"How many Business Analysts recommend solutions? Do you?"

I ask these questions because most definitions of Business analysis I read these days refer to determining business needs (requirements, I guess) AND recommending solutions to meet the business needs.

I want to know if any RQNG readers are doing much on the solution side? What are you recommending?

I know what I do most is identify business needs, in enough detail to allow a solution to be delivered, and tested to be sure it meets those business needs. To me, solution determination is a whole other sphere/discipline. I am not clueless on the subject, having been part of many projects over the years, but it seems this is bigger than than the BA.

I believe I have addressed all the major types of work not related to Requirements that are often associated with the Business Analyst. Some others that can come up are writing user manuals and doing user training. These imply the BA has good knowledge of the solution/system, which may not always be true. Writing good user manuals is again a separate skill set; good trainers are also a unique type of person.

In any case, I have also been keeping an eye on recent job postings for BAs. I am encouraged that most are about requirements work, but testing skill/experience is usually asked for as well. So, I would really like to talk to people who are BAs who do testing, and the HR and IT Management people who asking for this in their job ads.

A recent conversation reminded me about another aspect of the BA job/title, that being the job ads for BAs with experience in Oracle Financials or some number of SAP modules or some such thing. They are looking for people to configure these applications.