Business Analyst (BA) – an individual who is trained to develop software products that are useful, stable, affordable and understandable. BAs utilize expert technical knowledge of other business people to convert their business requirements into technology solutions.

Business analysts have a role in every organization. They work with information given to them by their clients and then use that information to provide solutions to their clients. The information they receive from the client is usually a detailed list of what the client wants, as well as a set of time tables for when they want it delivered. A business analyst works with this information and translates it into a real-life document or program that meets the need of their client. From creating business models to creating workflows, a business analyst will use software tools, documentation, and communication skills to deliver a solution to their clients.

Each business demands satisfying its needs. If this does not happen, there is a feeling that something went wrong. For example, you lag behind competitors, lose customers, the quality of products falls, and employees’ motivation decreases. Business sees this as a problem, and all these things are just its indicators. Here, as in a parable: young parents asked the guru: “Our child is three months old. When to start his upbringing?” The guru replied: “You are three months late.” The same thing is with business analysis. It should always come first. BA in software development should appear in the project from the first day of its launching, or the first days of setting a company — or better, even before that. The strategic goal and development plan must be in place even before the company is formally set out.

The Role Of Business Analysts On Software Development Projects

A business analyst can be described as a professional who evaluates a business to establish the workings of its systems, procedures and operations. A BA is typically involved in analyzing the structure of the business, its processes and determining areas in which technology or alternative solutions can add value. Business analysts often work together with system analysts, who also act as link between business challenges and technology solutions.

As part of proffering technology solutions, BAs may recommend the utilization of software applications and technology tools to improve business operations. Technology has advanced in recent years, and this has come in handy to help both system and business analysts to apply same to transform, evaluate and solve business challenges.https://32d84e0aadace8e94fe022d7aa73e374.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

As part of executing software development projects, the business analyst participates in the following project-related activities:

Initial Information Gathering, Analysis & Project Initiation

Project initiation involves establishing the existing problem and visualizing the solution to determine whether or not the project should be funded. During this stage, all stakeholders should be involved to ensure analysts gain comprehensive information to enable them make critical decisions regarding what constitutes an improvement.

Business analysts should strive to understand the principles and terminologies they come across, especially when entering a new business domain. They should understand the business needs, evaluate alternatives and justify the recommended approach as part of preparing the business case.

One of the major roles of a business analyst is analysis. Here, the BA evaluates the business needs, makes sense of the available information and ensures that the project team understands all the details they require. Business analysts collaborate with numerous stakeholders within the company to ensure that their concerns, requirements, and contribution are included in the requirements specification document.

Preparing the project charter, which involves defining high-level project requirements, can help management make decisions on whether to fund or not fund the project.

After the project has been initiated, the requirements specification document then needs to be elaborated by the BA and approved by stakeholders before software development can begin.

Project Execution

Once the requirements specification document is passed on to developers for development, BAs may still be called upon to provide clarity to developers, negotiate with stakeholders on conflicting requirements, etc. This may include holding meetings to deliberate on solving specific problems, identify risks and manage technology-related restrictions.

The BA’s Role on Projects

Business analysts play various roles when it comes to the implementation of business projects. Today, markets are evolving exponentially, which means businesses should exploit opportunities quickly as they happen. Communication between stakeholders, developers and analysts is particularly critical to ensure that everyone is informed and geared towards achieving a common goal.

It is, therefore, the responsibility of the business analyst to collaborate with other players in the business to establish what the requirements are and to ensure everyone within the project understands them. Also, business analysts should facilitate communication and knowledge sharing to ensure clients’ needs are met effectively. They achieve this by:

Research & Requirements Elicitation

BAs may need to carry out comprehensive research in order to understand business needs. This may involve researching their competitors, deliberating with subject matter experts, carrying out document analysis, and developing prototypes. This enables them to understand and gather comprehensive information about business needs and stakeholders’ requirements.

This process requires the input of every person who is likely to be affected by the final product. Stakeholders, in this case, can be sponsors, customers, senior management team and end users.

Business analysts assess each stakeholder’s needs and expectations. Business analysts are the link between developers and stakeholders. The strong understanding BAs bring to the table enable project team members to understand the scope of work and deliver the project according to clients’ desires. BAs can also get first-hand information by communicating directly with customers, conducting surveys and carrying out interviews.

Preparing the Specification Document

Once business requirements have been elicited, business analysts organize them into a formal and written document which can be shared with all stakeholders. To execute this process effectively, business analysts should have the expertise to present the final results of the analysis in an accurate, clear and understandable manner.

Explaining Requirements to Developers

Developers will be presented with the specification document after the relevant stakeholders have approved it, though it’s always helpful to carry them along from the onset of the project. Developers should have the opportunity to ask questions for clarity.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?us_privacy=1—&client=ca-pub-5897738728664553&output=html&h=15&slotname=7103304715&adk=3390535371&adf=2348087203&pi=t.ma~as.7103304715&w=728&lmt=1635773314&psa=0&channel=6094525127&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessanalystlearnings.com%2Fbusiness-analyst-career%2F2018%2F5%2F19%2Fthe-role-of-business-analysts-on-software-development-projects&flash=0&wgl=1&adsid=ChEI8KD-iwYQsojB2aH66YyeARI5AFKIDAfuZ2YbNOc5sUypJeXm-N0X93oeIs4gTg0OE864dpHyIc_ToDcXlstedeVhyuJFUM275Cl5&uach=WyJXaW5kb3dzIiwiOC4wLjAiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCI5NS4wLjQ2MzguNjkiLFtdLG51bGwsbnVsbCwiNjQiXQ..&dt=1635773214166&bpp=7&bdt=12892&idt=41597&shv=r20211027&mjsv=m202110260101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D3c6e4296d9978ba1-226f1c56a2cc002b%3AT%3D1635773262%3ART%3D1635773262%3AS%3DALNI_Ma9NQEAK5tk8WilzuTdaGH7sAIeWA&prev_fmts=0x0&nras=1&correlator=5728550813880&frm=20&pv=2&ga_vid=1271835263.1635773221&ga_sid=1635773253&ga_hid=205912554&ga_fc=1&u_tz=60&u_his=1&u_h=768&u_w=1366&u_ah=738&u_aw=1366&u_cd=24&adx=41&ady=2753&biw=1349&bih=635&scr_x=0&scr_y=225&eid=31063329%2C31063167%2C21067496&oid=2&pvsid=34584022058882&pem=265&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&eae=0&fc=1408&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1366%2C0%2C1366%2C738%2C1366%2C635&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=0&bc=31&jar=2021-11-01-13&ifi=2&uci=a!2&btvi=1&fsb=1&xpc=Zkbyk1VwAB&p=https%3A//www.businessanalystlearnings.com&dtd=M

Conducting User Acceptance Tests

Business analysts may or may not be involved in testing the final product, depending on whether software testers have been employed to carry out the tests or not. The outcome of the tests, will determine whether the product is ready to be put to live or not.

The involvement of business analysts in software development projects is not limited to what has been outlined in this article, and may even include related duties like user training, change management and user support, after the project is launched.

WHAT DOES A BUSINESS ANALYST DO IN THE IT COMPANY?

Most people believe that developing a program or an app requires software developers to write the code, and that’s all necessary to make the customer’s dream come true. There is an absolute chasm between what the client says and what the programmer will eventually do. That is because the customer thinks on the scale of the ultimate goal: what the software should do and what he wants to use it for, while the programmer is obliged to ponder over the implementation details: how the program should work and how to do that in the right way.

Information technology business analysts identify the existing customer’s business challenges and turn them into reliable and effective solutions.

ROLE OF BUSINESS ANALYST IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE

In consumer product companies, the IT business analyst role is often represented by the product manager or marketing person. In essence, the product manager operates as a business analyst, often emphasizing understanding the market landscape and anticipating external users’ needs. But, suppose the project has both a product manager and a BA. In that case, the former usually concentrates on the external market and user requests, while the latter translates this information into functional requirements.

BA’s primary role is to identify business requirements and convert them into a solution by figuring out why users need a new application and then defining the user, functional, and quality requirements that teams can use to evaluate, plan, design, and build a product.

Depending on the company’s type of business, BA can fulfill one of two roles:

• Create and enhance the company’s products — if one designs its own solutions.
• Business analysts in outsourcing and outstaffing are on the front line of communication with clients. They are engaged in collecting requirements, drawing up technical specifications, and much more.

Stakeholder Analysis

Analysis of all the connections is one of the initial BA steps within the project. A business analyst examines the structure of the team and the number of people with whom the BA will work; management structure — who reports to whom; client — background, expectations, priorities. In a normal situation, the PM conducts onboarding for the BA and answers questions. If this does not happen, the business analyst needs to proactively find answers because stakeholder analysis provides an essential context for the rest of BA decisions.

Documentation Of Requirements

The business analyst in information technology works with specifications at all stages of the product development lifecycle and continuously acts as a liaison between the customer and the team. (S)He produces required documentation (requirements) to keep everybody on the same page by understanding stakeholders’ vision and translating it to all involved in the project. Requirements are clear descriptions of what needs to be implemented in a product: system behavior, properties, and attributes.

The documents that describe different types of requirements are divided into three levels:

• PRD — Product Requirement Document — describes the product your company will build. It drives the entire product team’s efforts and sales, marketing, and customer support efforts. It’s hard to develop a more important, higher leverage piece of work for a company.
• BRD — Business Requirement Document — business requirements. Goals and tasks that the user can solve using the system.
• SRS — Software Requirement Specification — special documentation containing information about how the system should behave, what functions it should perform, what load it should withstand, etc.

BA works with specifications at all levels and with SRS documentation and can be assisted by a team lead or a technical project manager.

TOOLS OF BA

An experienced analyst possesses a wide range of techniques, and (s)he knows when to apply them and when not. To collect precise specifications for the successful product implementation, a business analyst must be able to:

• Analyze the problems and needs of the user.
• Visualize information for the customer and the team.
• Create and maintain project documents.

The software required for effective BA operation can be arranged into four broad groups of tools:

• Creation of documents, images, presentations, digital tables, prototypes: Google docs, inVision Studio, and analogs.
• Organization of online interactions, the correct collection of requirements in Confluence, and similar tools.
• Tracking the interrelationship between requirements, working with data analysis, visualization: Google Analytics, Open Web Analytics, QlikView BI, Tableau, behavioral analytics:, Mixpanel, Miro.
• Tools for analyzing competitive environments: SE Ranking, Ubersuggest, SEMrush, SEOPressor.
• Tools for modeling and diagramming: Cawemo, Diagrams.net, etc

WHY A BUSINESS ANALYST IN A TEAM MEANS SAVINGS

From the point of view of the team, the quintessential task of BA is to reduce uncertainty. It is not enough to do things right (we have excellent technical expertise and best practices in creating complex solutions). Still, we also aspire to do the right things and translate the complicated business processes into simpler tasks to solve the client’s business problems. The presence of a business analyst in the team can help reduce expenses. It may seem that one more person on the team requires additional investment, but in the long run, this leads to a decrease in value. ROI of Business Intelligence = (Rework Costs Avoidance) / Price of Business Intelligence. Reducing the amount of work required to achieve goals is a cardinal element. Clarifying all stakeholders’ needs, creating an overall agreed picture, linking all requirements to business goals — all this allows you to avoid numerous redesigns in the future.

STRONG SIDES AND WEAK SIDES OF BA

The business analyst profession’s main advantage is the ability to penetrate the core and be profoundly insightful: to understand things and how they work, what parts they consist of, how they are connected and interact with each other, and then describe complex things using simple but useful models.

Among the shortcomings, there are difficulties in evaluating your work, in communication with the customer, when good ideas cannot be conveyed or restrictions in time and budget interfere. Moreover, it often happens that BA has to deal with the same problems from project to project/from client to client, and the rules of the game are very abstract.

ONE DAY OF BUSINESS ANALYST IN IT

Let’s dive into a typical working day of a business analyst covering all of his primary functions. Of course, not all BA workdays go precisely this way. Based on the current tasks and the stage of project development, BA adapts, but in an ideal world without burning deadlines, the analyst’s schedule looks like this.

10:00 —12:00 Working with the team

In some cases, communication with the team can take almost the whole day. In an ideal agenda, BA participates in discussions and brainstorms the critical points with the team. The course of execution may turn out additional technical limitations, and the previously approved solution will take much longer. BA organizes a meeting to synchronize the team with the initial business need and asks if the team can develop a solution that takes less time and resources. If a better option is available, then the business analyst changes the requirements. The BA always needs to clearly understand how vital a particular requirement is to the client and whether changes need to be further discussed with him. At first, it’s better to ask everything. Understanding in which situation you can decide on your own comes with experience.

What is essential when working with teams:

• Be in touch almost 24/7.
• Focus on determining the problem: find out the point, turn the conversation into a positive-constructive channel, and offer an alternative solution.
• Escalate issues on time: do not try to solve everything yourself.
• Understand and discuss the challenges that the project may encounter in case of some changes. Notify stakeholders in time. It is vital not to get hung up on communication with the team and understand when all current issues are resolved, and concentrate on other tasks.

12:00 —14:00 Writing And Working With the Documentation

At this stage, business analyst deals with business processes modeling:

• Creates specifications.
• Describes user stories/acceptance criteria/use cases.
• Formulates non-functional requirements — describes the conditions under which the system is effective. Such as: “The system must be fault-tolerant and compatible with Google Chrome.”
• Simulates business processes.
• Prototype solutions.

What is essential when writing specs:

• Determine the required artifacts in advance.
• Describe the requirements in detail.
• Follow the principles of usability.

14:00 —15:00 Lunch

Lunch is an ideal opportunity to get to know people and chat with the team in an informal environment, so it is advisable not to dine alone.

15:00 —18:00 Communication With The Client

Negotiation is one of the main functions of a business analyst. BA needs to understand the business’s subject area. There is always a collection, identification, and clarification of requirements during interviews, demonstration of documents, prototypes, models, diagrams, product demo, or even a ready-made solution. 

At the first stage, BA needs to meet with the client, study his problem, analyze, offer ideas and draw up, in a first approximation, a scheme of work. It may also happen that the client does not clearly understand what he wants or cannot formulate the problem. The main task in this case, as marketers say, is to identify the need. Workshops are those meetings where you can learn about the requirements and get to the bottom of the client’s real needs. In other words, to answer the question “why do we need this?” and think if the solution is optimal or there are still better options. As the project progresses, BA shows the client the results, the coordination of product changes. 

It may happen that a client suddenly reconsiders doing (or not doing) something and wants to make corrections on the fly or even after the end of the sprint (this is called a Change Request). Well, yes, it’s not just a pain for designers. When it comes to code changes, things are much more complicated, and BA deals with all that.

18:00 —19:00 Consultations With Tech Leads

When BA drafts requirements, he must understand all related technical details. It is imperative to consult with those engaged in development: architects, team/tech leads, and subject specialists. At such consultations, high-level requirements are discussed: how best to design, implement, decompose, and so on. BA’s direct responsibility is to study the subject area from all perspectives: the business and technical aspects.

COnclusion

Business analyst for software development is a very useful tool the company with business owner. It will supplement the data of owner and shows all about their business, how to grow it properly and with success. A business consultant is what they need. What will be your job with this role is to monitor, manage or any possible bugs in the software. You must enforce quality control so that the satisfaction of customers is neatly done by you with ease