Business consultants are often accused of being hired to tell you what you just told them. In a certain sense, this is true. A good analyst will learn your business model and come to know it as well as or better than you do. Your aims and priorities will be documented and shared with your whole leadership team, developing a common vision for the future. But more than that, you will be given a plan to make your vision come true. That is what you should expect from your business analyst.
Performance. Your business analyst concludes the study by setting the stage for performing a business transformation based on requirements gathered. The study results are presented formally, and the reports and supporting work documents are handed over to you. These materials should include, at least, a problem definition document, a description and assessment of the current business state, a description of the desired future state, and a pro forma execution plan allowing you to move from the current to the future state. Additionally, the analysis materials may include a list of alternative solutions, a list of circumstances considered in choosing the recommended solution, a list of risk factors and mitigating actions associated with moving to the future state, and a high level cost estimate for implementing the execution plan.
Next, you use your business requirement statement to design the business transformation. This is not usually easy, because you need to backtrack some. That is because your business requirement states only what needs to be, but not what is the case now. So, you must prepare a realistic and descriptive report of the current state of your business practice or process. Once you have described your current situation, and also what you want it to be instead, then you can design the transformation. That is, you can now map the steps you need to change from the current state to the future state of your business practice.
Jump the Spark! 