Whether we know it or not, at some point in our working or daily lives we will almost certainly have interacted with Intelligent Automation (IA) – the use of AI and machine learning technologies in combination with more traditional automation technologies to automate complex and repetitive tasks once performed by humans. The inner workings of an IA project and the key actors involved typically remain something of a mystery, and even less well known is the critical role played by Business Analysts in successful IA projects. 

You will likely have heard of robotic process automation (RPA), which is one of the key building blocks of IA. When used alone, it is a digital worker, a cheap and efficient colleague that reliably completes repetitive tasks. IA takes this a step further. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), automation can work with unstructured and semi-structured inputs, from scanned documents and images using Intelligent Document Processing through to conversational intent and sentiment using natural language processing (NLP).

Benefits including increased process accuracy and efficiency, cost reduction, and more effective regulatory compliance have seen IA embraced by institutions across financial services. Those benefits can be seen across many organizational functions: from IT, supply chain and HR to customer care, regulatory compliance and tax. In particular, the burden of regulatory compliance within banking and finance, coupled with a proliferation of data-heavy processes, has driven a high rate of adoption within the sector. 

The overview below captures a typical IA project lifecycle.

WHY IS BA CRITICAL TO IA?

Despite the opportunities it presents, IA is not a magic wand that improves anything it touches – careful thought and application are both required. When used or deployed incorrectly, it can result in badly designed robots, high maintenance costs, and poor value returns. This is where IA Business Analysts (BA) are critical to the success of an automation program. 

Bridging the gap between business requirements and technology solutions while balancing the art of the possible with technical realities, their expertise is essential to ensuring that automation projects deliver the desired outcomes. While a BA provides crucial inputs throughout each stage of the Intelligent Automation project lifecycle, let us consider some of their specific contributions:

Process Selection. Every organization will have countless business processes, from the simple to the intricate, that comprise their overall day-to-day activities. Due to the scale of opportunity, a common pitfall of automation projects is the selection of processes which are not compatible with automation. A BA ensures this does not occur by undertaking a ‘discovery’ phase where process metrics – such as FTE total, task volume and average handling time – are collated and analyzed to provide sufficient context and information on an automation candidate. 

In doing so, the BA can clearly assess process automation feasibility, complexity, and return on investment, and hence identify suitable candidates for automation. For example, a process that is high frequency, high volume and rules-based would be considered a prime candidate for automation. Without a BA completing these steps, a process may be nominated for automation only to become mired down by complex build and maintenance requirements, ultimately leading to sunk costs arising from unplanned additional work.

Development Readiness. Once a candidate process has been selected for automation, a BA will work closely with the relevant subject matter experts to understand, define and frame the process. By holding process ‘deep dives’, the BA will determine the component actions involved and document the end-to-end process map, including the inputs and outputs, formats and applications into a process design document (PDD). This is then subject to review and scrutiny by the business users, developers and senior stakeholders before being approved. 

A crucial deliverable of the BA that is critical to the success of an IA project, the PDD: 

• outlines a collectively confirmed process map which is used to inform the automation solution design. 
  
• enables identification of inefficiencies and bottlenecks for optimization prior to introducing automation.
  
• ensures the optimal automation technology or vendor will be selected based on the process requirements.
  

In creating a PDD, a BA not only sets out crucial process detail but also ensures there is a balance between business users’ ambitions and the technical reality of what can be provisioned via automation. Without an BA, an IA project will be negatively impacted by disconnect between the business users and developers. This disconnect will only be widened by a lack of documentation, leading to an inefficient solution design and confusion leading into the development and user advanced testing (UAT) phase. 

Solution Robustness. A key responsibility for a BA that underpins the success or failure of an automation project is ensuring any automation solution aligns business requirements with optimal design standards. To do this, a BA will work closely with subject matter experts and developers to bridge the gap between business process knowledge and technical requirements during development, testing and maintenance phases. 

• Development phase – the BA will examine and validate suggested (or enforced) changes to the solution design and evaluate its impact before presenting this to the project’s key stakeholders to secure approvals. 
  
• Testing phase – the BA will prepare test cases which reflects business as usual, recording and confirming the results to ensure the designed solution meets the requirements, thus building confidence in its performance and readying it for deployment. 
  
• Maintenance phase – following deployment, the BA will support the business team bed in the automation solution and incorporate changes or enhancements to maintain its functionality where necessary.
  

The absence of a BA will see a solution being designed that is too business-driven or developer-driven. Ultimately this will result in a sub-optimal solution which is overly complex and does not meet the business requirements – leading to delayed time-to-deployment and sunk costs in terms badly designed IA solutions.

CONCLUSION

The role of Business Analysts in IA projects really cannot be overstated. By leveraging a unique blend of technical and business skills, a BA can help ensure that any automation solution – or indeed platform implementation – is designed, built and deployed in a way that drives greater efficiency, productivity and innovation for an organization. 

Through deep understanding of business processes, knowledge of the latest technologies and trends, as well as communication and collaboration skills, a BA can help identify target areas for automation, design effective automation solutions and ensure alignment with business requirements as well as strategic objectives.

As automation continues to reshape the business landscape, the role of Business Analysts will only become more crucial. By embracing this role and developing the necessary skills to succeed, IA Business Analysts can be at the forefront of change and transformation within their organizations.