Application Development Company

A common reference I hear in business today is that the Business Analyst (BA) is the bridge between the business and information technology staffs within the organization.  This infers that the knowledge of getting from one to the other, or interacting with either is contained within the BA alone.  The BA should not be the bridge, but the bridge builder.  If the knowledge is contained only within the BA, if the BA should leave the organization, then the bridge is gone.  If the BA is the bridge builder, then if he/she should leave, the knowledge remains within the Organization.
 
As an IT Strategy Consultant developing IT solutions here in Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio, I go from organization to organization and see that turnover within the BA ranks inevitably causes a great learning curve; either to recover the knowledge that has just walked out the door or bringing the new BA up to speed and making them an effective contributor to the organization. 

What all these organizations lack is an Enterprise Architecture, a fundamental artifact of the Business Analysis profession.  This and other artifacts are the foundation of creating a Business Analysis Center of Excellence.  There is a maturity path that all organizations take from having a community of BAs that serve the organization with no continuity or conformity of service through a mature level in which that continuity and conformity of service is establish; into a BA Center of Excellence, where all BAs within the organization have a common standards of practice, tools and resources from which to draw knowledge.

Where is your Organization on the maturity path to a BA Center of Excellence?