2What are some of the barriers or constraints associated with the analyst role within variousbusiness functional units?Analysts are seen as a “necessary evil” in many organizations. This is due to a number ofissues. One being the perception that analysts are only producing “marginally useful metrics”(Weber, 2011) rather than information that is leading the enterprise. Furthermore, these metricsoften require what seems to others as an inordinate amount of time and resources to produce.This is often because they lack “adequate systems and training” (Weber, 2011) which, in turn, isdue to the fact that “the role is seen not as strategic, not as a competitive advantage, nor as adriver of business change, but rather as a cost of doing business” (Weber, 2011).The amount of effort needed to collect clean data can be imposing in some areas, and theexpense of securely housing it is rarely negligible. Add that to the licensing fees of a fullyfunctional analytics software package and data visualization sweet and the requested investmentin analytics quickly turns into an insurmountable barrier. This is further compounded by thestereotype, true or not, that the software and data analysis fields readily accept “quirky” peoplewithout hesitation, especially with the popularity of shows like The Big Bang Theory (Parkin,2016). This lowers the expectations and seriousness with which requests are taken and leadsemployees to see themselves as worker bees rather than leaders and purveyors of excellence.
