As part of this week’s “back to work” theme, here in this business analysis posting, one will consider what this means. Does “business” go with “lab”? Yes, it does. Keep reading.
The Business of the Lab
The thing we do that’s called “Business Analysis” and for which you get a BA (Business Analyst) does apply to the lab. It looks at the “business” of the lab. The lab’s “business” is to manage its samples and do its testing, basically. So, for those who argue that business analysis has no place in the lab, they’d be incorrect.
What is Business Analysis?
I found this definition in Wikipedia and think it sums it all up:
“Business analysis is the discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement or organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. The person who carries out this task is called a business analyst or BA.”
To read more detail, here is the link to the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analysis
A BA is a BA – or Are They?
As with every other role we discuss, we sometimes get into the discussion regarding whether a BA that works with any old part of the business can work with the labs, as well.
In many companies, there’s no choice in this. Mid-sized to large companies sometimes have a team of business analysts who are sent from project-to-project within the company and you get who you get. Thus, part of the pain of analyzing what the lab is doing is to explain it to a business analyst who has never worked with labs, before. In one sense, this is time-consuming. In another sense, while explaining what you do to someone who knows nothing about it – it does bring out things that you didn’t realize, before. In having to explain so much to someone else, the lab will actually pick-up on details they hadn’t thought about, before, themselves.
On the other hand, the process does go faster when you have the opportunity to work with someone with more experience with the laboratory operations.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/