This was one of the key themes coming out of Certesí most recent specialist BA seminar and a question posed by Dr Sharm Manwani, Associate Professor and Subject Leader, CIO Elective at Henley Management College and a speaker at Certesí event in Londonís Piccadilly. Certes, the leading IT staffing agency based in the Midlands, has a specialist division focused on the growing BA and Business Change market and hosts a networking and information sharing event twice a year. Sharm has every reason to ask this question, having made the progression from BA to CIO himself via a number of business and IT roles. His interest is not just a personal one though, as recent work with a number of senior IT professionals demonstrates.
Sharm and his colleagues at Henley have undertaken some in-depth research with CIOs that has highlighted a significant lack in certain capabilities at the management levels below the CIO. In particular, CIOs cited business skills as being one of the biggest gaps within their teams. The seminar delegates heard about Yellís successful IS team (2004 winners of Computingís IT Department of the Year award) who attributed their success, at least in part, to the business and IT skills they were able to build and maintain. To get the skills mix right in the first instance, though, Phil Ives, Head of IS at Yell had to go outside the company. Sharm believes that skilled BAs are well placed to address the shortfall that exists in many organisations and can fill many important roles in both business and IT. He is personally contributing to raising these skills as a core developer of the new ISEB Foundation in IT-enabled Business Change which is now being launched.
Other speakers at Certesí seminar built on this theme of changing perceptions around business analysis. Commenting on the issues coming through from the event, Lawrence Darvill, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Certes Analysis Resources, Certes specialist BA division said ìAfter spending a number of years providing recruitment services and much needed information services to the BA community, its good to see the amount of activity now under way to ìprofessionaliseî the discipline. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is developing accreditation, training and support networks for BAs, and the British Computer Society (BCS), with the Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB), has initiated a pilot to define a professional level award for business analysis.í
ëOut of a day of thought-provoking presentation and debate, one thing came through particularly clearly: as well as having valuable roles and skills in their own right, BAs are now becoming an important source of business and IT management skills of the future. Whether you train and develop your own BAs or use experienced contract staff to resource change projects, look after them - they may well be the CIOs of the futureí Lawrence concluded.
Will your next CIO be a Business Analyst?
.
