[Sigia-l] IAs vs BAs

[Donna Maurer]

Juan Ruiz wrote:
> The concept though, bottoms down to what the organization is expecting
> from the employee (either BA or IA). An organization would like to have
> a BA that can do IA. I assume they will have more preference for a BA
> role because this role has existed longer than the IAs, more
> documentation exists on their deliverables, and their business knowledge
> helps them to be closer to PM methodologies. I see a lot of job postings
> for WEB BAs or BAs who have experience with Wireframes and UCD. Isn't
> that what the IA should do?
>   
I think they want BAs because there are more of them and they are 
cheaper ;) And there is nothing wrong with getting a BA who can do IA 
work, as long as they actually can. I haven't met one yet who knows 
anything about the information aspect of IA - particularly the 
categorisation and language aspects. That doesn't mean they don't exist, 
but we haven't crossed paths. If your project is light on difficult 
classification and labelling aspects and heavier on UCD & interface 
design, perhaps there isn't a need for a specialist IA, especially if 
the other skills already exist in the team.
> As Andrew said, as an IA we have to wear many hats (perform different
> duties such as IA/BA/PM/UCD...), but is there a way that I can
> differentiate my documentation from a Web BA? 
>
> I found that in order to get the 'buy-in' from my stakeholders, I have
> to convert my IA research and documents into BA document types, which
> they are familiar with.
>   
You should be tailoring your documentation to best meet the 
communication needs of the project and audience anyway, so there is no 
harm in this.
> Thanks for your responses, I feel like soon I should be able to defend
> my case between IAs and BAs.
>   

-- 
Donna Maurer
Maadmob Interaction Design
e: donna at maadmob.net
web: http://maadmob.net/maadmob_id/
book: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/