What does an Information Systems Graduate need to know? A focus on Business Analysts and their role in sustainability

Information Systems graduates play a vital role in bridging the gap between business needs and technology solutions. But how much business or technology does a graduate need to know? In this paper we focus on the Business Analyst (BA) as a key role currently in high (unmet) demand in Australia. This paper presents the results of an Information and Communication Technology industry-based survey conducted in Australia to determine what knowledge and skills are needed by a BA. The survey is based on prior studies of information systems educational requirements and the internationally-developed Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) that has been endorsed by the Australian Computer Society. From the literature we identified three types of skills: soft, business and technical. With the increasing importance of GreenIT and the pivotal role that the BA could play in green decision making, we added a fourth type of skill: sustainability. The survey considers 84 skills, their importance, the level of attainment of that skill, skill gaps and types of skills. Results show that technical and business skills are in almost equal demand and knowledge gaps are small. Soft skills were found to be the most important, with the smallest knowledge gap. Sustainability skills, however, were perceived to be of least importance and the area with the largest knowledge gap