South African Robin Grace is the only African to make it onto a list of '10 BA Revolutionaries that Changed Your Life', published by US-based B2T Training. Grace, who is a principal consultant at IndigoCube, sees this as a step forward on his quest to change how business analysis is viewed, not only in South Africa but in the rest of the world.
"I was extremely proud, but at the same time I felt quite humbled to be included among the dozens of our industry. I've always looked up to the other people on the list," Grace told ITWeb.
"A worldwide CIO survey recently revealed that business analysts had replaced the need for developers in terms of desired skills. Another result of the survey was that CIOs in search of business analysts grew from 10% the year before to 23%. I have found similar traits in South Africa," says Grace.
He says the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) has put in a lot of effort to get the BA profession recognised, especially in North America, but the South African Chapter of the IIBA is "very active" and a number of Certified Business Analysis Professionals (CBAP) are members in South Africa.
"South Africa is in fact doing better than some of the developed countries. The IIBA also has a chapter in Egypt and Nigeria."
Experienced business analysts are in high demand locally and internationally, he says, but he admits that a "chicken and egg situation exists" because businesses are often looking for BAs with experience while those wishing to enter the profession lack experience.
According to Gartner, over 60% of project failures are due to "poor requirements gathering, analysis, and management". Grace says this can be mitigated by giving a business analyst time to do a good job at eliciting the requirements, which will ultimately "save time and money and the resultant solution will deliver better business value".
"During my [IndigoCube] interview I said I would like to change the way business analysis was being done in South Africa. The person interviewing me thought I was a bit arrogant, but he gave me the job. He admits today that I have made the statement true."
Grace has over 25 years' experience in the industry where he has worked as a business analyst lecturer, coach, mentor and manager. He has also worked on an international project commissioned by the Project Managers Institute (PMI) and IIBA to produce a white paper that looks at how these professions can collaborate. He has published a book on the field of business analysis and was also one of the contributors to the "Business Analysis for Dummies" book.
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