Reflections on the 2012 UK IIBA survey.

1. Reflections on the UK IIBA
Business Analysis survey
PRACTITIONER REFLECTIONS
BSG Business Analysts reflect on the results of the IIBA’s industry survey.
Recently the UK International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA) published the results of an industry-wide
Business Analysis survey (http://bit.ly/iibasurvey2011). BSG BAs, many of whom completed the survey
questionnaire, reviewed the results and discussed some observations.
How does BA happen in the public sector?
Reference: Sector, page 5
Only 5% of respondents work in the government / public sector. This seems quite low; especially given that
in our experience government machinery seems fairly process oriented and includes several checks and
balances. This is prime subject matter for a BA! It is also interesting that many of the well known
methodologies in our field (PRINCE2, MSP, TOGAF) have their roots in, or are owned by, government
agencies. What are your experiences with the public sector?
When will we stop calling ourselves misunderstood?
Reference: Length of Career, page 6
36% of respondents answered that they have been a BA for 10 years or more. These colleagues have spent
years honing their craft and surely have reached their “10 000 hour threshold” of purposeful practice. If
1/3 of our community are in a position to achieve mastery in the profession, we should be able to define
ourselves. Can you define what makes BA valuable?
Why aren’t BAs driving change?
Reference: Areas of involvement, page 6
Organisational change is the reason why projects exist. Change is the "why" we are here. It seems counter
intuitive that so many BAs are not involved in the change tasks of the project and how infrequently the
service is offered. Are BAs missing out on reaping the fruits of their labour? Are we blind to our own higher
cause?
Is there no common BA toolkit?
Reference: Techniques, page 11
Only 4 of the techniques surveyed were used by more than 50% of respondents. We take the view that
requirements workshops and interviewing are data gathering techniques rather than communication tools
leaving just MoSCoW and use cases as the only common tools in the toolkit. How do we build a common BA
toolkit? Should we build a common BA toolkit?
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2. Is there anything meaningful behind the selection of project approaches?
Reference: Development Techniques, page 13
There appears to be no correlation between the choice of project approach (agile, waterfall, etc.) and the
BA's experience, market sector or maturity of the practice in which they work. None of these factors seem
to be driving selection of approach. Ideally, this decision is based on factors such as the project objectives,
environment and end customer needs. What are your drivers for the decision?
Do we really want to be document jockeys?
Reference: Tools, page 14
The strong bias to MS Office tools suggests that we’re very focused on writing things down and sharing
them “traditionally” (on paper and/or via SharePoint). Aside from Quality Centre, no other tools got a
lookin. It was disappointing to see such limited use of either integrated enterprise modelling tools or web
based collaboration tools. Why is adoption of sophisticated collaborations tool so low?
Are universities failing the BA profession?
Reference: Qualifications Held, page 15
The vocational qualifications held by the BAs surveyed largely came from accreditation bodies as opposed
to universities. There is no doubt that many degree courses include subjects that can build up a BA's
armoury however it is unclear if the BA profession sees these as being formative in one's BA career
development. Should universities step up and begin specific BA training? How have your university studies
helped you as a BA?
BAs can be external parties too
One general observation we have on the survey is that, in places, it seemed to be focused on practitioners
within organisations rather than considering the potential for consultant BAs. Of course, as a consulting
firm of BA practitioners, we’d be sensitive to this. Most of our team interpreted the question in the context
of their current client so no more than food for thought in preparation for next year’s survey.
BSG (UK)
BSG is passionate about being a proactive force for positive change. Our clients have a deep understanding
of their organisations’ strategic intentions – their “why”. We have observed that many of these
organisations struggle in the gap between intentions and delivery – the how, what, when and who of
delivering against strategic ambitions.
Addressing this is all about designing practical programmes and projects, which will deliver the “why”.
Programmes and projects need to have a clear, strategy aligned, benefits case. Executing change is about
working in the detail of these projects to reliably deliver the business needs. It is about acting as the bridge
between the business stakeholders and the technology implementation.
BSG (UK) is an IT professional services organisation. We bring deep technical and domain expertise to bear
on design and delivery of business change.
A collection BSG (UK) BA www.bsgdelivers.com
practitioner insight can be found +44 20 7390 8674
at http://bit.ly/bsgukinsight info@bsguk.co.uk
Business Systems Group (UK), Registered in England No. 6150570, 230 City Road, London, EC1V2TT
www.bsgdelivers.com