The Business Analyst's Career Master Plan E-Book

Jamie Champagne

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 607

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Designed by an industry expert, this book offers a structured and practical roadmap to help professionals confidently navigate their careers at every stage, whether they are aspiring analysts or seasoned leaders.
You’ll begin with core business analysis principles and progress through advanced techniques, real-world applications, and the latest trends shaping the profession. Each chapter delivers expert insights, hands-on tools, and best practices to help you build essential skills to even advanced applications, select the right specialization, and stay ahead with evolving technologies. You'll explore career planning, certifications, stakeholder relationships and engagement, leadership, and continuous learning, culminating in a personalized career growth strategy.
By the end, you'll have the knowledge and confidence to define your path and set meaningful goals for a successful business analysis career.

Leseprobe

The Business Analyst’s Career Master Plan

Tools, techniques, and strategies for a thriving career in business analysis

Jamie Champagne

The Business Analyst’s Career Master Plan

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First published: September 2025

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ISBN 978-1-83620-685-9

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To all of those who have let me collaborate with you on incredible ideas for a better world, one business analyst at a time: thank you for letting me call you ohana (family)!

And for all those that read this, like my husband and daughter help to keep the stoke alive in me, may the stoke for greater value always stay at the surface while the value swims deep!

—Jamie Champagne

Foreword

It’s not every day you get asked to write the foreword for a book written by a friend, and not just any friend, but someone you’ve had the privilege of working alongside, learning from, and watching grow into a trusted voice in the business analysis community.

Writing this foreword isn’t just a professional honor. It’s a personal one, too.

Business analysis, at its best, is about more than just eliciting requirements or documenting processes. It’s about creating clarity where there’s confusion, building bridges between ideas and action, and uncovering the hidden value in the way things are done today, so we can make tomorrow better. This is where Jamie Champagne truly excels.

This book captures all of that and more. It’s insightful, practical, and, maybe most importantly, rooted in the real-world experience of someone who has done (and continues to do!) the work, has faced the challenges, and has come out the other side with insights and lessons worth sharing.

One of the things I’ve always admired about Jamie is her ability to bring a thoughtful, human approach to the work, while finding the fun in even mundane tasks.

Business analysis can often feel like a technical or procedural discipline, but this book reminds us that at its heart, it’s a people business. Whether it’s uncovering stakeholder needs, guiding a team through change, or aligning a project with strategic goals, Jamie never loses sight of the human element.

We first crossed paths in a pub in Manhattan one Sunday night. We were both in town to speak at a conference over the next few days, and were the last to arrive. Being relegated to the end of a 20-person table, we became incredibly fast friends, which continued over the years and has only increased through our shared work as LinkedIn Learning instructors, where we are both active in creating courses to help professionals level up their skills and navigate an increasingly complex business world. This has even led to a collaborative course where we share our perspectives: Jamie’s tactical slant and my strategic view of the business analysis profession.

Over the years, we’ve shared more than just a platform. We’ve shared ideas, feedback, support, and a lot of laughs. We even co-presented a keynote on having more fun at work…and yes, that is possible!

This book is a reflection of all the qualities that make Jamie not just a great business analyst but also a great teacher, communicator, and colleague. It’s practical without being dry, deep without being dense, and personal without ever losing sight of the reader’s journey. Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned analyst looking for a fresh perspective, you’ll find something here to inspire, challenge, and guide you.

More than anything, I hope you read this book the way I know it was written: with a spirit of curiosity, generosity, and growth.

You’re in good hands.

Vincent Mirabelli, CBAP, MBB, PMP

Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

President, IIBA®Toronto Chapter

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

vincentmirabelli.com

Contributors

About the author

Jamie Champagne, CSP, is a speaker, author, and trainer who is passionate about helping professionals find joy and success in their business analysis careers. With over 20 years of experience in business analysis, project management, and change leadership, she has authored Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis, 2nd Edition, and created popular courses on LinkedIn Learning and Pluralsight. Jamie is grateful for the support of her family, friends, and mentors, who have encouraged her to share her passion with the world. When not collaborating with teams, she can be found collaborating with her friends and family on a surfboard on the waters in Hawaii.

About the reviewers

Benjamin Yuan is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of experience in cloud transformation and strategic partnerships. Currently serving as Global Strategic Partnerships Leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS), he leads initiatives driving cloud adoption and digital transformation across markets. Previously, as Chief Revenue Officer for a strategic consulting firm and Principal/CRO for a technology solutions company, he specialized in scaling operations and building high-value partnerships. His extensive background includes PMO leadership at Fortune 500 companies and major healthcare organizations. Ben is a faculty member at the University of Hawaii, serves on PMI’s Global Board, and holds an MBA from Hawaii Pacific University.

I would like to thank my family for their unwavering support throughout this journey. Special appreciation goes to my colleagues at AWS and the global cloud community for their collaborative spirit and innovative mindset. I’m also grateful to the PMI community and my students at the University of Hawaii, who continue to inspire me to share knowledge and drive technological advancement.

Darrah Ruiz is a consultant based in Hawai‘i, where she specializes in information technology and Medicaid systems for state government. With a background in business analysis and project process improvement, she has supported efforts in system modernization, user acceptance testing, and governance documentation. Darrah also co-leads professional communities of practice that foster learning and certification preparation for business analysts. Rooted in Hawai‘i’s spirit of collaboration and respect, her work emphasizes clarity in communication, cross-team partnerships, and translating complex requirements into actionable solutions.

I am deeply thankful to my husband for his unwavering support and encouragement to keep growing in my knowledge. I am also grateful to my peers, who remain a steady source of insight and inspiration in the ever-changing world of business analysis.

Christina Lovelock is a BA leader, consultant, coach, and author. She has over 20 years of experience in business analysis and digital transformation, and has built teams ranging in size from five to 120 BAs. She is active in the professional community, regularly speaking at events and global conferences. Committed to advancing the BA profession, she has introduced entry-level BA roles into her organizations and chaired the development of the UK National BA Apprenticeship Standard.

Christina loves writing about topics relevant to BAs and is a regular contributor to ITNow magazine, BA Times, and BA Digest. She is the author of two books, including Delivering Business Analysis and her latest release, Careers in Tech, Data and Digital.

Thank you to all the amazing BAs who share their knowledge and experience with the wider community through books, articles, webinars, conference presentations, and podcasts. There are so many brilliant ways to continually learn as a business analyst, and being part of this international professional community has always been an absolute pleasure.

Table of Contents

Preface

Your Book Comes with Exclusive Perks – Here’s How to Unlock Them

Part 1: Introduction to Business Analysis Work

1

Unlocking Opportunities in Business Analysis

Defining business analysis

So, what is business analysis?

Understanding who is a business analyst

The purpose of business analysis in organizations

How business analysis professionals differ from project managers and technical roles

Understanding the role and importance of business analysis in organizations

Core functions and responsibilities of a business analysis professional

Contributing to project outcomes and organizational efficiency

Exploring career opportunities in business analysis

Traditional business analysis career paths

Transitioning to and from business analysis work

Evolving business analysis career paths

Industries favoring business analysis professionals

Essential skills for business analysis professionals

Skills and competencies for success

Strategies for continuous learning and keeping up with industry trends

Career development and networking tips

Summary

Further reading

2

Foundational Skills for Business Analysis Professionals

Essential skills and competencies

The value of understanding needs

Analyzing the business

Working with stakeholders

Fundamental tools and techniques

Elicitation and seeking understanding

Capturing the business case

Capturing needs

Visualizing requirements

Building a solid foundation

Building the business analysis business case

Recommending solutions

Analyzing yourself

Summary

Further reading

3

Advancing Your Business Analysis Techniques

Exploring advanced analysis techniques

Advanced modeling techniques

Thinking more strategically

Applying advanced techniques in real-world scenarios

Best practices for implementation

Summary

Further reading

Part 2: Building a Career in Business Analysis

4

Navigating Career Progression in Business Analysis

Strategies for career advancement

Experience

Certification

Continuous learning and professional development

Developing a career roadmap

Using SWOT analysis to understand yourself

Building a career roadmap

Overcoming common career challenges

Getting a different type of analysis work

Switching from project-based work

Progressing beyond tech-based analysis

Summary

Further reading

5

Specializations within Business Analysis

Different areas of specialization

Analyzing data

IT systems analysis

Product management

Agile

Financial analysis

Process improvement

How to choose the right specialization

Analyzing market trends and demands

Applying force field analysis

Benefits and challenges of specialization

Advantages of specializing

Challenges with specialization

Summary

Further reading

6

Business Analysis Certifications and Training

Overview of key certifications

Certified Business Analysis Professional

Certification of Capability in Business Analysis

Entry Certificate in Business Analysis

Training programs and resources

Application support

Preparing for certification exams

Building a study plan

Taking the exam

Maintaining your certification

Summary

Further reading

Part 3: Being Successful in Business Analysis Work

7

The Role of Technology in Business Analysis

Emerging technologies and their impact

Understanding technology innovations in solutions

Building the technology business case

Integrating technology into business analysis

Enhancing decision-making

Facilitating collaborative experiences

Improving your analysis productivity

Staying up to date with technological advancements

Start exploring trending topics

Leveraging your professional communities

Summary

Further reading

8

Building Effective Stakeholder Relationships and Upholding Ethics

Communication and collaboration skills

Understanding the importance of clear communication

Communicating effectively with business analysis techniques

Communicating remotely

Managing stakeholder expectations

Openly communicating your planning and estimation work

Integrating the power of feedback

Techniques for successful stakeholder engagement

Business analysis planning and monitoring

Elicitation planning and managing stakeholder communication

Ethics and professionalism in stakeholder relationships

Ethical principles in business analysis

Balancing stakeholder interests with ethical obligations

Upholding integrity in business analysis

Exploring ethical examples for analysis integrity

Summary

Further reading

9

Leadership and Mentorship in Business Analysis

Developing leadership skills

Understanding analysis leadership qualities

Measuring your leadership qualities

Growing your analysis leadership qualities

The importance of mentorship

Using analysis techniques to explore leadership

Building effective mentoring relationships

Finding a mentor – the hardest challenge

Building the relationship

Supporting the next generation

Summary

Further reading

Part 4: The Future of Your Business Analysis Work

10

Continuous Learning and Professional Development

Advancing your analysis career through lifelong learning

Learning for your business analysis career

Creating a professional development plan

Using your professional development plan

Utilizing professional resources

Leveraging the value of your professional organizations

Learning through certifications

Summary

Further reading

11

Emerging Trends and the Future of Business Analysis

The impact of technology on business analysis

Understanding the role of emerging technologies

Integrating emerging technologies into your analysis work

Building your analysis practice to integrate the next tech evolution

Adapting to new business environments and models

Working in remote and hybrid environments

Tailoring approaches and methodologies

Activities to incorporate into your business analysis work

The integration of business analysis with agile, DevOps, AI, and beyond

Understanding adaptive and integrated methodologies

Leveraging the feedback loop

Building business analysis into the business delivery systems

The future of business analysis: Predictions and trends

Considering the impact of AI as a model for business analysis evolution

Using technology revolutions as models to position yourself for tomorrow

Summary

Further reading

12

Assessments and Techniques for Career Success

Utilizing self-assessment tools for analysis professionals

The value of evaluating your BA competencies

Utilizing the IIBA Competency Model

Conducting peer reviews and assessments

Strategies for getting maximum value from assessments

Instructional guides for measuring and improving business analysis techniques

Measuring the success of your BA techniques

Improving the success of your BA techniques

Using feedback for improvement

Collaborating with your stakeholders

Working with your internal teams

Working outside your organization

Summary

Further reading

13

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Summary of key takeaways

Defining business analysis from a new perspective

Identifying business analysis tasks and techniques

Going beyond the project

Actionable next steps

Building your capabilities

Measuring your success

How to engage with your business analysis community

Leveraging the investment of professional associations

Giving back to the profession

Summary

Further reading

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

This book is a practical and inspiring guide for business analysts, taking you from foundational skills to advanced strategies and empowering you to shape your career, embrace technology, and drive meaningful change.

Who this book is for

This book is written for anyone doing, or aspiring to do, business analysis work. That includes:

Early-career professionals who are just discovering business analysis and looking for directionPracticing business analysts who want to sharpen their skills, expand into specializations, or pursue leadership opportunitiesProject managers, process improvement specialists, change managers, and other professionals who find themselves performing business analysis activities and want to formalize and grow their expertiseSenior professionals and leaders who want to mentor others, understand the value of business analysis better, and maximize the contribution of their teams

If you’re curious about advancing your career, exploring career paths, or simply finding new ways to deliver value through analysis, this book is for you.

What you should know before you start

A few essentials will help set the stage for your learning:

No prior experience is required. If you’ve only just heard of business analysis, this book will guide you through the fundamentals, techniques, and career opportunities.Bring your project and work experiences with you. If you’ve ever found yourself working on projects, supporting change, or helping solve problems in your organization, those experiences will fuel your learning as you connect the dots with the ideas in this book.An open mindset is essential. The profession is evolving rapidly with new technologies, practices, and expectations. Success comes not from memorizing techniques but from learning how to adapt, apply, and grow.

This book is meant to be an action-focused career guide. And this means a few things you can do to make the most of this:

Action-focused - this means that each chapter has activities for you to do while reading the content. Don’t be afraid to pull out your favorite notebook, digital or otherwise, and pause to make notes and capture some ideas.Guide - this is not a cookbook, not an explicit checklist to mark off as complete and move on. It is a book of ideas, inspiration, and great questions for you to reflect on where you are in your journey. Each decision on your career path can be treated like business analysis – with the right input, you can charge forward with data-driven decision-making when it comes to your next career move.Career - business analysis takes many shapes and forms and will continue throughout your work experiences. This book can definitely help you in your immediate work – don’t be afraid to flip to different sections depending on what you are working on – but also remember that it is designed to help you in the long run. Build out a plan for your career path but also know nothing is set in stone. Keep your mind, your career path, and your decision-making just as nimble as your daily analysis work.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Unlocking Opportunities in Business Analysis, introduces the evolving world of business analysis, defining its purpose, roles, and skills while showing how it opens diverse and rewarding career paths across industries.

Chapter 2, Foundational Skills for Business Analysis Professionals, focuses on core competencies, practical tools and techniques, and the habits that create a solid base, laying the groundwork for effective business analysis.

Chapter 3, Advanced Business Analysis Techniques, explores advanced techniques that build on your core foundational analysis skills to help you tackle bigger challenges and more complex problems.

Chapter 4, Navigating Career Progression in Business Analysis, turns to applying those same analysis techniques to your own career by exploring career advancement opportunities, approaches to challenges you may face, and building a roadmap for your career success.

Chapter 5, Specializations within Business Analysis, helps you explore the specialization options available to business analysis professionals along with their benefits and challenges to help you consider your own career progression.

Chapter 6, Business Analysis Certifications and Training, explores certifications as one of the most powerful tools to advance your career. It highlights some of the most valuable options and techniques to help business analysis professionals successfully earn credentials that can propel their career forward.

Chapter 7, The Role of Technology in Business Analysis, explores some of the most powerful emerging technologies today and their impact on business analysis work. It discusses techniques you can use to integrate these technologies in your work while also staying abreast of technological trends and evolutions regardless of your career stage and specialization.

Chapter 8, Building Effective Stakeholder Relationships and Upholding Ethics, dives into the soft skills that transform your analysis work into meaningful impact. It emphasizes building successful relationships in your analysis work through collaboration, engagement, respect, and understanding, including maintaining your integrity when faced with ethical challenges.

Chapter 9, Leadership and Mentorship in Business Analysis, shows how business analysis professionals act as leaders in their roles, teams, organizations and communities. It explores how to measure and grow these valuable skills and introduces the power of mentorship and how it can be the secret to your career success.

Chapter 10, Continuous Learning and Professional Development, highlights how continuous learning is the hallmark of successful analysis professionals. This chapter helps you build a professional development plan to incorporate learning through various resources to ensure long-term career success.

Chapter 11, Emerging Trends and the Future of Business Analysis, explores the impact of technological innovations, evolving business models, and adaptive approaches and methodologies on your analysis work. It provides insights and direction while also forecasting the future environments that analysts may encounter.

Chapter 12, Assessments and Techniques for Career Success, gives you the tools to assess your own analysis career. It also equips you with techniques to incorporate feedback into your daily activities such that you continuously improve your performance and grow your skills with measurable results.

Chapter 13, Final Thoughts and Next Steps, summarizes the key takeaways and helps you build your actionable plan for immediate use. In this chapter, we encourage you to join the vast community of business analysis professionals and continuously grow the value you provide wherever your analysis career takes you.

To get the most out of this book

Approach each chapter with curiosity and a focus on your own professional journey. This is not just a reference, but a career guide designed to help you actively shape your path in business analysis. As you read, pause to reflect on how each idea relates to your experiences, and use the tools and assessments to capture insights you can apply immediately. By engaging with the content as a personal roadmap, you will transform the book from information into action.

As you work through the chapters:

Pause and connect each idea to your workNote your own lessons and “aha” moments that relateTry the activities – they’re meant to spark action!Let this only be the start – keep building your own career roadmap as you go

Conventions used

There are a couple of text conventions used throughout this book.

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. Here is an example: “Data mining and data analysis are additional techniques often used during your review of materials specifically related to the data.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Part 1: Introduction to Business Analysis Work

In this part, you will be introduced to the business analysis profession and the practice of business analysis work. You will explore the key activities common to all business analysis work followed by more advanced techniques as your comfort and your career grow in the field.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Unlocking Opportunities in Business AnalysisChapter 2, Foundational Skills for Business Analysis ProfessionalsChapter 3, Advancing Your Business Analysis Techniques

1

Unlocking Opportunities in Business Analysis

A business analyst is more than a job title: it is a role, a skill, and, most importantly, a great career path you can take to bring about impactful value. If you search business analysis job descriptions, however, you will find such variation in scope, size, responsibilities, and requirements that it can be hard to understand what exactly business analysis is and what it looks like to be a business analyst. And that is exactly where we will start – by defining business analysis and why the practice is not only evolving but becoming more critical to businesses. The skills of a business analyst overlap with that of many other professions, and understanding the relationships and differences can be key to helping you in your career planning.

Business analysis brings real value to organizations through the defined functions and responsibilities performed by those doing analysis work. Understanding these activities and what differentiates junior analysis professionals from senior analysis professionals can help you seek out organizations and industries that are actively investing in business analysis talent. These skill sets include competencies you probably already have and more that you can develop based on where you want to go. On your business analysis career journey, you’ll find that not only are the opportunities vast and exciting but there is also an entire global community dedicated to enabling changes that deliver long-lasting value.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

Defining business analysisThe role and importance of business analysis in organizationsExploring career opportunities in business analysisDefining the essential skills for business analysis professionals

Defining business analysis

Business analysis is all about the delivery of value. As true as this definition is, it is quite vague and all-encompassing. However, if you not only define business analysis but, more importantly, clearly articulate the impact of great business analysis work on an organization, you are truly adding value! With this perspective of your business analysis work, the possibilities for your business analysis career are limitless – not only in terms of where you can take it but also in the success you can achieve by fully focusing on maximizing value in every endeavor.

So, what is business analysis?

Business analysis has been defined as follows:

“The practice of enabling change in the context of an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.”

International Institute of Business Analysis™ (IIBA®)

This definition is great for many reasons.

First, it articulates enabling change.Business analysis is about change-based work. Whether you are enacting the change yourself or are responding to changes around you, change is the only constant. This is exactly the environment for business analysis and why its value shines.

Now, the work of business analysis professionals is all about two key actions:

Defining needsRecommending solutions

Many stakeholders will tell you what they want or even simply their frustrations. The power of business analysis is in taking all these inputs and understanding them to identify what is truly needed to bring about the desired business value. Business analysis professionals seek to understand how to accomplish goals and act as unbiased parties in a conversation.

With that understanding, you can recommend solution options. The keyword here is recommend; you do not make the decisions. Making decisions is the job of your stakeholders, particularly sponsors and owners. Your job is to define the options in detail and make such a compelling business case that the best choice becomes obvious to the decision-makers. We’ll highlight how to make these compelling business cases throughout the book. For now, approach this journey from a perspective of not only understanding what is needed but also recommending smart solutions that make it easy for your stakeholders to decide and act on.

Now, the last portion of this definition that we need to consider is the keyword value. Business analysis is all about delivering value. No matter what your position, department, organization, or even the industry your career grows into, always focus on adding value. How are you helping the project deliver, and therefore add, value? How are you helping your department get the most value out of their investments? And how are you helping to ensure products continue to be long-term solutions and never stop delivering value? That is the creed of a business analysis professional that will guide you in your career.

Understanding who is a business analyst

Now, one of the important things about the term business analyst is that the job role and title are often confused. This means that you can find that the same job title has very different job descriptions from company to company. This shows even in how the IIBA describes a business analyst as “anyone who performs business analysis work.”

Again, this is a very vague definition that suggests the role is all-encompassing. But understand that this role has evolved from its roots as a technical position whose focus was often on simply supporting company technical projects. These projects’ customers were often internal staff. Take, for example, implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. The main installation work might be primarily done by the information technology (IT) team; however, the primary customer of the CRM system is the marketing department. The system is not meant for external customers. So then, IT staff have to try to understand marketing processes and requirements. This can be a challenge because you hired technical experts who are great at installing and maintaining software, but not necessarily knowledgeable in sales campaigns and customer relationships. There needs to be some translation of what the system does and can do for the marketing team, and how the software needs to perform to help accomplish the marketing goals. This is where the role of the business analyst comes in.

As the role of the translator melted away and business analysts found themselves working as key stakeholders on project teams, the business understanding became so valuable that technical subject matter experts (SMEs) were receiving training in various business areas to be able to do this translation work between technical and business areas. Thus, we began to see the rise of general business analysts who were not reporting to an IT department but rather to other areas of the organization. Analyst roles began to emerge in marketing, human resources, and security. And with even further growth, analysts were found in project office and even enterprise positions that looked across all departments.

Here’s a question to stop and ask yourself right now

Do I enjoy learning technology, understanding how it works, and defining scenarios for the other areas of the business, including where and how they can take advantage of these capabilities? Or would I rather work in an area of the business focused on the non-technical business work outside the IT department?

Your answer may not only sway your career but also help you decide what types of analysis roles you are looking for. Just because the original careers began in technical positions does not mean you have to take a technical position to be a great business analysis professional. The position descriptions, and even the names of the positions themselves, are evolving and will continue to evolve. The key point is to recognize the analysis activities that are performed and ask yourself what is most important to you, remembering there is both a practice and profession of business analysis work.

The purpose of business analysis in organizations

With the focus on delivering value, business analysis has become a key component to those who are driving organizations forward. In general, business analysis is focused on the needs of the organization. Business analysis professionals are the unbiased parties that look holistically at every situation to see how the organization can gain the most value.

Going back to that definition we began with, business analysis professionals use their analysis skills to understand needs. These needs are not obvious but must be elicited, leveraging various techniques from document analysis to interactive facilitated stakeholder sessions, for example. Many end users tell you what they want, not what they need. They might say they need a new app when in fact, all they need is to know how the current system works and what buttons to push. How do you define the needs correctly when stakeholder demands can be contradictory? The answer is that you need someone who can analyze the situation and make recommendations on the best way to proceed.

That is the second part to think about: business analysis professionals make recommendations. They have to leverage their powers of influence coupled with technical analysis skills to present solid business cases of why one might choose one option over another.

Remember

A business analyst never actually makes a business decision. They recommend business decision options but ultimately must get stakeholders to make, and own, the business decision.

This is why interpersonal communication skills, and technical analysis to analyze options, alternatives, risks, and potential impacts are critical to your success in a business analysis role.

As you will see in the next section, there is a need for roles that are unbiased, removed from having any investment in the product, and focused on the organization as a whole. Too many areas of organizations today are function-oriented, compete for resources, or are focused on a singular internal or external success metric. These all have to be balanced before, during, and after project-based work. This means asking the great questions:

Are we getting all the value we planned for?Are we still getting value?What can we do to maximize the return on all our investments in terms of both time and resources?

How business analysis professionals differ from project managers and technical roles

Business analysis skills have long overlapped with other position descriptions. In fact, you’ll often come across many position descriptions that seem to describe a business analysis professional even though their titles may be of a program manager or a financial or risk analyst. These are all positions that use business analysis skills.

Take, for example, a project manager. This is a long-established position that has a very clear goal: the successful completion of a project. Their sole focus is on achieving the objectives set out by the project charter. They concentrate on scope, schedule, and budget. Their responsibility is not to do the work but to direct the creation, approval, and ongoing change work of executing the project plan (PMI®, 2024). Now, there is often a lot of work to define the specific tasks that must be completed to achieve the project outcomes. How do project managers know which tasks to complete? Well, the requirements for the project determine what has to be done. And where do those requirements come from? Good analysis work!

A lot of work goes into coordinating with stakeholders to elicit, define, verify, validate, and trace requirements through approvals and implementation. That is all business analysis work. Now, in a perfect world, a project has a project manager to ensure the work is carried out, as well as a business analyst who ensures the right work is done at the right time for the right reasons. It is a wonderful symbiotic relationship. The challenge is that not every project office is staffed this way. Actually, it can be quite hard to justify a second “coordinator” role on a project. So, the project manager is often responsible for not only managing the tasks to complete the work but also doing the analysis work.

The same goes for system analysts, solution architects, and other technical positions that have a general responsibility for day-to-day operations. While making sure the systems are up and running may seem like it needs more technical, application-specific skills, think about when things do not go as planned. The amount of analysis, research, testing, and exploration that goes into finding the root cause is a great example of the analysis skills required of every position that supports technical applications and equipment. Those analysis skills are then coupled with their subject area expertise to help deliver recommendations. No application owner wants to be told there is nothing they can do when an issue arises. They want options. Good analysis work, even in a specific subject matter area, is what helps define options for more informed decision-making.

Also, think about maximizing the investments of the technology you already own. Your process improvement and solution evaluation teams are filling the roles of business analysis professionals. Process improvement teams often seek to understand current situations to define potentially improved future processes. Auditors seek to understand what is and is not being captured in systems. Finance departments are always looking at budgets to see whether teams really need all the licensing or maintenance investments. Looking at what you already have and seeing whether there are better, more efficient, or more effective options, is a great analysis that often does not happen in project-based work. Yet, there needs to be dedicated analysis time for these kinds of efforts. So, if you do not have someone on your team who performs this function, then you, even as the SME, will need to equip your toolbox with analysis skills to help address all these situations. That is why it would be great if every technical team had a group of business analysis professionals who could easily help take a look at the current issue, situation, or opportunity with an unbiased eye focused on maximum value. So, as the title and the role of the business analysis professional continue to evolve in every industry, it is important to look at the value business analysis skills can bring to any organization. Think about both the work you have done and want to do in the future as we dive into defining the work of a business analysis professional.

Understanding the role and importance of business analysis in organizations

A business analyst is defined as anyone who performs business analysis work. No matter the technique, task, or context, their focus is on maximizing value (IIBA, 2024). Even if you choose not to focus solely on business analysis later in your career, the skills you gain now will benefit both you and your organization for years to come, regardless of technological or even industry changes.

Core functions and responsibilities of a business analysis professional

As you explore the various career paths for business analysis in the next sections, you’ll see that while the work can sometimes feel vague or broad, there are core functions and responsibilities you can focus on, no matter what your position or the industry you work in.

The most common is being an SME on any change-based work (i.e., a project). Your responsibilities lie in defining the requirements of the solution and then validating that the solution does indeed meet your requirements. You might need to articulate to others how things do or do not work, producing some process models. Requirements will be traced to solution components and your test plans and results will need to be verified and validated.

Even if you are not the SME, you may need to elicit information from the stakeholders to define these requirements and detailed work. This is very common in project-based work. The business analyst is responsible for ensuring requirements are verified and validated throughout the entire change work. These are not just the technical requirements but rather all the requirements to deliver the goals of the project. Having a person not assigned to a particular line of business brings a more holistic approach to the team. This role can then focus on those non-functional requirements, including quality elements; transition requirements, such as training, communication, and data migrations; and potential opportunities to leverage the work for far greater gain than perhaps originally identified in the project charter. This comes through conducting interactive and facilitated workshops with stakeholders, engaging them in their workplaces with observations and interviews, and reading through the available documentation.

But business analysis resides well beyond the confines of a project or program. IIBA (2015) defines six knowledge areas of business analysis work, which includes both strategy analysis and solution evaluation that look beyond the scope of project-based work. Strategy analysis is the realm where senior professionals tend to migrate. This is where larger questions are asked about what is best for the organization. SWOT analysis, balanced scorecards, benchmarking, and market analysis are the techniques analysts use to look at what is happening both inside and outside the organization. Discussions range from reviewing and even defining the organizational mission and vision to exploring enterprise architecture and understanding what capability gaps the organization may possess.

But too often, the area of solution evaluation can quickly be overlooked with the day-to-day pressure to respond to current issues and market changes. Solution evaluation focuses on looking at what you already have and identifying whether it is still providing the maximum value for the organization. These are the operational improvement teams that plan for tomorrow by assessing what is and is not happening today. Those who love numbers will enjoy analyzing the statistics of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the organization and then crafting persuasive recommendations for business cases that will drive the greater value of the prior work. Regardless of whether this is an assigned position or simply rolled into the lessons-learned activities of the project, business analysis professionals will continuously identify areas of improvement and work to define the requirements that will enable the right changes to be quickly implemented.

Contributing to project outcomes and organizational efficiency

When business analysis skill sets are added to a project, the chances of success go up exponentially. Why? Because every decision point, which is a common risk area for a project manager, has extra support in analyzing the options and recommending solutions. Remember, business analysis professionals worry about what is best for the organization, not just a project. While a project manager may be trying to control the budget with design options, the long-term support models, integration capabilities, and options for future enhancements might be benefits that are worth paying more for. Someone must think beyond the project scope.

Remember, business analysis professionals are great change agents. All their work involves making changes for greater value. This is especially true when making organizational changes that impact the way stakeholders complete their work. Helping to articulate what is changing, what impact it has on the stakeholders, and how to make changes, as well as, most importantly, following up to help ensure the changes are firmly rooted in daily operations, is a big responsibility. You cannot simply throw a new application to the organization and just hope people use it. Defining the transition requirements that will turn your product into a solution is the key area where business analysis professionals justify their involvement in project-based work.

From start to finish, a commitment to understanding and natural curiosity drives continuous improvement in daily operations. For instance, a common activity might require you to understand a process to be able to identify the technical integration requirements. But in that same discussion with the stakeholder, you identify another process, related but out of the scope of the project, that needs improvement. You notice that a little training might be the answer to getting more users to use the system daily. You then use this insight to make a business case to justify some training time to help the organization get the most out of their investment. Despite it being outside the scope of the work of the project, you have identified an area where value can be added. That is because the business analysis professionals are always trying to understand the full context and see items more holistically.

So, with this understanding of what it takes for business analysis professionals to deliver value, let’s explore the specific job titles and roles you can explore throughout your business analysis career.

Exploring career opportunities in business analysis

It can be challenging to define business analysis roles and work. However, the great news is that this creates a huge spectrum of career opportunities. The trick is to understand yourself and what motivations, desires, and hopes you have for your career.

Traditional business analysis career paths

When we think about the more traditional path of a business analysis career, we focus on starting in a junior business analyst position in a major corporation. Often, these roles are in technical teams, and they seem to take two types of starting points – either a role dedicated to business analysis or a system analyst position. Let’s talk about the system analyst position first.

Starting as a system analyst

System analyst positions normally have you dedicated to a single system or application. You are expected to become an SME in this system. This makes you the perfect person to both troubleshoot when things go wrong and define opportunities for improvement. With this knowledge, though, you might find yourself doing more operational activities, such as supporting end users and performing maintenance tasks. However, with all this central focus on a single area, you are the perfect person to define any requirements for changes or analyze impacts from other project work for this system. Every one of these activities requires business analysis skills even if the position is not called a business analyst. But all of these roles and job titles are great areas for you to start building your skills and practicing analysis techniques. And these jobs that require analysis work are great places to begin building your experience in working with requirements and verification and validation activities.

Starting in a role such as this, typically your career path will then see you start to get offered analyst positions that focus on more enterprise applications. These are applications that often have more business-side end users. You will have to spend time understanding business requirements as much as technical requirements. This is often a great point for you to determine how technical of a position you want. Stepping beyond these types of roles can often go in two directions. Business analysis professionals are found in both: the lines of business of an organization and multiple areas of IT teams. You can continue to look more broadly at where and how your analysis skills can be used to help run the business. These roles are less technical and more focused on the what and why of change work. But you can also go deeper and become more technically focused on learning the how of the change work and help with detailed specifications and implementation and testing of changes.

For example, those who want to stay more technical often search for solution architect positions. These roles have more understanding of all the technical areas involved in an organization but are true analysts in that they analyze needs to determine the best solutions. There is more design work and focus on the optimization of technical assets and planning the future technical architecture. These are also great positions to push you to learn and understand all the facets of technology that both support and drive the business.

Another area that is great for senior technical analysts is management roles, from a single program area focus to a technical manager of teams. Program managers are great positions because you begin to balance both the operational and project-based work that leverages and exploits the value of a single program area. This could be an application, or it could be a functional area of the IT teams. This is where your leadership and interpersonal skills will be brought to the forefront. You will not only balance technical and business requirements but also the skill sets of your teams and look at capabilities coupled with long-term visions.

Starting as a junior business analyst

Now, the definition of the profession of business analysis by IIBA (2022) and the Project Management Institute®(PMI®) has led to the recognition of more and more business analysis-titled positions (Hass, 2005), so much so that there are many organizations that have junior and senior business analysts on a business analysis team in their companies today. These are often larger organizations with the business analysis teams found either in project management offices (PMOs), within the IT department itself, or even in enterprise areas of business development. These larger, more invested areas of business analysis work mean there is more dedication to a business analysis career path within the same company, if not the same organizational department (IIBA, 2023).

With some university-level schooling, often in a technology area, junior business analyst can be an entry-level job. Entry-level roles will be quite focused on understanding requirements and modeling business process and documentation. This is great as it will give you the opportunity to start both practicing business analysis techniques and learning about the organization and what drives this business. As you get comfortable working in project teams, learning to troubleshoot problems, and articulating clear requirements that can be easily developed and delivered, you can then move to a more in-depth-business analysis role.

Typically, we see the evolution of a business analysis professional in both the techniques and tasks they do, and the scope of the project work they are assigned. As they advance in their career, mid-level business analysts start to get assigned to larger projects. These are often for efforts that span beyond one department and require more coordination of both stakeholders and requirements. There will be recommendations requiring greater in-depth analysis of options as the decisions will require the collaboration of stakeholders and are not confined to a single domain. In these roles, you will find yourself learning more about different areas of the organization and will also start to develop your skills in repeated areas of work as an SME.

Once your project experience has you transitioning to enterprise, large-scale projects, this is often when you can grow into a senior business analysis role. Here, you are looked at as a guiding expert, able to be assigned to any project or initiative the organization identifies. You will have the experience to tailor your analysis approaches and leverage a greater number of in-depth techniques. You will start spending more time outside project work and having discussions with leadership about the strategic direction of the portfolios and even the organization. These discussions will shift over time to analyzing the current capabilities of both the internal workings of the organization and the external threats and opportunities the markets, competition, and even industry are presenting. Senior business analysis professionals often find themselves starting to mentor junior professionals who are beginning their careers in the same organization to help prepare them to grow and succeed in more advanced analysis positions.

Starting as a mid-to-senior-level business analyst

Individuals who have experience in business analysis, working on cross-functional projects, and collaborating with stakeholders on solutions are able to not only seek advanced business analysis positions that have a more strategic view in their change-based work but also shift to management roles.

In organizations where the profession and skill of business analysis are recognized, there is often a business analysis manager or team lead. Just like project managers have a PMO and a project management officer, organizations with a business analysis team will have a business analysis manager or lead. These roles shift the analysis work from focusing on being a project team lead to analyzing the business analysis skill sets and competencies employed at your organization. You do a lot of resource allocations to ensure the right projects get the right business analysis support. This can be as simple as assigning senior business analysts to more complex projects while ensuring junior business analysts work on simpler tasks.

At the same time, you may take on typical management duties, but again, will be leveraging your team’s skill sets. You might assign that same junior analyst to assist the senior business analyst on a high visibility and high-risk enterprise project to not only provide support but also help mentor and train the junior analyst. You will be coordinating lessons learned and retrospectives and be responsible for the continuous improvement of the business analysis competencies at the organization. As a senior member of the team, you will be invited to take part in more strategic discussions around the portfolio of work the organization has as a whole.

Examples of the different levels of analysis work

Project-based business analysis work is one of the most common areas business analysis skills are applied to in organizations. But even within a project, there are different types of business analysis skillset demands and roles you can play. Consider the options listed as follows and think about what areas resonate with you. Where are you now? Where might you want to be?

Entry-level and junior business analysis roles get assigned projects such as upgrading a server or building reports. These projects are technical in nature in that they require analysis support, but the roles are confined to either a single business unit or application in their scope of work. In these instances, analysts work directly with SMEs on project-based tasks that revolve around routine, day-to-day operations for the stakeholders involved. This routine nature makes the work easier to describe and understand. The tasks of the project are often known ahead of time or are easy to identify from prior experience.Mid-level business analysis roles involve tracing requirements on projects that are implementing new solutions for the organization. These are common digital transformations, such as implementing a CRM system or migrating to Microsoft Office Online. These projects will often introduce business analysts to change management topics and facilitate the delivery of systems such that the enterprise begins to leverage the solutions.Senior-level business analysis roles often get assigned before projects start, wherein business analysts are requested to help build out the potential business case. High-level goals of engaging in new markets or considering a merger or acquisition drive the change work that these professionals occupy themselves with.

All of these are project-based business analysis roles and activities. But just like the positions in an organization, the specific role you play on a project can vary. Even the role itself can evolve from a business analysis position to one that simply uses the business analysis skill set.

Transitioning to and from business analysis work

As described so far, there are a number of other roles that involve business analysis work but may not be titled business analyst roles. Project managers are a great example. Their jobs require a lot of analysis work to be successful, just like other common positions that are working to effect changes for greater value. Anyone doing business analysis work in these kinds of positions can easily pursue mid-level business analysis positions. They bring a great wealth of knowledge while having real-world experience. These transitions are relatively easy as mostly it is a shift in mindset to understanding the new area of work responsibilities. Often, these transitioning roles benefit from training in more specific analysis tasks and techniques.

Another popular role, especially with the rise of the agile methodologies and approaches, is the product owner role. Many business analysts on teams working with more agile and adaptive approaches find that they become pseudo or proxy product owners. They may not have ultimate control of the final decisions and priorities, but in the absence of a vested product owner, they begin to weigh in on the trade-offs with each decision by leveraging their experience and contextual understanding of the customer and solution spaces. Having worked on an agile team and understanding the information they need to run their development in an adaptive manner, sliding into official product owner roles comes quite naturally. They often work well with product teams, but they need to simply focus their perspective on what is best for the customer while still supporting the organization. Here, more in-depth knowledge of the business value of the product area and the alignment with the overall mission and vision of the organization will help the transitioning business analyst succeed in a product owner role.

Evolving business analysis career paths

While business analysis is not going away, keep in mind that these are just example career paths that are quite common with organizations that have established business analysis roles and capabilities. On the other hand, many business analysis professionals have never had a position titled business analyst and yet have performed business analysis work throughout their entire careers. This will continue to be the case for years to come. Business analysis is and will continue to be both a skill set and a profession. You can still dedicate yourself to business analysis roles as well as find success in pursuing positions, organizations, and even industries of interest to you where they need business analysis skill sets.

Take, for example, a prompt engineer. This is an exciting career path at the time of writing. The development of technology is exploding at an exponential rate. If you are enjoying learning about artificial intelligence (AI) and work on becoming an SME in the area, the position of a prompt engineer would leverage both skill sets. You would need the technical aptitude to understand the technology while leveraging your business analysis skill sets in the decision-making, design approaches and options, and value delivery propositions of solutions. This is a technical position that is only successful when it employs business analysis work. Many of the jobs of tomorrow have not even been created today, which is why having a transferable skill set such as business analysis will allow you to evolve your career path in sync with the industry. Again, as your career progresses, take note of what areas you enjoy working in and learn more about as this will be key to not only your success but also your career happiness!

Industries favoring business analysis professionals

While business analysis roles are evolving well beyond a technical SME, technology teams remain common areas where business analysis professionals focus on requirements and understanding how their respective areas, or even the IT equipment in general, operate. While rooted in technology, this does not mean you need to be working in the technology industry. Our world is becoming more digitally connected than ever before, and so IT teams across different industries are seeking business analysis positions from entry-level system analysts to seasoned professionals who analyze entire IT investments and enterprise architectures.