Could a high-performing Business Analyst (BA) be worth their weight in gold on any project team? I tend to think so. Recently I wrote about the contribution of three players on a project delivery team. Each player’s contribution looked at stakeholder management from a different lens. A strong BA contributes to a quality outcome throughout the project. Their distinct value is in the lasting quality of a solution that works for the entire business, not just particular stakeholders.
I had the pleasure of catching up with Igor Arkhipov, Head of Business Analysis at Merkle Australia. Igor is an accomplished BA and leads a team of BA is in his current role.
Igor’s career path
Igor dabbled in web development, testing and customer support before ultimately moving into his career as a Business Analyst. With over a decade of BA experience, Igor has a mature and discerning perspective on the BA profession.
Check out our video covering Igor’s background:
Business Analyst thought leadership
When I started writing on Medium.com, Igor approached me and asked if I could write for his Medium.com publication. I quickly looked at his publication and realised it was a valuable space for anyone interested in system implementations — from project managers to user experience designers and anyone in between. Initiative is a big part of leadership; Igor saw the opportunity to forge an online space on Medium.com for Business Analysts and similar professions, such as User Experience, Enterprise Architecture, and Project and Change Management.
Thanks to Igor’s invitation, I happily published many articles through Igor’s publication (Analyst’s corner). Yet despite leading a team of BAs and running a successful publication, Igor also is an accomplished teacher with his own Udemy course. Now boasting nearly 8000 students, it is safe to say that Igor knows his stuff and thankfully is happy to share his vast knowledge.
The Business Analyst profession
Having worked on the agency side of system implementations, Igor saw the BA profession emerge and strengthen. He made the differentiation between Business Analysis and the emerging User Experience (UX) profession. Igor sees UX professionals focusing on the overall user experience and the interactions during the customer journey. In contrast, a BA ensures technology and back of house processes support this user experience.
How do you become a high-quality Business Analyst?
I had one burning question for Igor, given his experience and perspective: What makes a high-calibre Business Analyst?
While a quality Business Analyst is in the eye of the beholder, Igor suggested a common theme amongst high-quality BAs. Igor sees Business Analysis as the practice of enabling change in a business context, and a BA chooses tools and techniques to achieve this valuable outcome:
“To make sure that a change happens in response to a need, and that as a result of the change … a business will get some value out of this transition… the tools, techniques, processes and approaches are secondary to this.”
— Igor Arkhipov
Someone who has been exposed to a range of perspectives. They can apply a process but look at how to provide value in a variety of contexts.
“A good, reliable BA will know the process and will be able to apply it again and again ..and get good outcomes and will be a valuable professional.
But a brilliant BA will understand why they are doing these things, what is the value that they bring and they will be able to bring the same value in a different context — be it a new industry, subject matter or organisation.”
— Igor Arkhipov
I enjoyed listening to Igor’s answer about this, as I look for commonalities amongst the BA and change profession in terms of what makes a high-calibre professional. Igor expanded upon his answer quite well and saw a highly effective BA straddling three professional pillars. Igor does not see his answer as a universal truth, and it may depend on the organisation industry and broader context.
Three pillars of Business Analysis
Igor shared his view on three pillars of a highly effective BA.
Igor shares these three pillars with us. Bear in mind that my background as a change professional takes a different (yet complementary!) lens to a BA. Therefore please forgive my paraphrasing of Igor’s three pillars. I have provided a video of our catch-up so you can see his perspective for yourself.
Scope Management
Business Analysts strive to clarify the scope of changes to an organisation — be it at a technical or business operations level. Igor sees BAs performing key activities like facilitating workshops and requirements gathering to achieve this aim. Igor sees scope management as the skills related to “…understanding which problems we are solving, how we are solving them and which actions we are taking to solve the problem.”
Quality Management
When many business professionals consider quality, they may think of both quality assurance and quality control. Igor sees a good BA as one able to help set up the project for success. This includes implementing processes and meetings, reporting mechanisms to be sure the project team passes decision-makers scrutiny of the final product.
A strong BA helps to infuse clear communication within their project team. A BA allows their project team to manage stakeholder expectations. Savvy BAs provide stakeholders with visibility over an in-progress solution, thereby avoiding nasty surprises.
I took two concepts from this. First, avoiding nasty surprises seems to be one potential focus of sound quality management. Second, is quality management about being a “professional risk buster” on project teams?
Change Management
Igor sees “change management” in the BA context as helping clients see the value in encouraging sponsors and internal business stakeholders to take ownership over impending changes. Should the business communicate changes, they can use the right words and communication mediums to raise awareness and employee adjustment to new working methods. After all, the internal business owners are left “holding the baby” once the future state is in place.
Business Analysts can provide the parties left “holding the baby” with a clear understanding of the future state solution.
The future of project delivery
We can only speculate on what the future holds for project professionals. What will project teams look like in 2026…or 2031?
Igor sees businesses using pipelines of continual value-added activities rather than projects per se. He wisely referred to research conducted by The Standish Group, and this independent research advisory organisation examine mission-critical projects and share their findings of project success or failure.
The idea of having a project — and one of the ingredients once considered necessary (upfront, detailed requirements) — has morphed over time. Igor mentioned the rate of change is increasing; smaller, incremental changes are becoming the norm.
Small changes are easier to comprehend.
— Igor Arkhipov
Igor cited the work of Amazon and Netflix, where both companies regularly introduce minor changes to a customer experience, and these small changes are barely noticeable. Igor wisely noted that when users deal with small, incremental changes, it doesn’t impact their cognitive workload.
What were our takeaways from our discussion about the future of project delivery?
- Faster iterations of changes: Project professionals will need to be comfortable quickly assessing and managing change impacts from more frequent changes. Complex problem-solving skills may help us adapt accordingly. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report suggests a steady and robust demand for Systems Analysts and similar roles.
- Experimental mindsets permeating organisations: Data helps inform both evidence-based decision making and a personalised customer experience. Decisions and personalisation need a practical attitude. Open-mindedness and curiosity might be personality traits and qualities which beat a need for structure and risk-aversion.
We collectively have a challenge ahead with this possible future in mind for project professionals of all backgrounds. Already Igor sees the distinctive qualities of top-performing Business Analysts:
Thinking outside of the box and confidently adapting complex BA tools and techniques to each business they work in.
These distinctive qualities may also apply to anyone leading organisational change, managing projects, specialising in User Experience or working in other facets of a project or value-added activity.
Our speculation about the future now also involves an ability to think like a scientist, working with data and explaining findings to business audiences. Your ability to conduct small yet valuable business experiments using concepts like A/B testing may help your value and impact. Introducing small, incremental changes as part of a small, agile project team is perhaps another pervasive part of project life.
We can only speculate about the future. Yet, it does seem that qualities like creativity, empathy, and complex problem-solving already help a good Business Analyst become a great one. I believe the same can be said for other project professionals (it seems the case for change professionals like me). Perhaps these qualities are becoming valued over time due to necessity?
My thanks to Igor for his time; we hope you enjoyed this article and our video series.
Our book — The Change Manager’s Companion — is available now. You can also check out our online course on Change Management.