Business Analysts_ CIO Sidekicks or Successors

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Business analysts: CIO sidekicks or successors?The role of BAs is considered important even if most admit it isnt properly understood. A new certificationmay develop more of them. How the relationship with senior technology executives is evolvingBy: Shane SchickCIO Canada (27 Jan 2011)

They straddle the worlds of technology and strategy. They often need to fight their way through officepolitics and organizational hurdles in order to ensure projects are completed successfully. Their role tendsto be ill-defined and misunderstood, even though they are becoming ever-more critical contributors toachieving enterprise objectives.

For once, were not talking about CIOs.

It was less than two years ago that Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research published an in-depthreport called "The New Business Analyst," which suggested that despite their growing importance, BAsoften lacked a standing reporting structure, proper training or a clear career path. There was no question,however, that Forrester believed CIOs and other departmental executives would need more of them.

"They can single-handedly turn business-requested, IT-delivered applications into tomorrows dynamicbusiness applications," the report said. "CIOs have new allies in the business ."

Really? It often doesnt feel that way. CIOs dont necessarily directly manage business analysts. Few of thecase studies published in this magazine and elsewhere suggest a partnership between CIOs and BAs wasthriving behind the scenes. Though in some respects they are in the same position of negotiating betweenexecutive expectations and technological realities as chief information officers, the Forrester report notedthat getting CIOs to appreciate the value of a BA may require "some education and even someevangelism."

Michael Gladstone may be the man for both jobs. At the International Institute of Business Analysis basedin Toronto, Gladstone serves not only as the organizations CIO but also as its vice-president ofcertification. Having worked in BA roles at financial services firms such as Meridian Credit Union and RBCCapital Markets, he spent years volunteering for the IIBA before taking on the dual role he enjoys today.

He says it has given him a unique perspective on the relationship between the two camps.

"Both from what Ive seen as well as the IIBAs position is that CIOs do not take advantage of their BAs,"he says. "It essentially comes down to that immaturity of the profession. Many organizations view theirBAs as essentially everywhere from some kind of admin-type role to glorified documenters, where I sitdown with you as my business partner, you tell me what you need and I write it down. People forget halfof the roles title which means the BA might not be a llowed to do actual analysis, but just what wasbeing asked of them."

The consequences of that attitude can be significant, according to Peter Giblett, a consultant based inToronto who has written about the CIO-BA relationship in the past.

"What has happened, of course, is that the recession has put a lot of work on the various parts of the ITteam and what has happened is that many CIOs have sa id We need our tech guys but we can do without

some of the business analysts," he says. "The problem is when you get a business-type problem, if its notanalyzed correctly, you can start putting in the wrong solution."

Indeed, Gladstone believes that BAs can help prevent costly or complex problems long before they have achance to crop up.

"The senior leadership will say they need to do these six projects. Once they get approved and themanagement of those projects has been assigned, the BA starts doing their work: Is this really what youwanted? Have you thought about these half-a-dozen cases? So many projects get in the muck," he says."At a high level the project makes sense, but when you get in the details, some of those things reallymatter. What Ive tried to encourage is the idea that BAs are the perfect people to be working with youbefore those projects even start."

Giblett agrees. "The primary driver to any form of business change is really around whats the problem and

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what do we need to change," Giblett says. "Its about bringing back the corporate focus and corporatearchitecture into how we deal with any problem-solving scenario. That feeds into technical designers aswell as BAs and other skllls that we have in the IT world."

Steps to Certification

One critical step towards maturity in any profession, of course, is industry accreditation. Late last year,Gladstones organization introduced the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) program,which the IIBA is expecting to become the standard certification for business analysts. Designed incompliance with the ISO 17024 standard for certifying the competence of personnel, obtaining the CCBAwill involve taking an exam, paying a nominal US$125 fee, demonstrating proficiency in at least two of the

six areas outlined in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge Guide and racking up two and a half yearsof BA experience in the last seven years. The requirements are significantly higher for the CertifiedBusiness Analysis Professional (CBAP) program, which the IIBA has been running for several years andrequires some 7,500 hours of BA experience.

"What weve seen is that is a very high target for people to meet," Gladstone says. "Theres a much largerpool of BAs who are able to meet two and a half to three years of experience, because of somecombination of their length of time within the field or because theyve been in it and spent half their timedoing something else. We want to offer them a form of recognition for the effort theyve made and want toenable them to seek professional designation."

Besides giving them the ability to stand out and show theyve made a significant investment in their careerGladstone says the CCBA will also help employers who arent always sure what kind of training to providetheir BAs. Certification is a great way to encourage profess ional development, he says.

In the long term, however, theres some question as to where BAs will end up in enterprises. Will theymigrate into a specific line of business based on a project they worked on, or develop skill sets along theway that qualify them for a more hands-on role? Will they simply leave and become consultants to theirformer employers? Or might they aim even higher CIO, for example, or even CEO?

"The whole career path has been an issue in the field," Gladstone admits. "One of the things were tryingto do is improve our members view of business analysis. To us, CIOs and CEO are the end of the road forthe BA."

Hes not the only one who thinks so. David Barrett is among the producers of Business Analyst World, aconference that provides one of the annual opportunities for education and peer networking amongbusiness analysts in several cities across Canada and the U.S. Barrett, who is based in Toronto, says CIOsdont usually come to Business Analyst World as attendees but frequently sit on panel discussions to

provide insights into their jobs. Theres no reason BAs couldnt one day aspire to those jobs, he says.

"They make perfect CIOs," he says. "Its more of a technically driven role but not necessarily so. I wouldsay 30 per cent-plus is non-technical. We see BAs coming out of banks and insurance companies that arenot working in a technical environment, where theyre doing process re-engineering. The role of the BA isto create the specs to understand the requirement of a project or stakeholder, and model it. What the BAis now being told and taught is that its much more than just your project. You need to understand thewhole environment."

Giblett also sees possibilities, if only because of what BAs absorb over time.

"I would say that (BAs becoming CIOs) would probably be highly possible," he says. "The one thing that abusiness analyst should know is the business, and they often see the problems more clearly than the techperson because the tech person just moves from one project to another."

Although it may take time for BAs to advance to those senior leadership positions, Gladstone suggests thano organization can afford to leave analysis up to the BAs alone.

"Everyone needs to understand whats required to get the job done. I think that anyone on the businessside should understand theyre not doing requirements for a theoretical system. Anyone in the IT side hasto have an understanding that getting requirements from the business is not as simple as translating theminto systems-speak."

In other words, business analysts may or may not become the next CIOs. But it wouldnt hurt if we allstarted thinking a little more like them.




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