Feb 28, 2018
Healthcare organizations are increasingly relying on IT products and services to meet the growing demand for value-based care. Whether software systems are developed in-house or by a vendor, IT teams need to be more responsive than ever to fix glitches or satisfy the demand for new features.
Many providers and healthcare IT organizations are embracing Agile processes, where cross-functional roles and collaboration are key, but silos between departments can make this open communication and exchange of information challenging.
When software demands frequent updates, having this disconnect makes the development process even more painful and slow. How can organizations move fast enough to compete without sacrificing quality and exceeding budgets?
One solution to improving efficiency in development is integrating business analyst (BA) and quality assurance (QA) roles. Here are three ways that bringing these teams together or merging them into the same role can speed time to market for software projects, while also saving money and boosting quality and satisfaction for end users.
1. Coordinated Development
By consolidating product and process expertise into one individual or a small team, silos between departments and gaps in information between disconnected groups are reduced. Utilizing the skills of both business analyst and quality assurance expert throughout the process ensures that products are not only built correctly, but are also tested based on how they are built. This makes it easier to identify detects early on and fix them as inexpensively as possible.
2. Increased Accountability
Having a BA/QA expert or team in-house can help optimize quality and mitigate risk when development and IT functions are outsourced, particularly among multiple vendors in different locations or time zones. Merging BA and QA roles allows organizations to provide outsourcing teams with clearer direction and feedback from a single source. This encourages more collaboration, progress and keeps everyone on the same page.
3. Faster Troubleshooting
Because BA/QA experts or teams stay in close contact with product managers and sales, they are able to create and validate new requirements in a coordinated, streamlined way. This allows developers to work faster, especially when changes and new features are needed at the spur of the moment. Bringing BA and QA together also helps teams better understand how changes they make affect the product or products as a whole. It can even give them insight to propose better improvements to functionality and quality.
Read more about BA/QA integration in our white paper.