The Business Analyst who wasn’t (Part 1)

Let’s start with an introduction: “Hello, my name is Simon and I’m a Business Analyst.”

“Hello, Simon.” 

“I... umm... I just wanna say... I didn’t start out like this. I was going to be something respectable. I was going to be an accountant.

“But, about 20 years ago, I started dabbling in some light analyis. Nothing too heavy, just an occasional insight here or there, or an explanation of something that might be useful. Over time, I moved on to heavier and heavier stuff, like problem-solving, and seeing through to the heart of an issue, and communication of needs. I’d stay away from it for years, but then I’d encounter a trigger, and I would fall back into old habits. There were also people along the way who enabled my problem, and even encouraged me.

“Finally, I just gave up and started doing it more and more. That happened a few years ago. It’s gradually taken over my life since then. Finally, I joined this support group last year.

“I hope that by sharing my story, I can help others to deal with this problem.”

***   ***   ***

I truly didn’t start out to be a Business Analyst. Honestly, though, who did want to be a BA when they grew up? Astronaut, fire fighter, lawyer, doctor (I wanted to be a vet at one stage!), maybe even a computer programmer – but, business analyst? That wasn’t even on the list...

I was going to be an accountant. That was decided by me and my parents at the age of 15. But, the signs of BA-ness started early on.

One of my early jobs was as a clerk in the sales processing department of a large company, back in the days when we’d get paper invoices mailed into us from our distributors, which were then data-entered on to magnetic tapes for upload to our mainframe computer.

To get a sales report was quite a task. We had a few dedicated people within the IT department whose job it was to create programs which extracted data from our computer financial system into reports as and when it was requested. So, when we wanted a report showing the last six months’ sales for a particular distributor, we’d invite one of these programmers up to our department, and sit with him (yes, it was always a man) and explain what we wanted. “I want sales for site 1234, from January to June, and I want it separated by product...”

It quickly became apparent that I usually got the report I needed with the least fuss. No to-ing and fro-ing; no “But I wanted it listed by date.”; just the report, with what was needed, in the way it was needed. Soon, my co-workers would come to me first and tell me what they wanted, so I could explain to the strange computer programmers (who just didn’t seem to “get” it).

After a while, I started thinking: “What we really need is someone to ‘interpret’ between the office workers and the programmers. I think I’d like doing that kind of work.”

My department got given our very first PC while I was there (we were all using dumb mainframe terminals until then): it came with a 5¼” floppy disk drive, a colour screen, DOS, and Lotus 1-2-3. Our manager took one look at it, then called me over: “Simon, have a look at this, and see if you can find out what we can use it for.”

Two decades on, I don’t recall what uses I found for that crazy new device (less powerful than many mobile phones these days!), but the point is that I was the one who was asked to find out.

It had also become apparent by this time that I wasn’t really interested in the accounting degree I was studying (part-time); my managers were starting to be concerned about my lack of progress. The normal career path at that company assumed that, as you gained experience and got promoted, you were also progressing in your degree. So, I was proving to be a problem. What to do with this person who understood basic accounting, and office processes, and computers, and seemed to be able to solve problems others couldn’t, but didn’t seem interested in becoming an accountant?

Ah-hah!

“Simon, we’ve found something that might suit you. There’s a stock reconciliation department over there which is currently very labour intensive, and we think we might be able to make it more efficient if it was computerised. We’d like to transfer you into the department for a few months, so you can get to know how it works, and then write a report for us on what processes in the department could be computerised, and how. What do you think?”

Does that sound familiar to anyone? Like maybe, just maybe, the same thing most Business Analysts do most of the time? They were offering me a business analysis role – the only thing missing was the title.

Unfortunately, just after I transferred to that department, the entire company restructured from top to bottom, and the whole department – including me – was made redundant (and my life changed entirely for the next few years). But, that’s not the point: the point is that I was recognised and used as a business analyst even when neither I nor my managers had a name for it, or a concept of its existing as a career. I didn’t find out it was called “Business Analyst” until more than a decade later... 

I was the Business Analyst who wasn’t.

Stay tuned for Part 2...