Declining Business Analyst Staffing Ratios but Rising Importance

The number of business analysts in the IT department is decreasing, but the importance of the role is not. Business analyst staffing is undergoing a significant transformation due to the rapid advancement of technologies such as AI, automation, and real-time data analytics. This necessitates a stronger focus on foundational IT infrastructure, leading to increased demand for technology infrastructure and support roles.

As shown in Figure 1 from our full report, Business Analyst Staffing Ratios , the ratio has been fluctuating for some years. However, after a sudden increase in IT staff at the median to 8.0% in 2023, the ratio drastically fell to 3.7% in 2024.

We are now seeing a trend toward decentralizing business analyst responsibilities, moving them from a core IT department function to being embedded within user departments. This shift aims to improve communication and ensure IT solutions directly address business needs, reflecting organizations’ increasing IT sophistication. Essentially, the business analyst role is evolving, not disappearing, by integrating more closely with the business rather than solely residing within IT, thus adapting to the demands of the modern business landscape.

In our report, we use a broad definition of business analysts. Typical roles include:

• • Those who gather user requirements, define business processes, and help design, document, and deploy solutions using information systems.
  • Any staff member who, regardless of title, serves as a primary liaison between users and IT, represents the user community to the IT group, and ensures that the organization uses IT systems effectively.

Regardless of their reporting relationship, business analysts are pivotal in the era of digital transformation, navigating organizations through complex landscapes of emerging technologies. They are no longer just the bridge between IT and business but strategic partners guiding the adoption of AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making. As businesses increasingly leverage AI for predictive analytics, process automation, and personalized customer experiences, business analysts play a critical role in defining ethical frameworks, mitigating biases, and ensuring that these technologies align with organizational values and societal responsibilities.

“The number of business analysts in IT may be declining, but their value is rising,” said Asif Cassim, principal analyst for Avasant Research, based in Los Angeles. “Regardless of where they are embedded, their role will remain the same.”

Business analysts have one foot in the business world and another in IT. In some companies, business analysts report directly to the IT group with a dotted-line relationship to a business unit or user organization. In other companies, the reporting relationship is reversed, and the business analyst reports directly to a business unit with a dotted line to the IT organization. We believe there has been a long-term shift in favor of a business unit reporting relationship, leading to the decline of this position within the IT organization.

The full report provides metrics for benchmarking business analyst staffing levels in the current environment. We look at the trend in business analyst staffing over five years and provide four benchmarks by organization size and sector: business analysts as a percentage of the IT staff, business analysts as a percentage of the delivery group, applications per business analyst, and users per business analyst staff member. We conclude with recommendations on optimizing business analyst staffing levels.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report, Business Analyst Staffing Ratios. The full report is available at no charge for subscribers, or it may be purchased by nonclients directly from our website. (Click for pricing.)