As a BA community we need to come together and start promoting our frameworks, our methodologies, our approaches in order to shape the future of the profession rather than worrying about defining our role. We should define the scope of what is business analysis as a discipline. Once we achieve this end, this will empower us to look at what the discipline offers in the way of frameworks and tools to interested practitioners, as the specialists in this field.
Organizations representing Business Analysts are looking to certification or accreditation as a way of defining the role and bringing in some level of standardization in order to decrease ambiguity in the marketplace. There has also been a lot of debate about the role vs the discipline of business analysis. Garrett cautions that if we go down the track of defining the role we inevitably threaten someone’s sense of identity. If the Business Analyst’s role differs from the organization’s job description, then does it follow that they are not Business Analysts?
Alternatively, we could argue that whatever the discipline of business analysis is, it follows that those who are specialists in this field are Business Analysts. Although this has the potential for the BA to be “boxed in” may result in Business Analysts having little influence or control over important aspects of projects, where Business Analyst competencies and capabilities are of great value and adding strategic value to organization goals and objectives for process improvement.
As a Business Analyst I’m more often involved at a strategic level. Rather than my involvement with projects ending with the delivery of requirements, I’m utilized throughout the project: I bridge the gap between the business and the technology team; review processes and operations; as well as investigating and advising on the project’s impact and dependencies on other systems and programs initiatives across the enterprise.
All this activity means my role is not easily defined. This is not because I’m trying to be all things to all people (the Project Manager, the Business Analyst and the Systems Architect) or take over another project team member’s role, its more a reflection of the discipline of analysis being increasingly seen as a core capability and that the frameworks and tools used for analysis can be drawn upon for expertise throughout the life of the project and through all the programs across the enterprise.
In short, as a Business Analyst I do lots of things. Don’t put me in a box or label me and don’t predefine what I do … it limits the possibilities for my involvement to add value within projects, between projects, across programs and across the enterprise.
Ultimately, the definition, role, responsibility, and the future of Business Analysis will be determined not by us but by organizations that will base their decisions on their resourcing needs. It is therefore up to us as a Business Analysis Community to continue to promote what we do and how we do it and share our knowledge, understanding and expertise within the community. By doing this as a community we can go out to organizations and showcase the capabilities and competencies of business analysis. This will show the value of the discipline regardless of the role within the organization. Instead of prescribing what a Business Analyst is or isn’t, let’s talk about our frameworks, our theories and what tools are out there to get the job done.
Maria, interesting article. What inspired it?
Thanks Craig,
Well my inspiration was a user group meeting i am organising in Canberra where we are looking at the job market for BAs, what types of industries, how much renumeration and so forth. Often BAs are seen as the junior members of the project and the renumeration for the “role” BA reflects this.
We loose far too many great BAs to other disciplines because they feel undervalued and see the the “big bucks” are given to other project roles.
This got me thinking about the concept of “little ba” vs “big BA”.
With a “little ba” you get the requirements document and thats all they want to do. Howevere with a big BA, their analysis skills and capabilities mean that you get a lot more.
You get someone who can see a bigger picture, who can suggest alternatives and really understand the business goals and objectives. They can help throughout the project and not just at the beginning. My clients often remake that with us they get more than a BA and this makes me feel that we are on the right track with our recuitment and development.
In my role as regional lead for BAs, i am trying to inspire my team to look at where they can help and support projects and be more involved, because their skills at analysis mean that they can add real value and that clients do see the difference when they get a “Big BA” on board.
Hi Maria,
Very inspiring article. Personally I am agree with you that business analyst should not be put in the box. On the contrary, business analyst ideally have a “very-wide” knowledge and responsibilities. Basic financial, marketing, business and project management knowledge are sort of selling point from business analyst in addition to IT knowledge.
On the other hand, I would like to say that this position is not the easy one. Business analyst must have sort of “people-skill” combined with “hard-skill”, since business analyst also managing relationship with the business users as well as technical team. But again, some campany policies (or even office politic) prohibit business analyst to have wide role (worstly, it makes business analyst stuck in the middle or even low level of company structure).
And yes, again I am agree with you that business analyst should not stop on the business requirement. Instead, they will have expanded role as solution advisor and project manager (if possible :D).
Your blog is tagged in my favorite url
Hi Maria - great article.
I have been through quite an interesting period with my current position, as we have only recently begun operating with BAs.
As the sole and BA for a time, it was interesting to define what the role was, as many people had differing views. I think that as you say, we shouldn’t concentrate on the role itself, but the tools and approaches we use.
This was the way in which I tackled the situation. Some of the tools that were identified as being crucial for the up front thinking and modelling of a project included; user modelling/user personas, which assist in maintaining a user centric approach, requirements gathering and documentation, to functional specification writing to consulting with designers in the development of IA and interface design. Included also is the consultation with technical teams to sure technical considerations have been made and utilising our own technical knowledge.
Once I had defined these tools and approaches, people now have a better understanding on the BA role.
Over time, the value in this role has been increasingly realised, to the point where on every project, a BA has up front involvement. We are involved in all up front and strategic decisions and are the driver for what the solution is to be.
Due to this, many efficiencies have been realised, and we are now developing higher quality and more appropriate solutions to clients.
This is the point where the organisation understands and realises the diversity of the BA role and the value it adds. By witnessing this, hasn’t been able to “box us in”.
Firstly let me congratulate you on writing a nice article.
My comment is in relations to your response to Craig for what inspired you to write this piece.
It is true that BAs are paid less than other project roles such as the PM. Look at any salary surveys by Seek, Michael Page, MyCareer etc and they all say the same thing.
But why is this the case? I personally see BA as a more valuable role to the Business. It might sound bias because I am currently a BA…but I’ve been a PM too! and have analysed this situation objectively
So why do PM get paid more money? Their job is no where near as difficult to do then a BA’s job! In fact an ex-colleague of mine was writing a book titled “My mother’s a Project Manager”, which tells me how easy it is to be a PM. Here’s one reason why. PM can sell themselves and have the necessary communication channels to the Senior Management Team. During salary reviews they can say things like “I managed a diverse project team”, “I managed a 5 million dollar budget”, “I delivered the project on time, to cost, to quality”, “I saved the company 1 million dollars a year”. What can the BA say?
John
Center4BA