10Q4 Get To Know Your 2010 BAs

8/3/2019 10Q4 Get To Know Your 2010 BAs

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Survey respondents this year closely matched last years respondents in terms

of company size, with the majority working for companies with more than1,000 employees.


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The industries represented in the 2010 survey match those of the 2009 surveyclosely, with finance, insurance, business services, and IT services highlyrepresented.


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As with the 2009 survey, the majority of respondents represent firms based inNorth America, although respondents representing European firms grew from9% to 12%, and those representing Australian firms grew from 7% to 9%.


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Research shows that the business analyst role comes with a variety of titles.Survey results show senior business analyst and business analyst titles beingmost common, but 8% of the survey respondents manage other businessanalysts, systems analysts, or requirements engineers. The business systems

analyst title is also common, and many respondents are consulting business

analysts.


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The 2009 survey showed 66% of respondents reporting to IT and 34%reporting into the business almost identical to the 2010 survey results. ForBAs that report into IT, we see a slight increase in BAs reporting intocentralized BA teams or the project/program management office, which islikely due to the increased focus on business analysis skills and practices.


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The 2009 survey showed 66% of respondents reporting to IT and 34%reporting into the business almost identical to the 2010 survey results. ForBAs that report into the business, we dont see much change in functional

reporting structure, although for the first year, we included anenterprise/business project management office as an option, and 10% reportinto that business function.


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In the 2009 survey, 46% responded that there were more BAs at theircompany than in 2008. In 2010, that number grew to 49%. This is consistentwith the increased emphasis weve seen on business analysis skills and

practices. Because defects injected early in the development process(including requirements defects) cost exponentially more to fix post-deployment, organizations are investing in business analysis and requirementsimprovements and apparently increasing the number of BAs in theirdevelopment shops.


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Respondents to the 2010 survey had nearly the same educational backgroundas those who responded in 2009. 47% of BAs earned a bachelors degree,

with 29% also holding one or more masters degrees. Most studied business,followed closely by computer sciences. 33% of respondents took differentpaths, studying a variety of specialties like liberal arts, engineering, andscience, demonstrating that BAs dont necessarily need business and/or

technology backgrounds they can come from other backgrounds and with the right soft skills learn about the business and technologyenvironments.


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In addition to education, many business analysts are taking advantage ofcertifications from IIBA and other training providers. (Since the survey design,IIBA has planned to launch a new certification: The Certification ofCompetency in Business Analysis [CCBA].) The majority of respondents donot hold any of the listed certifications; discussions with clients indicate thatmany are still creating development plans for their business analysts andwaiting to see how the training and certification market develops over timebefore making investments.


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As demonstrated in the 2009 survey, todays BAs have a lot of experienceperforming business analysis. Nearly 75% of them have more than 5 years ofexperience as a BA. In 2009, 72% had more than 5 years of experience.


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As with the 2009 survey, we see that BAs have worked in many different roles.This year is the first that we included Consultant as an option, and survey

results show that 41% of current business analysts have been consultants inthe past. Discussions with clients indicate that consultants can be strongbusiness analysts, because they are accustomed to working in differentindustries and with diverse technologies. The top eight former roles live in theapplication development and delivery family, with a surprising 30% of BAshaving been developers and 27% having been quality assuranceprofessionals. And 52% have served in business roles, like subject matterexperts, power users, business function managers, and line of businessmanagers, demonstrating the importance of business acumen for todays BAs.


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The majority (54%) of business analysts want to continue as business analysts(including business analysts, systems analysts, requirements engineers,and/or business systems analysts), and 31% seek to manage teams of BAs.Interestingly, 16% want to move into a business architect position, a relativelynew role that is evolving as business-centric approaches to technologybecome more common. To gain an understanding of the business architectrole, see the October 24, 2008, The Up-And-Coming Business Architectreport (http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,46972,00.html )

and the September 27, 2010, Business Architects The Strategy Job IsOpen report

(http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,56854,00.html ).
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,46972,00.htmlhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,56854,00.htmlhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,56854,00.htmlhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,46972,00.html


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More than half of respondents claim to be generalist business analysts, havingresponsibility for a variety of business analysis responsibilities. This closelymatches data from the 2009 survey.


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As with the 2009 survey, todays BAs work on a variety of project types. This

year, we included an option for creating a business analysis or requirementscenter of excellence. 28% of BAs responded that they are involved in that typeof initiative, again indicating that organizations are focusing more attention onthe business analysts skills and practices. Weve also seen organizations

creating communities of practice bringing BAs together to share bestpractices, templates, and ideas with each other. See the December 9, 2008,Harness The Power Of Your Business Analysts report

(http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47447,00.html ).
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47447,00.htmlhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47447,00.html


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The breakdown of activities reported by respondents of the 2010 survey matchthe 2009 responses closely. Requirements definition (elicitation, analysis,documentation, and validation) makes up about a third of a BAs normal work

week. This aligns with research that indicates getting requirements right earlyleads to higher project success and saves organizations time and moneyspent on rework.


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About a third of organizations still use a waterfall development methodology,but other methods like iterative and Agile have clearly taken hold, as 45% ofrespondents stated that their organizations use a mix of developmentmethodologies. This is consistent with what clients in a variety of applicationdevelopment roles represent through inquiry, interviews, and advisory work.


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As with the 2009 survey results, communication, collaboration, and analysistopped the list of soft skills BAs need.


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BAs also need to know a variety of techniques, including interviewing,facilitation, and negotiation techniques. 58% also stated that modelingtechniques are critical or very important to business analysts. With an increasein the use of pictorial artifacts, like process diagrams, context diagrams, anduse case diagrams, BAs are drawing more pictures and using fewer words torepresent software requirements. See the February 3, 2010, Best Practices:Your Ten-Step Program To Improve Requirements And Deliver BetterSoftware report(http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,55592,00.html ).


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In addition to packaged tools, BAs also leverage a variety of frameworks andmethodologies to support their analytical processes. The IIBAs BABOK,

SWOT, and Agile top the list of frameworks included in todays BA tool kit.


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App dev pros often debate the need for BAs to have business knowledgeand/or technical knowledge. In the 2010 survey, 67% of respondents statedthat business domain knowledge was critical or very important, and 58%stated that knowledge of the organizations strategy was also critical or very

important. Technology knowledge came in third on the list.


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With the increased emphasis on improved business analysis and requirementspractices has come an increase in the number of information websites andcommunities that BAs leverage on a regular basis.


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The requirements definition and management tools market has exploded,thanks to an increased recognition of the importance of requirementspractices. For a recent market overview, see the June 24, 2010, Right Tools.

Write Requirements. Right On! report

(http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,56810,00.html ), in whichwe show a categorized snapshot of tools that were used as the basis for a2010 survey question. This is the first year that we asked survey respondentsto tell us what requirements definition and management tools they own orsubscribe to but dont use; own or subscribe to and use regularly; or plan to

purchase or subscribe to and use. The lengthy list included requirementsdefinition and management tools and on-premise and software-as-a-service(SaaS) offerings. The following slides represent the survey responses. Thelarge number of dont own or subscribe to responses may indicate that BAs

and their leaders are focusing more on skills and practices and postponing toolinvestments until they have stronger practices in place. It may also be a resultof the lists length and the questions positioning toward the end of the survey.

Readers should keep this context in mind when interpreting the information onthe following slides.


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Requirements definition platform vendors have staked out a new marketsegment. Functionality isn't equivalent, but Blueprint Requirements Center,eDev InteGREAT Requirements Development Platform, and IBM RationalRequirements Composer provide a wealth of requirements definitionfunctionality, including modeling, creating simulations, requirements authoring,test case creation, and lightweight requirements management. A centralizedrepository enables teams to work together through collaborative capabilitiessuch as reviewing and commenting.


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Other tools focus on mockups and simulations, from low to high fidelity,boasting easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality to create wireframes andscreen mockups. These tools also allow you to connect screens together tocreate interactive simulations. BAs use the artifacts they create in these toolsto collaborate with stakeholders to validate screen flows, look and feel, andbasic functionality of interaction-focused applications. These tools alsocommunicate requirements to the rest of the development team in an easy-to-consume manner. Tools in this category provide varied functionality. Sometools, including those from iRise, Micro Focus, and Serena Software, targetenterprise teams and use a centralized repository for collaboration andintegration. Others, including those from Axure, Balsamiq, and Microsoft, focuson enabling a single user to install the tool easily on her desktop or laptop andstart creating. See the following slide for survey responses on the use of these

standalone tools.


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In addition to the requirements definition tools charted here, Ravenflowprovides tools to help users diagram business processes and use cases andthen identify missing or incomplete requirements through a natural languageanalysis engine. There are several versions of the product, including a Wordplug-in, a single-user desktop version, a server-based team version, and aplug-in for IBM Rational Requirements Composer. Ravenflow has alsolaunched a new SaaS version of RAVEN called RAVEN Cloud. With heavyWord integration and support from partnerships with vendors such as IBMRational, this unique tool can help business analysts get requirements right,but the 2010 survey showed very little current or planned adoption ofRavenflows products.


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Organizations still need strong requirements management capabilities, and thestalwart vendors with their time-tested tools are still solid. Established vendors,including HP, IBM Rational, Micro Focus, Microsoft, MKS, and Serena,continue to provide robust and reliable requirements management functionalityas described in the Q2 2008 Forrester Wave. The basics are all there:

capture, baselining and versioning, linking and tracing, and reuse. Many havealso enhanced their products to improve usability, trying to avoid becoming thedreaded shelfware thanks to overly complicated user interfaces andprocesses. These requirements tools also provide functionality for robustintegration of requirements with other aspects of the application life cycle, suchas development, change management, and testing.

BAs also have new choices for managing requirements. While the establishedvendors command most of the market share, others are getting in on theaction. A number of other players offer compelling tool sets that contain most,if not all, of the requirements management functionality that most ITorganizations seek. Almost all of the tools, from vendors including Accompa,Gatherspace.com, Jama, Kovair, Polarion, Projectricity, Seapine Software, andworkspace.com, also place a strong emphasis on providing requirementsmanagement functionality in the cloud available on-demand with a per-userpricing model. According to the 2010 survey, very few respondents wereinvestigating these newer requirements management tools, but we anticipatean increased interest in this newer class of tools.


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Fully Agile teams can choose from a group of requirements definition andmanagement tools with functionality tailored just for them. These tools, fromHP, Rally Software, Serena, and VersionOne, provide purpose-built support forAgile development through functionality such as backlog creation andmanagement, user-story creation, iteration and release planning, andburndown charts. Definition and management come as a package integratedinto an Agile ALM platform. All of the tools in this class leverage a centralizedrepository to support team collaboration, and they come in both on-premiseand SaaS flavors.

Keep in mind, however, that many of the other requirements tools on themarket accommodate multiple development methods and can be used to

define and manage requirements in both traditionaland

Agile environments. Ifyour organization uses Agile methods particularly in combination with otherprocesses don't limit yourself to choosing solely from the purpose-built Agiletools.


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In the past, many organizations invested in requirements managementsoftware, only to see it become shelfware, because it was too cumbersome,and their BAs didnt have the skills to use them or practices in place for them

to add real value. As with the 2009 survey, usability and ease of requirementsinput continue to be among the top considerations when considering investingin requirements definition or management tools. And since BAs arecomfortable working in the Microsoft Office environment, they wantrequirements tools that integrate easily with Microsoft Office tools.


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In addition to using purpose-built requirements tools, todays strong businessanalysts take a tool kit approach to defining and managing requirements,

acknowledging that the best methods and tools vary based on stakeholderattributes, project type, development methodology, and business value andrisk. While Microsoft Office and Visio still top the list of most-used tools, BAsmake use of a variety of other tools. The use of collaboration platforms, likeMicrosoft SharePoint, has increased from 59% in 2009 to 70% today,indicating the increased need for strong team collaboration, as a result ofgeographic, cultural, and company distribution.


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10Q4 Get To Know Your 2010 BAs

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