. Sometimes, there are changes that are very easy to define on paper (for example merging two swim-lanes together on a process model and introducing additional automation) that have far-reaching impacts in the real world (such as to people's jobs/roles, the technology used and even the organisational structure).

The POPIT™ framework is extremely useful when considering impacts. It can be used as a "thinking tool" to analyse or brainstorm the consequences of a particular change. Let's take the example of merging two swim-lanes together while also introducing automation. Potential impacts might include:

Some of these impacts might affect whether the change is seen as feasible. The decision maker might decide that they don't have the appetite to make such a large organisational change in one go; instead, they might choose to begin with a smaller change and gradually phase-in additional changes over time.  Carrying out risk and impact analysis helps a decision maker to make an informed decision.

Techniques such as POPIT™ help project teams avoid costly mistakes. The BAs unique ability to synthesise stakeholders' views, to zoom out and zoom in, means that they are well-placed to perceive risks and impacts that others have missed. It is yet another area where BAs are invaluable within an organisation.

References

Paul, D. & Cadle, J. (2020) Business Analysis: 4th Edition, Swindon, BCS

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