Business Analyst Job Description

Business Analyst Job Description – Why Isn’t It Consistent?

You would think it would be an easy task to be able to provide a definition of a profession that could be used across all organizations and industries. However, this is not the case regarding a Business Analyst (BA) role. Instead you will find different definitions, job titles and responsibilities depending on the industry you are looking at and even within different companies in the same industry. Also. there’s the question of whether a business analyst certification is a necessary part of the business analyst job description.

To better understand the business analyst job description, let’s 1st look at a basic definition of business analysis. According to the IIBA’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK), business analysis is “the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies and operations of an organization and also recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve it’s goals”.

That definition gives you a pretty good idea of what is involved in the process. However, the confusion comes into play when you look at the business analyst definition in BABOK, which states:

“any person who performs business analysis activities, no matter what their job title or organizational role may be”.

Hmmm, well that seems fairly obvious and general. That can pretty much encompass just about anybody.

If you would like more information on the BABOK, check out A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide) over at Amazon.

Sorting Through the Clutter In Determining a Business Analyst Job Description

So let’s see if we can delve into a few more details and come up with a better business analyst job description. As you read more about the role of business analysts, you will come to see that a general theme is that a BA’s specialty is solving problems for organizations. This function can be performed from a variety of positions and thus contributes, I think, to the lack of consistency in defining business analyst positions.

Commonly today, the BA role seems to be joined at the hip with Information Technology (IT) positions. However, Project Management positions also can perform many business analysis functions. And this I think shows one of the important core pieces of a business analyst job description. At it’s core, a BA will server as some sort of liaison between the technical aspects and the business aspects of an organization. And thus comes a problem – which side of the business is a BA really a part of? As you look at different companies, a business analyst job description could potentially show up under either arm.

Further complicating the issue, individual companies can take a fairly limited view of what a BA is depending on their individual needs. In their company, they have carved out this niche that a business analyst serves. Their business analyst job description would describe someone who generally will perform x, y and z functions. This can make it difficult for job seekers as well as career changers. For an experienced BA that works at another company, they performed a, b and c functions there and therefore could lack the qualifications to pursue the previously mentioned jobs. For someone looking to get into the business analysis field, if they focus on getting training or experience around the a, b and c functions, they could potentially severely limit their employment choices. Nevertheless, if you are trying to get a business analyst position, we have discussed some fairly common business analyst interview questions that might help you prepare for an interview.

So where does that leave us? Honestly, I think it leaves us in a state of flux. It’s obvious that a good business analyst will combine various technical proficiencies that come from the IT and/or engineering side with a strong   dose from the business administration side. However, I think the truly valuable BA’s will go beyond just being a conduit that takes an idea from the business side over to the tech side and tells them when  and where to implement it.

The valuable BA’s will be a bigger part of the evaluation and problem solving process. Business analysts that are brought on earlier in the decision making process can utilize their experience from the technical side that others on the administration side don’t have and could potentially be better able to guide the process to a better solution. An experienced BA could help ensure that proper processes are in place to logically walk through discovery, prioritization and decision making, thus potentially helping the business have the best possible opportunity to succeed.

Now you will probably notice that we haven’t really touched on many specific skills that a BA should have, both from a technical and a business side. We will discuss those in a separate post. For now, here’s hoping that you can shape your BA career, so that you can write your own business analyst job description into one that leaves your fulfilled both emotionally and financially.

If you’d like more information on how to start a business analyst career, then check out Laura Brandenburg’s great ebook on that subject.

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