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

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”.

Your blog is tagged in my favorite url

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.