Role of a Business Analyst in an IT Company

Scott Ambler, the author of a number of books focused on agile development and software project management, says that first and foremost, Business Analysts are responsible for all the communication and collaboration between the business and IT. In layman's terms, a Business Analyst is a middleman for the business and technical teams in a company. The business team i.e. the stakeholders of the project put forward their business needs which the technical team calls as “Requirements Gathering”. But often, the stakeholders have contradictory ideas, or don’t know what they want or are simply confused. So the term “Requirements Gathering” is understated. It should be referred to as “Requirements Clarification,” and this is when a Business Analyst comes into the picture. The BA untangles all the mess and provides a set of clear, straightforward, and unambiguous requirements that technical people can work on.

A business analyst (BA) solves business problems by designing information systems either by implementing a new business process or by improvising or reducing the operating costs of the existing business processes. For this, the BA needs to have very strong business skills and an understanding of the business domain. Business Analysts can also be referred to as “Organisational Analysts” as they are also involved in identifying problems, needs, and opportunities for improvement at all levels in an organization.

We'll understand the different roles of business analysts in software project development and the entire IT industry in general.

Business Analyst Role in Software Project Development

1. Initiating the Software Project

This phase involves assembling project requirements and indicating the problems to be solved. The BA brings together the stakeholders, collects all the information, and prepares a Scope Document, ultimately deciding whether to fund the project.

2. Interpreting the business needs

This phase involves working with the stakeholders and analyzing their requirements. So the BA ensures that the stakeholders have unanimously agreed on what to implement and that the development team has everything they need to design and implement the solution.

3. Translating technical issues

The BA needs to break down the technical and architectural complexities for the stakeholders as in to explain to them what developers are doing or why they need to do it. Also, BA needs to convey schedules & estimates of the project to the stakeholders.

4. Political Guide

As BAs have good connections, they can help the development teams overcome all the political minefields. Also, BAs can help the development teams engage the right people for their project needs.

5. Implementation of the Software Project

BAs are not directly involved in the implementation phase. However, if some issues come up while implementation, then BAs need to extend their support, which involves conducting a meeting to address the newly discovered requirements and communicating them with the development team, and providing a heads-up about it to the stakeholders. BAs can also provide their support for training, documentation, and user acceptance testing.

6. Representing Project Stakeholders throughout the process

As the project development teams do not have direct access to the stakeholders, BAs can provide them with domain information, requirements, and business priorities. In turn, they will also have to communicate with the stakeholders to verify that information and decisions.

Skills of an IT Business Analyst

A business analyst's roles and responsibilities include the ability to create reports and evaluate data sources. Also, they should have in-depth technical knowledge and a good understanding of business systems. Following are some more major skills required for a business analyst job description:

• Focusing on high-level details and having the ability to understand precise outcomes as a part of business analyst requirements.
• Professionals must be well versed in the latest trends, tools, and techniques as a   part of business analyst qualifications used in the field, as well as have the capacity to understand how businesses use technology to gain competitive advantage.
• They must also be able to bridge the gap between business requirements and technology solutions and communicate effectively with stakeholders.
• The ideal combination of project and program management capabilities.
• A benefit has the appropriate interpersonal and consultative business analysis skills.
• In-depth understanding of requirement specifications, process flows, and creating business use case scenarios.
• Knowledge of agile, waterfall, and process modeling software development techniques should be considered.

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Conclusion  

Working in business analysis is a highly rewarding career path, offering a variety of growth opportunities for those motivated to develop and expand their skill set. With such a wide range of potential roles and responsibilities, it is important to accurately assess the various aspects of a business analyst's job description and develop a sound understanding of the industry.

This allows individuals to identify which tasks they can excel at and areas in which they may need more guidance or support. Technical business analysts must be proactive and work to understand the needs of their clients and the organization's needs to produce the best results for both.