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The Business Analyst is an emerging career. The role has stepped out of the engineer or programmer domain and is now a key role in a lot of software and business change projects.

The business analyst role is to identify and clarify the business problem or opportunity that a project has been set to address. The analyst will look at the current situation and design a future state. Often this is the framework for technical specifications for engineers and programmers.

People can become business analysts from a number of career paths, including engineering and programming, but it is becoming more common for business analysts to come from operational roles and from consulting organisations. This is not surprising as the role is a very consultative one and requires a deep understanding of the business environment into which solutions will be deployed.

The business analyst is then often also responsible for the quality delivery of the project's solution, managing the business requirements and ensuring appropriate quality checks and testing is done prior to a new system or product being launched.

There is now an international industry association for business analysts. It is called the International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA.) It is adopting a similar style to the Project Management Institute with chapters opening up around the world and a body of knowledge being defined.

The IIBA's website is http://www.iiba.com

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