TeleconferenceThe New Business AnalystCarey Schwaber Rob Karel
Senior Analyst Principal Analyst
Forrester Research
November 9, 2007. Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time
2Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Theme
The business analyst role is increasingly important.
Previously distinct types of business analysts are starting to converge as the lines between
business and IT disappear.
3Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agenda
• Why do business analysts matter?
• Who is a “business analyst”?
• Where do business analysts come from?
• Recommendation and WIM
4Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agenda
• Why do business analysts matter?
• Who is a "business analyst"?
• Where do business analysts come from?
• Recommendation and WIM
5Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Definition
► Business analysts are responsible for measuring and improving business process, information, and experience within a technology and/or policy context
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Today’s business analysts are central to navigating a rapidly changing business environment
• Business analysts have always mattered . . .
• . . . but the following trends put BAs in the eye of the storm:
» Enterprisewide IT initiatives
» Complex IT sourcing strategies
» Customer-facing business processes
» Service-oriented architecture
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Trend No. 1: Enterprisewide IT initiatives
• IT organizational structure reflects business organizational structure, perpetuating stovepiping.
• IT initiatives increasingly span business units, functions, and architectures.
» SOA, information-as-a-service
» Master data management
» Consolidation of ERP and CRM instances
• Gathering requirements for projects that span business units, functions, methods, and architectures is even more difficult.
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Trend No. 2: Complex IT sourcing strategies
• IT shops source projects or parts of projects to get the best expertise at the lowest price.
» Acquisition of packaged applications
» Outsourcing individual functions like testing
» Establishment of captive offshore facilities
• Inability to communicate requirements leads to poor outcomes.
» “They built what we asked for, but not what we needed.”
• Having more and better business analysts — and better use of existing ones — improves communication between customer and provider.
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Trend No. 3: Customer-facing business processes
• Increased exposure of business processes directly to customers
» Airlines: flight reservations systems
» Retailers: in-store kiosks
» Educational organizations: registrar systems
• Building customer-facing business processes requires intimate knowledge of customer needs and behaviors.
• Analysis of customer requirements is harder:
» Customers aren’t committed to your success
» Customers don’t know what their requirements are
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Trend No 4: Service-oriented architecture
• Easier integration destabilizes requirements.
» Twenty apps use a service originally designed for a single app.
» Partners use a service originally designed for internal use only.
• Business processes branch, with one process potentially invoking multiple and diverse services.
• The credit check step in a loan application process might:
» Call a single service or fire off parallel and simultaneous credit checks from multiple agencies
» Conduct a different number of credit checks for customers requesting different size loans
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Strong business analysts are necessary to survive in this new IT environment
• The business is asking IT to take on larger and more important initiatives.
• IT is using more diverse delivery teams to assemble solutions out of more smaller components.
• This creates:
» Greater risk
» Greater complexity
» Increased need for improved communication and collaboration
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Agenda
• Why do business analysts matter?
• Who is a “business analyst”?
• Where do business analysts come from?
• Recommendation and WIM
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Enterprises want to know what a “standard” business analyst does
“I am currently involved in defining role specifications, career ladders, and
competences for IT business analysts and would appreciate some input from
Forrester on the industry standards and expectations from a business analyst.”
(Pharmaceutical company)
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But “business analyst” is an overloaded term
Business analyst
Business-orientedbusiness analyst
IT-orientedbusiness analyst
Generalistbusiness analyst
Domain-orientedbusiness analyst
Information-orientedbusiness analyst
User-experience-orientedbusiness analyst
Process-orientedbusiness analyst
Cross-functionalbusiness analyst
Function-orientedbusiness analyst
Financial business analyst
Marketingbusiness analyst
Human resourcebusiness analyst
…
Six types of business analyst
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Introducing two types of business-oriented business analysts
1 Jim Stuart, business-oriented, cross-functional BA
• Responsible for the implementation of a customer information service for all LOBs
• Was previously the business sponsor for a CRM implementation
• Now reporting into a process quality team
• Is an active data steward and drives agreement on customer information quality standards
• Is starting to apply Lean Six Sigma and other process improvement methodologies
2 Susan Hendrickson, business-oriented, function-oriented BA
• Responsible for measuring and optimizing the leads process
• Reports into the sales organization
• Was previously in sales support
• Uses business process analysis tools like Casewise
• Occasionally works with IT to implement changes in Siebel
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Introducing the IT generalist business analyst
3 David Chui, IT-oriented generalist business analyst
• Part of a team reporting into the PMO
• Works with a wide range of business units served by a centralized applications organization
• Documents business requirements as use cases
• Works with architects to translate requirements into models and specifications
• Works in Microsoft Word and Visio and stores requirements in a requirements management tool
• Also works to define requirements for packaged application acquisitions
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Introducing three types of domain-oriented IT business analysts
IT-oriented, domain-oriented business analysts
4 Jon Timson, process
• Defining business and IT requirements for changes to claims processing apps
• Interested in business process management tools and business rules engines
5 Elaine Stuart, information
• Data quality expert responsible for definition and implementation of data standardization, cleansing, enrichment, matching, and de-duplication rules
• Reports into the enterprise architecture group
6 Janine Morrison, usability
• Part of the usability/interaction design team
• Creates prototypes and simulations for Web-based apps
• Reports into the eBusiness group but works closely with app dev
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Different BAs for different types of initiatives
No involvement Some involvement Full involvement
Cross-functional
Function-specific
Business-oriented
Generalist Domain-oriented
IT-oriented
SAP implementation
Employee onboardingprocess improvement
B2C eCommercesite redesign
Customer dataquality initiative
Legacy migration
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Business analysts are only slightly more likely to report into IT
Base: 230 current business analysts
Most often into a LOB (42%),
marketing (12%), operations (9%), or a process quality
team (6%)
Most often into applications,
(50%), IT operations (8%), or architecture (8%)
Business executive
43%
IT executive57%
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Business analysts work most closely with the business, no matter where they report
Base: 230 current business analysts
“With whom do you most often collaborate? Please select the top three.”
88%
29%
24%
52%
40%
21%
27%
39%
37%
25%
19%
11%
9%
5%
5%
5%
5%
70%
29%
21%
9%
7%
4%
10%
2%
7%
Business customers and/or subject matter experts
Project manager
Internal end users
IT developer
Other business analysts
Development lead
IT architect
External clients/customers
Designers/usability engineers
Change management practitioners
Business architect
QA/tester - Rank
Other (please specify)
Business analystsreporting into IT
Business analystsreporting into thebusiness
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In practice, many business analysts are generalists
Business IT
The bulk of the business analyst population
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Agenda
• Why do business analysts matter?
• Who is a “business analyst”?
• Where do business analysts come from?
• Recommendation and WIM
23Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
As BA roles blur, BA skills cross
• While today we illustrated six different types of business analysts, these roles are converging.
» Those from the business are more involved in IT than before.
» Those from IT are more involved in the business.
• The skill sets that different types of business analysts require are becoming less and less distinct.
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The hunger for qualified business analysts
“We would like to speak to an analyst about companies who provide training,
mentoring, and consulting regarding business analysis. I am trying to build a
center of excellence for business analysis as part of the IT development
life cycle, including best practices, processes, and tools.”
(Manufacturing company)
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It’s soft skills, not technical, that make a great business analyst
“How important is it for business analysts to possess the following skills? Please rank these skills from 1 to 5, where 5 is the most important and 1 is the least.”
4.8
4.7
4.7
4.2
4.0
4.0
3.9
3.5
3.5
3.3
3.0
Oral communication
Analytical
Written communications
Facilitation
Business rules design
Process modeling
Change managementProcess improvement (Lean, Six Sigma,
Theory of Constraints)Data modeling
Design/usability engineering
Software modeling
Base: 230 current business analysts
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52%31%
29%
28%
23%
20%
17%
14%
13%
13%
9%
9%
9%
8%2%
Project manager
Business process analyst
Business subject matter expert
Developer
Tester/QA
Other
Relationship manager
Process engineer/consultant
Business function manager
Power user
Line-of-business manager
Designer/usability engineer
Change management practitioner
Architect
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, etc.
Base: 338 current and former business analysts
Business analysts come from all over the enterprise . . .
“Which of the following roles have you held in the past?”
Other prior roles include trainer, sales rep,
customer service rep, development lead,
statistician, and operations analyst.
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. . . but generally want to work in the business, not IT
“What do you see as the next step in your career?”
Base: 230 current business analysts
Other responses include program manager,
product manager, and strategy consultant. Plus, 5% of respondents want
to remain business analysts.
41
35
32
27
56
14
10
6
7
14
1
1,
1,
40
37
34
30
7
23
22
12
9
6
5
1,
2,
34
37
30
24
8
27
19
17
17
20
6
4
3
Project manager
Business SME
Business function manager (finance, etc.)
Line-of-business manager
Other
Relationship manager
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, etc.
Change management practitioner
Architect
Designer/usability engineer
Power user
Tester/QA
Developer
Choice No.1Choice No. 2Choice No. 3
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Business analysts are a seasoned bunch
Base: 230 current business analysts
“How many years of experience do you have as a business analyst?”
Less than one year5% One year but
less than three years20%
Three years but less than 5
years22%
Five years but less than 10
years36%
More than 10 years
17%
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But business analysts are forced to learn as they go
• The most common source of training for business analysts is on-the-job training by their peers, managers, and mentors (78%).
• Business analysts supplement this with various other sources, foremost amongst them Web sites, blogs, and wikis (63%).
• Just over half (58%) of business analysts have received official training from their companies.
• Less than a fifth (18%) have received training directly applicable to their business analyst role from institutions of higher learning.
• And 27% are part of industry associations, with the International Institute Of Business Analysis (IIBA) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) most commonly cited.
Base: 230 current business analysts
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With the advent of new tools, this will have to change
99%
77%
41%
26%
15%
13%
12%
10%
3%
3%
16%
Microsoft Office tools besides Visio
Microsoft Office Visio
Business intelligence, data mining, and analytic tools
Ad hoc query tools
Other
Data modeling tools
Business process analysis tools
Data profiling/data quality tools
Business process management tools
Enterprise architecture tools
Application prototyping or simulation tools
Base: 230 current business analysts
"Which of the following tools do you use in your job as a business analyst?"
31Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agenda
• Why do business analysts matter?
• Who is a “business analyst”?
• Where do business analysts come from?
• Recommendations and WIM
32Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendations
• Communicate the strategic nature of the business analyst role.
• Assess current inventory of business analysts and fill in gaps through hiring or training.
• Establish clear career paths for business analysts on both sides of the fence.
» The subject matter expert path, with specialization in a function or methodology
» The generalist path, with graduation to a leadership role in the business or IT
• Evaluate technologies that will enable business analysts to:
» Better understand and represent business needs
» Contribute directly to the fulfillment of these needs
» Improve collaboration between business and IT stakeholders
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Dynamic applications will drive the evolution of the business analyst role
• Business analysts will have to understand and learn to operate in the context of new technologies and architectures.
• This lets them leverage services and assemble them into new apps.
• This new assembly development paradigm will transform business analysts from definers to implementers.
• This is a critical enabler for Dynamic Apps and the transition from IT to BT.
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Carey Schwaber
+1 617.613.6260
Rob Karel
+1 650.581.3821
www.forrester.com
Thank you
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Selected bibliography
• September 24, 2007, “The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative” report
• September 10, 2007, “Data Governance: What Works And What Doesn’t” report
• September 1, 2006, “The Root Of The Problem: Poor Requirements” report
• January 12, 2007, “For Process Modeling, Business Analysts And Developers Are Better Together” report
• January 12, 2007, “BPM Best Practices For Process Professionals” report
• November 22, 2006, “Navigating The BxM Acronym Maze” report