Article 2: Offshore Business Analyst - 'Sanjaya' from Mahabhrata

About the Article:

This article series is dedicated to my profession of Business Analysis. Being a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), I feel it is my duty towards my profession to take it to the next level and help all the business analysts to perform their role better by sharing my knowledge. The article is based on my own experience and thought process.

In next 2 articles, I will be comparing an offshore Business Analyst with an onsite Business Analyst based on the BA knowledge areas and underlying competencies. Generally offshore BA’s are part of implementation of IT strategy / initiative which is being executed using onsite – offshore model. However whatever mentioned about onsite BA is applicable to all BA’s working onsite on various assignments like process improvement initiatives, strategy implementation initiatives. Also the BA in this article may be referred as a vendor to the client organization, but the article is applicable to internal BA’s as well.

There is a story in Mahabharata (one of the major epics of India) about a character who has the gift of divine vision (divya-drishti). His name was Sanjay and he was an advisor and charioteer of one of the kings. This king- King Dhritarashtra was blind and was a ruler for a place called as Hastinapur. During this epic's climatic end a war breaks between Dhritarashtra's sons and his brother's sons. At the time of war, due to his blindness he could neither take part in the war, nor witness it. That is when Sanjay plays a role of a narrator, and using his divya-drishti tells about the live events happening in battle field. The divine vision, instead of it being in the mind, is like seeing things in person. Also, the sounds are heard with the physical ear and not as a current of thought. Hence for Sanjay, it was like being present in the battle field physically. So basically, Sanjay was offshore analyst describing what's happening at onsite - the exact same role played by an offshore BA.

Obviously onsite BA gets more opportunities to learn and grow, however offshore BA needs to play Sanjay’s role to listen to onsite as if he / she is there. Now continuing reference from the above analogy, there are few more points to be remembered by an offshore BA: 

1. Sanjaya not only tells every incident of the Kurukshetra war but he also gives various descriptions of: Earth, the other planets, and focuses on the Indian subcontinent and gives an elaborate list of hundreds of kingdoms, tribes, provinces, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, and forests of the (ancient) Indian Subcontinent (Bharata Varsha).

Point to remember: In the subsequent articles, I have compared various knowledge areas of onsite and offshore BA. The knowledge area which is hardly exposed to offshore BA is – ‘Enterprise Analysis’. This knowledge area majorly helps one to understand the business needs in larger context through systems thinking. Similar to Sanjay, offshore BA should know about onsite situation but his knowledge should not be limited to project scope. He / she should be aware about various departments, operations within client organization and try to get complete picture of client’s business instead of looking through small key hole. This helps one to gain holistic picture. This way offshore BA can compensate for limited exposure to Enterprise Analysis knowledge area. 

Tools that can be used:

- To Understand Business Landscape: 

* Value Chain Analysis or 

* Business Process Mapping

- To Understand System Landscape (from Business Analyst’s Perspective)

* Context Diagrams or

* Data Flow Diagrams

- To Understand Stakeholder Landscape

* The Stakeholder Wheel

* Power-Interest Grid

* RACI Matrix

Note: In all the above mentioned tools, one has to start from top to bottom. Hence high-level process diagram or context diagrams serve the purpose. If the project scope is limited to certain department, above extra work helps you to give better and right solutions. These solutions will long last and deliver more business value. 

2. Sanjay also explains about the military formations adopted by each side on each day. 

Point to remember: As per this line, offshore BA must know about the strategy of client organization and the external factors. This is very critical since onsite / offshore BA’s are not necessarily to be aware or exposed to the strategy and outside influencing factors for the client organization. This knowledge give a BA a sneak peek into the future – where does client want to be. This helps any BA to gain very important insights into the client organization and eventually help the project.

Tools that can be used:

* PESTAL Analysis or 

* Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 

Both the above points help a business analyst to rise to become a ‘Consultative Business Analyst’ than being just a ‘Business Analyst’. The tools also help offshore BA to maximize his / her exposure and acquire invaluable experience of holistic Business Analysis.

In the next article: My next article will compare various underlying competencies and knowledge areas exposed to onsite BA and offshore BA.

As a heads-up about next article, I would share following teasers:

Analysis of opportunity to display Underlying Competencies for Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of displaying / gaining expertise in the mentioned competency at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. Please note that this is not the lack of competence at offshore, but it shows limited opportunity to display the competence.

Competency Group - Offshore BA v/s Onsite BA

Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving – 56% v/s 100%

Behavioral Characteristics – 100% v/s 100%

Business Knowledge – 80% v/s 100%

Communication Skills – 87% v/s 93%

Interaction Skills – 100% v/s 87%

Software Applications – 100% v/s 100% 

Analysis of Knowledge Areas being exposed to Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of task being performed at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. Please note that this is not the division of work for onsite – offshore model. Hence 0% indicate that it is not possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore and 100% indicate that it is only possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore.

Knowledge Area - Offshore BA v/s Onsite BA

Enterprise Analysis – 25% v/s 100%

Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring – 68% v/s 100%

Elicitation – 50% v/s 100%

Requirements Analysis – 88% v/s 93%

Requirements Management & Communication – 85% v/s 100%

Solution Assessment & Validation – 83% v/s 100% 

In a nutshell, onsite BA and offshore BA should always work as a team to get the right solution implemented. Both onsite and offshore has their own unique characteristics and challenges, but being part of both of them, I personally can say that both are enriching experiences.

Article 1: To BA or not to BA - Words from Business Analyst (or Consultant?)

This article series is dedicated to my profession of Business Analysis. Being a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), I feel it is my duty towards my profession to take it to the next level and help all the business analysts to perform their role better by sharing my knowledge. Following article is based on my own experience and thought process.

I feel many times business analyst’s role is undervalued and misunderstood in an organization. I would like to take this opportunity to dwell upon one of the most common debate across industries about difference between Business Consultant and Business Analyst (BA). 

Personally I feel that all Business Analysts are Business Consultants; however, all Business Consultants are not necessarily be Business Analysts…

Typically a Business Consultant is supposed to be functioning at Strategic level in organization, and needs to understand the bigger picture and business strategy. However one of the knowledge areas for business analysis is – ‘Enterprise Analysis’ which covers the understanding of business strategy and holistic thinking / systems thinking. Hence I think the closest analogy would be- the traditional Business Consultant role is most closely aligned with the business analyst working on ‘Enterprise Analysis’ knowledge area along with all the other knowledge areas. (Please refer the notes section to check the other knowledge are for a Business Analyst) 

Typical Business Analyst work in an IT (Information Technology) domain most of the times, but he needs to possess business / domain knowledge. The domain for a software solution can be horizontal or vertical. A horizontal domain is applicable across industries, like workflow automation. Vertical domains are specific to a particular industry, like telecommunications. This makes him a business analyst working as a consultant for providing IT solutions in vertical / horizontal business domain.

Business Consultants play more of an ‘Advisory’ role whereas the Business Analysts are playing a ‘Liaising’ role. Obviously consultants need to possess liaising skills and analyst should be able to show advisory skills to business. Hence they are nothing but two sides of the same coin.

Ideally all the business analysts are supposed to perform a role of a Business Consultant. They are the ones who should:

* stand up for business and tell implementation team (say, technology team) that this solution is right for business and we have to make it happen

* at the same time, he / she should also stand up for the implementation team and tell business 'vices and virtues' i.e. advantages and disadvantages of a particular implementation in objective way

It's a tricky balancing act a Business Analyst has to perform. If a business analyst doesn't perform the consultative role, he/she continues to be a documentation person. I feel that is one the major reasons why it is an undervalued role in organizations. Most of the BA's perform mediator's role, than playing a consultative role. 

I agree that in most of the cases, BA's projects involve technological implementation of strategy, however that does not limit oneself from playing a consultant role. Since it is much undervalued profession, organizations think he / she is just a bridge between business and IT teams – making a BA just a courier delivery person or a documentation fellow. But the real business value that can be delivered through business analysis is tremendous.

Based on my reading, research and experience, I have reached a conclusion that in reality there is a great overlap between these two roles in terms of performed functions and required knowledge. Whichever way you define a role (Business Consultant or Business Analyst); it’s a fact that the same job title vary greatly from organization to organization and project to project. The bottom line is –

It's not what you're CALLED, it's what you DO!

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Notes: 
About Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP):
The Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) designation is a professional certification and registered trademark from International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), for individuals with at least 7,500 hours of business analysis experience during the last 10 years. Qualified individuals are awarded the designation "Certified Business Analysis Professional" upon passing a three and half hour exam based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK).

About Business Analysis Knowledge Areas:
Business analysis knowledge areas which are outlined in the Business Analyst Body of Knowledge (BABOK) published by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) are- 

* Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

* Requirements Elicitation

* Requirements Management and Communication

* Enterprise Analysis

* Requirements Analysis

* Solution Assessment and Validation

About me: 
Being a business analyst for more than 09 years, I had to rise to play a consultative role. I was fortunate enough to get exposure to all knowledge areas of business analysis, onsite-offshore exposure and complete software development life-cycles (SDLC). I was involved at various stages of strategy formulation and execution. Implementing the same strategies through various initiatives ranging across People, Process, and Technology. I have also worked on IT strategy alignment initiatives, along with playing key role in change and knowledge management (e.g. trainings, mentoring, communications plans, and business hand-holding).