BA Rocks!

With the economic downturn of recent months, the release of the Gershon Review into ICT and a general slowdown in government spending as part of the normal election and budget cycle, I started to think about what skills and capabilities will be needed in teh future and what does this mean for the BA professional.

Lawrence Shatkin recently published “150 Recession Proof Jobs” and suggested that “the best recession-proof jobs are those that are least sensitive to economic downturn, and which have the highest combined scores for pay, projected workforce growth, and number of openings”.

Health-care has traditionally been as a recession proof career and in recent times IT has been seen the same way - that is until there is a large scale burst of the bubble (i.e. the last dotcom crash). So it was a good sign that in this US based analysis, IT jobs take the first three spots. The good news for BAs is that system analyst was the highest ranked job in the list of 150, with data communications analyst  a close second. Shatkin’s top 10 jobs are listed below:

Job Category                                                                       % Growth

1. Computer Systems Analyst                                                      29 %

2. Network System and Data Communications Analyst             53%

3. Network and Computer System Administrators                     27%

4. Registered Nurse                                                                    23%

5. Teachers                                                                                 22%

6. Physical therapist                                                                    27%

7. Physicians and Surgeons                                                        14%

8. Dental Hygienists                                                                   30%

9. Pharmacists                                                                             21%

10. Medical and health Services Management                          16%

So why is it that System Analysts rank so high on the list?

Shatkin suggests that it is  really a question about how collaborative the work is. Business Systems Analysts and Business need to work with the people who produce the information and with the people who are going to use it. BAs need to work in a collaborative fashion, preferably be on-site with the team or  be someone who can communicate very easily with the people on-site. This communication and bridging skills is very pivotal in the project team and has a big impact on the overall success or failure of a project.