As a Business Analyst, you might be tasked with evaluating a solution and providing a detailed report on your analysis.
But how do you do that ?
Business analysts use solution evaluations to analyze the solution’s value delivery and make recommendations that would help the organization realize the solution’s full potential.
The solution being assessed might not necessarily be complete but it should have been implemented and be actively used it in the organization.
So how do you evaluate a solution ?
There are some tasks that can help you evaluate the solution and they can be performed based on the solution development stage.
The stages of the solution development are:
- Prototypes : at this stage in the solution development, there is a working but limited version of the solution. This prototype is being used to show the solution’s benefits.
- Beta releases: at this stage in the solution development, there is a limited version of the solution that has been implemented in order to fix some problems and understand how well the solution would actually deliver value before implementing the full solution.
- Operational releases: at this stage in the solution development, there are full versions of a partial or complete solution which is used to fulfill a desired outcome.
Based on the solution development stage, the Business Analyst has to perform a performance assessment using some form of both objective and subjective assessments of value.
In order to do that, some tasks need to be performed and these tasks are:
1. Measure Solution Performance: this is used to decide on the best way to estimate the performance of a solution, including how it is aligned with the enterprise goals and objectives, and how the assessment is to be performed.
2. Analyze Performance Measures: this is used to understand the information related to the performance of a solution so that the value which the solution delivers is better understood.
3. Assess Solution Limitations: this is used to examine the issues related to the solution which might prevent the solution from fulfilling the current business needs.
4. Assess Enterprise Limitations: this is used to examine the issues outside the scope of the solution that may be preventing the enterprise from fulfilling its full value.
5. Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value: this is used to identify and describe the actions that the enterprise can take to increase the value delivered by a solution.