Business Analysts: I SALUTE YOU!

I've been meaning to speak out for those individuals that are buried deep in the confines of their cubicles under mountains of data, hundreds of report requests, and in my humble opinion, keep businesses running and innovating: the Business Analyst. Now the term "Business Analyst" here just signifies any individual out there that satisfies the curiosity of its user base. IT love to call these people Power Users or Subject matter experts (SME). That's fine for architect lingo, but for business people that just want answers, they turn to their analysts. Some call them "data analysts" or "data scientist". Recently, I ran into a tweet that pretty much summed it up for me:

People ask me how to be a BA. Being a BA is a state of mind. You learn the techniques but are born with analytical curiosity #Analytics #BA
— BA/BI Professional (@Office_Jockey) August 9, 2013

Its the "analytical curiosity" that @Office_Jockey is talking about that differentiates a Business Analyst from a Developer. Never being satisfied. Or better yet, chasing after answers until your gut tells you "that's it". That's as good as its going to get. You've cross-referenced as many data points as possible and feel very confident that your proposed query, report, or data model is proven and sound. What makes it feel even better is when people try to throw stones at your work, and they just fall by the wayside because your logic has either taught them something new, or reinforced what they already knew or had the very same question you did on some other day when you busted your bump to get that anamoly out of your data.

Business Analysts: I SALUTE YOU!