Who is a Business Analyst?
Business analyst studies the overall business and information needs of an organization in order to develop appropriate solution strategies. As the key liaison between business and information technology departments, the business analyst is responsible for gathering and documenting business requirements and translating them into functional system design specifications that can be successfully executed by IT development teams. A business analyst acts as the communication central between the business and the technology people. The role involves understanding the intricacies of the business and the requirements and expectations of the business from the technology group. The business analyst is in a perfect position to build bridges, tear down walls or create detours – whatever the team may need to move forward. It is very critical for the business analyst to use the correct tools to communicate efficiently with the business and the technical teams.
Business Rules:
Business rules have emerged as a powerful tool of communication in recent years. They are Of, By, and For Business People, Not IT People!!! A business rule is a statement that defines an aspect of a business. Typically, business rules include definition of terms, facts relating terms to each other, constraints and derivations. Business rules serve as an effective communication channel to business analysts for putting the business expectations across the table to the technical world as they reflect the decision points that are crucial for a business.
The transition… it involves certain steps and skill set that a business analyst should possess to enact a business rules analyst successfully!
A business analyst has to understand the concepts and ideologies involved to act as an efficient business rules analyst. After the task of scoping the rules for a target project, the next task of a business rule analyst is to identify business rules, which demands a proper and complete understanding of what a business rule is and what qualifies a business statement as a viable business rule. Once the business rules have been identified, the next step is to classify them. Experts have proposed various classifications. There are classifications from Knowledge Partners Inc., the Business Rule Group, Rule ML, C.J. Date, Versata Inc., USoft Inc., and Ronald G. Ross, for starters. It is important for the business rules analyst to understand the classification that best suits their project and organization’s structure. Having framed a classification structure, the next step involves grouping the rules into families that have similar attributes and affect on the business.
After having identified and classified business rules, the next step is to express them in an understandable format. There are numerous ways of expressing business rules. Business rules should be expressed in such a way that they can be validated for correctness by business people and they can be verified against each other for consistency. It’s important to understand the business audience and adapt business rule writing style to match your organization’s standard of documentation. The most basic way is to express the business rule in the form of a simple, comprehensible natural language statement which expresses the core meaning of the business rule. Formal logics, such as predicate logic, are useful in creating well-formed expression of rules in business terms, as well as to the technologies that implement business rules. It is important for a business rule analyst to not only understand the basic methodology of writing business rules, but also to adapt them to the organization’s operative methodology to fit in their standards.
Having gathered the knowledge and implemented the steps to get business rules in place, the business rules analyst gets back into the shoes of a business analyst to study the technical models that are impacted by the business rules and the nature of the impact. At this stage, a business analyst may play the role(s) of a data modeler, object modeler or business rules engine developer based on the project and the organizational implementation techniques. Hence, the foundation created by a business rules analyst plays a key role in impacting the further roles of modelers/developers and the automation project itself.
The path from a business analyst to a business rules analyst and other related roles can be smooth if the role and responsibilities are understood before the journey begins. Understanding the steps involved and acquiring the knowledge would position today’s business analyst into an efficient and effective business rules analyst. The simple rule of thumb is: Business Analyst Artifacts + Business Rules = Complete and Successful Analysis!
