This year has been like no other in history. Companies of all sizes were forced to quickly respond, adapt, and refocus their business. This agility helped many organizations succeed in the wake of a pandemic while others, unfortunately, haven't fared as well and are still struggling. At IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) we've heard success stories from business analysis professionals who have leveraged this challenge to rise and guide their organizations in rethinking, redirecting, and re-strategizing how they serve their customers and clients to succeed in these challenging times.
In March of this year, many organizations had to suddenly shift their employees to work remotely and weren't prepared to deal with technology and security challenges while others had to change their production. But, while some industries were laying off employees, others were able to increase hiring by aligning customer experience (CX), AI (Artificial Intelligence), data analytics, cybersecurity, business analysis, and business process management professionals to support organizations' critical business functions during COVID-19. There are many examples of how business analysis professionals have stepped up (in some cases volunteering) to help scientists, researchers, engineers, medical professionals, and governments support COVID response teams to work together to develop infrastructure and coordinate the sharing of pandemic related data with public health authorities. We've also seen examples of businesses shifting their production to support consumer demand for pandemic supplies such as distilleries and breweries who pivoted to produce hand sanitizer to fill a need and keep their employees working.
Change can be challenging, especially in extraordinary times. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) has introduced some new and improved resources and partnered with our community to support business analysis professionals managing business continuity. In 2020, IIBA underwent some exciting changes. In January, we welcomed our current President and CEO, Delvin Fletcher, while preceding President and CEO, Ken Fulmer, retired after many years of dedicated service. Delvin's diverse background combined with his insights on the future of business analysis have allowed him to influence, plan, and collaborate with IIBA's leadership team and broadening ecosystem supporting the business analysis community. If you have had the opportunity to speak one-on-one or attend any of Delvin's keynote presentations – perhaps at virtual BBC 2020 – you'll quickly realize his vision and passion to help shape the industry for tomorrow's needs. He inspires commitment to drive change that will benefit IIBA, our members, the business analysis community and organizations everywhere that will reap benefits from business analysis and the valuable resources IIBA provides.
The best way to update you on all of IIBA's changes is to share a list of 2020 highlights:
- Giving Back: In March and April many of our Endorsed Education Providers (EEPs) offered free or discounted training during the first few months of self-isolation.
- Mandatory Certification: The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Digital Transformation Unit set a requirement for all business analysis professionals to hold IIBA certification.
- Building Business Capability Virtual Conference 2020: Provided more interactive opportunities for attendees from practitioner chats to extended BBC sessions after the conference and access to all session recordings enabling attendees to listen to as many or all the speaker sessions for a wider audience around the globe.
- Global Cybersecurity: IIBA in partnership with IEEE Computer Society launched eLearning materials for cybersecurity analysis for an improved user experience – check out a sample here.
- Member and Public Webinars: IIBA hosted webinars on a wide range of topics with guest speakers discussing how they were approaching cybersecurity and bringing the practice of business analysis forward to support organizations.
- Digital Transformation: In Q4 IIBA's website manager led an initiative to enhance the user experience for professionals looking for business analysis career information on iiba.org that will launch in early 2021.
- Online Resources: Earlier this year, IIBA extended its online resources to give members more tools:
- Introduced searchable online resources BABOK Guide, Agile Extension, Business Analysis Competency Model, and Career Action Guide for members.
- Expanded our members digital online library to include a collection of more than 11,000 professional development titles on business analysis and related topics.
- Launched the updated Guide to Business Data Analytics complete with user scenario examples to help translate theory to application.
- Released the new Strategy to Execution summary material.
- Shared incredible business analysis stories and professional development tips through our member and public webinars.
- Launched a business analysis advocacy resource page to help professionals advocating for membership support to get buy-in as well as to celebrate the successes of our corporate members including RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), Nedbank, and North Highland (global consulting firm) who have leveraged costs-benefit analysis through their business analysis practice and invested in sustainable professional development for their BA teams.
- Celebrated 10th Anniversary: Honoured the first class of 10-year global members in IIBA's corporate program. Nedbank was recognized at this year's 5th annual corporate awards celebration for transforming their business capabilities by adapting and optimizing their business analysis practice and demonstrating leadership excellence via volunteerism to provide sustainable training, certification, and career development opportunities for their business analysis professionals.
- 2020 Volunteer & Chapter Awards: IIBA was also privileged to recognize our incredible volunteers and Chapter Leaders in our 2020 Volunteer and Chapter Awards celebration (you can watch it here).
So, what's in store for 2021? Earlier this year LinkedIn listed Business Analysis as number 6 on their list of top 10 hard skills that are in-demand from employers in 2020. In Q2 of 2020 we did a search on LinkedIn and discovered that 23.3M professionals list business analysis as a skill or experience while 9.8M hold the title of Business Analyst and 4.4M professionals are in a Senior Business Analyst role. Based on this list and the number of business analysis professionals on LinkedIn we expect the practice and the role to continue to grow and evolve. Drawing on insights from 5,491 respondents representing 129 countries in the 2020 IIBA Global Business Analysis Salary Survey we see a growing number of business analysis professionals involved in digital transformation with 70% of survey respondents reporting they are involved in digital initiatives this year alone. 72% of respondents report practicing agile approaches, 38% are involved in business data analytics, and 18% report they are involved in cybersecurity. Throughout the pandemic we have seen the value business analysis professionals bring to their organization in this time of constant change. Take a closer look at IIBA to learn how our tools and resources can help you.
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