For the past couple of years, I have struggled to put what I really do into words so I usually revert to "I'm a Business Analyst". But after a conversation with my former CEO, and a couple of other valuable connections, the truth is that I haven't really been a true BA for some time. Sure I fill the role with clients, but it's not my passion.

Yes, I am passionate about Business Analysis and the critical role it plays in the success of projects and organizations alike. For a while I was a business/solution consultant. I enjoyed getting to that point which I believe to be the upper echelon of the Business Analyst's career path, and I enjoyed doing the work. But my biggest passion is building organizational capability & capacity. I excel at it (that's not bragging, I heard it repeatedly during conversations with some of my really top-notch connections).

What is it and what does it mean? Well, in a nut shell it's building the framework for an organization to manage it's people resources, an environment for the development of those resources and filling capacity gaps along the way. I guess my very unique background contributed to my ability and passion for this area, but my obsessive compulsive personality allowed me to perfect it when I found a niche called Business Analysis.

Twenty years ago I had a reputation for developing positive learning environments for my physically & mentally challenged clients. Because I did the same thing. I helped build the frameworks and environment to help these clients achieve their potential and have experiences many thought they would never have because of social biases or physical limitations.

Why is building capability & capacity so important? Well, in all of the technology organizations I have worked, Business Analysts are the one group that is literally a ship without a captain. Companies are simply not managing these resources the way we manage other groups like developers, testers and PM's. What I mean by that is that many companies do not have a dedicated manager for business analysts. This means that their is no real career planning or progression, there is no real capability development and most have been using business analysis like a stepping stone to something else.

That's where I come in and that's exactly what I do. I establish the framework to manage groups like business analysts, create the environment of collaboration, the key performance indicators, assessment tools, competencies, and career plan. Above all else, I bring them together as a unit, and motivate them to do better. Because the truth is, most people only really know when we do a bad job and most people don't know what we do or how to track real quality of our deliverables. I know that because I see it when they advertise for a BA/Tester or BA/PM. The roles are joined because they don't know what we do that adds value to the process.

No one but another BA can really evaluate how good we are at our jobs, not even a Project Manager. They can tell how manydefects or ambiguities popped up but that's all and that is really not a true and exclusive measure of the BA performance.