In May 2007 I attended the Project Summit/BusinessAnalystWorld conference in Washington, DC. I sat in on a presentation called “Can the BA Save the World?”, presented by a fellow CBAP, Marcos Ferrer. Marcos is a facilitator, planner & system implementer with over 30 years experience in computing and over 22 years experience in business analysis.
When I saw the title of the presentation I did not know what to expect, but I had to attend. Marcos covered a lot in this presentation, but he made a point that really stuck with me. He sees the Business Analyst profession making its way into our national, state, and local governments. He discussed that when bills are brought to congress, or the President makes decisions there is no BA present. I have to agree with him. Is analysis done before decisions are made? I am going to be optimistic and say yes, but is the analysis that we do as excellent BAs done consistently? I don't think so.
As excellent Business Analysts we work hard to understand the true business need and work with solution teams to present and recommend unbiased solution options. Is this what happens on Capitol Hill or in the White House? Marcos stressed that there is no unbiased third party like a Business Analyst there to help.
This is one way Marcos felt that we as BAs can save the world. "Save the world" may be an extreme, but I believe we can definitely help companies in public and private industry and our government make better decisions.
I would love to hear you comments.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
“Save the world!” It’s an interesting thought! I agree with you that, while the analyst may not save the world, the future is quite bright for the profession.
And yes - I wish our lawmakers would truly analyze the actual impact that their legislation will have on our country, economy, and society in general.
Regards,
- Adrian
June 29th, 2007 at 1:42 am
This is a very interesting application of a BA’s skills and an extremely crucial one. Many a times the skills are appplied to squeeze out some more profits for already profit making companies whereas in this scenario common sense analysis and proper elucidation and dissimination of the reasoning behind any government decision can really help in assuring value for every citizen/ stakeholder. This can really bring real democracy and transparency in govt dealings.
I hope the trend to use BA’s starts in the US and later permeates to all democracies especially poor ones where the pointless squandering of public wealth is ruining soceities.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I couldn't have said it better myself, I strongly believe if BAs where included in every step of the decision making process, the outcome would be less complex, and so will the companies and the government operate smoothly. amos
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Vikram, I completely agree - the skills applied to optimize profits SHOULD be used to optimize social benefit. How can the policy makers exercise true due diligence without unbiased analysis?