Stakeholder interactions

As a Pega BA, you collaborate with one or more of the following project stakeholders to ensure that there is constant alignment between the Business and IT project teams:

• Product Owner (PO): The Product Owner (PO) is one of the client's representatives on the project's Business team. The PO is primarily responsible for managing the scope of the project and prioritizing requirements throughout the software development process. Pega BAs collaborate closely with the PO to ensure that their Pega Platform™ application delivers the project's strategic outcomes in the expected time frame.

• Project Delivery Lead (PDL): The Pega Project Delivery Lead, sometimes known as the Project Manager, is primarily responsible for leading the Pega delivery team, maintaining the project governance, and liaising with the client’s leadership team. Pega BAs collaborate closely with the PDL to ensure that the project stays on time, on budget, and in scope, so that stakeholders from both the Business and IT teams are aligned in their expectations for the timing and cost of project deliverables.

• Scrum Master:  The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum, an Agile-based software delivery framework. The Scrum Master is responsible for organizing the Scrum team, facilitating Scrum ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Sizing, Backlog Refinement, and Retrospective meetings, and are accountable for the Scrum team's success. 

• System Architects (SAs): System Architects are the Pega developers on the project team who configure the Pega applications. SAs use the user stories created by the BAs to configure the application. Pega BAs translate technical information provided by SAs for business stakeholders to ensure that they understand the application in development, and that it meets their requirements.

• Quality Analysts (QAs): Quality Analysts ensure that application functionality meets the documented business requirements. Using user stories written by Pega BAs as a baseline for their work, QAs build test scripts and scenario tests that confirm the application functions as expected. QAs also participate in Scrum rituals such as Refinement and Sizing sessions to ensure that the time and effort associated with application testing are sized appropriately.

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Subject Matter Experts are representatives of the client organization on the project team who have deep first-hand knowledge of the steps required in the business process. SMEs provide the specific operational and functional requirements associated with these steps. Pega BAs collaborate with SMEs, typically in an operational walkthrough, to observe end users navigate the ‘as-is’ process and applications. Pega BAa works with SMEs to understand all the work (both in and out of the system) that end users need to perform in order to meet the customer’s needs and the desired strategic outcome. 

• Business Analysts: Business Analysts are representatives of the client organization on the project team. The Business Analyst is primarily responsible for documenting the current ‘as-is’ process, data requirements, and business requirements. Pega BAs collaborate with Business Analysts to gather and review this documentation to identify opportunities for improvement, including eliminating redundancies and bottlenecks, recommending workflow automations, determining resource needs, and defining technical details such as data and interface requirements.

• UX Designers: The UX Designer ensures that the design of the application meets the end-user’s needs, complies with accessibility standards, and delivers a consistent experience across all application delivery Channels. Pega BAs collaborate with the UX Designer to design the user interface to align with user experience requirements, maximize the use of Pega's out-of-the-box features, and meet strategic business objectives.

The size and structure of a project team varies from project to project, and it is possible on smaller projects that some team members perform more than one role, for example, the Business Architect may have to act as the project's Product Owner.

Regardless of your project’s exact stakeholder mix, it is important for you, as a Pega BA, to ensure alignment between these areas of responsibility across your project team. This is the only way for you to ensure that the transformed business process meets its strategic objectives in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. 

In the following figure, click the + icons to learn more about how you interact with the project stakeholders to achieve alignment:  

As a Pega Business Architect, you are a crucial link between project stakeholders, constantly working to ensure they are engaged, aligned, and communicating effectively.   

To meet the challenge of guiding the Business and IT teams to collaborate, create innovative solutions, and achieve business outcomes, you combine your experience with the following:

• Analytical and problem-solving skills to break down complex business processes and identify opportunities for improvement and simplification.

• Process design skills and knowledge of business processes design to innovate new processes and ways of working to achieve the business outcome. 

• Knowledge of systems design and Pega technology to align the business requirements and end-user needs with Pega’s out-of-the-box features. 

• Active listening, communication, and facilitation skills to create a common language and understanding of both the business need and Pega’s capabilities between the project team and other stakeholders. 

• Knowledge of business change to help your Business team embrace the new Pega solution and become advocates of the new solution in their organization.