Think Tank
Topics:Arb Thoughts Jobs
Most people, when they meet someone new, chat about weather and the grass and the latest sports events until eventually small chat dies and the uncomfortable silence hangs in the air. Its at this point one of the parties generally pops the question “… and what do you do?... for a living of course. Due to the nature of my role I find this a very difficult question to answer. If you have ever heard someone describe themselves as a “Business Analyst” then you have heard someone make a very broad statement as to what they do. Although it is true for most jobs, you can get a bit more detail. To explain, lets use the following as an example: “I’m a manager at a book store” or “I’m a call centre consultant.” You would have a very good idea as to what they do and follow up with "aahh, for whom?" and converstaion gets started.
Now, if you are a business analyst for a bank you’d have a certain set of skills and perform basic set of tasks/roles. If you are a business analyst for a software company, you have another skill set and perform another bunch of roles/tasks. If you are a business analyst for hospital, you would have a different skill set from the first two and perform different tasks and have a different role to fulfil entirely from the first two. Of course there is an overlap...
... but, why is everyone called a”Business Analyst”? Not an easy question to answer, so I will (in my usual long winded way) give background and hopefully some insight which will help you find an answer. A business analyst is a relatively new role that has evolved out of need.
Business (regardless of the type of business, or the industry) is getting more competitive. There are more people demanding more things faster and cheaper. This of course puts a business owner in a tricky situtiation fighting for survival, asking questions like “what my competition is doing”, “what can I do to attract more people”, “how can I become more cost effective and still keep my head above water”. This is where we come into help. While you float, we'll problem sove and help build a boat around you.
Only after I attended a lecture a few weeks back given by one of the guys from the American chapter of the IIBA (International Institute for Business Analysts), it became a bit more clear to me that there’s a need to define what a business analyst is. The IIBA is making a good stab at it, and I think they are doing very well so far. Their philosophy is that anyone with a certain set of skills, possesses a certain level of intellect and has a certain personality type will fit into the role of a “Business Analyst” regardless of the numerous role names (Business Systems Analyst, Process Engineer, Analyst, Business Efficiency Manger, etc..) that are floating around. No, I’m not going to detail their idea’s here, since there is something called the BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) which defines this in a few hundred pages.
So what do I do? What do the rest of us Business Analysts have in common? Well; we are analytical thinkers, people who love learning new things, people who thrive when jumping on a concept and thrashing it out in our minds, then debating it to death until it is something shiny and workable, we are people who obsess and debate over what things should be named, and best they be named correctly (don’t underestimate the importance of this), whether it is logical to do it in this way or in that. We communicate with a multitude of people in a multitude of different ways. We challenge existing ways of doing things. We are communicators, “people people”. We are problem solvers! When we get together in a group, we are a think tank, alone – we are Business Analysts.
Generally when I responding to the question “… and what do you do?” with the short answer of “I’m a Business Analyst!” I find that giving my role/title just doesn’t quite cut it, people tend to look at you, then proceed to either drool or say “and what exactly is a business analyst?” … assuming that they don’t know or aren’t one themselves. So it’s at this point where I begin the answer which would bore most people to death, or at the very least induce some form of coma. At which point I say “That’ll teach them to be polite.”
I love my job. This is not to say that there are times/parts of it that I dislike, this (I have been led to believe) is normal in every job though. Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be a part of a “think tank”. It only dawned on me recently that had I landed in my dream job. The problem that my friends and family face... is that my job has influenced how I see things and how I approach the world. I like to question and give my opinion. I am my own think tank!
In your case, you are the bane of our existance (developers). Your business is to interface with clients, dream up new ideas and get us to make them a reality. :P Hehehe, might be a nasty interpretation of it, but not far from the truth if you speak to developers. Developers being the laziest people on earth...
I can see the point of your post, but it is virtually the same for every segment of the IT-field with regard to non-IT-fields. I've been in a couple of scenarios where talk about current occupation would come to the fore. You mention "developer", "programmer" or "software engineer" they glaze over and drool.