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Business Analysis Improving Business Experience

 

ADVISORY ARTICLE

By Angelica Larios, DSL, MBA, PMP

Mexico City, Mexico


Business analysis has become essential in doing business and helping executives and directors improve decision-making. “Analytics promises to provide better facts and facilitate better analytics-based decision making” (Bartlett, 2013, p.6). Through running projects and implementing business analysis, project managers are helping, directly and indirectly, to improve the business experience and help executives improve the decision-making process.

“Business decisions are based on questions about the current situation and how that situation can be improved. Those are called strategic business questions.” (Carter, 2014, p.37). Thinking of the right questions about how to improve the current way of doing business. Improving the particular process, reducing costs or increasing income, becoming the first election for our customers, employees, partners, etcetera are essential aspects that need data to respond correctly to those business questions. When you find business questions worth answering and invest money in them, gathering and analyzing data will help answer the questions.

According to Tom Davenport, there are three analytical categories:

  1. Descriptive analytics,
  2. Predictive analytics and
  3. Prescriptive analytics.

Descriptive analytics digs into the past and tries to explain what could happen, while predictive analytics pretends to model a possible reality where the user can determine the different variables, see the results, and choose a plan of action. On the other hand, prescriptive analytics shows a possible way of action based on the trends and previous experience and the predictive analytics. Ideally, all B.I.’s implementation projects should be prescriptive for several business aspects and decisions.

Companies are in a different stage in using these types of analytical tools. “Though big data enhances classic models’ prediction power and decision effectiveness by expanding their variables and feature space.” For example, using predictive and prescriptive analytics, “significant contributions to management science research should emphasize how available information provided by data may invoke novel ways of modeling and analysis, leading to new managerial insights, policies, opportunities, and implications.” (Nazerzadeh & Shanthikumar, 2018, p.64).

Business Analytics is a relevant new discipline that helps to connect “previously disconnected tactical and logistic information management systems.” Still, it is essential not to forget that Business Analytics is a tool “its power and transformative capacity lie in its deployment and usage in innovation processes.” (George, 2017, p. 17). The business and corporate world are moving into a technological era that should represent a benefit to enhance the current way of doing business or improve the business experience by leveraging the technology. Project managers have a tremendous opportunity to lead this type of project in the digital era, learning about the benefits from the technological and business points of view. These projects have become more common and essential for several organizations, and the investment in those projects is the top trend for investment in the years to come. It becomes crucial for the PM to succeed on these critical projects.

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How to cite this work: Larios, A. (2022). Business Analysis Improving Business Experience, PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue VI, June.  Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/pmwj118-Jun2022-Larios-Business-Analysis-Improving-Business-Experience.pdf


About the Author


Angelica Larios, DSL, MBA, PMP

Mexico City, Mexico

 

Angelica Larios, DSL, MBA, PMP, is a project manager with more than 20 years of experience in implementing software projects related to business intelligence, planning and budgeting, and financial consolidation solutions based on software applications to support the business decision process. She is the owner of ALACONTEC, an I.T. consulting company founded in Latin America. She has held several professional positions in private and public organizations, such as the Health Ministry in Mexico as an I.T. director and a business manager for several Mexican firms.

She holds a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the National University of Mexico (UNAM), in addition to her studies in project management and her Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification, which have helped her to consolidate her career and have a better understanding of what businesses and projects need nowadays. She is a doctor in strategic leadership at Regent University, VA; she has been a volunteer since 2007, starting in the local Mexico chapter, being Past President, and in several positions within PMI (CMAG, VBAC, EMAG) that support the PMI Global Operations. Angelica has been elected as a member of BOD of the ILA (International Leadership Association) (2021-2024).

Angelica can be contacted at angelica.larios@gmail.com

To view other works by Angelica Larios, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/angelica-larios/