10 Performance Goals of Business Analyst to Achieve

Performance Goal #1 – Expand Your Skills by Using New Techniques Your experience will improve as you use more skills. Even when working with the same stakeholders and using the same methods, new techniques can help explore requirements in a fresh way. Over time, you'll expand your business analysis skillset.

Consider the following specific goals for your performance plan:

Utilize a novel elicitation technique to uncover or confirm requirements. Experiment with a new visualization model to clarify a complex concept. Explore a new type of requirement document to address unmet needs, such as a business process model, scope statement, or use case. Earn a business analysis certification.

Performance Goal #2 – Work in a New Domain Your business analysis skills become more valuable when you learn how to work with new stakeholders and engage with diverse domains. Doing the same kind of work but in a new context will elevate your skills.

For one of your performance goals, seek a task within a different business unit, department, or business domain.

Performance Goal #3 – Work with New Methods Working on various project types exposes us to new methods and types of requirement specifications. It also challenges you to explore core business analysis principles that apply regardless of the project type.

As a career development goal, request to be assigned to a project team using a different project approach or toolkit to broaden your experience.

Performance Goal #4 – Improve Your Business Analysis Process Through exposure to different projects, stakeholders, domains, and methods, you'll learn what works well and what doesn't. Often, your business analysis process remains the same even as your tasks change. Find ways to incorporate what you've learned into the organization's BA process so that other BAs can benefit from your insights.

Goals in this area might involve updating templates, documenting the as-is process, or creating a best practices guide.

Performance Goal #5 – Enhance Relationships with Stakeholders Stronger relationships with stakeholders enable us to accomplish more. However, if we've been in the same organization for a while, it's easy to become complacent and rely on existing relationships to get things done.

Set goals to strengthen your relationship with a stakeholder, improve a strained relationship you've let linger this year, or establish a new relationship with a stakeholder assigned to upcoming projects. Often, simple techniques like more effective stakeholder engagement can lead to significant improvements in relationships.

Performance Goal #6 – Mentor Other BAs Your ability to lead others will help you transition into higher-level BA roles. Become a mentor for a newly hired business analyst, an analyst interested in business analysis, or another member of your department.

You don't have to be an expert in all areas of business analysis to mentor someone in business analysis. For instance:

If you have a technical background and your fellow BAs come from the business side, offer to perform a technical review of requirement documents or answer technical terminology questions.

If you come from the business side, share your domain expertise with a fellow BA from outside your field and suggest providing an overview of the process as they catch up with a new project's pace.

If you've learned a new BA technique or excel at a specific visualization model, propose sharing your knowledge and conducting a peer review with other BAs in your department.

Sharing what you know will build your reputation as a leader and team member, potentially leading to positive career outcomes. You might also consider sharing your knowledge in a more formalized manner, so let's discuss that next.

Performance Goal #7 – Share Your Business Analysis Knowledge Sharing your knowledge showcases not only your leadership skills but can eventually lead to a larger role in your BA team.

Consider starting 'lunch and learn' sessions with your fellow BAs. This doesn't have to take much time if you structure these sessions using available resources. For instance, one of our readers organized monthly meetings to discuss these 53 tips to explore all requirements and share best practices.

Performance Goal #8 – Take on Non-Business Analyst Responsibilities If you ultimately want to move out of business analysis or transition into a BA leadership role, it's important to diversify your work experience and build skills that aren't part of the formal business analysis toolkit. You can do this by seeking new responsibilities outside your current job or taking on hybrid business analyst roles.

Viable options include project management, technical architecture, business process analysis, or product ownership.

Performance Goal #9 – Take on More Senior Business Analyst Responsibilities On the other hand, if you plan to continue working as a business analyst in the near future, consider how you can take on new responsibilities of a senior business analyst. Focus primarily on areas where you can add value that complements what BAs bring to projects or solves current organizational pain points.

Performance Goal #10 – Engage The business analysis profession is a thriving, inclusive community that welcomes experts from various professional backgrounds, industries, and career stages. It's never too early to get involved. Check out attending a local IIBA chapter meeting (most allow non-members to attend for a nominal fee) or participate virtually.

3 Thumb Rules for Setting Performance

Goals Ensure that your performance goals align with the framework your organization is using, so that achieving those goals also brings added value to your organization.

Rather than viewing performance goals as tasks beyond the norm, see how you can turn your current job into a career development opportunity.

Source: Adapted and synthesized

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