Thursday, 29 May 2014

Importance of SMART Goals for a Business Analyst

SMART is a mnemonic, giving criteria to guide in the setting of objectives. These could be objectives in project management, employee performance management and personal development. The letters broadly conform to the words specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

As a business analyst one needs to clarify business processes, improve them, identify clear requirements and get right information, document them and get agreement about what a software application needs to do to meet business requirements. A business analyst also needs to build a development plan like any other business professional.

Thus constructing SMART goals for a business analyst is critical as well as challenging at the same time for the success of an IT project. Measurable goals for business analyst should also include a focus on developing leadership skills.

Specific
Goals should be simplistically written and clearly define what you are going to do.  This means the goal is clear and unambiguous. To make goals specific, a business analyst must clearly identify and communicate what is expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where is it going to happen and which attributes are important. A specific goal will usually answer the five "W" questions: What, Why, Who, Where and Which.

Measurable
Goals should be measurable so that you have tangible evidence that you have accomplished the goal. Usually, the entire goal statement is a measure for the project, but there are usually several short-term or smaller measurements built into the goal. The thought behind this is that if a goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know whether a team is making progress toward successful completion. Measuring progress is supposed to help a team stay on track and reach its target dates. Measurable goals for business analyst should encourage seeking out innovative projects and keeping track of the number of stakeholders engaged.

Achievable
While an attainable goal may stretch a team in order to achieve it, the goal is not extreme. That is, the goals are neither out of reach nor below standard performance, as these may be considered meaningless. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them.

Relevant
For a business analyst, relevance of a goal is the most important area that often gets neglected. One should make very sure that the goals identified and communicated clearly to all the stakeholders and make sure that all of them understand the relevance and approve of it. Achievable business goals are based on the current conditions and realities of the business climate. You may desire to have your best year in business or increase revenue by 50%, but if a recession is looming and 3 new competitors opened in your market, then your goals aren’t relevant to the realities of the market. Relevant goals (when met) drive the team, department, and organization forward. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other goals would be considered a relevant goal.


Time-bound
Goals should be linked to a timeframe that creates a practical sense of urgency, or results in tension between the current reality and the vision of the goal. Without such tension, the goal is unlikely to produce a relevant outcome. Business goals and objectives just don’t get done when there's no time frame tied to the goal-setting process. Whether your business goal is to increase revenue by 20% or find 5 new clients, choose a time-frame to accomplish your goal.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for the 5 steps of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals. It’s a simple tool used by business analysts to go beyond the realm of fuzzy goal-setting into an actionable plan for results. This acts as guiding principle for an analyst to approach its goals and achieve it in successful manner within the expected timeframe.

About Author:
Shweta Samudra is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: shweta.samudra@spluspl.com

2 comments:

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