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Business Analyst as per Wikipedia, “A Business Analyst (BA) analyzes the organization and design of businesses, government departments, and non-profit organizations; they also assess business models and their integration with technology.” and so much that really bounce over my head. Although it’s very true whatever is written over there as a professionalism of a Business Analyst.

But today I would like to tell you something really very interesting about the work of a Business Analyst.  I worked with a team of completely experienced and talented people who, to be honest, knew a lot more than I did as per business perspective. I learned a lot and luckily I had some really great people to learn from.  A business analyst is someone who always takes care of the clients, their problems, their requirements, who delights clients with the trust that whatever he will suggest to them is more than good what the client expects.

Oph-Oh, that is not the only task that the Business Analyst does, he takes care of the development team too, making sure that the project is never going to end soon by assuring long chain of change requests in the pipeline that

will keep the project going on. The Business Analyst is the only key point between the client’s problem and the developer’s solution and that’s where the responsibilities increase.

In any software industry, it always taken care of the final form of the software or technology in order to avoid any unexpected surprises at the end i.e. at least it should meet the client expectations for his business problem. Hence, it is very factual that the end user should validate the model or prototype of the product before the actual construction begins, to ensure that there are no surprises in the end.

For this the team should not neglect one of the powerful technique i.e. prototyping. Prototyping the process model, user interfaces and workflows which not only ensure the correctness of the delivery but also give satisfaction to the client and build trust for the development team. Resulting in few positive points for the project like:

• No release time surprises
• Requirement gatheration are done correctly
• Better scope for extensibility
• Better grip on the process and the delivery time

Opph! lots on technical side, now coming to the point. One of my friends who are specialist in this particular area concluded that, “Being a business analyst doesn’t mean to prepare the BRD or SRS, it’s more than that!”

Yah it’s true to the industrial strategies. An impeccable Business Analyst must have some important professional characteristics. Like the one key skill is “Communication Skills”. Yes, successful business analysts are excellent communicators both in written and in verbal. As a business analyst act as a communication point between the client and the development team, he not only has the ability to communicate well but also effectively at different situations. For example, using different language and pattern with different personnel i.e. communicating to clients or marketing personnel and to developers or team members. Like using business terms to business people providing summary level information and using technical terms to technical people or engineers with a bit detail level of information.

One more important characteristics of a successful business analyst is to “Learn FAST” even in the relatively new fields. Day by day, new ideas, new technologies are evolving, shifting the

whole view of the business for a better growth. Only being in the subjective world doesn’t mean that he can deal with any business. To approach a business solution, proactively, knowledge of new technologies is even very imperative.  And moreover, he must have an Eagle’s eye, to see the detail picture behind the problem like to understand the business, its people and its targeting audience.

It’s true that in some IT industries, BA role is divided into sub categories like IT oriented business analyst (more called as Technical analyst) and domain oriented business analyst. But to be honest the individuals working on both sides i.e. IT side and business side can give better solution to the business and have a unique opportunity to nourish their career growth.

Apart from all these, a Business Analyst has some responsibilities on its own:

• These are the people who understands business and give possible solutions
• They build the BRD/SRS (functional requirements for the developers)
• Provide expertise in analysis modeling techniques such as process and data modeling.
• Questionnaires and interviews for data gathering.
• High level Testing/Quality checking is also one part of their responsibility (sometimes J)
• Sometimes legal and commercial issues are also handled by BAs.
• And lots more…

Well its looks like a never ending story. Will continue in my upcoming post.  Subscribe to stay in touch with the latest posts.