As we approach the end of 2024, I think there is immense value in taking stock on what has been achieved. Much of the time, in the humdrum of day-to-day life, we tend to focus on what needs doing, rather than celebrating all that has been accomplished.

This year has been particularly significant for both myself as Head of Business Analysis & Agility at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd and within the CMC Business Analysis (BA) practice, marked by growth, new partnerships and a broadening scope of work. So I wanted to take a moment to reflect back on these successes and consider what this means for the future.

It’s hard to believe that this time last year Debra Paul and I were very busy making the final changes to our ‘Agile and Business Analysis’ 2nd edition BCS Publishing book. This seems like a distant memory as the book was officially launched in March 2024, but a very proud moment for us to celebrate together, connected by a shared passion for and expertise in business analysis.

Our CMC BA practice has seen substantial growth this year taking on some exceptional new partners and expanding our team. Two of our business analysts have embarked on a BA apprenticeship (supported by AssistKD), which has been an incredibly positive experience for both them and CMC. We have even supported other BA practices too through our BAaaS (Business Analysis as a Service), becoming a key part in upskilling and supplementing our client BA practices.

The breadth of our BA work has also expanded significantly and we have found ourselves stepping in to support user research, product development and service design, as well as expanding our use and support of data analysis and visualisation. This has played to our existing strengths of working with agile development teams, supporting product owners and the strategic vision, as well as the change design work that we do to support transformational change programmes.

We have also been really active in the BA community this year. We had seven CMC representatives at the IRM UK BA conference in September, including Jonathan W who was a finalist in the IIBA UK BA of the Year (BAOTY) awards, Mick Brian and William Izzard who hosted their brilliant and innovative talk on ‘AI Alchemy: Turning change into gold’ , alongside myself who presented my talk, ‘So you think you know use cases’. We even had one of our brilliant BA consultants Daniel Grist manning the Young Business Analysts (YBA) stand. It was fantastic to have our business analysts representing such a wealth of expertise across the BA community.

Looking forward to 2025, I see a continued upward trajectory in terms of growth and new opportunities, as we continue to develop our skills alongside our client base. The demand for data analysis and AI is of course expected to continue to rise, and we are committed to upskilling in these areas to meet future client needs. As highlighted in many of the sessions at the IRM UK BA Conference 2024, the role of business analysts is evolving, not just in learning to leverage these new technologies, but also that our role is more key than ever in helping to effectively address complex problems and efficiently drive organisational success.

It’s clear to me that it has been a year of significant achievements and growth for me and our CMC Business Analysis practice. From the expansion of our services and client base to being active in the BA community, we have so much to be proud of. As we move into 2025, I am excited to see what opportunities lie ahead for the thriving BA community – here’s to another year of success and innovation in business analysis.

By Lynda Girvan, Head of Business Analysis & Agility at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd