Hidden Roles Series Part 4: The High Cost of Ignoring BA, QA, and SM Training Gaps

I’m Chris Conway, Founder, Lead Coach, and CEO at the IT Bootcamp. I also work on-site with clients as an Agile Coach & Consultant, because in IT, where things change fast, those who can do, can teach.

In this 6-part series, I’m exposing a problem that has kept critical IT roles in the shadows for too long: the lack of formal training and structured career paths for Business Analysts (BA), Quality Assurance (QA) Analysts, and Scrum Masters (SM).

Despite being the backbone of IT projects, these roles are often overlooked, buried under broader job categories or mistaken for secondary functions. They are essential to IT success, yet they remain hidden, undervalued, and missing from industry conversations.

In Part 4, we delve into the implications of the training gap on workforce efficiency and project success. The absence of dedicated training for these roles creates significant challenges, from poor project outcomes to difficulties in scaling and collaborating within teams.

You can catch up on Part 3 here.

Workforce Shortages and Hiring Difficulties

Organizations often struggle to find qualified people for these roles because they’re fishing in a smaller talent pool. A global survey by IIBA found 64% of respondents reported a shortage of business analysis professionals in their region (IIBA). In the UK, a 2021 analysis noted a 50% skills shortage in the business analysis field, making it difficult to recruit experienced and highly motivated BAs (AssistKD).

Employers end up competing for a limited number of seasoned practitioners, or they take a gamble on someone new and train them from scratch. Training internally can work: one practice leader, after three failed rounds of recruitment, concluded it would be quicker to train their own BAs and built an in-house BA academy for new graduates (AssistKD). That kind of investment, however, is the exception rather than the norm in the U.S.

Inconsistent Performance and Gaps in Soft Skills

When people enter these roles haphazardly, soft-skill proficiency varies widely. Some BAs are fantastic at stakeholder communication but weak in formal modeling techniques; some Scrum Masters know the rituals of Scrum but lack the leadership training to coach teams effectively.

That inconsistency hurts project outcomes. A poorly trained BA may not capture requirements correctly, leading to costly rework later. Studies show that 47% of projects fail to meet their goals due to poor management of requirements. Requirements are a core BA function. If many BAs learned them on the fly, it’s no surprise that misrequirements remain a top cause of project failure. Likewise, insufficient testing due to a lack of skilled QA analysts lets more defects reach production.

Efficiency and Collaboration Issues

A well-trained Scrum Master can significantly improve an agile team’s productivity by removing impediments and refining processes. If someone is thrust into the role without adequate training, the team can flounder with poor facilitation and unresolved obstacles.

One industry survey noted that 38% of companies see confusion about team roles and responsibilities as a major barrier to project success. When BA or SM roles aren’t clearly defined, tasks overlap or fall through the cracks, and developers end up writing their own test scripts or requirements documentation, taking time away from building.

Higher Project Risk

Projects depend on BAs to foresee business impacts, QAs to catch critical bugs, and SMs to keep the team performing. When these roles aren’t executed well, project risk rises. On the flip side, 77% of organizations believe that increasing investment in business analysis would reduce project risks, and 84% of professionals say the quality of BA work directly impacts project and product outcomes (IIBA).

Good analysis and testing are insurance against building the wrong thing or releasing low-quality software.

Limited Career Growth and Turnover

For individuals, an unclear career path can be demotivating. It’s not uncommon for a skilled QA analyst to move into development, where growth paths are clearer, or for a Scrum Master to move into product management. Organizations lose strong BA, QA, and SM talent because those roles were never structured as long-term careers, which feeds the cycle of shortage and under-prepared replacements.

The training gap doesn’t just affect individuals. Companies that neglect to develop BA, QA, and SM skills encounter more project failures, wasted effort, and difficulty scaling their IT initiatives.

We believe that our end-to-end IT Bootcamp for BA, QA, and SM (providing training, hands-on experience, and guidance not just for a year, but throughout your entire career) is the difference. We train, allow you to get that experience, and surround you with a community of BA/QA/SM. The gap in the industry is wide, but we’re filling it.

As the demand for skilled BAs, QAs, and SMs grows, understanding the trends behind it becomes crucial. Continue to Part 5: The Explosive Demand for BA, QA, and SM Skills, where we reveal why the need for these professionals is at an all-time high.