CONSULTANT | BEYONDBA
Vaughan Luckman
The world is evolving at pace – and businesses are facing more and more problems that don’t come with a standard playbook. While there are still problems with clear solutions (we still need new payroll systems and the like!), the really important problems tend to be novel – and in this space a different skillset is required.
Having worked in consultancy roles over the last decade I have been focused increasingly within this ‘novel’ space, taming the big-hairy-undefined-problems; but I have been doing this under various labels that don’t differentiate clearly the special skills required to navigate in this space. Being described as ‘the Business Analyst’ on a project is a start – but this falls short in articulating the actual role that I play in Projects and Programmes.
‘Beyond BA’ is my term for a new discipline that moves beyond the traditional Business Analysis craft – specifically focusing on working in the world of ‘highly-undefined’ and strategic problems.
Presentation: The Evolving BA Landscape
If AI can write requirements, what does the Business Analyst do next?
As AI becomes capable of producing analysis, documentation, and even elements of solution design, many of the traditional outputs of the BA role are being automated.
But the real value of Business Analysis has never been the artefacts themselves.
It lies in making sense of messy problems, aligning people around shared understanding, and defining what success actually looks like.
In a world where AI agents increasingly handle the execution, BAs may find themselves operating over the loop — guiding intent, shaping direction, and ensuring that technology delivers meaningful outcomes.
This session explores what that future might look like, and the capabilities BAs need to strengthen to thrive in it.