Who is the hero of Dasavatharam in business? Answer: Definitely not Kamal Hassan.

Are you surprised?.

The other day during lunchtime some of my colleagues were discussing the grand Indian movie ‘Dasavatharam’ in which Actor Kamal Hassan played ten different roles with suitable make up supports from experts. While some were appreciative, the others were critical. As usual there was no unanimity.

I took the discussion points even beyond the lunchtime and started looking at the various roles played by our dear Business Analysts in the IT industry. I was surprised to note that they are already playing ten different roles simultaneously unlike Kamal who played these different roles only one after another.

You may be curious to know the ten different roles played by our business analyst. Let me list them out for the sake of clarity and proper understanding.

1) The analyst – Our Business Analyst (s/he) analyses business problems, helps determine solutions thereby playing the role of ultimate problem solver.

2) The facilitator – S/he is the key facilitator within the business as s/he probes and elicits requirements, ensures positive discussion and progress on a real time basis.

3) The negotiator – S/he acts as a bridge between the client, the various stakeholders and finally the solution team. S/he also maintains balance between potentially conflicting needs of stakeholders.

4) The architect – Solutions provided by our business analyst often includes a systems development component and also consists of process improvement leading to organizational change.

5) The planner – S/he is the requirements manager. S/he is also the project manager of the requirements gathering, understanding and proper statement. S/he is therefore required to plan and manage the various activities to ensure successful outcome with the given constraints.

6) The communicator – S/he is actually a translator – draws out the needs of business, captures them in the form of a document and feed it back for validation and concurrence.

7) The diplomat - S/he is a combination of all the above roles – facilitator, negotiator, planner and architect. S/he ensures that the client is satisfied with the solution.

8) The consultant – Our Business Analyst is actually a consultant to the business as s/he helps to determine solutions to business problems.

9) The strategist – S/he is required to think always outside of the box, so as to get an overview of the business and s/he has to develop the capabilities to perceive the wood and the tree at the same time.

10) The revolutionary – Finally our business analyst plays the role of a revolutionary as s/he captures and brings out required changes to the business.

I am now confident, you will agree with me – Business Analysts perform better than Kamal Hassan in Dasavatharam.