Play Your BA Cards Right! We've surveyed 100 Business Analysts for their professional opinions... Can you help our brave contestants win the prize of a lifetime?! David Avis takes a lighthearted flashback to the '80s to share some seriously insightful information.

2. Play Your BA Cards Right
European BA Conference 2013
#UKIIBA

3. • 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
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• Play your BA Cards Right!

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5. • 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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6. • 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)
Sample Size for 2012 is 421
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7. • The IIBA UK take a major interest in the growth of the BA Profession in the
UK;
• Measure it – Drive it!
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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• 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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1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8

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47% 63% 55% 26%
40% 38% 48% 79%

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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26. • 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
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