What does a business analyst actually do for us?

Turns what people say they want into what the business actually needs, written so it can be built, checked and paid for. The real work is pulling requirements out of people who disagree, processes nobody wrote down, and rules that only exist in somebody's head, before those gaps become expensive software.

Can you evaluate what a vendor or agency is proposing?

Yes, and it is often the cheapest money a project spends. A senior second opinion on scope, price and feasibility before signing, from someone who builds these systems and is not bidding on yours, routinely pays for itself in the first negotiation.

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Business analysis

The analyst who can also build it.

Q: What engagement shapes do you take?

Project-based scoping engagements of a few weeks, contract roles of three to twelve months, and fractional arrangements of a day or two a week for businesses that need senior technology judgement but not a full-time hire. Remote Australia-wide, from Adelaide.

Eleven years as a business analyst and architect in mining, policing, federal service delivery and local government: requirements, process, transformation, and the meetings where they get argued out. The unusual part: when the analysis is done, I do not hand you a document and leave. I can build the thing it describes.

Talk through the engagement See the finished thing The track record

Live proof

The actual deliverables. Open them.

The finished set from an analysis engagement: the current and future process maps, the requirements table, the options paper with a recommendation, and the delivery plan. Click through them. This is what lands on your desk.

live demoThe documents you walk away with

This working build runs in your browser and needs scripts enabled. Everything on the page describes what it does; turn them on to use it.

These are the documents your developer, your board or your funder can act on. Written for the decision in front of you, and the reason the build that follows is the right one.

The work

Analysis with consequences.

Requirements and scoping

The real requirement, pulled out of people who disagree with each other, processes nobody wrote down, and rules that live in one person's head. On the National Redress Scheme that meant turning legislation into the decisions a system makes about who qualifies, written so the accountable people could check them.

Process improvement and transformation

Mapping how the work actually flows, not how the org chart says it does, then fixing the process before automating it, because automating a bad process just makes the mistakes arrive faster. AI belongs in this conversation now, and I bring the honest version of where it pays.

Vendor and proposal honesty

A senior second opinion on what an agency or vendor is proposing: scope, price, feasibility, and what the contract is quietly missing, from someone who builds these systems and is not bidding on yours. Often the cheapest money a project spends.

Fractional technology leadership

A day or two a week of senior judgement for a business that is not ready for a full-time hire: owning the roadmap, keeping suppliers honest, mentoring whoever you have, and building the small things that need building along the way.

Where it was learned

Rooms with consequences.

BHP, 2022 to now. Senior business analyst and architect on critical infrastructure; mentors the junior analysts.
SA Police. Project Shield, rebuilding the systems frontline officers work on.
Services Australia. National Redress Scheme and veterans' entitlements: legislation turned into decision rules the accountable people could audit.
City of Marion. Lead analyst on a council-wide asset management platform.
Universities and a federal department before that, where the trade was learned. TOGAF certified, baseline cleared, year-by-year detail on the engagement report.

Fair questions

Before you ask.

What does a BA actually do for us?

Turns what people say they want into what the business actually needs, written so it can be built, checked and paid for. It is the part that gets rushed on most projects, and it is most of the value: getting it wrong is expensive, and you find out late.

Why hire a BA who also builds?

Because the handover between the person who scopes and the person who builds is where meaning goes missing, and with me there is no handover. It also keeps the analysis honest: I never recommend what I would not want to build, and I can prototype the answer instead of describing it.

What engagement shapes do you take?

Scoping engagements of a few weeks, contract roles of three to twelve months, and fractional arrangements of a day or two a week. Remote Australia-wide from Adelaide, with the distributed-delivery habits that mining and federal work teach you.

Big-firm consultants quote us six figures. Are you the cheap version?

I am the small version: one senior person instead of a partner, a manager and two juniors. You lose the letterhead and the slide templates; you keep the experience, gain someone who can build, and the invoice stops funding an office tower.