Summary:
When I started my career five years ago as an IT Analyst with UK based firm called Hedges Direct, the term was pretty new here in India which meant the opportunities were scarce and with a clear expectation of at least 3 years of work experience needed. I shall outline the theoretical as well as practical implications of being a Business Analyst here.
What do we mean by Business Analysis?
We can understand the term as a transformation from the current state of a company, enterprise or a project towards a future state taking into account the activities necessary to achieve the future state. Business Analysis enables the company to implement change ensuring the right activities are in place. (Refer: BABOK Version 3, A GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS ANALYSIS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE for more details.)
What does a Business Analyst do?
Ever wondered how a team of logically sound coders will react to a Client’s evolving demands in terms of enhancements after the demonstration of previous modules? Another debatable topic being a good coder can be a good manager but can the vice versa happen? To overcome all these challenges and keep up the reputation of the company, business teams are put in place.
One key stakeholder in such a team is Business Analyst. A Business Analyst acts as a bridge between the stakeholders and the project team. A Business Analyst is known for gathering requirements from the clients and documenting them in details to be further shared with the Project team members. They are also responsible for discussing the technical complexities and concerns raised by the project team with the clients so that reasearch based decisions are made. They design solutions keeping in mind the needs of the client.
He/ She are responsible for performing below mentioned activities:
- Analyse business needs
- Define a business case
- Elicit information from stakeholders
- Model requirements
- Validate solutions
- Project management
- Project development
- Quality testing
Does Business Analyst do all the work?
They are known to synthesize, analyse data and interpret them in a more meaningful pattern. They utilise several techniques like interviewing the client’s team, primary and secondary research techniques.
Many companies don’t hire particularly for Business Analyst role, other roles working on similar lines are:
• Business Architect
• Business Systems Analyst
• Data Analyst
• Enterprise Analyst
• Management Consultant
• Process Analyst
• Product Manager
• Product Owner
• Requirements Engineer
• Systems Analyst
All the above roles gather the requirements and consider the available resources and strategies to achieve the client’s expectations. TheBusiness Analyst is also responsible for foreseeing the problems on an enterprise level. The strategy-building remains at the core of the project while adding new business processes and tools for a better functioning. The other skill that should come handy with a Business Analyst is managing Change and implementing the same with minimum or no friction or resistance from the client’s team. The communication with the client and the updates are taken
