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1. Business Analysis - An elevator to the
top!
Business analysis is the new role that has gained popularity among the corporates
during the last 10 years or so. The reason being they help the organization to
visualize a system without actually implementing the system and at a minimal cost.
Though Information Technology introduced business analyst to the world, today we
find business analysts in hospitality, healthcare, automotive, banking, financial
services, insurance, retail, entertainment and manufacturing industries. The role of a
business analyst is to elicit requirements from stakeholders and to recommend a
solution to solve organizations’ problem. The position of BA gives the opportunity to
work truly cross-functional and freedom to move freely across various departments
of the organization. This autonomy combined with business analysis skills enables
BAs to have a superior understanding of the organizations’ business model than
anyone in the organization. Business analysis is an amazing profession where one
has high visibility in the organization, moves with top brass, tons of learning
opportunity, lot of satisfaction and of course handsome pay and perks.
The purpose of this article is not to explain what a business analyst does, but to
examine the potential of the business analysis career. As business analysts have
years of cross functional experience they have exceptional understanding of the
business model and have good relationship with the management. BAs have good
people skills that help them to work without formal authority. They rely on their
leadership skills. Someone as business analyst with several years of experience has
a better insight about the organization and the industry. This makes them an
excellent fit to the top management positions such as VP, Director and CEO.
Why a business analyst has a better chance than his or her counterparts in the
organization? The key differentiating factors are
1. By profession BAs are trained to be cross functional that helps them to visualize entire
organization including the business model.
2. BAs are fewer in number in any given organization, hence less competition among
themselves and more importance for their work. For example in one of the automotive
company there is only one business analyst for 1,300 staff. In a popular retail online
store there are only 3 business analysts for 1,000 staff.

2. 3. Business analysts are constant learners which enables them to introduce best practices
and solutions within the organization.
4. There are only few layers (hierarchy) between BAs and top management.
Those who are working as business analysts should understand the huge potential
of this career. At the same time, one should not think that this is easy to achieve.
There is an equal opportunity available in front of all the business analysts, but only
those who meticulously plan their career can attain these heights. Here, I am
suggesting a three pronged strategy to make this happen.
1. Master the profession of business analysis to become a front runner in your
organization.
2. Acquire the necessary skills that will help you to succeed as a member of senior
management.
3. Create a conducive atmosphere.
1. Mastering Business Analysis
IIBA is the world’s first and leading professional association committed for the
development of business analysis profession. It offers certifications such as
Certificate of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) and Certified Business
Analysis Professional (CBAP). We have about 4,325,206 (as on 7-July-14) business
analysts in LinkedIn alone and the total number of business analysts in the world
would be easily about 10 million (a study undertaken by Fhyzics). Out of this, only
about 3,200 are CBAP certified, which is roughly 0.03 per cent.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), Canada prescribes three areas
that need to be mastered by a business analyst.
One, BAs should possess certain competencies such as analytical skills (creative
thinking, problem solving, decision making, learning and systems thinking), business
knowledge (regulatory framework, industry knowledge, organization knowledge and
software applications), communication skills (verbal, written and teaching),
behavioral characteristics (ethics, personal organization and trustworthiness) and
interaction skills (facilitation, negotiation & team work).
Second, they should have strong understanding of knowledge areas such as
business analysis planning and monitoring, elicitation, enterprise analysis,

3. requirements analysis, requirements management and communication and solution
assessment and validation.
Third, a good understanding of relevant techniques.
2. Skills needed to perform at Senior Management
You should have an excellent understanding of accounts and finance, sales and
marketing, operations, human resources, economics, process improvement,
information technology functions. But the question is where to get all of these. I
would recommend an international MBA in a good B-School with a process
improvement certification like Lean or Six Sigma.
3. Conducive atmosphere
In my opinion, in top tier companies, where too much of specialization is involved
there are chances that the BA may be pegged into a corner with few processes to
work on. On the other hand, those BAs working in a medium size or even smaller
organizations have huge opportunities in front of them to showcase their capabilities
in the best possible manner.
A word of caution, are you looking for a short term hike or a long term bash? Don’t
be tempted for the small benefits by constantly jumping from one organization to
another. But anchor yourself in an organization for at least 5 to 10 years.
This will help you not only to succeed as an excellent business analyst but also to
reach the top position. So take advantage of the god sent opportunity of you being a
business analyst.