Who?
Business Analysts identify the business needs of their clients and stakeholders to help determine solutions to business problems. They typically perform a liaison function to software developers by serving as business problem solvers. They play a vital role throughout the project life cycle by understanding and representing stakeholder needs, documenting and organizing the requirements for a system, and communicating requirements to an entire team. They provide the process, questions, and techniques to efficiently extract the information needed from the business users for successful application development projects. They help the business people identify additional possibilities that would give the organization a significant increase in revenue or customer satisfaction. Business analysts are often from IT but are very knowledgeable about the business, its processes and the operations that support the business. They sort through the chaos and ambiguity of diverse business opinions and extract a concise description. They have a very strong understanding of the specific business processes being addressed, along with the ability to bridge the gap between the business and the technical worlds.
What?
Dynamic and challenging, this multifaceted and complex role requires a tactical player with an inherent knowledge of the specific business arena and the broad spectrum of factors influencing business success. Business analysts work with the end user to gather, document and inspect business and functional requirements for applications supporting the business function. They understand business needs, model and redesign processes, and then translate requirements into specifications. They work with members of the development team to design solutions supporting business needs. They work with the Quality Assurance team to build test plans that ensure delivery of quality products to the business. They facilitate discussions and help the business people anticipate future needs and opportunities. They organize and run joint application development (JAD) sessions with different groups of users. Together, they brainstorm, explore options, weigh approaches and make decisions on which decision support applications would be most beneficial. Without this role, organizations would not have someone who understands both the business requirements and the technical solutions. They communicate business rules and user requirements to the technical team. They validate the quality of data and work to improve it. They provide constructive feedback to the technical team so they can make modifications as necessary before the final rollout. They describe complex business logic and ensure completeness of testing. The business analyst meets with a broad range of users and captures their standard, traditional decision support requirements.
From a technology standpoint, a business analyst is a Jack of all trades but Master of none! The business analyst does not need to know all the technical aspects of development but should know how the major pieces fit together.
How?
The foundation of the role is a strong personality that consistently brings out the best in people in a clear, non-confrontational manner, backed by a solid understanding of the multitude technology enablers that assist the business. Flexibility and versatility are key attributes for the role. No two assignments are identical, so each requires unique insight and solutions. Business analysts help manage software releases using iterative development processes (e.g. Rational Unified Process or any in-house methodologies in place) and specify business processes with use cases. They assure quality through structured verification and validation techniques and use-case scenario testing. Business analysts need to have a strong understanding of Use Cases, UML and SDLC Software development methodologies.
To play an efficient role, business analysts need outstanding written and oral communication skills, especially as they may be interacting with remote teams, international clients, and non-technical business executives, all with diverse process standards, language skills, and cultural expectations. Business analysts should work effectively across organizational boundaries while delivering results. Time management and ability to prioritize multiple projects/tasks in a fast paced environment are assets of a business analyst. An efficient business analyst adapts to change and deals with ambiguity.
The role of the business analyst is expanding due to business demands for high performance. Moving beyond the traditional systems analyst role, the business analyst of today must have strong business domain expertise and a practical understanding of how technologies can make business opportunities possible, thus playing a key role in helping organizations build a sound enterprise.
Today, the need for a business analyst to grow beyond the conventional role into a business rules analyst is more than ever before. The valuable deliverables and skills for extracting and managing business rules represent an ideal evolution of today’s business analyst. There is more on this evolution in the upcoming issues, stay tuned!
