HERMES 2022 and the role of the Business Analyst

HERMES is the project management method of the Swiss Confederation. An open standard adopted well beyond the federal administration (by cantons, municipalities, hospitals and private companies), it structures projects into clearly defined phases, roles, modules and outcomes. In its current version, HERMES 2022, one thing stands out: the Business Analyst is a role in its own right, with precise responsibilities.

A standard that names the Business Analyst

HERMES names the Business Analyst explicitly and gives the role a clear mission: to be the link between the users on one side and the producer and operator on the other. In practice, the Business Analyst determines the user requirements from the business processes, prioritises them, then turns them into the system requirements that become the basis for designing and operating the solution.

By writing the role into the method, HERMES sends a strong signal: the quality of a project is decided first and foremost by the quality of its requirements.

At the heart of the initialisation phase

It is from the initialisation phase onwards that the Business Analyst comes to the fore. At this stage the project is still only an intention: the problem has to be clarified, the scope defined and the very feasibility of a solution checked. The Business Analyst plays a central part here by producing the study, the HERMES outcome that brings together the preliminary analysis, the possible variants and their evaluation.

This study is the very document the steering committee relies on to decide whether to launch the project and along which variant. The Business Analyst turns a vague idea into a reasoned basis for decision-making. This is where business analysis becomes a genuine lever for steering the project.

The competencies the role demands

HERMES describes the Business Analyst's mission and also spells out the competencies it assumes:

• a solid command of business analysis and its methods and techniques;
• enough business-economics knowledge to compare variants and weigh their efficiency;
• the ability to determine, evaluate and prioritise requirements;
• a sound knowledge of project and programme management;
• an in-depth knowledge of HERMES, ideally backed by a certificate.

This profile describes a central professional: close enough to the business to understand what is at stake, rigorous enough to translate those stakes into requirements and familiar enough with the method to engage the project manager and the steering committee as an equal.

From method to practice

The method recognises the role; embodying it takes practice. Analysis techniques (requirements elicitation, process modelling, requirements management, stakeholder analysis) have to be honed, and the knowledge of HERMES the method calls for has to be built as well.

This is exactly what Smart Gecko Academy's training is for, where the HERMES method and business analysis meet. Learning the fundamentals of business analysis means acquiring the techniques the role demands. Aiming for the HERMES Foundation certification grounds those techniques in the Swiss standard. Two complementary paths towards the central role HERMES 2022 sets out.