Analysis Everywhere: Partner Stories

What does it take to prepare the next generation of problem-solvers for a world shaped by AI, data, and constant change?  

To find out, we turned to George Brown College, a pioneer in business analysis education and a long-standing partner of IIBA. Since launching the world’s first full-time business analysis program in 2009, they’ve been at the forefront of equipping learners with the skills and certifications to thrive. Their innovative approach integrates business analysis into fields like health informatics, data analytics, and AI. This ensures graduates are prepared to meet the demands of today’s industries. 

Welcome to Partner Stories, our new blog series inspired by Analysis Everywhere, where we celebrate the transformative power of business analysis across industries. Through interviews and insights, we shine a spotlight on the trailblazers in IIBA’s partner programs who are driving innovation, solving complex challenges, and achieving better outcomes through business analysis.

I recently spoke with Tyler Krimmel, Program Coordinator and Professor at George Brown, whose passion for business analysis education is matched only by his pioneering spirit. Tyler shared his insights on what makes the college’s programs unique, how they cater to a diverse student base, and the evolving role of business analysis. 



Read on as we explore George Brown’s groundbreaking approach to business analysis education and the impact it’s making on students and industries alike. 

Can you provide an overview of the Information Systems Business Analysis Program at George Brown College? What makes it unique in the academic landscape?

The Information Systems Business Analysis Program is designed to immerse learners into a formally credentialed, applied business analysis education through practical case studies, real projects, and pathways to co-op and industry partner applied work. In the program, we introduce learners to the breadth of skills essential to practical business analysis that our industry partners demand. This includes foundational skills such as applying essential techniques and developing models, facilitating elicitation and workshops, documenting business, user, and solution requirements, and applying specific skills in specialized areas such as data analysis, UI/UX, UAT, technical writing, and project management. More recently, we’ve focused on RPA and AI solution implementation for use in both business analysis and defining requirements across diverse sectors. 

When we launched it in 2009, it was the first full-time business analysis program offered anywhere in the world. We also worked closely with IIBA at that time to establish the IIBA Academic Program, in which we remain an active participant. Our partnership has evolved, and we’re proud to offer our learners a pathway to certification through IIBA. All students who enrol in our IIBA-endorsed programs at George Brown become IIBA student members.

Following their first semester of study, students can also take the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) exam as part of their tuition! This helps in their search for co-op jobs and prepares them for industry work with a professionally recognized designation. It has been incredibly successful for learners, graduates, and the industry partners we aim to serve.

Given the diverse student base (domestic, international, early-career, and professionals), how does the program cater to different learning needs and career stages?

While George Brown attracts a diverse learner population within the business analysis-related programs, these programs are classified as “post-graduate,” meaning that we have established criteria for eligibility. All learners are expected to have a minimum of professional experience, as well as prerequisite academic knowledge.

These prerequisites are program-specific and can be wide-ranging. For example, our primary Business Analysis Program often attracts individuals with prior experience in client-facing business services, operations, management, or technology delivery and development. As a result, we accommodate applicants from various sectors with relevant academic backgrounds and experience in roles that align with business analysis and technology delivery.

However, this changes from program to program. Our Health Informatics Program, which integrates much of our business analysis content and lessons, emphasizes the importance of recruiting individuals with healthcare-specific backgrounds. This program often attracts professionals with internationally educated medical and healthcare backgrounds, including dentists, nurses, and those with experience in health information management and operations.

It’s important to recognize that business analysis is a discipline and a tool set that enables individuals from any sector to improve strategy operations, processes, and technology usage and adoption. As such, we work to meet these professionals where they are in their careers.

How does George Brown integrate business analysis into broader fields like health informatics, data analytics, and product ownership analysis?

We learned early in the development of our programming that business analysis is a critically needed skill set in all sectors. In 2013, we started offering co-op learning pathways to our students in both our Business Analysis and Health Informatics programs. At that time, these two programs weren’t closely aligned. While the former emphasized the importance of business analysis knowledge, skills, and techniques, the latter followed a more traditional academic focus by emphasizing research and journal reviews.

What became immediately obvious was the value of applied, practical skills development and the importance of business analysis techniques in all sectors. In our first year of co-op, we found that many health informatics jobs—those in hospitals, health technology companies, and health government services—ended up being filled by our business analysis students instead of our health informatics learners. When we asked employers why, they consistently emphasized the importance of being able to do “practical” work—create models, interpret and document needs, conduct elicitation sessions, host workshops—all skills that our business analysis professionals had been learning.

This feedback resulted in a significant transformation of the Health Informatics Program in subsequent years, and a far stronger integration of business analysis learning into that discipline. Today, it’s one of the strongest and most well-recognized programs of its kind in Ontario.

How has George Brown adapted its programs to remain forward-thinking in response to market pressures?

We’re committed to ensuring the best possible learning experience and creating pathways that enable students to succeed upon graduation and beyond. We achieve this largely through the Program Advisory Committees (PACs), made up of individuals from various sectors, with whom we regularly communicate, conduct elicitation sessions, and gather and analyze data to ensure our programs remain current, relevant, and in demand.

These PACs allow us to represent the needs of the many sectors we serve. Composed of a wide range of professionals, they offer valuable insights and direction. Their input helps shape the skills and expertise required from today’s and tomorrow’s graduates.

Can you elaborate on how the program fits within the larger post-graduate ecosystem, especially for students looking to specialize further in related fields?

Generally, the purpose of post-graduate studies is to enable individuals with unique interests to pursue a specialized pathway to a job, career, or field of interest. In our School of Computer Technology, we currently offer three programs that provide such pathways for prospective learners: Business Analysis, Health Informatics, and Digital Product Management.

These programs uniquely prepare learners for roles within their respective sectors, but we’ve developed them to share a common DNA (analysis), which includes the analysis of business, products, capabilities, processes, and solutions.

Within numerous sectors, there’s now a convergence of these in-demand skills. For example, within the health technology space, we regularly see students graduating and entering roles with product management in the job title, and they’re expected to have these competencies. As our programs have been developed to share that analysis DNA, learners can scaffold their learning experience by taking multiple programs, such as Health Informatics and Digital Product Management, in a reduced timeline and for significantly lower costs.

We fully anticipate that the educational sector will continue to develop and refine such models of education, offering pathways that combine focused, intense, and applied learning along with micro-certification and on-demand learning as part of a comprehensive experience. We strive to remain a global leader by providing learners a customized, relevant, and scalable education in the breadth of domains where business analysis is needed.

George Brown College was an early pioneer in establishing an academic partnership with IIBA. How has this collaboration evolved over the years, and what impact has it had?

I’m very proud to have developed and launched the first full-time business analysis program globally, which continues to grow and adapt.

Initially, it was critical to establish a strong relationship between academic programming and a governing body and thought leader within the field. IIBA was the obvious partner then and remains so today. Early on, we faced many challenges, especially as both organizations worked to overcome the inertia of developing new offerings; George Brown sought to provide a previously unavailable learning pathway, while the newly established IIBA aimed to expand beyond its core services.  

But both organizations recognized the immense growth potential in this space. At George Brown, we anticipated being the first of many schools within Canada and globally to offer such programming, and IIBA realized our value in developing a clear pathway to the profession. This collaboration led to the creation of the IIBA Academic Program, which provides recognition for academic institutions and opportunities for participants and faculty.

Ever since, IIBA has been a steadfast partner of our suite of business analysis programs, which has evolved to include co-op, applied research, and specializations in topics such as data analytics, cybersecurity, robotics process automation, and AI. IIBA has supported us in various ways, including enabling faculty and learner participation in IIBA-sponsored events, offering certification discounts, establishing industry connections for co-op jobs and applied research/partnership projects, and involving senior leaders in our PACs. 

Most recently, this collaboration has enabled our students to take the ECBA exam after their first semester, upon completing the Business Analysis Foundations course. This has resulted in ECBA exam passing rates that surpass those of the general population and gives our learners a competitive edge over students from other institutions when applying for co-op positions. 

How do you ensure that your programs remain aligned with both local industry demands and global business analysis practices? What challenges have you encountered in balancing these needs?

We rely heavily on our PACs to provide direction, feedback, and clear definitions of their needs. We love that IIBA also joins our PAC meetings to provide input from both a governance of practice and future trends perspective.

One of the big issues we face is the need to redefine the transitional roles of various business analysis disciplines while continuing to support market needs. The business analyst role remains foundational and will continue to be in demand. However, the emergence of roles focusing on product, data analytics, and cyber has resulted in our programming remaining nimble and responsive.

Beyond this, the emergence of AI will impact all roles (business analysis and beyond), but will also lead to AI-specific analyst positions yet to be defined. Agentic AI solutions will see the need for AI process analyst specializations, AI solution consulting, and AI implementation strategy roles. These roles will depend on core business analysis skills and competencies. I envision a growing demand for specialized analysts focused on specific domains, products, services, or workflows, who will facilitate the development of smaller, narrowly focused services enabled by AI. In fact, this trend is already emerging among several of our industry partners. 

In the years to come, building solutions that address single use cases will be feasible given the reduced constraints that have historically forced products and capabilities to service larger, more generalized populations. AI will level the playing field for anyone who identifies problems or opportunities, empowering them to create solutions to these needs. Whether it’s better prompting, refining workflows or outputs from AI solutions, or using requirements practices to improve “vibe” coding and developing in real-time, business analysis will empower individuals in AI spaces to facilitate thinking, process, and realize value.

At George Brown, we must ensure that we enable businesses and individuals to manage this transition.

Based on your experience, what type of advice would you give an educational institution that is looking to increase the profile of its business analysis program?

Business analysis is a funny discipline, in that no one I’ve met went through primary or secondary school with the aspiration of being a business analysis professional. Even at the post-secondary level, there’s no clear pathway to the vocation or related roles. Many aspire to be a “businessperson,” get into technology, do consulting, or build products and services. Unfortunately, there’s still a disconnect between these aspirations and the significance of business analysis in driving value in these roles. 

This partially informed the strategy I’ve followed at George Brown College to build programming that now serves nearly 400 students per year. It consists of building, growing/integrating, and evolving our programming related to business analysis. If you were to visualize this model, it would resemble a Venn diagram rather than a linear sequence. I’m not sure if it’s helpful to others, but it has guided my thinking and approach to program development in this space.

1. Build

This is likely the most difficult component. The academic institution needs to prioritize development costs and evaluate the return on investment to allocate discretionary funds to new programming. As with business analysis or product development generally, defining the problem and/or need is essential. Instead of thinking from the program outward, I would recommend developing a community first.

For example, early in our journey, we established partnerships with the local IIBA chapter to host events and grow partnerships. This drove engagement within the community and helped us to establish applied projects through research and practicums. The promotion of these initiatives helped us promote the needs of industry to prospective learners. 

2. Grow/Integrate

With the business analysis community and needs established, we began incorporating business analysis courses and modules across other program areas. The integration of business analysis with health informatics was one such example of this integration. We learned that hospitals were far more interested in business analysis skills and competencies than in health informatics theory and research. So business analysis students were getting co-op jobs in healthcare while the health informatics students were struggling.

Integrating business analysis into health informatics was an obvious solution and resulted in incredible successes for learners within that program. In every graduate cohort from Health Informatics, students consistently tell us that the business analysis courses have been the most impactful, as they apply the skills daily in their roles.

3. Evolve

This underscores the importance of staying nimble. Like many organizations, academic institutions face challenges related to the communities they serve, the needs they address, and the value they deliver. By taking an industry-centric view, we focus on how graduates can drive our partners’ success, positioning ourselves as part of the ecosystem's value chain. As such, our role extends beyond educating and graduating students. It includes fostering ideas, facilitating collaboration and community, and using our perspectives to create mutual value with our industry partners.

Our PAC members love attending these meetings, as they get to bounce ideas off each other. Through them, we learn how our institution can enable or support their needs. It’s also important to challenge organizations when we identify gaps and opportunities. I’m proud to say that we’ve approached IIBA with ideas, opportunities, and needs for the past 15 years. That said, I haven’t waited for IIBA or any organization to solve our problems.

Can you share insights about your role at George Brown and your experience as an ambassador for IIBA’s academic programs?

At George Brown College, my job title is Program Coordinator and Professor.  Depending on the structure of other academic institutions, this role is commonly referred to as Program Chair. I spend time teaching courses as well as coordinating and administering program strategy and delivery. This includes schedules, faculty recruiting, onboarding and support, content management, and industry engagement through projects and applied research.

I also field student questions, concerns, and issues. With 400 students annually, it’s a busy job, but it’s been incredibly fulfilling given its very humble beginnings as a two-page concept draft and an initial cohort of just 12 learners. In over 15 years, these programs have now graduated thousands of students, establishing careers for so many and impacting people’s lives in ways I will likely never fully comprehend.

Some days, I feel like little more than a glorified intern—focused on keeping everyone happy and often running coffee errands to do so. Yet this field is brimming with opportunities. I’ve continued to develop and maintain my own skills and knowledge through engagement with industry, working within the Business Analysis Centre of Excellence of two large banks, and consulting with numerous other organizations. I’ve also founded and run businesses, applying business analysis practices throughout. In doing so, I’ve tried to stay connected to both industry (its needs and expectations) and education (the needs and challenges of learners and aspiring business analysis professionals). Incorporating these various perspectives has enriched all the work I do.

I think there’s a critical need and role for academic institutions to enable industry, and I believe business analysis will remain central to that. I may not see myself as an ambassador for the IIBA Academic Program, but I’m always eager to discuss the challenges academic institutions face and share my story of developing programs, fostering community, and collaborating with IIBA to provide the best outcomes for our students, graduates, and the industry we serve.

I would love to see more academic institutions create ecosystems, as we’ve done at George Brown. It would help develop the next generation of opportunities—projects, hackathons, competitions—and ways to serve a global community of industry partners. I’m always happy to explore what’s possible and what’s next with anyone who’s willing to chat.

In 2025 and beyond, Analysis Everywhere will spotlight the versatility, value, and far-reaching impact of organizations like George Brown. If you need some inspiration for sharing your own story (or your organization’s), visit our website for more information on Analysis Everywhere. 

Know an organization that’s raising its business analysis game? Reach out to brand@iiba.org to have them featured in our next instalment of Partner Stories.

---

About the Author