Part – I Analysis is an art of keeping it strictly scientific, until it starts defying itself against the known ‘rules’, and that’s when to push it towards the realms of ‘Strategy’.
Part – II Analysis is essentially an Art {lavish, spendthrift and something to marvel about} that needs to be enclosed within certain boundaries {make it budgeted and time-bound} that’s when it becomes a Science. {a tool to extract tangibility out of subtlety}
Part – III Neither and Both. The problem with this question is that it is holistic, which it should not be. The answer would largely depends on the field and domain where the ‘expertise’ is required. If the field is predominant with numbers, scientific approach should lead artistry; Otherwise, let science and data support artistry.
(Statutory warning: Contents of this post are Highly Addictive!)
The versatile, genius, immensely talented and intelligent, life-time achievement award winner, and winner of stand-up comedian of the year 1998, Jeff Dunham who made me roll over the floor laughing…
Simply brilliant.. Your overtaxed mind needs a 10 minute break.. Go for it!
SOMEONE RECENTLY POSTED A QUESTION to the BA community at large to the effect of identifying ‘universal skill-set’ for a Business Analyst.
A variety of responses were received in the public forum, some of which (including mine) were chosen under the ‘good answer’ category.
At the outset, the field of business analysis is far too wide, spread-out and pan-industry to have a single set-of-skills. However, in terms of ‘universal’ skill-set for analysis in business, a certain personality traits could contribute to the arsenal of an effective Business Analyst.
A Business Analyst is a management consultant in the making, and IMHO, basically you need a balanced personality between the ears and having:
common-sense
ability of seeing the Big (macro) picture in smaller (micro) details
neutrality of judgement (having the effect of ‘being’ external)
poly-point-of-views, with negotiation skills
stakeholder management with the ability to provide (respective) ‘views’ to each party, with appropriate statistics
domain knowledge (up to the required depth and degree)
the skill of identifying and collating the correct data-set; separating facts from fictions
ability to grasp the correct context/structure/’currents’ surrounding the problem-at-hand
accurate understanding of the criticality of time-management w.r.t. the problem-at-hand
ability to anchor responsibility
effective communication (especially astute listening skills)
ability of quickly getting in sync with the ‘economics‘ surrounding the problem-at-hand
the idea of when and how to stop, and say ‘No’
Other attributes, such as ability to break down the problem into manageable/logical categories; fluency with a given technology, tool-set or methodology; are likely to be important attributes, but are rather not ‘universal’.
You are welcome to add to/comment upon the list above.
An effective Business Analyst would execute most of the attributes given above. An experienced consultant, however, would execute only the required attributes from this list – for his/her main skill is to accurately identify what is required the most among the skill-set for a given assignment.
The ultimate aim is to bring about ‘customer delight’ that may or may not include/depend upon the success of the given project.
mind × the + gap 