COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
While talking about the basic concepts and requirements of any business analyst, We first need to look upon certain questions:
- What exactly is business analysis?
- Why are we analyzing the business?
- Who is a business analyst?
- What exactly is the role of a business analyst?
To start with business analysis , “It is a process of evaluating the organizational needs, understanding the on-going activities in the business, identifying requirements and problems and ultimately looking for a solution and implementing it wisely”. Organizational needs and requirements may vary according to the situations and stakeholders in the project. Stakeholders play a major role in the identification of any requirement, because he will be the centre point of the project right from starting till it ends throughout the project journey/lifecycle.
Analyzing the business is need of the hour. You must have to perform a go-through practice in the current scenario in your business so as to have a proper report of what can be done further and what needs to be changed. Whenever we analyze the business we generally at the very first place, try to prioritize the stakeholder’s wants and needs.
In the business, stakeholders as per their needs are generally divided into four major categories:
- Business Stakeholders : Those who have a business goal and profit goal in the project. (Sponsors, Business Partners, Business Head)
- Project Stakeholders : Those who have a unique participation and share in the project through different ways directly or indirectly. (Project Team, BA, Users, Customer, Clients)
- Third Party Stakeholders : Those who are not a part of the project directly, but act as a backend support. (Third party plugins, Co-Working Space Owners)
- Negative Stakeholders : Those who don’t want your project to succeed. (Competitors)
Looking at the stakeholders needs the project needs to be worked upon, so does the business analysis can be done depending on the same.
Now the question arises, How to do project/business analysis? and Who will be doing or initiating the process first?
A business analyst will initiate complete business analysis. Business analysts assess how organizations are performing and help them improve their processes and systems. They conduct research and analysis in order to come up with solutions to business problems and help to introduce these solutions to businesses and their clients.
A business analyst generally bridges the gap between the upper management and the lower management.
A business analyst performs various tasks in the project such as :
- Requirement Gathering
- Documenting Requirement
- Modelling Requirement
- Communicating Requirement
- Track Requirement
- Handle Change Request
- User Acceptance Testing
A business analyst mainly handles responsibilities such as :
- Client Interaction
- Ownership of requirement
- Process Re-Engineering
Basic Requirements For A Business Analyst
- Degree and Domain Knowledge : A BA should have relevant domain knowledge and he should posses at least a graduation degree in business or related field.
- Analytical Skills : A BA should possess strong analytical skills.
- Microsoft Excel : MS-Excel will be considered as a plus point for a business analyst.
- Negotiation Skills : Until and unless a BA have strong negotiation skills, he/she will not be able to develop a business a properly.
- SQL : A BA should know SQL at least basic.
6. Programming languages : Programming acts as an icing to the cake for a BA
7. Data Visualization : To visualize data a BA should know data visualization tools and data modelling tools
8. Communication Skills : Having strong communications directly leads to an effective business development and growth.
