experts for a specific line of business. These business analysts typically work solely on project work for a particular business, pulling in business analysts from other areas for cross-functional projects. In this case, there are usually business systems analysts on the IT side to focus on more technical requirements. IT alignment In many cases, business analysts work solely within IT and they focus on both business and systems requirements for a project, consulting with various subject matter experts (SMEs) to ensure thorough understanding. Depending on the organizational structure, business analysts may be aligned to a specific development lab or they might be grouped together in a resource pool and allocated to various projects based on availability and expertise. The former builds specific subject matter expertise while the latter provides the ability to acquire cross-functional knowledge. Practice management In a large organizations, there are centers of excellence or practice management groups who define frameworks and monitor the standards throughout the process of implementing the change in order to maintain the quality of change and reduce the risk of changes to organization. Some organizations may have independent centers of excellence for individual streams such as project management, business analysis or quality assurance. A practice management team provides a framework by which all business analysts in an organization conduct their work, usually consisting of processes, procedures, templates and best practices. In addition to providing guidelines and deliverables, it also provides a forum to focus on continuous improvement of the business analysis function. Goals Ultimately, business analysis wants to achieve the following outcomes: Create solutions Give enough tools for robust project management Improve efficiency and reduce waste Provide essential documentation, such as project initiation documents One way to assess these goals is to measure the return on investment (ROI) for all projects. According to Forrester Research, more than $100 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on custom and internally developed software projects. For all of these software development projects, keeping accurate data is important and business leaders are constantly asking for the return or ROI on a proposed project or at the conclusion of an active project. However, asking for the ROI without sufficient data of where value is created or destroyed may result in inaccurate projections. Reduce waste and complete projects on time Project delays are costly in several ways: Project costs – for every month of delay, the project team costs