hpatel wrote What is the role of a Business Application Consultant? What is the role of a Business Process Analyst? How do these roles compare to that of a Business Analyst? Thanks

Well... first of all we need to realize that the actual responsibilities for a given title vary greatly from organization to organization and project to project.

A "Business Application Consultant" is probably more of a title and than a role.  I would say that a "Business Application Consultant" is a senior professional who provides consulting services to organizations in the area of business applications.  I know... I didn't tell you much more than you can gather from the title.  This professional probably will need to be able to perform a number of tasks including: business analysis (understand what the business does and the business needs), systems analysis (understand how an existing client software works and/or understand how new software might better solve the client's business needs), design/architecture (create a solution of the clients business need using information systems).

A "Business Process Analyst" is the professional whose primary role is understanding and modeling an organization's business processes.  The role of the "Business Process Analyst" is changing with this professional being expected of have a good understanding of the "new" field of Business Process Management (BPM) as well as specialized software for modeling and implementing business processes known as Business Process Management Systems (BPMS).  In some organizations this role may be limited to discovering, documenting, and modeling the business processes (more junior) while in other organizations this role may include creating business process simulations (what ifs), analyzing metrics of existing and what-if scenarios, and proposing changes to the business processes (aka. identifies needs and requirements).

So how do these two compare to the "Business Analyst"?  By Business Analyst, I'm referring to the BA described by the IIBA.  So....

• I would say that the "Business Application Consultant" is a very senior Business Analyst who might also have a strong understanding of a specific business application package/platform/solution (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics AX) or strong software architecture/design skills.
• I would say the "Business Process Analyst" is more of a specialized Business Analyst who focuses on business processes.

Make sure to also check out my additional comments on the various Business Analyst roles:

Business Analyst Roles AKA “In Search of the Business Analysis Holy Grail”

Best regards,

- Adrian

Kimbo

Are you talking about thye Six Sigma legion?