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From the moment that people started using software, there were problems lurking on the horizon. Much of the reason for all the bother stems from the fact that computer programs are rarely designed by those who will end up using them. As much care as we take to custom-make software, debug and troubleshoot it, tailormade technological projects still have steep obstacles to climb.
The statistics make worrying reading for companies reliant on developing IT projects. A report from The Standish Group finds that up to US$145 billion is wasted worldwide annually on business projects that are either cancelled or fail in the development stage.
IT research group Gartner shows that end-users report an incredible 40% of all problems, meaning programs are often forced back to the drawing board after they have been completed, or that these users have to labor on with error-ridden software. For this reason, as soon as persistent problems with new software were identified as a trend, so too were strategies and theories on how to deal with them. Now is the hour of the Business Analyst. A kind of modern-day Renaissance Man, the Business Analyst is an expert who specializes in the fine arts of nipping potential problems in the bud and spotting difficulties before they arise. As IT continues to blossom in all areas of business, providing the opportunity for all sorts of cost-saving methods, corporate reliance on computers and software is growing by the day.
Kathleen Haas is the Project Management Leader at Management Concepts, an Austrian company which specializes in Business Analysis training worldwide, including Korea. Haas explains that Business Analysts play a new but vital role in modern companies. "The business analyst serves as the liaison between the business community and the technical solution providers throughout an IT project's life cycle," she said.
And although Europe and America lead the way in Business Analysis (BA), Korean companies are already starting to clamber on board the BA bandwagon. All of a sudden, more and more IT management consultants have appeared across Korea armed with gleaming new theories and software, ready to lead a messianic crusade into a futuristic land where IT project waste is nothing but a distant memory.
Suh Chang-suk is an Instructor and Consultant at Hewlett Packard (HP) in Korea. He believes that despite the many difficulties, BA is something that must be pursued at all costs. "A lot of next generation projects are emerging in the financial world. However, it is not easy to integrate the needs of customers and businesses alike. We need BA . to connect the customer requirements with the strategy of the company," he says.
Suh says the changing business landscape means that without BA, business might find themselves unable to build a bridge between themselves and customers. He explained: "As outsourcing becomes more of a trend in business, systematic processes are needed to ensure that customers and suppliers are singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of requirements. BA can provide companies and consumers with a win-win situation."
Business Analysis is a complex field, brimming with sophisticated new terminology and models of growth . including the Waterfall model, Iterative and Incremental Development and Extreme Programming (XP). Anyone new to the whole BA world would be forgiven for expressing doubt about the new jargon and concepts that lay behind the veil of their new business bride. One of the very first development theories was the Waterfall model, where software development is linear and follows a cause-and-effect pattern. New software undergoes a period of requirement analysis, design, development and then testing. The software is then integrated into the company, followed by a stage of maintenance.
Kathleen Haas thinks that the Waterfall is the ideal BA model for smaller projects in particular. "The Waterfall is a highly effective project cycle for short-duration, wellunderstood projects with stable requirements and few dependencies. Essentially, it is a linear ordering of activities that presumes requirements are fully developed and approved," she says.
Although the Waterfall was developed in the 1970s, most companies in Korea have found this model uncomplicated, effective and relatively easy to implement. Proponents of other methods, though, say that it is too simplistic.
Dale Kang is an IT Strategy Manager at BC Card, a Korean credit card company. BC adopted elements of Business Analysis in 2005, setting up a separate IT Planning Team and an IT Innovations Unit. Kang agrees that although the more traditional Waterfall model is the most common in Korea, times are changing fast. "The Iterative and Incremental model will be one popular BA method in the future. But the concepts of XP are potentially the most exciting for Korea - though only a few companies here have shown an interest in it so far," he says.
In spite of this, many disagree that the Waterfall is effective enough, and a whole host of other models have been proposed, including XP, which involves a more complex 12-step software implementation program.
Dan Pierce, a Principal Engineer at Electronic Systems Products in the US, explains that one of the virtues of XP is its rigorous approach to software testing. He says, "The XP mantra is strict. All program code is verified through automated unit testing that must be kept up to date all the time. Furthermore, all unit tests must run at a 100% pass rate all the time."
Iterative and Incremental Development is another buzz-word term. It is a model that insists on certain guidelines including the insistence that difficulties in design, coding and testing a modification should signal the need for software redesign. Ensuring that user reaction is correctly collated and analyzed for deficiencies is also key to success in this theory.
Suh Chang-suk agrees that the Waterfall's days in Korea may well be numbered. He said: "Most companies would tell you that they use the Waterfall, officially. Actually, we mainly use Iterative and Incremental development as a solution in most projects."
However, even the most evangelical of all proponents of Business Analysis concede implementing these often radical techniques is not going to be easy. Kathleen Haas, of Management Concepts, admits the new ideas are not bug-free themselves.
Haas believes that establishing Business Analysis teams in companies can be hard as they tend to destabilize the sense of balance and power within a company. "Executives are required to make decisions based on benefits to their enterprise, rather than their specific functional area. Project team members may be unclear about their roles and responsibilities. These ambiguities may manifest themselves as resistance to change and will pose a risk to successful implementation," she says.
BC Card's Dale Kang believes that Korean companies will be forced to adopt Business Analysis means by the dog-eatdog nature of the modern business world. He said: "It's a fiercely competitive market in Korea, both in the local market and internationally. Whether they like it or not, a lot of Korean companies here have had elements of business analysis forced upon them. The business systems they were working with before are now so unstable that they often need to be totally replaced."
Haas believes business analysts' roles will only continue to diversify. She said: "As projects become larger, organizations are realizing that requirements management skills are indispensable. With the current trend in outsourcing IT development, the role of the business analyst is even more critical in today's IT environment."
BC Card's Kang believes that the future looks bleak for those companies who think they can skirt around the whole issue of Business Analysis. "Replacing entire IT systems will become impossible in the near future -- IT specialists' salaries are going up and up. In addition, the role of the Business Analyst is becoming more sophisticated as we speak. The more complex IT becomes, the more IT systems will have to be totally refactored. Not developing Business Analysis is simply not an option."
But it is not all plain sailing for those fighting to bring BA into the business world in Asia. Internal resistance to change is always a difficult hurdle to clear in conservative Korea, where many companies and their employees are all too often set in their ways. Experts admit that it will not be easy to win people over when Business Analysis teams suddenly appear in companies brandishing annoying questionnaires and flashy new theories.
Dale Kang of BC Card believes Koreans have to change their approach to BA before the positive effects of it are really felt here. He explained: "I forecast that BA is going to become more and more important here. But boards of directors will have to change the way they look at BA's role in their business. At the moment, many high-level managers tend to see it as just another problem in the way of a company doing its work."
Management Concepts have taught seminars in BA in Korea, and BA Practice Leader Kathleen Haas agrees that it will take courage and patience on all sides if BA is to succeed. "Change is always difficult," she says. "New Business Analysts need to establish their credibility and work collaboratively with other key leaders in a business to continually demonstrate their value. If Business Analysts are going to provide information to executives so they can invest in the most valuable projects, they must be seen as a strategic asset of the organization."
Another potential obstacle for companies wishing to bring in Business Analysis teams is the lack of really suitable staff. BC's Kang explained that BA staff may have little or no actual management training. "Most BA staff have a mainly IT background, so they don't fully understand the business strategy involved. They often approach the subject as an engineer might, rather than as a manager should."
Financial companies are really stepping up the pace when it comes to BA, with their heavy reliance on technological projects that provide benefits for both themselves and for customers. BC and Samsung Card are two examples of businesses that have attempted to cut down wasted time on money with BA, but with plenty of companies starting to embrace the new doctrine, expect others to quickly follow suit.
And as the effects of Business Analysis kick in, the amount of projects that now get into trouble is decreasing, according to a recent Chaos Survey from The Standish Group. The report shows an improvement from 2004 to 2006, with less IT projects having to go back to square one. However, a closer look at the figures from the survey shows the reductions are just the tip broken off the top of the IT project waste iceberg. A full 46% of projects still run over time or over budget, while only 19% succeed the first time.
Barry Boehm, software engineering guru and arguably the godfather of modernday BA, once famously noted: "The later a problem is diagnosed, the higher the cost is to fix it." This is a principle that has inspired much research and expense on BArelated solutions as companies try to cut down on the problem of IT waste by identifying problems are ironing them out sooner rather than later.
Problems continue to hinder us in technology, perhaps they always will whatever strategy or model of Business Analysis we decide on. Korea, one of the world's technological hubs, is feeling the heat just as much as anywhere else; and conditions dictate we must continue to look for a way of dealing with waste here. Forget the Golden Pig - in Korea, 2007 is the year of the Business Analyst.
