Celebrating International business analysis day 2023

 

As we mark another Business Analysis Day on November 1st, it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect on the evolution of this vital profession. In a recent session with Capability Drive, including Deirdre Caren, a panel of experts explored the past, present, and future. As a team, we want to celebrate this by talking about the highlights for business analysts.

Some of the questions that were addressed in the BA Jam Oceania panel were:

• What has the past taught us about what needs to change for the future? 
• What would a futuristic business analyst look like? 
• Why do we still need business analysts if other roles are performing business analysis?

Honoring the Past

Looking back, it's amazing to see how far business analysis has progressed over the years. What began as ambiguous "analyst" roles grew into the specialised discipline we know today.

BAs used to spend a lot of time documenting and gathering requirements. Many of us were put into the role with no training or understanding of what we were doing. The world was changing quickly, and we needed to figure out what was going on. It had "Wild West" elements to it. BAs, however, today play a crucial role in translating business needs, enabling organisational transformation, and assessing solutions, thanks to the rigorous creation of standards, certifications, and training programmes. 

BABOK guidelines and IIBA certifications helped to professionalise BA competencies. To make a difference, today's most effective BAs combine technical expertise, business insight, and soft skills.

Recognizing the Present

In the current landscape, experienced BAs are true partners helping enterprises navigate digital transformation. Beyond requirements gathering, BAs provide critical business-IT alignment, stakeholder engagement, and analytical insights.

Additionally, many business analysts are investigating AI potential, determining where it may help with analysis, and trying to "play in the sandbox." This is still in its infancy, but it is rapidly expanding. When combined with context, AI has the potential to boost BA productivity and knowledge discovery.

BAs bridge communication barriers between business leaders and technical teams by using disciplined approaches and interpersonal skills. They convert hazy concepts into actionable needs that drive development. This is unlikely to alter in the future, so we must ensure that we continue to attain more success.

Organisations, more than ever, require BAs who can inspire collaboration, uncover hidden needs, and identify misalignments before they ruin initiatives.

It was a great presentation, with lots of good information, and Questions:  Yvonne Sharpe IIBA Victoria

Key questions asked transitioning from current to future state

Questions	Answers
How many people have been using AI for requirements or any of your business analysis?	About a quarter of attendees had used AI for requirements or business analysis.
Can you describe the AI bot-building process at a high level?	The AI bot is like a role or person; it needs to be taught how to help through training data and constraints. Good questions elicit good responses.
What was the prompt that produced this?	The prompts in the demo are the ones that produced the outputs shown.
Humans are notoriously poor at estimating timeframes, how does the AI do with estimating and scheduling?	AI can use data to make timeline estimates, but humans are still needed to validate the accuracy.
This bot seems very custom-built, was it trained on specific data?	Yes, this bot was custom-trained on a business architecture knowledge base specific to the scenario.
When training data was fed, what training data was fed into the AI?	The training data was the business architecture knowledge base, a conceptual model of the organization.
It sounds like the AI may be more helpful with more limited areas of work?	Yes, AI is most helpful for focused, limited tasks.

Embracing the Future

As we celebrate November 1st, rising technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) will become a reality for evolving BA toolkits and ways of working. AI adoption will empower BAs to concentrate their efforts on high-value validation and strategy. However, BAs must understand what prompt engineering is and why it is necessary. Consider BACCM!

To remain relevant, we must accept new methodologies while maintaining a firm grasp on principles such as elicitation, critical thinking, and stakeholder engagement. Training and certification will become increasingly vital for upskilling business analysts, ensuring that they have the knowledge and language to have the right conversations.

BAs who are willing to change while embracing new technologies to improve analysis competencies have a bright future. Their combination of human understanding, soft skills, stakeholder involvement, and technological fluency will become even more important.

Thank you so much to Deirdre and the entire Agora Insights team for the excellent content and insightful discussion on how artificial intelligence impacts the business analyst roles and deliverables. Ebenezer Ajibade, President, IIBA New Brunswick Chapter 

Agora Insights Custom Bots: 

ECBA 

CCBA

CBAP

Deirdre spoke about something that is very new to us within the Winnipeg market, that being AI.

My email is on fire with an enormous amount of positive feedback. – Vincent Turski

Vice-President of Member Events

Conclusion

What an honor it has been to be part of an extremely dynamic community! Let us celebrate the significant evolution of business analysis over the years on November 1st. And, as the transition accelerates, let us remember that BAs are just getting started in terms of growing their careers.

We at Agora Insights are excited to continue providing BAs with the methodologies and attitudes they need to flourish now and in the future. We are honored to be a part of the BA community's journey of continual growth.

Post sponsored by Agora Insights Ltd