You’re meeting someone new for the first time and they ask “What do you do for work”? You reply “I’m a Business Analyst”, most people will instantly have their look of curiosity replaced with a blank stare and you can already anticipate the next question…”What the heck is a Business Analyst”?
Over the years I’ve tried many explanations from text book definitions of business analysis to analogies to examples and one thing remains the same – it’s never a simple answer and it changes depending on where I’m working as a Business Analyst and what the scope of my work is at that time.
The IIBA categorizes business analysis work into 7 knowledge areas; Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, Requirements Management and Communication, Elicitation, Requirements Analysis, Solution Assessment and Validation, Enterprise Analysis and Underlying Competencies.
Regardless of what work a Business Analyst is doing, they will typically act as a liaison between the business units in an organization and the technology specialists and/or technology functions; because of this, the Business Analyst role is often aligned with either the business unit (e.g. Customer Service, Manufacturing, Logistics), IT where they focus on both business and system aspects of a project or in a business analysis center of excellence where Business Analysts are grouped together with their peers to maintain consistency and continuous improvement.
Ultimately the goal of business analysis is to:
There are a variety of tools and techniques a Business Analyst will employ to achieve these goals but that’s a discussion for another day…
How do you answer the question of what is a Business Analyst?