Nowadays it is necessary to adopt advanced methodologies despite traditional approaches for adopting the complex business environment and the ability for management of constant disruption through innovation. Multiple times I come across a job profile called as Business Analyst an I am surprised to see the various aspects of this job profile like a Software Tester, Technical writer, Document Specialist, and Project Coordinator. A single person can perform multiple tasks at a time in various roles & responsibilities.

Business Analyst is considered a valuable tool for any business related to any domain. With their helping hands any companies able to make viable changes for the improvement of their organization and achieving the goals. BA’s specializes in modification as they introduce, manage, and facilitate the necessary changes to your business model. They are the people who provide the all-important link between stakeholders and project teams by communicating information between the two. In this blog, I am going to elaborate on the complete details of Business Analyst bifurcating into many categories.

What is a Business Analyst?

Business Analyst profile deals with the analysis of requirements of a software project or a program and communicating them clearly to the key stakeholders. They act as a lesion between the clients and the company. Their main role is usually collect and interpret data from many areas within an organization, simultaneously improving the business processes and finding solutions to business problems with all that gathered data.

Roles & Responsibilities of Business Analyst:

• Understanding the requirement of the Business
• Documenting and converting customer business functions and processes.
• Verifying the system design is perfect as per the needs of the customer.
• Participating in functionality testing and user acceptance testing of software products.
• Helping technically in training and coaching professional and technical staff.
• Developing a training program and conducting formal training sessions covering designated systems module.
• Acting as a team-lead on assigned projects and assignments, and providing work direction to the developers and other project stakeholders.

Why is Business Analyst important:

There are many benefits of a business analyst profile which you can notice right from the initial stage of the bespoke software development process. However, some of the aspects are only noticeable after the implementation of the software.

Boosted efficiency –
Running a thorough analysis of both your expectations and the market when all is said in done, business experts ensure your vision is the most ideal approach to make progress. Knowing the product business, they realize how to improve your proficiency considerably more. It is prudent to trust Business Analyst.

Cost Estimation –
Business Analyst plays an important role in analyzing the cost estimation for any software related requirements and it is beneficial for both the company and client-side.

Type of Business Analyst:

There are two types of Business Analyst named Pre-sale & Post sale.

Pre Sale:

Pre-sale section consists of presentations and working closely with an account management team and liaising directly with clients. In this Business Analyst offers support for the sales activities in terms of generating the leads from various bidding portals, writing proposals, offering solutions to the clients, working with solution architects, cost estimation, outlines the requirements and do the research analysis for the provided details.

Post Sale:

The post-sale Business Analyst managed analytics and performs the tasks required for the successful delivery of the software project. The project engagement may include working with other BAs (local and remote/outsourced), Client Engagement Managers and Account Managers as appropriate to develop and deliver analysis activities required to support the Post Sales projects.

The role needs effective creativity to approach and explore business goals and provide supporting actionable analytical evidence to show how operational change would derive business value. Many areas of analysis are similar but some engagements present new problems and require an analytical approach to be crafted for the first time.

How a business analyst help in the IT industry:

The IT Business Analyst is a professional expert who is related to requirements elicitation and resolving problems using information technology solutions with the required programming language. This role is the connection between business & IT.

Probably, the majority of the members of the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) fall in this category of IT Business Analysts.

The analysts in this role generally begin their work once a given IT project has been initiated. They are the ones eliciting requirements from stakeholders, analyze the requirements, document them in BRDs (business requirements documents), and create functional specifications. In this role, the analyst may also interact with the development and quality assurance teams.

Other common titles for this role are Requirements Engineer, Requirements Analyst,Application Consultant, Application Analyst, Business Analyst (generic term), etc.

Business Analyst Skills:

In terms of software category business Analyst have a strong IT background and less experience in business, and are interested in shifting away from IT to this hybrid role. Apart from this, there is a requirement if both hard & soft skills. They know various topics like scrapping data, report analyzation, information sharing and pitch for the client’s requirement with the solution and much more.

Other Skills:

• Oral and written communication skills
• Interpersonal and consultative skills
• Facilitation skills
• Analytical thinking and problem solving
• Being detail-oriented and capable of delivering a high level of accuracy
• Organizational skills
• Knowledge of the business structure
• Stakeholder analysis
• Requirements engineering
• Costs benefit analysis
• Processes modeling
• Understanding of networks, databases and other technology

Business Analyst Tools & Softwares:

Business analysts generally have good hand in using software such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, SQL, Google Analytics and Tableau. These tools assist BAs to collect and research data, create mockups, write documents and design visualizations to explain the findings. It depends on the job title and organization that what tools & software you need for working as a Business Analyst.

Plan for Business Analyst Training and Success:

As the present business environment becomes progressively unpredictable and project-based workers are forced to have more adaptable mindsets to get their work done, the control of business Analysis has likewise developed essentially. BAs are currently key players in making the methodology that drives activities to succeed.

Strategy Execution’s business analysis courses have been recently updated to keep pace with these changing business needs. The educational plan centers around four key abilities: endeavor business analysis, strategy analysis, benefits & requirement management.

Our training will outline how BAs act as a catalyst to transform strategic planning into the actionable scope to achieve operational improvement. You’ll additionally pick up a thorough understanding of how to elicit justifiable, verifiable and traceable requirements, and manage them through the entire requirements process.