Challenges for Business Analysts

Challenging areas for a BA

1. Faulty Requirements Collection:
All the stakeholders will be from different teams and areas and will have specific needs and different interests within the business. There will be conflicting requirements and different outcomes that they desire. A business analyst needs to bring them on common grounds.

2. Meetings with Stakeholders for Requirements Elicitation:

Most of the stakeholders are having their own company works, it’s really tough for a BA to get them to attend a meeting for Requirement elicitation

3. Change in Customers Requirements:
The stakeholders usually don’t understand the nuances of business analysis. So they may keep changing requirements over the time. It then becomes the decision of a business analyst, to decide the implementation of suggested changes, which is not an easy task

4. Lack of Training:
A BA has to work with limited information from the stakeholders. This could lead to modifications at a later stage, creating a flow chart and building great interpersonal skills, from the business analysts perspective, needs expertise

5. Obtaining Sign-off on Requirements from PO 

6. Change Management with respect to cost and timelines:

This is an extension of incorrect requirements, most often customers or stakeholders feel they know the solution to the problem, when in fact they have not even identified the core problem correctly. This becomes a big challenge for the business analyst to keep asking the right questions and coming to core, post which a path to reach there can be designed.

7. Conflicts between Developers and Testers

Conflicts could arise between the Developers Team and Testers specially during the implementation of a new project. This is probably the most common challenge faced by business analyst. The solution is that the business analyst objectively evaluates the pros and cons of a suggestion and properly present his thoughts, so that the differences can be ironed out.
8. Making sure, status reporting is effective

A BA should effectively maintain a status reporting system for timely delivery of project to the client or the entire project will go for a toss

9. Driving clients for UAT completion

Making the client understand the approaches by which you a going to give a solution is in itself a huge task

Failing in communicating the Project scope to the client will lead to rejection of project by the client

10. People Management:
BA should know how to communicate effectively with the Stakeholders  whom he/she is interacting with or BA won’t be able to handle the conflicts which will delay the project delivery to client.
11. Making sure Project health is good

Every now and then, A BA should make sure every precess is running on time with least error possible for timely delivery or the project will not be completed within stipulated time