Essential techniques used by BA for project success

In today’s world businesses frequently face intricate state of affairs that entail an assessment of their position and identification of innovative ways to stay ahead. With the correct strategy in place, the potential of a business can be improved.

To stay competitive in today’s fast paced economy, organizations are required to deliver innovations. Tools like PESTLE, SWOT and MOST enable organizations to discover their contemporary status and position as well as their individual relation to their peripheral environment. These tools can effectively used as a foundation for future planning and strategic management.

There are various techniques / tools that are used by a Business Analyst to carry out an effective and productive analysis, but I would be discussing in detail mainly on 3 techniques:

1. PESTLE
2. SWOT
3. MOST

PESTLE

PESTLE analysis is in effect an examination of an organization’s ecological influences with the intention of using this information to channel strategic decision-making. The assumption is that if the organization is able to assess its contemporary environment and potential changes, it will be better positioned than its contenders to respond to changes.PESTLE analysis is a useful tool for understanding the ‘big picture’ of the environment in which an organization is operating. Ideally, when an organization is planning to venture into new markets, this technique serves as a pre-requisite to understand if the market is in line to the organizational goals or business needs.

It covers Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. Depending on which elements are included it can also be referred to as STEP, STEEP, PESTEL, PESTLE or LEPEST.

PESTLE stands for following six attributes:

• Political (P): The Political scenario in a region plays a pivotal role in determining the industries future prospect. The policies of the current leadership towards an industry can make or break the same. It is of utmost important for a business to thoroughly analyze the political scenario before planning to venturing into a new market
• Economic (E): It is critical to analyze the economic situation in a region as well as globally for an organization. Economics affect every aspect of business starting from the input costs, execution costs as well as the target market.
• Sociological (S): Society forms a nation and thus it is important how it perceives the organization. Often ignored, a society can have major influence on the organization. They say “Think Global, Act local”.
• Technological (T): In the fast paced technological age, no organization can expect to grow without aligning its strategic goals as per the existing and upcoming technologies. It is also important to analyze the market readiness for any new technology to ensure the successful acceptability of a product.
• Legal (L): Similar to political aspects, national legislation and global legislations also have major influence on the organization. An organization should make sure that the local laws in a region are favorable to the business plans and will not act as a roadblock in the long term.
• Environmental (E): Local, national and international environmental impacts, outcomes of political and social factors 

SWOT

SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat) is a strategic planning / decision making tool that helps a decision maker to achieve goals and objectives with in-depth analysis and transparency of the low-level details present with the business / project. SWOT is mainly used when the company is revamping their business processes, functions and departments or expanding business which is the basic motive of each organization.

The point of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a strong business strategy by making sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the company (think: reputation, patents, location) whereas Opportunities and threats are external (think: suppliers, competitors, prices).

SWOT analysis can be used for all sorts of decision-making, as it enables proactive thinking, rather than relying on habitual or instinctive reactions.

MOST

MOST analysis for an organization is what a “compass” is for a ship. It is used mainly for the corporate strategy and strategic planning of an organization. For any organization, big or small, it is important to make sure that it is heading in the right direction and the employees are aware of the same. This is important to ensure that everyone works in the same direction towards that one common goal.

MOST stands for following four attributes:

• Mission (M): Mission in simple words is where the business intends to go.
• Objectives (O): Objectives are those key goals that would help a business achieve the mission.
• Strategies (S): Strategies tell us what are the different options/paths to go forward.
• Tactics (T): Tactics tell us how these strategies can be put into actions. 

The key for the above to work effectively for an organization is that, it should hold together in a bi-directional manner i.e. top to down and bottom to up. It means that from top, missions should drive objectives based on which strategies should be formed, which in turn forces required actions to be taken. Similarly, every action that is taken on ground must make the strategy work, all strategies should then help achieve the objectives and all objectives should take the business towards the ultimate mission.

Business analyst plays an extremely significant role, as the depth and breadth of each aspect that he is able to scrutinize might determine the success or failure of a project or a business. It is imperative that along with the internal factors, external factors are also analyzed in detail and thus ensuring that the management is able to take well-versed, multi-faceted strategic decisions.

A basic mistake all organizations make is having unrealistic Strengths and Weaknesses and understanding the current scenario of the organization and what the market demands. A simple decision making tool is beneficial to save time and getting more clarity to achieve the dreams each organization has to expand and earn profits.