carey schwaber rob karel senior analyst principal analyst

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.


Agenda

• Why do business analysts matter?

• Who is a “business analyst”?

• Where do business analysts come from?

• Recommendation and WIM


Agenda


• Who is a "business analyst"?




Definition

► Business analysts are responsible for measuring and improving business process, information, and experience within a technology and/or policy context


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


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.


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.


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


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


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


Agenda






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)


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


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


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


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


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


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%


Business analysts work most closely with the business, no matter where they report


“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


In practice, many business analysts are generalists

Business IT

The bulk of the business analyst population


Agenda






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.


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)


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



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.


. . . but generally want to work in the business, not IT

“What do you see as the next step in your career?”


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


Business analysts are a seasoned bunch


“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%


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.



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


"Which of the following tools do you use in your job as a business analyst?"


Agenda




• Recommendations and WIM


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


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.


Carey Schwaber

+1 617.613.6260

[email protected]

Rob Karel

+1 650.581.3821

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

Thank you


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

carey schwaber rob karel senior analyst principal analyst

Documents

business sponsor

oriented business analysts

new business analyst

business analyst role

standard business analyst

business analysts matter

better business analysts

strong business analysts