The Business Analysis Hysteria
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By Thirusha Chetty
In
WHAT IS A BUSINESS ANALYST?
There have been times when I’m out socializing with peers who are not in
the IT industry and they always ask to me “what do you do for a
living?”, when I tell them “I’m a Business Analyst”, they
raise their eye-brows and nod slightly in agreement, as if to say, sure I’ll
just pretend to know what that is...
Business Analysis is the set of tasks, knowledge, and
techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to
business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but
may also consist of process improvement or organizational change to enable the
organization to achieve its goals.” (www.theiiba.org).
A
BA is best described as a person who acts as the communicator (or bridge) between IT and business
units. A BA is responsible for analyzing the business needs of
their clients and stakeholders to help identify business problems and propose
solutions within the systems development life cycle. These requirements are
translated into a usable language for IT developers to utilise
when delivering software development projects. Common alternative titles are “business
systems analyst”, “systems analyst”, and “functional
analyst”, although some organizations may differentiate between these
titles and corresponding responsibilities.
BA’s
help reduce risk; they are the key to communicating the true business objective
to IT. According to Barret from the IIBA "The
business analyst has been around for a while, but just not formally recognized".
The role is gaining more attention now, she asserts, because of the increasing
role IT plays in achieving business goals and the rising cost of failed IT
projects. "The business analyst provides quality control and makes sure
that you are focusing on the right things"
BUSINESS ANALYST: A DAY IN THE LIFE
The
above sounds simple enough in theory but how easy is it in practice? As a BA
you will be exposed to various industries not to mention a diversity of
personality types. Here’s an extract of what typically happens in the
real world:
A
well known telecommunications provider has just hired you, and you have agreed
to a six-month contract to help develop a new system for accounting and
budgets. Your day starts by meeting the impatient project manager who already
has enough on his plate and doesn’t have the time for small talk with
you. You try to get an idea of the background and why it was initiated; before
you leave you ensure that you get the contact details and names of all the key
players on this project. Luckily for you this is a well structured organization
so you are able to find source documentation to start your research,
(BA’s are not always this lucky).
You
gather all the information needed and setup meetings with stakeholders to get
more clarity in order to begin defining the business requirements.
Unfortunately the Subject Matter Expert (SME) has previously had bad
experiences with IT and he tends to be wary of you. This makes your task of
conducting a JAD workshop very difficult. You eventually manage to find common
ground and one by one the stakeholders open up and start contributing to the
discussions. Four hours have passed and you decide to close up and schedule a
follow up meeting at the end of the week.
After
the initial meetings, you start researching the best approaches to data
security and disaster recovery. Next, you meet with the in-house developers who
will be customizing and debugging some off-the-shelf programs that will be part
of the new system. Towards the end of your day and you head back to your
computer to create process diagrams and start working on the Functional
Specification Document you need to deliver by the end of this week. Its 4:55pm
and your telephone rings, it’s the SME on your project who just remembered
that there were a few small changes he would like to make to his initial
business case. Once you have noted these you realize that the process flows you
spent 2 hours creating are now no longer valid, the SME’s
small changes have impacted the entire project, so it’s back to the
drawing board for you!
I
am sure that many BA’s are able to relate to this scenario at some point
in their careers. This validates that although a good BA needs to have IT
skills as well as business acumen; those are not nearly enough to get the job
done.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD BA?
There
are many factors that influence the standard of a good BA. Here’s to name
a few:
- Analytical ability
- Innovation
- Communication (verbal,
written)
- Understanding of IT practices,
policies, and operating norms.
- Understanding of current and
future technical architecture.
- Planning and managing
- Process improvement and change
management
- Modeling
- Designing
- Technical communications
- Knowledge of current, target,
and legacy infrastructure and standards
- Understanding what's going on
outside; technology and innovation exploration
- Implementing and knowledge of
rollout issues
- Applying expertise
- Bias for action
- Problem solving ability
- Serving customers
- Collaborating with others
- Organizational influence
- Quality Assurance
- Training
- Influence and Negotiation
- Presentation Skills
- Change/ Scope Management
HOW DO I BECOME A BA?
With
all this hype about the future of IT and keen interest in business, I too
joined the BA bandwagon. Mentoring graduates I’m often asked “how
do I become a BA?” One of my mentees, Tom came
to me on a Monday morning, saying that he had been reading the latest
publication of Computer World magazine which rated an analyst as one of the top
10 paying jobs for now and the next 10 years. Tom wanted to hear from me all
about what Business Analysis is about and how he could become one?
Business
analysts act on both the business and information technology spheres at once.
They can therefore come from either of these backgrounds. Some business
analysts have initial training in computers completed with business training,
while others have classical business expertise enhanced by technical IT
training.
At
present universities are not yet training business analysts as such. A few
master's level programs exists, but they are mainly designed for professionals
who already have some experience. There are universities who claim to cover
Business Analysis as a subject but the description of that qualification will
only enable you to perform financial analysis. In order to attain knowledge of
the best practices in business analysis you need to ensure that the course is
endorsed by the IIBA. (www.theiiba.org).
Business
analysts often end up in this role by accident, as their careers evolve. They
are perhaps called on to work jointly with the business or computer department,
and end up linking the two. Two major sources of BA professionals can therefore
be considered: the computer world (e.g. architects, developers) and the
business world.
What
is the best background for becoming a business analyst? The debate is still ongoing
in the community; should you have a business background or a technology
background? Each has their pros and cons—technology computer people tend to
anticipate the solution while if you only have a strong business background you’ll
probably lack the knowledge on how to interact with IT.
I
believe that good business analysts are above all specialists in business
analysis. They have backgrounds in both disciplines and act as a bridge between
the two worlds