Play Your BA Cards RightIIBA UK @ LV Bournemouth 24th Oct 2013

#UKIIBA

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WHAT WE’LL COVER

• A bit about the Annual BA Survey (what it is / what’s in it / why do I do it!).

• A look at some of the key data – the state of the nation

• Our role in driving the profession forward

• Next steps / questions

• Play your BA Cards Right!

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WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

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WHAT IS IT?

• Now running for two years.

• The ONLY comprehensive UK Wide benchmarking for BAs.

• Results FREE to all.

• Published under Creative Commons (free to use and distribute).

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• Profile across the UK (Location, sector, length of career)• Professional Activity (processes, duties covered and techniques used)• Practice Maturity• Personal Opinions (growth, recognition)• IIBA UK Performance• Professional Tools usage• Qualification Holdings• Employment (Retention and Attraction)• Remuneration (Salaries, Day Rates, Bonus, Benefits)

WHAT’S IN IT?

Sample Size for 2012 is 421

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• The IIBA UK take a major interest in the growth of the BA Profession in the UK;• Measure it – Drive it!

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Enables personal identification of self against my profession

Enables BA Practices to identify their maturity against others

Enables Suppliers to offer more tailored products and services

Drive the Profession forwards!

Annual

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PLAY YOUR BA CARDS RIGHT!

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RULES OF THE GAME!

• Two contestants.• For the first question both will write down an answer. Closest takes control of the

board.• Audience participation is encouraged at all stages!• All questions are based on the 2012 UK BA Survey.• All answers are %s• Once in play, the contest who controls the board simply has to answer whether the

answer to the current question is higher or lower than the previous answer.• 8 questions to win the game!• However, for a wrong answer, play is passed to the other contestant who

continues from where the previous player left off.

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ORDER OF PLAY

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

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47% 63% 55% 26%

40% 38% 48% 79%

PLAY YOUR BA CARDS RIGHT!

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LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

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BA UK HEAT MAP

Diversity

Experience

Responsibility

Remit of Role

Position in Organisation

What’s hot!

What’s not

Under invested

How we feel

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DIVERSITY

• 47% Financial Services but 3rd largest segement is ‘other’ and covers 31 sectors – none of which represent more than 0.7% of the BAs polled. In total 41 diverse sectors.

• Really good sign in terms of the proliferation of the role and the transferable nature

• Regionally we still see highest deployment of BAs in London and the South but we have fairly good coverage in other regions too.

• Anecdotally that representation is growing too.

Good levels of diversity both regionally and by sector

BAs by Sector

BAs by Region

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DIVERSITY CONT.

• Both good and bad (I’ll explain), there are different levels of involvement in processes, techniques, and methodologies. We obviously see the common areas (requirements, waterfall, etc.) being the main focus but many of us reach out to other areas too.

Wide set of service offerings and techniques

BA Service Offering

BA Actual Processes Conducted Techniques Used

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DIVERSITY CONT.

• When it comes to IT build methodologies we’re also well versed to work on a wider range of methods. Whilst last year 83% of BAs worked on waterfall projects, 63% also worked Agile.

• Growth on ‘hybrid’ techniques could be good or bad!

63% of Business Analysts are using Agile Software Development approaches

% of Development by Method

Overall Exposure to Methods

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EXPERIENCE

• Over a 3rd of all BAs have been working in the field for over 10 years – showing vast levels of expereince in the proffession.

• Less than 5% have worked in BA for less than a year showing good routes into the profession.

• The latter stat may be an indication of growth too but without info on exits out of the BA profession its hard to determine anything conclusive.

• Rightly or wrongly, 73% of us also carry out or sometimes carry out project management duties.

• Although only 46% have any formal PM training!

3rd of all BAs have been working in the field for over 10 years

BA Career Length

PM Duties Performed

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HOW WE FEEL

• 79% of BAs agreed (strongly or otherwise) that they personally feel valued as a BA. Up 3% on 2011 too.

• 80% of BAs also felt that the role of Business Analyst was gaining in recognition.

• Both incredibly strong numbers in terms of how people feel about their chosen career path.

8 out of 10 Business Analysts feel that their role is gaining in recognition

BAs Feel Valued

BAs Feel Gain in Recognition

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HOW WE FEEL CONT.

• There’s also strong confidence in the role in the Market. Only a hand feel it would take more than 6 months to find a similar role should the worst happen.

• About 33% of BAs are ‘actively’ looking for their next role – It’s hard to say what this means but suggest healthy movement if the market can support that level of turn over

• If we put aside – the positive movement (people ready for their next challenge, growing careers, etc.) it also means that 67% are happy where they are.

80% of BAs are confident they could find similar employment in under 3 months

BAs Re-Employment Confidence

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POSITION IN ORGANISATION

• 48% of BAs are still based within the IT department and we’re actually seeing (albeit over two years) a drop in the proportion based in the business units.

• There’s no hard or fast answer as we’re often the spanning point between the two but natural maturity says that we’d step out of IT and take a more strategic role in the business.

• Most of our projects also indicate a strong IT focus and less involvement with Continuous Improvement / business based projects.

Most BAs still report into the IT Department

Organisational Homes for BA

Projects Resulting in Software

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UNDER INVESTED

• 88% of BAs feel that increasing investment in the company / practice would de-risk projects.

• And that’s not a selfish stat. Whatever metrics we use we know our work is the lynch pin when it comes to successful delivery.

• Almost unanimously, 96% of BAs believe that the quality of the BA input directly affects the outcome of the project.

• But then if we look at things like tool usage and training we see a lack of support…

‘78% of Business Analysts feel that the use of professional requirements

elicitation and management tools helps to ensure good quality projects’

‘only 46% of Business Analysts have one or more BCS modules’

96% of BAs say that the quality of there work directly affects the outcome of the project.

Would Investment De-Risk Projects?

Quality of Work Directly Impacts Project Success?

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UNDER INVESTED CONT.

• 78% of BAs believe that professional tools ensure quality projects yet only 55% have access to these tools.

80% of BAs believe that professional tools ensure quality projects

Professional Tools Drive Project Success?

Tool Usage

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RESPONSIBILITY

• This ones actually quite surprising – whilst we offer a lot of ‘services’ and have involvement in lots of project activity we’re not taking as much accountability as we should. We saw a general 5% drop back in responsibility (against 2011) and 9% don’t feel they’re accountable for any of the processes listed!

• Vital that we see ourselves as responsible for what we do and communicate it as such.

1 in 10 BAs don’t consider themselves to be responsible for any key process

Professional Tools Drive Project Success?

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REMIT OF ROLE

• Our service offering, whilst diverse, is centred around requirements.

• A vital part of our offering but there’s so much more we could be doing.

• We should partner with the business owners gain trust through flawless implementations and obtain the remit to help generate new investment into the business teams.

• BAs can add value to the whole lifecycle… and beyond!

True value and maturity comes with e2e BA involvement

BA Service Offering

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What’s hot!

What’s not

SUMMARY

Diversity

Experience

Responsibility

Remit of Role

Position in Organisation

Under invested

How we feel

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WHAT’S NEXT?

• Download a copy of the results from http://uk.theiiba.org/index.php/about-us/basurvey

• Further reading on the case for investment (Because You’re Worth It) published in Analyst Anonymous Spring 2013 (page 20 & 21) http://www.assistkd.com/_uploads/documents/analysts-anonymous/aa-spring-2013.pdf

• Share with your colleagues.• Sign up to the IIBA UK mailing list to take part / receive results for 2013

(September).• You could win a place at next years European BA Conference through participation.• If you’re interested in Practice Level Assessments – Drop a line to

david.sean.avis@gmail.com