BA Assessments, No Big Deal….Right?

by Kitty Hass & Lori Lindbergh, PhD

That’s what we used to think. Yes, years ago, we too were assessment hacks—AKA assessment nescience—we didn’t know what we didn’t know. You may be thinking, “What’s the big deal about assessments anyway; just compose a bunch of questions, administer, and analyze. How difficult can that be?” And a funny thing, back then, that’s what most of our clients thought, as well. Unfortunately, many clients and business professionals we encounter today still think the same way. This thinking fosters the perception that all assessments are created equal, and most assessments will provide limited value.

We have created this blog for the purpose of educating business professionals about assessments and changing their perceptions of the value the right assessments can provide. Specifically for this blog, we will be focusing on business analysis assessments. Just as all cars are not the same; the same is true for BA assessments. You need to look under the hood to see what you are really getting for your investment.

If you are thinking about conducting a business analysis assessment, this is the blog you should be reading. With so many consulting organizations offering business analyst competency assessments and business analysis practice maturity assessments, as a business professional, how do you know which one to choose? How do you know whether the findings of an assessment will accurately reflect the current state of your BA workforce or the BA practices in your organization? How do you know whether the findings and results will be meaningful and relevant? And, finally, how confident should you be in using the assessment findings to guide your performance improvement efforts? These are all very important questions that should be answered before you conduct an assessment. This blog will answer these critical questions so you can maximum the value of your assessment investment.

We believe that Kitty’s incredible depth of experience as a former Malcolm Baldridge assessor and SEI assessor, as well as her considerable business analysis and project management expertise and Lori’s post-graduate focus on creating and delivering effective assessments make us the leading experts on research-based BA assessments. We have conducted numerous client assessments in multiple industries and have completed research studies examining our BA assessments. From this, we have compiled our own lessons learned and best practices that we would like to share with you in this blog. We hope that this information will dispel any myths and misconceptions you may have about BA assessments and will help you become a more discerning consumer of assessments in general. This is consistent with our overall mission: Raising the level of professionalism related to BA assessments and helping individuals and organizations use assessments to achieve deliberate BA improvement. Remember, The Right BA Assessment Can Be a Big Deal; it has the potential to provide the intelligence you need for sustained BA performance improvement.

Tell us about your BA assessment experiences. We will be posting to our blog weekly and look forward to your comments and questions.