The Role of Business Analyst

oumitra hits the nail on the head -

..generally the problem has been of technical folks thinking BA as a career progression with somewhere the feeling that as one progress one does less of technology and more of business. This makes them treat BAs as competitors...

I absolutely agree. What I found peculiar in my experience was that I began in production support, spent time as a report developer and data analyst and then moved in to a technical BA role. As soon as my job description read "business analyst" the same people that I had worked with over the years began to exclude me -

Since BAs are the bridge between business and IT - their ownership becomes an issue in any project - if IT owns them with all the prejudices which I mentioned then business feels them as technical resources hardly adding any extra value and similarly if business owns then IT shuns them off as foreign..

This captures the situation so precisely I can't think of any comment to make. On the IT side, if a business got the chance to know me they were happy (I was eventually "stolen" from IT by my the client.) Otherwise, they felt that the BA role was there to add another layer of billing to their project and that there would be minimal value. Now that I'm on the business side IT can't shut me out but I am viewed with suspicion.

..I think both of the issues can be solved by making a distinction in the market between IT oriented business analyst and domain oriented business analyst (call each something else)..

I'm not sure this will completely resolve the situation. If I didn't have the IT experience I wouldn't have been able to walk into my current role and be as comfortable as I am so quickly. It was my prior role in business that led me to IT because I thought technology had the answers to just about any business question and problem.

I think individuals working in the role of BA on both the IT side and business side have a unique opportunity to define and develop the role. We have the unique ability to "step outside and look in". We are not married to any particular technology, theory or methodology. We bring with us both business and technological experience and are open to learning from one another.

We need to look within and to understand, as individuals, where we can provide the most value using our unique backgrounds. We need to approach each situation in a neutral fashion. We're the diplomats and the translators and we are in one of the best positions to actively participate in the creation of new and exciting cutting edge solutions.

See also: Advance from Business Analyst to Business Architect

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/business-analyst/the-role-of-business-analyst-3357