Is business analysis a profession or discipline?
Let us take a closer look.
Discipline and profession are terms that are used interchangeably by many practitioners, especially when it comes to business analysis.
Before you read this article, we'd like to save our readers some time here. We are not suggesting that business analysis can only be one discipline or profession. We explain our stand in the conclusion section. We recommend that our readers read the full article to understand and appreciate the subtle differences between discipline and profession and apply the learnings to form their views.
This article aims to articulate aspects of business analysis as a profession and a discipline contributing to providing value to organisations across the globe in many initiatives.
Before diving into the details, let us distinguish between what discipline is vs profession.
What is a discipline?
The term discipline is a branch or an area of knowledge; a subject that people study, learn or are taught. From a business analysis perspective, this study or learning can be as simple as performing tasks described in BABOK guide v3.
What is a profession?
The term profession refers to a type of career, job, or occupation that requires an advanced skillset or training to perform their role better with the relevant discipline knowledge as the foundation.
So, what is the difference between discipline and profession from a business analysis perspective? Let us take a closer look.
Discipline:
A person studies a discipline, not a profession. For example, in the diagram below, a person learns business analysis, not a profession such as Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Functional Analyst, Scrum Master, Product Analyst, or other titles that are professions.
Foundational knowledge gained from learning the business analysis discipline assists the practitioner in aptly applying the concepts, performing a profession better, and delivering quality outcomes.
When learning a discipline, there is often a set structure and ways of learning.
Learnings of a discipline, e.g., business analysis planning and monitoring, elicitation and collaboration, requirements lifecycle management, strategy analysis, requirements analysis and design definition, and solution evaluation, often spread across many professions. Please take a look at the diagram below.
Example:
A person studying business analysis discipline will understand what they must do to prepare and conduct elicitation sessions. The person can now apply this understanding in any profession that requires this knowledge. The same person is not limited to only becoming a Business Analyst.
Profession:
A practitioner, e.g., a Business Analyst, will apply the foundational knowledge to perform their work. As they gain more experience working as a Business Analyst, they will gain a unique and advanced understanding that assists them and the organisation in delivering quality outcomes as Business Analyst.
The practitioner has a great degree of independence in deciding to carry out their job based on the organisational policies and team structures, unlike when the same practitioner is (or was) learning a discipline.
A practitioner will follow a set of skills, tools, and techniques required to perform their profession better and meet their organisational standards.
As the practitioner moves from project to project or an organisation-to-organisation, the skills or expectations of their profession may change. However, the basics learned through the discipline will remain.
Example:
A practitioner in the Technical Analyst profession will require basics learned through business analysis discipline (e.g., BABOK v3), e.g., elicitation and collaboration; however, they may also require unique skills such as coding knowledge to perform their profession better.
In contrast, a practitioner in the Business Analyst profession will require basics learned through the business analysis discipline (e.g., BABOK v3), e.g., elicitation and collaboration; however, they may also require unique skills specific to their organisation or role.
To the curious readers: We can categorise business analysis in the above diagram into many sub-disciplines. However, we can keep this aside for another discussion and focus on the current topic.
Now, we have defined the difference between business analysis as a discipline and a profession. Let us discuss one last point.
Can business analysis be both a profession and a discipline?
The short answer from us is a yes. Though, we will confine this to limited situations where the practitioner who has gained a deep understanding of business analysis is practising business analysis as a business analyst.
Conclusion
The key difference from a business analysis perspective between discipline and profession is that discipline is a branch or an area of knowledge, a subject that people study, learn or are taught. A discipline spreads across many professions, and having such foundational knowledge is critical to perform the role optimally by experienced professionals and hitting the ground running for people starting new in their profession.
At the same time, a profession requires foundational knowledge gained from the discipline and advanced knowledge or skills specific to its project or organisation. Another difference is that the discipline generates knowledge and the profession applies it.
We close our article with a summary of the difference between discipline and profession.
Please comment and share this article to spread knowledge and align the business analysis community.
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