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What is the salary of a Business Analyst

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Feb 5, 2010
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Demonoid wrote: I always wondered what kind of actual value do "Business Analysts" bring to the company, that makes them justify their 80k+ salaries? Besides market speculation and the regular chitchat about the economy, if that's even valuable at all.

Be more specific in your definition of 'business analyst'. It seems your referring to those in Finance?

Its probably easier for you to go to a job site and look at the duties of a business analyst rather then have people type it out here. In IT, they are pretty valuable if they are good. Keyword: Good.

Whom do you consider valuable to a company? Your comments pretty much shoot down professional services jobs such as Consultants and Auditing etc. if you think business analysts provide no value. Just like any other job their will be useless ones and good ones.
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Apr 14, 2012
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Demonoid wrote: I always wondered what kind of actual value do "Business Analysts" bring to the company, that makes them justify their 80k+ salaries? Besides market speculation and the regular chitchat about the economy, if that's even valuable at all.

If you honestly think about it business analyst if they are good can save a company large amounts of money on a project. For example think about if a company wants to implement a new program or start redesigning some of its IT systems a team of BA's can sit down and help work out what is the most cost effective ways of executing the plan or program.

I think a very generalized way of looking at it is they are almost like lower level project managers.
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Oct 20, 2002
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kbizzle2 wrote: If you honestly think about it business analyst if they are good can save a company large amounts of money on a project. For example think about if a company wants to implement a new program or start redesigning some of its IT systems a team of BA's can sit down and help work out what is the most cost effective ways of executing the plan or program.

I think a very generalized way of looking at it is they are almost like lower level project managers.

In a sense, yes. There are many different types of BA and I'm the kind that works on projects regardless of subject area. I've been a BA for a couple of years now and the role really depends on the specific project and the phase of the project.

BA pre execution / initiation of a project really is more of drawing of a blue print, making a solid business case (defining benefits) and an estimated timeline. The BA can be the SME or even the DOer in the project as well but not necessary. After the plan is drawn out, the BA can pull out and do something else. Sometimes, BA takes the lead in some areas of the project if they happen to be an SME as well.

I find that regardless of any project, a good BA is about understanding the client and asking the right questions. Why do you want it in such a short time frame? What if it's a day late - what would happen? If you can clap your hands together and get the exact thing that you want, describe to me how it would be. Who is it for? and so on...
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Feb 5, 2010
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Immortal wrote: In a sense, yes. There are many different types of BA and I'm the kind that works on projects regardless of subject area. I've been a BA for a couple of years now and the role really depends on the specific project and the phase of the project.

BA pre execution / initiation of a project really is more of drawing of a blue print, making a solid business case (defining benefits) and an estimated timeline. The BA can be the SME or even the DOer in the project as well but not necessary. After the plan is drawn out, the BA can pull out and do something else. Sometimes, BA takes the lead in some areas of the project if they happen to be an SME as well.

I find that regardless of any project, a good BA is about understanding the client and asking the right questions. Why do you want it in such a short time frame? What if it's a day late - what would happen? If you can clap your hands together and get the exact thing that you want, describe to me how it would be. Who is it for? and so on...

Correct. Some do pure business analysis, planning, requirements gathering, use-cases etc. Others focus on implementation of solutions. Some do both and go through the full project life cycle.
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Mar 24, 2005
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kbizzle2 wrote: If you honestly think about it business analyst if they are good can save a company large amounts of money on a project. For example think about if a company wants to implement a new program or start redesigning some of its IT systems a team of BA's can sit down and help work out what is the most cost effective ways of executing the plan or program.

I think a very generalized way of looking at it is they are almost like lower level project managers.

You are so far off from what a business analyst is. They are far from a lower level project manager - what you described there is simply an implementation analyst. The business analyst is the most critical figure to any project. They are directly accountable for the success or failure of a project. If you do your analysis wrong, then everything fails. Doesn't matter how good of a project manager you have. The biggest value a business analyst can bring to any organization is business domain expertise, the ability to identify the root cause of problems, identify the actual business needs, develop requirements to address the issues, understand and analyze the downstream impacts a change will cause (both to business processes and to technology) and ensure that the requirements for the new solution will meet the needs of the business. They are the intermediary between business and technology, and they understand both the business domain and technology domain, and can communicate between both. A strong BA will help save the company millions of dollars when delivering a large strategic initiative right - rather than having the company fail for many years trying to implement a solution, or delivering a solution which is completely garbage and doesn't work. They are also great communicators as they will be able to work with multiple stakeholders and be the central point of information, sorting all those details out and getting the full end-to-end picture - which can be very challanging when people give different views of what other people do. When done right, a great solution can be a huge revenue generator for the organization. Also, they are the ones who will be able to figure out what an organization needs to do in order to meet external requirements such as regulatory and compliance changes.

All this, is just the tip of the ice berg of what a busines analyst does.
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Oct 14, 2004
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Coke355mL wrote: You are so far off from what a business analyst is. They are far from a lower level project manager - what you described there is simply an implementation analyst. The business analyst is the most critical figure to any project. They are directly accountable for the success or failure of a project. If you do your analysis wrong, then everything fails. Doesn't matter how good of a project manager you have. The biggest value a business analyst can bring to any organization is business domain expertise, the ability to identify the root cause of problems, identify the actual business needs, develop requirements to address the issues, understand and analyze the downstream impacts a change will cause (both to business processes and to technology) and ensure that the requirements for the new solution will meet the needs of the business. They are the intermediary between business and technology, and they understand both the business domain and technology domain, and can communicate between both. A strong BA will help save the company millions of dollars when delivering a large strategic initiative right - rather than having the company fail for many years trying to implement a solution, or delivering a solution which is completely garbage and doesn't work. They are also great communicators as they will be able to work with multiple stakeholders and be the central point of information, sorting all those details out and getting the full end-to-end picture - which can be very challanging when people give different views of what other people do. When done right, a great solution can be a huge revenue generator for the organization. Also, they are the ones who will be able to figure out what an organization needs to do in order to meet external requirements such as regulatory and compliance changes.

All this, is just the tip of the ice berg of what a busines analyst does.

If there were only more people out there who could do what you describe. Honestly, I have worked with one BA who might live up to your description. Most of the time, I am the PM requesting another BA be assigned because the current one has no idea what they are talking about. Believe me, I spot check the death out of their work...BA and QA and I find that 95% of the time, their work is not up to par. Dev's are the ones who have to make up the difference between the lack of requirements and the variances opened by QA.
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Mar 24, 2009
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James_TheVirus wrote: If there were only more people out there who could do what you describe. Honestly, I have worked with one BA who might live up to your description. Most of the time, I am the PM requesting another BA be assigned because the current one has no idea what they are talking about. Believe me, I spot check the death out of their work...BA and QA and I find that 95% of the time, their work is not up to par. Dev's are the ones who have to make up the difference between the lack of requirements and the variances opened by QA.

You should temper your expectation based on how much you're paying. In fact, I feel bad for the guys who work for you.
Most BAs make somewhere between 50-80k with the average at around 65k.

You expect your BA to do coke355ml described for 65k? A strategic consultant on that level of ability could easily be a director of operations and make 120k+. Why would he work for/with you when he could be at the corporate head office making big bucks?
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Oct 14, 2004
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tylaw83 wrote: You should temper your expectation based on how much you're paying. In fact, I feel bad for the guys who work for you.
Most BAs make somewhere between 50-80k with the average at around 65k.

You expect your BA to do coke355ml described for 65k? A strategic consultant on that level of ability could easily be a director of operations and make 120k+. Why would he work for/with you when he could be at the corporate head office making big bucks?
You assume wrong if you think I work with people who are paid 65k. Most are contractors direct through an agency (meaning the bank found them, and hence, only a minor % taken off the top) and make between 75 and 90/hr. Hardly chump change. And yes, I am at a head office of one of the Big 5 banks.

The best BA's are the ones who have been at the bank for a long time because they know the history of the applications and have done previous upgrades.
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Sep 9, 2007
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Whats great about being a BA is that you take on different responsibilities depending on the project and you get exposure to business and technology side of the business.
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Mar 10, 2011
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James_TheVirus wrote: If there were only more people out there who could do what you describe. Honestly, I have worked with one BA who might live up to your description. Most of the time, I am the PM requesting another BA be assigned because the current one has no idea what they are talking about. Believe me, I spot check the death out of their work...BA and QA and I find that 95% of the time, their work is not up to par. Dev's are the ones who have to make up the difference between the lack of requirements and the variances opened by QA.

+1....I have never seen any BA with abilities remotely near the description in the previous post. I'm currently on the technical side of IT and have PM'd before too performing both roles at various fortune 500 companies. Usually BA's get shuffled around quite a bit on projects and can never spend years learning the intricasies of complex business systems. Due to the steep learning curve and ongoing maintenance, technical people tend to stay on longer and in many cases I've had to onboard and get BA's up to speed.

Honestly a lot is asked of them to learn how a business works in a very short time and it's not easy. The hard reality is that tech people like myself end up going directly to the business itself for clarifications.
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Apr 26, 2011
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My friend do the recruiting for a major bank and said the salary range for ba is 50-100k depending on the education like MBA/graduate degree
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Feb 5, 2010
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James_TheVirus wrote: You assume wrong if you think I work with people who are paid 65k. Most are contractors direct through an agency (meaning the bank found them, and hence, only a minor % taken off the top) and make between 75 and 90/hr. Hardly chump change. And yes, I am at a head office of one of the Big 5 banks.

The best BA's are the ones who have been at the bank for a long time because they know the history of the applications and have done previous upgrades.

This is accurate. The reason the rates are that high are due to the temporary nature of projects and the specific expertise required. The bank will be able to utilize and shuffle them around, extend, or roll-off these contractors at ease and not have to worry about benefits, payroll etc. Hiring a full-time employee or using existing full-time employees may not always be the best option on a project as their skillsets may not be as diverse or limited in nature. However since they are full-timers, they are meant to be for the long-term so they should know the history of the systems and processes etc.
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Mar 24, 2005
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James_TheVirus wrote: If there were only more people out there who could do what you describe. Honestly, I have worked with one BA who might live up to your description. Most of the time, I am the PM requesting another BA be assigned because the current one has no idea what they are talking about. Believe me, I spot check the death out of their work...BA and QA and I find that 95% of the time, their work is not up to par. Dev's are the ones who have to make up the difference between the lack of requirements and the variances opened by QA.

The business analysis discipline is still relatively new and it's common knowledge that finding a really good BA is rare - even if they are contractors. This is why consulting firms have been making a lot of money in recent years because organizations are turning to consulting firms who can guarantee their work and are held accountable for it. But on the flipside, consultancies are 2-3 times more expensive than contractor rates and turns off a lot of organizations - even the big 5 banks, only certain areas are willing to pay that kind of money (mainly in the front office side).

Are contractors worth it? Usually they're better than your typical bank BA. But nowhere close to the quality that a strategic consultant at a well-known consulting firm can offer. But in recent years, there's been a huge upswing in the number of contractor BA's because many who jumped onto the BA bandwagon early and worked for a number of years, all of a sudden felt they can ride the contractor wave and instantly earn $75/hr. I have seen many BA's (both full time and contractors) and very few have lived up to expectations.

I agree to a very short extent about your comment that the best BA's are the ones that have been with the company supporting an application/system for a very long time. I have found that in most organizations, those BA's which become a SME on a particular application/system have a very single-track knowledge of just their application/system and only that. They tend to have no knowledge or understanding of anything else beyond that - they are no longer BA's but have become more of an application SME. If one day their application/system gets replaced with an entirely new product, then their value all of a sudden goes out the window. These types of BA's are the ones that get comfortable in their day-to-day jobs... but try putting them on a business transformation type of project where they need to understand new changes in the business, or regulatory impacts, or even work on enterprise level initiatives which will impact their "baby"... they struggle because it is not in "their" domain of knowledge.

To be a strong BA, one needs to gain a breadth and depth of business domain knowledge and expertise (experience + courses/certifications/designations), coupled with deep understanding of software development (i.e. have coded before for example, in school or previous job and understands logic and process flows, etc), architecture and various technology. Afterall, the BA is the intermediary between business and IT so you need to really know both.
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Mar 24, 2005
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ricepop wrote: My friend do the recruiting for a major bank and said the salary range for ba is 50-100k depending on the education like MBA/graduate degree

Education is only a minor factor. The most weighted factor is experience.

Also, I can tell you your friend is mistaken - no banks pay their BA's 100k. Usually they top out at 75k average - I've seen it hit 85k tops for a Sr. BA but even that is rare. From there you're title is no longer BA or Sr. BA, usually Business Consultant or "BA Manager / Sr. BA Manager" for a specific bank.
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Mar 24, 2005
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Biff88 wrote: +1....I have never seen any BA with abilities remotely near the description in the previous post. I'm currently on the technical side of IT and have PM'd before too performing both roles at various fortune 500 companies. Usually BA's get shuffled around quite a bit on projects and can never spend years learning the intricasies of complex business systems. Due to the steep learning curve and ongoing maintenance, technical people tend to stay on longer and in many cases I've had to onboard and get BA's up to speed.

Honestly a lot is asked of them to learn how a business works in a very short time and it's not easy. The hard reality is that tech people like myself end up going directly to the business itself for clarifications.

Yes, it is hard to find good BA's who have the right mix of business and technology skillsets to hit the ground running. Business analysis is still a relatively new discipline.

However on the flip side, having developers appraoch the business directly have been a common reason why many projects fail or become challanged, as developers usually do not understand the business nor necessarily have the business knowledge to have the discussions with business stakeholders to understand their business problems, identify the root causes and mine and extract the business needs in order to address the issues.

The numbers speak for themselves. I recall reading the gartner studies and the standish group studies and starting in ~1995, roughly only 15% of projects were successul while the remaining 85% were failed or challanged. With PMP becoming mainstrain and was in high demand (even though it was first introduced around 1985), there was an immediate uptick of 10% in project success rates, and held relatively steady until 2000. In 2000, business analysis started to become formalized and was a growing demand... there was an immediate uptick of an additional 7% in project success rates, with a gradual increase year-over-year; similar to the PMP, it took a very long time for business analysis to establish itself and is only starting to become mainstream and recognized globally.

Where the best value lies currently, given the premature nature of business analysis as a yet to be fully matured and fully developed skill set, is when both the BA and Developer work together - such as in an Agile development methodology. The last report I read from the Standish group stated that projects which used agile methodology for requirements and development had a project success rate of about 40%, challanged at 50% and failed only at 10%.
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Feb 5, 2010
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Coke355mL wrote: Education is only a minor factor. The most weighted factor is experience.

Also, I can tell you your friend is mistaken - no banks pay their BA's 100k. Usually they top out at 75k average - I've seen it hit 85k tops for a Sr. BA but even that is rare. From there you're title is no longer BA or Sr. BA, usually Business Consultant or "BA Manager / Sr. BA Manager" for a specific bank.

This is accurate. I even know a few colleagues in the banks (RBC, TD to be specific) and unless they get promoted they are pretty much capped at 75k being the top (which none have reached yet anyway).

There are always exceptions to the norm (i.e hiring from the outside a very experiened person) but for full-timers banks are at or below market.
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Mar 24, 2009
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James_TheVirus wrote: You assume wrong if you think I work with people who are paid 65k. Most are contractors direct through an agency (meaning the bank found them, and hence, only a minor % taken off the top) and make between 75 and 90/hr. Hardly chump change. And yes, I am at a head office of one of the Big 5 banks.

The best BA's are the ones who have been at the bank for a long time because they know the history of the applications and have done previous upgrades.

As other users have mentioned, BAs on salary are paid within the range I mentioned. Contractors are paid a different rate for the temporary nature of the job, not for the stronger abilities they bring to the table. Essentially, you ARE paying for a 65k BA.

As I said, you get what you pay for. If your bank isn't willing to pay Bain for the project and goes for the cheaper alternative of contractors, then don't expect too much.
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Feb 5, 2010
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tylaw83 wrote: As I said, you get what you pay for. If your bank isn't willing to pay Bain for the project and goes for the cheaper alternative of contractors, then don't expect too much.

This is not accurate either. Many specialized technology firms are also winning the bids vs the big boys as well.

Interesting enough, on big technology projects such as ERP implementations etc. the big firms such as IBM, Accenture etc. end up having to bring contractors into the client under them as their bench and talent pool have its limitations. Just because the 'brand name' is there does not guarantee 'getting what you pay for'. Most of the hiring from these firms for these resources is from the market anyway.

For argument sake:
As a client, if this same employee comes through IBM it will be $250 an hr + expenses. If the client can hire the same resource for $100 an hr. Look at the savings.

A smart client would use a firm for the project (as someone mentioned above, accountability, liability etc.) but at the same time have their own internal contractors/FTE resources in parallel as the firm would eventually roll out after implementation and it would be transitioned on. Without the clients own resources playing a big role, the firm(s) can just roll all over them with continuous change requests, projects extending for years etc. After all its all about the billings for them.
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Mar 24, 2009
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Abel4Life wrote: This is not accurate either. Many specialized technology firms are also winning the bids vs the big boys as well.

Interesting enough, on big technology projects such as ERP implementations etc. the big firms such as IBM, Accenture etc. end up having to bring contractors into the client under them as their bench and talent pool have its limitations. Just because the 'brand name' is there does not guarantee 'getting what you pay for'. Most of the hiring from these firms for these resources is from the market anyway.

For argument sake:
As a client, if this same employee comes through IBM it will be $250 an hr + expenses. If the client can hire the same resource for $100 an hr. Look at the savings.

A smart client would use a firm for the project (as someone mentioned above, accountability, liability etc.) but at the same time have their own internal contractors/FTE resources in parallel as the firm would eventually roll out after implementation and it would be transitioned on. Without the clients own resources playing a big role, the firm(s) can just roll all over them with continuous change requests, projects extending for years etc. After all its all about the billings for them.

I'm talking about use of consulting firms vs contractors. Who said it had to be a big 1st tier firm?

Any of the more reputable firms will guarantee a higher quality of work regardless of whether they bring in contractors to help with the project as they are aiming for repeat work and will use a competent team to manage the project and review the final deliverables.

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