Welcome to 2024, folks. It’s a new year full of upcoming opportunities, challenges, and trends. “The future is now,” as they used to say back in the old days! As it is here already, it is high time to try and gaze into the crystal ball and make wild predictions of what this year may bring to the world of business analysis. With a pinch of observations in the base of it, of course. Sit tight as the prediction from Passionate Business Analyst for 2024 trends unfolds right before you.
Buzzwords and 2024 trends to follow
This one will be easy, as the exact topics stay on top of everybody’s feed for the last few years. At the same time, some of them go, while the hype for others grows significantly. Here are the top five things business analysts will deal with in 2024.
AI
As I see, business analysts are dealing with these technologies mostly indirectly. Engineering within AI requires an amazingly significant amount of technical knowledge, skills, and passion, which is quite far from most business analysis jobs. Thus, we either utilize the tools made by others or gain domain knowledge, widening our understanding of it. Or, if one is lucky, one has some connection to it from working in a product company like Grammarly, whose product recently adopted generated AI features. On the other hand, the buzzing within the business analysis community last year and the fact that we will have a whole business analysis conference dedicated to AI this year makes me think we will go beyond that. Maybe this year, analysts will start talking publicly about AI and how we could help businesses by harnessing this technology.
Cybersecurity
The evolution of phishing attacks, increasing DDOS attacks, the growing importance of IoT security, and digital avatars – these and many other things keep raising concerns as they put more and more risks in everyday life. We are far past the moment after which we cannot voluntarily go back and refuse the technology. On the contrary, the usage of it will only keep growing. This means that every person should become more and more aware of the basics of cybersecurity. In contrast, business analysts, deeply involved in creating products that cause such threats, should become advanced experts to protect others.
Data
It is an ongoing and galloping rising topic. If you still need to put your head into this, it feels like you may lose in the competition soon. There is enough time yet to dive into the topic, though, to learn elements of data analysis, for example, to raise your game. Fortunately, there are plenty of free and inexpensive courses for that.
Human Touch
Social engineering, AI-related fears and thoughts, building relationships with your clients or team – there are many technological and human factors that we need to take care of. The more advanced we become as a society, the more we fear losing our human side. That is why more and more business analysts raise such topics as trust, being nimble, how to lead and ignite others, how to be brave, why listening is essential, and how to overcome the impostor syndrome – these and many more similar topics are going to appear this year as well.
Business analysis predictions
Stable demand for BA-related services
The last few years were tough, in general, for all the people from Earth. For some industries, it was more challenging than for others. Not to compare, just a well-known fact, the software development sphere was also traumatized, causing many people to lose their jobs. Last year specifically, I saw hundreds of people who had to start looking for a new place because of the harsh truth they faced, including a few dozen people I know personally. Some are still looking for a job or struggling with a new one and plan to move forward. At the same time, it felt like business analysts were less harmed by what was happening in the world. Do not get me wrong: our profession is not a safe zone either; it’s just a relative evaluation of being in a worse situation.
Now, some good news. Based on what I hear from peers in different companies, business analysts are still in demand, and the demand is relatively stable, somewhat even having growing trends in 2024. Clients value people who can take responsibility for transforming business needs into working software, processes, and products, thus delivering the result. What’s changed, though, is the market. Due to economic instability, small companies and startups are less active than before; most requests currently come from big corporate clients. The stakes of their work are relatively higher, meaning that initiatives require more experienced experts.
Increasing competition and role of certifications
While the market requires experience, upper-meddle to senior level experts and above, there are not enough analysts with such knowledge for everybody, including those looking for a job and already hired. It means businesses would search among less experienced candidates while captivatingly filtering them. Thus, having as many distinctive criteria as possible would be critically important for experts. It may not concern you if you already have a project to work with. But initiatives tend to end, putting people in a position of competing for work with their peers.
What could help are certifications. In a rapidly evolving landscape, certifications may prove dedication to their field. High-grade certifications (IIBA CBAP, SFIAplus L4 and above by BCS, IREB Advanced/Expert) signal that individuals are committed to learning and perfecting their skills. It also shows the ability of a professional to commit to long-term and complex initiatives. Do not rely only on certifications, though – they won’t offer the required real experience.
Knowledge systematization and competency models
Unless you have taken a path of certification, there is a high chance that you may feel what many experienced peers do – lacking an understanding of your actual level or failing in formal professional conversations. It’s like knowing what you do and that you do it well but being unable to explain it on a deeper level of understanding. In 11 years, I have witnessed dozens of experts with such symptoms while collaborating with peers and hiring business analysts for my team. Among various reasons causing this situation, as per my observations, there is a leading one: people came from a different domain, switched from a non-BA job because money was good in IT, and never had a proper education after switching to a new role (some sort of discrepant self-learning at best).
I was not the only one who caught this trend because last year was full of conversations about competency models on all levels. Various discussions were among my team and peers looking for excellent approaches, and top analysts I collaborate with from other companies who started recognizing the importance of structured knowledge and, of course, organizations like IIBA, BCS, and IREB were promoting their resources even more aggressively (in a positive sense of this word) last year. It seems like business analysis is on the verge of becoming a more mature knowledge area, which brings me great joy.
An increasing amount of BA bloggers
Some readers know I released my first Business Analysis Digest in early 2019, marking almost five years in 2024. Before that, I was actively searching for sources of materials for a couple of years for self-learning, making me a bit of an SME in business analysis blogging history. I am setting such context because, after many years of observation, I was impressed by how many professionals emerged and started their columns/blogs/vlogs or created an article or two during the previous 1-1.5 years.
It happened locally in Ukraine, where my knowledge is more complete, and worldwide as well – it’s like some blossoming happened out of many hidden buds. Not only this, but I have seen a lot of previously hibernating initiatives reborn, along with others taken up to the next level. Based on such dynamics, I predict that this year, we will get even more people involved in the evolution of business analysis and increase competition between bloggers. Which I believe is some excellent news for all of us!
Parting words
That is all I wanted to share with you regarding my predictions for 2024 trends in business analysis. I hope I also put some thought into you, and you can make your predictions. If you have any ideas – feel free to comment on a platform where you have found this article. Let’s gather as many as possible and check what went according to our guesses at the year’s end! Meanwhile, I wish you all, my dear readers, Happy New Year, best of luck, and great success! Cheers!
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