A new contract between business and business analysts

Abstract

Since the advent of business processes management it has been recognized that its main objective is optimization of enterprise's performance. However, the focus of business analysis has changed significantly over the years. Initially business analysts focused on discovery and modelling of business processes. They aimed to identify opportunities for application of information technologies in business process automation and to determine resources needed for business process execution. More recently, the attention has shifted towards business process monitoring and optimization, while the current trends concern with business process intelligence for agile decision-making. Businesses expect that the business analysts will identify opportunities for continuous business process improvement by providing contextualized, high quality and secure information. In the light of these new business expectations, the keynote speech identifies today's challenges faced by the business analysts and describes the current practice in dealing with these challenges. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.