What is the role of a business analyst in an organization

Business analyst is a person who enables change in the organization by comprehending business problems and providing solutions that will maximize its value.Business Analysts identify the areas that are needed to improve, so that it helps in increasing the efficiency and strengthening the business processes. He plays role in every life cycle of the project. He documents the Business process in an organization and evaluates the Business Model.

The business Analyst acts like a bridge between the It team and the client.

• Business analyst is important person in any project and he must having following skills:-

Analytical Mindset: He must have analytical approach towards problem Solving, His/ Her ability to understand the information and make better judgment on the basis of information.

Communication and interpersonal skills:  He always interacting with different stakeholders for different requirements, He should have ability to communicate concisely with the stakeholders and clients. He must have strong Verbal and non verbal skills.

Creative Presentation skills:  BA do requirement gathering, he prepares BRD, FRD, UML diagrams, But if what he prepared is not understood by developers or technical team then it will be difficult for them to proceed further. He must present the information in such a way that it is easily understandable by any technical or non technical stakeholder.

Modeling Skills:  This is core requirement of BA. BA spends most of his time on doing modeling and their proficiency can make significance difference in project performance. He prepares use case diagrams, Activity diagrams, flow charts; all these are important and easily understandable by developers. He must have this skill.

SDLC: BA is part of every life cycle model hence he must aware about the different software developments life cycles and his role in each SDLC.

Tools and Documents:  As a part of his job profile, he must aware about the different tools used in projects at different stages  like MS office suit, MS Visio for UML diagrams, Balsamiq, Azure for prototyping and wire framing, Tableau, Power BI for making different reports.

• BA role in different stages of project development:

Pre Project:

BA should do the SWOT analysis, GAP analysis, Market research, feasibility study, project scope, Business case writing and Risk analysis.

Project Planning :

BA understands the assumptions and constraints along with business rules and business goals. Understand the project plan from Project manager. Plan about the BA approach strategy for this project.

Requirements Gathering:

Identify the stake holders, list out them according to the priority in capturing the requirements .Prepare the RACI matrix saying that who are responsible, accountable, who are to be consulted and who are to be informed. Apply Requirement elicitation techniques to get the proper requirements to go ahead in the project. Different Elicitation techniques we use are Document analysis, Revers Engineering, Focus groups, Observations, Briand storming, Interviews, Surveys, Workshops, JAD, Prototyping and Use case specs. Then sort all the requirements and prioritize them using MOSCOW Technique. Then finally validate the requirement with FURPS technique. Here BA prepares Business Requirement Document (BRD).

The BA should sign off from the requirements after taking approval from the client.

Requirement Analysis:

Prepare UML diagrams (Use case and Activity diagrams). After that Functional Requirement Specification (FRS), Supplementary Support Document (SSD), Software Requirement Specification Document (SRS), Requirement Traceability matrix (RTM) will be prepared. Here BA together work with Database designers and Solution architect. BA has to take sign off from the client after SRS document got finalized.

Design:

Solution document is prepared. Along with this High level design document (HDD) is also prepared. Then BA client communicates with the client and make them understand how the solution would look like to prepare them to drive UAT.RTM will be updated and user manuals will be prepared by BA. Preparation of test cases is also done during this stage.

Coding:

BA organizes JAD sessions. BA clarifies queries of technical team during coding. Conducts regular status meetings with technical team and client and tuning client participation in UAT. Here Low level design documents (LDD) are prepared. BA updates RTM and End user manuals.

Testing:

BA prepares client for UAT. BA requests the client to provide the test data and the project is loaded at client location and will be tested. All the test data is executed and after the satisfaction of the client the BA has to take sign off from the project by taking project accept form from the client.

Updates RTM and End user manuals. Here BA take sign off from client on Client Project Acceptance form.

Deployment and Implementation:  

Here BA forwards RTM to the client which should be attached to the Project closure document.BA coordinates to complete and share End user Manuals. Plans and organizes training sessions to end users.