Business Analysis and Leadership

02

The courage to ask

JOHN NILAND

When change happens slowly, it’s easy to miss. Whether it’s the growth of a child, the extra kilo acquired each year or the evolution of a job, it’s often only when we take a step back and measure that we find that change is happening at all.

The role of the business analyst has certainly changed. If we go back a decade or two, we find the traditional analyst focused on ‘requirements gathering’, as if the requirements were already hanging from the trees and just needed to be picked and gathered, like ripe fruit. Today the fruit has to be cultivated. Current business analysts are more active ‘cultivators’ of the agenda. They no longer just gather requirements and document needs; they actively shape the agenda ...