When you’re involved in process improvement projects as a business analyst, a key task is to take time to define the metrics you’ll use to measure success. The measures differ, depending on the industry and what you’re trying to improve, but the important thing is to make sure you have enough time to discover the baseline measurements and then calculate what the measure of success is.
Consider these questions as you make your process-improvement plan:
What is this project hoping to achieve (purpose, objectives, scope)?
How important is this project to the organization?
Will any process owner or champion be measured on these results?
If the project has lofty goals, if it’s extremely important, or if a stakeholder is going to be assessed on the results of the project, think about building periodic check-ins and smaller goals in to your work plan.
Because process improvement projects usually rely on metrics, you must quantify your objectives by making them measurable. Ask your stakeholders “by how much?” or ask them to define the measure of success.
