Tom Davenport (“Make Better Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2009) states, “In recent years decision makers in both the public and private sectors have made an astounding number of poor calls.” I don’t think you can disagree with that. In her paper, “Senior Business Analysts are Strategic Decision Makers”, Barbara Carkenord makes the case that Senior Business Analysts are in a great position to help organizations make better decisions.
Click here to Download the paper.
Is your company utlizing senior level business analysts the way Barbara points out? Please share your comments.
Regards,
Kupe
2 Comments
That’s a good point.
Jay Michael, a business analyst for Colfax, says, “I usually describe what a BA does by telling people I am a bridge between business systems from the end user to functional implementation of technical solutions. But when you tell somebody that they look at you like ’OK, what do you really do?’”
In my experience the Business Analyst is quite often seen as the bridge between doing business as usual and better, more efficient, effective business. I find that the BA is rarely seen as the strategy decision maker in the sense that they directly initiate a program or project. Instead they guide change through clear, well structured, measured and presented analysis. In that sense Business Analysts are strategic decision makers.