"You just can't assume that IT can do anything that the business wants them to. There are some things that are technologically impossible," Schwaber. "And even if something is possible, it's not always cost effective." Business analysts should be able to explain these constraints in terms that both IT and the business can understand, using business terminology, such as cost-benefit equations, total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI), as well describing the IT challenges.

For example, a business analyst will know that IT is not going to be rewriting the company's legacy applications to deliver a new Web application, Schwaber points out. "They may know what the constraints are for that application—how fast it can change, when it can change—in ways that the business can never understand," she says. "But they can help them understand the impact of all these requirements."

They have credibility with business colleagues, often gained through previous work experience. For business analysts coming out of IT, gaining the business's trust and equal status can be tough. "In general, what we find is that someone who has worked in a business role tends to have more credibility as a business analyst than somebody who has worked in IT," Shepherd says.

Shepherd says that many organizations are finding that the best business analysts have worked in departments such as accounting, production planning or procurement, and along the way developed an interest in the business's applications and IT. "Maybe they've been assigned to an implementation or selection project, and discovered that they found [the business analyst role] really interesting," he notes.

For these BAs, the quest to gain the business's respect and credibility will most often be easier than for those technical IT staffers trying to broaden their BA chops. "Convincing people in the business that this person, who started life as a programmer, understands what they do, empathizes with them and can suggest a better way to do it, is much more difficult," Shepherd says.

Forrester's Schwaber is finding that those business analysts who "own some part of the business" and are engaged with IT as well have the most chance for success. (Forrester calls this evolved staffer a business technology analyst.)

"The business technology analyst owns a business function or business process and actually implements changes to how that process is automated using tools like BPM solutions and rules engines," Schwaber says. "Their job is to simultaneously know how the business should best operate and to optimize business processes, business information and business experiences and actually make sure those change are implemented in the software."

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