THE VALUE OF A BA ROLE

Business analyst is a valuable resource for any company. They add value in improving the organization and help in achieving goals. They are an important link between stakeholders and project teams who communicate at every step of the project to fill in any kind of gaps and address what is the exact requirement of the stakeholders. A Business Analyst provides timely information, clarifies questions of client, removes roadblocks and ensures functional development is moving the project towards a successful conclusion.

Some of the benefits of having a Business Analyst in a company are:

• Increased Return on Investment (ROI): A company’s value is based on its Return on Investment (ROI).The two major components in calculation ROI is profit and cost of Investment. BAs find a cost effective solution and help in increasing the ROI by increasing profits and decreasing the cost of investment.
• Lower cost: One of the objective to have a BA in a company is to reduce company costs. They find ways to reduce project costs, underutilized functionality and requirements churn.
• Collaboration with Stakeholders: In a project a large amount is spend on project rework caused due to error in requirements. A BA will coordinate with the stakeholders to reduce reworks and will collect the complete business requirements at the beginning of the project.
• Managing backlogs: The optimal project will have user stories and requirements defined at least two to four weeks in advance when they will be developed. When this occurs development team has time to become acquainted with requirements and properly plan their approach. A BA can build this backlog in advance, allowing time for clarification of questions that may arise around development approach, risks or scope.
• Change request management: BAs along with project managers help in change management by becoming experts on the requirements of the project. This ensures that the team is focused on the goals and allows the BA to be the first to communicate when priorities need a change or shift or when a request is found altering the current scope. This results in more effective project delivery approach and ensures greater chances for success.
• Confidence in the totality of the elicited requirements: Bas ensure that requirements are understood, communicated and thoroughly evaluated which is critical to ensure that project is maintained on schedule and within budget. Including a BA in the early stage of a project, project managers can trust that prioritizing work as per BA will satisfy the needs of the client and the project.
• Focused conversation: Bas help project manager to keep the team moving in the right direction by focusing conversations on the identified business objectives. This not only helps the team stay on track by minimizing distractions but also helps prevent scope creep.

Business Analysts effectively elicit and document requirements. However, their value in a project far exceeds these tasks. They bring a sense of objectivity and perspective, ensuring that the business problem to be solved is so well understood that the solution is targeted, effective and efficiently designed to meet the business needs.