The Business Analyst Career Path: Why They Are Crucial

A 2021 eSkills initiative in the UK reported that the need for skills in the Business Analysis area will grow at a rate of 2.5% per annum for the next decade - compared to a 0.5% average across skills in the rest of the economy. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports similar findings, estimating the field will grow by 11% by 2029, considered much faster than average (Both studies are listed in the sources section). The fact that the business analysis career path is projected to grow 5 times faster than the average growth rate for other careers, yet the job role is so poorly labelled and defined in the UK and abroad is an unwelcome contrast - especially when you tie it into the struggles tech already faces when it comes to recruiting talent. This blog aims to dive into what the business analyst (BA) career path is, how it is commonly labelled in the job market and why it is an exciting career to pursue.

What Is A BA?

A business analyst's main function is the study of a company's processes, operating procedures and data to discover ways in which the company can make existing processes produce more value in an efficient way comparable to resources. Although they interact with data regularly, they are not to be confused with Data Analysts. BA's may be brought in house by organisations, tasked with reducing costs and eliminating inefficiencies, or collaborated with as consultants in order to deliver digital transformation projects and redesign organisational procedures. The aim of both of the above is to increase competitiveness in the business world, and BA's must leverage their skills of data and process analysis to recommend solutions that are both robust and convenient.

The job role is heavily communication-based due to the fact that processes are not always obvious, hence requiring knowledge extraction from key process masters and stakeholders. This tacit information may not be immediately obvious or easy to extract so it is sometimes necessary to exploit process modelling methodologies and tools to illustrate the information you are trying to collect, and sense checking it with the relevant process owners. A good business analyst should drive stakeholder collaboration across the scope of cross-organisational processes, helping foster more productive interactions that result in process gains from the perspective of efficiency and value creation. Complex processes are never contained in only one corner of an organisation, so a BA's ability to extract knowledge and build it into a comprehensive view of the process landscape is just as important as their ability to suggest solutions and efficiency improvements.

In agile development environments, the job of a BA is slightly different, as here they would mostly assist Product Owners (PO) in maintaining a product user story backlog. This would involve requirements gathering, user story & acceptance criteria writing, as well as supporting PO decision making by conducting deep dives into problem areas and providing justification for directions of travel. Regardless of where you find a BA, the core of their function will always be centred around optimisation of product and process, finding a way to do what's currently being done better or designing future enhancements to be lean, fit for purpose and efficient.

Business Analysts In The Job Market

Most studies attempting to quantify the presence of business analysts in the job market attempt to blanket cover roles mentioning "process" or "analyst" in the contexts of improvement and transformation work. The issue this, and the naming inconsistency within the job role, presents is the possibility that real job growth and presence data is suppressed by the lack of clear BA role labelling and description. A brief search of jobs matching the expectations of a business analyst yielded a variety of naming results - these included:

• Business Analyst (obviously)

• Process Analyst

• Systems Analyst

• Process Coordinator

• Process Owner

• Information Analyst

• Business Intelligence Analyst

• Subject Matter Expert (SME)

• Process Expert

Discovering and recruiting talent to the tech industry in particular is hard enough. These issues are exacerbated further by vague job naming and description when it comes to business analysts in technology. Leaders of the industry and indeed all industries where a BA provides value would benefit from agreeing on standardised naming conventions (assisted by government) and moving forward with them where recruitment is concerned. This simplifies the search and application process from a candidate's perspective, bringing top talent towards this valuable career path more successfully. Governments have a further part to play in this, by bringing this agreed list of career paths in tech and business analysis to the door of young people via careers services in younger education. Simple is always better, so these amendments would go a long way to optimising the job market.

Failing to fix the above issue has knock-on impacts, as it means employees may be listing a role name on their CV that either may not accurately reflect their function, or may not be recognised by future employers as a representation of the BA role. The confusion caused is by nature confusing, and the current hiring processes employed are already too ready to omit applicants based on discrepancies in their documentation. This is something that we can fix with little pain in my view, it should definitely be done ASAP.

Why Are BA's Important & Why Should I Become One?

In the commercial world, delivering results in the quickest time possible with minimum inputs is the name of the game when it comes to staying competitive. In this sense, the purpose of an effective BA becomes ever more crucial. Understanding current business capability, and where it falls short from an efficiency perspective, is crucial to increasing output with the same resources. Senior executives may be the ones making decisions on budget cuts and team restructuring, but making these decisions from an informed perspective (due to the intervention or deep-dive of a BA) would contribute to boosting competitive advantage regardless of industry.

Business analysts are also invaluable to digital transformation projects too. If a company desires to overhaul its processes or systems, a BA's work analysing requirements and interacting with stakeholders across the spectrum is the key to building scalable and robust process solutions. Simpy implementing stakeholder' requirements without this solution analysis deep-dive risks implementing a solution nobody wants, as a client's ask can be one thing, but the reality of the solution in practice is a separate arena. BA's bring this view to life, modelling the as-is Vs the to-be procedures, and ensuring the want actually fits the business need based on what's technically feasible.

Change is a constant in business, and without a birds-eye view, it's often difficult to tell what the best methods of practice are when it comes to business processes and value creation. Business leaders too easily rely on the easy way out, implementing bit-part ways of working that are often not scalable and waste resources to ensure they keep up with change. A BA is well placed to understand the value creation landscape, and provide lean operating recommendations in times of rapid change and evolution. It's often these recommendations that provide the difference between staying competitive and lagging behind the industry standard in terms of output and value creation. They are not luxuries, but in fact essential to business operations.

If you find client workshops, solution presentations and requirements analysis interesting, the BA career path is definitely suitable for you. Each day is different depending on the project, and the dynamism mixed with the creativity involved makes it a healthy challenge. Devising solutions based on business needs puts you at the forefront of proposing sustainable solutions to business leaders, a position that comes with much visibility. You will also interact will multiple facets of a business when studying process, opening up many opportunities when you consider where you want to work next. Branching out next into solution or enterprise architecture, or project management and technology leadership roles are all possibilities from the business analysis job role. Wherever process and procedure exist, a BA will find a home.

Author: My name is Amer, I'm a Computer Science with Business graduate currently working in tech consulting. My thoughts in this blog are based on my opinions regarding business analyst careers in technology and elsewhere, rather than concrete proposals based on research. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn (on the about page) if you have any questions.

Sources:

• 6 In-Demand Business Analyst Career Paths and Pitfalls to Avoid: https://www.simplilearn.com/business-analyst-career-path-article

• Why Should You Become A Business Analyst In 2022? | Understand The Benefits: https://businessanalystmentor.com/why-should-you-become-a-business-analyst/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20BA%20Times,364%2C000%20to%202%2C720%2C000%20by%202020.

• The Importance of Business Analysts: https://www.learntek.org/blog/importance-business-analysts/

• How to Become a Business Analyst – Complete Career Guide: https://www.discoverdatascience.org/career-information/business-analyst/

• What is an agile business analyst?: https://agility.im/frequent-agile-question/what-is-an-agile-business-analyst/

• Why is the role of a Business Analyst so important?: https://www.e-careers.com/connected/role-business-analysis-so-important