Ratio of B.A.s to Developers

[BjornMorg]

All,

I'm interested to know what your experiences are of this ratio
i.e. number of B.A.s in an I.T. department compared to Developers (including the DBAs)

[mos]

All,

I'm interested to know what your experiences are of this ratio
i.e. number of B.A.s in an I.T. department compared to Developers (including the DBAs)

I do not get this BA thing. In olden days developer/modeller was doing all the doings - and it was far more efficient. It is just a trick to force doers to teach someone with no experience whatsoever about the business. Just another parasitic middle man.

[Dallas]

Its because when you talk to the Business this is what they hear:

Glossolalia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think audit and the regulators are keen to understand too.

[mos]

Its because when you talk to the Business this is what they hear:

Glossolalia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think audit and the regulators are keen to understand too.

So which one do you think I am: business, auditor, developer or maybe regulator? Maybe I am BA?

[Ticktock]

I often find that the work I do includes what a BA would do, with my bit on top.

If one is in place before I start somewhere (and they are half-decent) then it gives me a massive headstart to use documentation they've put together. It saves me having to do that work and allows me to concentrate on my own. I find developers less likely to have documented anything clearly that I can take away and work with by myself.

Speaking to developers I get one, or a combination, of someone who wants to show off their knowledge and goes too technical; someone who mumbles and talks to their keyboard so I have to ask them to repeat everything multiple times; someone who understands what something is and how it works, but not the business benefits it can deliver, or how to applies to users' day-to-day work; someone who understands the business benefits, understands the technical side, and how these link together, but doesn't have time to explain it to me.

In short, I can live without BAs, but they can make my life a hell of a lot easier if they're there.

[vetran]

I do not get this BA thing. In olden days developer/modeller was doing all the doings - and it was far more efficient. It is just a trick to force doers to teach someone with no experience whatsoever about the business. Just another parasitic middle man.

You need someone to nail the jelly that the business thinks are specifications to the wall, the developers just aren't cynical or tactful enough.

The Developers are too busy creating Ivory towers and assuming they know what the business wants so someone needs to go in between.

[Dallas]

Yep, if there is a multi-system global implementation, no one on the Business side is going to call bob from system #1 .....

If you are agile, just one system, doing bau upgrades on non contentious data and the business want to know when that pink box has turned blue, thats easy stuff.

[MyUserName]

We have 2 developers and a manager who is also a developer. One BA who doubles as a tester.

[original PM]

I was working with a business once and they were complaining about requirements and insisted they needed a proper quality BA.

So we got one in and they hated it because they did not realise that a good BA does not just write down the high level specifications/requirements like a secretary, but they actually question each requirements, ensure that it is direcetly realted to a business benefit and also ensure that the business gives the requirements and not the solutions.

Oh well

Good BA's are great but some can be rubbish!

[VectraMan]

I've never worked anywhere that had a BA. Just engineers, who do actual work, and sometimes a PM, whose only task seems to be to schedule a meeting every so often.