Business & Financial Markets
Fundamentals of Business
Business Analyst training courses often suggest that a Business Analyst is like an architect in that both establish what the client wants and specify the requirements for the build. But how similar are they in the real world given the lack of definition and accreditation of Business Analysis?
| Architect | Business Analyst | |
| Who deals with multi-million pound projects? | Y | Y |
| Whose work will make or break a budget? | Y | Y |
| Whose work will have profound implications on the success or failure of a project? | Y | Y |
| Whose work will have profound implications on users for years to come? | Y | Y |
| Who has a legal requirement to undergo training? | Y | X |
| Who has to conform to a prescribed method? | Y | X |
| Who is regulated? | Y | X |
| Who can make it up as they go along? | X | Y |
| Who is legally liable for errors in their work? | Y | X |
This lack of regulation and accreditation (all current training programmes and certifications are optional and there is no mandatory or legal requirement for a Business Analyst to be trained and accredited) has left a commercial vacuum where it is possible to launch yet another method/approach/practice, set up an accreditation scheme and collect the money. Consequently as Business Analysts we find ourselves with a (literal) embarrassment of methods and approaches and certificates and diplomas and professional organisations, all covering the chain of reasoning - to a greater or lesser extent!
This situation will not continue: there are too many competing methodologies and practices and exams and certificates and diplomas and...and you get the idea. This is an issue for those trying to select Business Analysts (Project Sponsors and Project Managers) and as a result of that issue the Business Analysis profession must face the following risks:
1. Projects will stop doing analysis. Lean and Agile (and the now old RAD and JAD) could be seen as the starting points for this as their method to mitigate the risks of missing links in the chain of reasoning is to do lots of small releases so that the cost of correction is lower for each release.
2. The Business Analyst profession will disappear into an in fight of methodologies and rival accreditation schemes, lose all credibility and will be replaced by another profession (ironically having to do the same job under a different name as there is no rational way around the fact that in order to develop the right solutions the right analysis has to be done - eventually!). Of course, that profession will face the same issues as Business Analysts did and ... well, as George Bernard Shaw put it "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history".
3. Systems Analysts will take over the Business Analyst role and develop analysis products fit for their purposes (developing computerised systems) and not necessarily fit for business purposes (developing solutions maybe including computerised systems, business procedures, organisational units to operate procedures and so on).
Clearly, the issue will be resolved before too long as market forces will drive it to a conclusion. The obvious question then is which - if any - risk will materialise in that resolution?
I would suggest that all three are already materialising...
Copyright © 2009 All Rights Reserved