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The dismal success of enterprise-wide IT projects is a matter of record. According to Meta Group Research (now a part<br />
of Gartner), “Communication challenges between business teams and technologists are chronic – we estimate that 60%-<br />
80% of project failure can be attributed directly to poor requirements gathering, analysis, and management.” Forrester<br />
Research concurs: “Poorly defined applications have led to a persistent miscommunication between business and IT that<br />
largely contributes to a 66% project failure rate for these applications, costing U.S. businesses at least $30B every year.”<br />
James Martin reports that “56% of defects can be attributed to requirements, and 82% of the effort to fix defects.”<br />
Standish estimates that nearly 70 percent of projects are late, over budget or fail outright; Gartner reports that 50<br />
percent of projects are rolled back out of production. Carnegie Mellon states that 25-40 percent of all spending on<br />
projects is wasted as a result of rework. Those statistics are troubling. So, what exactly is the problem?<br />
Project managers are held accountable for getting projects completed on time and on budget. Technical managers are<br />
responsible for quality technological solutions. But no one has been accountable for keeping an eye on value as the<br />
implementation proceeds. That’s why the new position of business analyst (BA) is fast emerging to fill the gap. The BA’s<br />
task is to gather accurate requirements, analyze them and manage them properly throughout the project’s<br />
implementation to ensure a value-added outcome that improves an organization’s bottom line. Business requirements,<br />
derived from business goals, are the essential activities of the enterprise that must be supported by the system – so<br />
much so that at conferences, BA courseware and presentations have become hot topics, and cutting-edge companies<br />
are already hiring BAs or investing in professional development for internal candidates.