Business Analyst: Roles and Responsibilities

Business Analyst Roles and Responsibilities

As the name suggests, business analysts are responsible for analyzing the business. We currently live in a dynamic world, with fast occurring changes and changing economic conditions. Organizations, irrespective of the industries, look for business analysts to meet and adapt to the business changes. A business analyst plays a crucial role in an organization by assisting the management with solving the business problems, setting objectives and goals, and meeting the necessary changes.?

Ultimately, a business analyst helps in streamlining the business processes, so organizations can achieve and meet their objectives or goals. In this guide, let us learn about the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst.?

Is a Business Analyst an IT Job?

Being a business analyst is not restricted to being an IT job as it completely depends on whether a business analyst wishes to specialize in the IT sector . The title given to a business analyst in the IT sector would then be IT, business analyst. However, business analysts in other industries are expected to have the core knowledge about IT and the business software that can help make the business processes more efficient.?

Levels of Business Analysts

You can come across four levels that a business analyst has to perform in an organization. They are as follows:

1. Strategic management: This level is known as the analysis level, where a business analyst is responsible for evaluating and calculating the business strategies and identifying the strategic point of view of the company. This step is the most crucial as the other steps are largely dependent on defining, evaluating, and calculating the business strategic management.?
2. Analysis of Business Model: This level involves the business analyst to evaluate the current business policies employed by the company. It allows the business analyst to implement new policies for the business model and keep a check on the previous ones.?
3. Designing the Process: As the name suggests, this business analyst level involves designing and creating a model for the business processes. A business analyst utilizes all his skills at this level.???
4. Analysis of Technology: A business analyst also analyses the technical systems to ensure that there are no severe consequences.?

Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

A Business Analyst has a different set of roles and responsibilities to perform at different development phases. Let us take a look at the responsibilities of a business analyst at different development phases of a product.?

Elaboration phase

The elaboration phase is the first step, where the business analyst is involved in studying and analyzing the market for the product to be developed. Here are some responsibilities of a business analyst in the elaboration phase.

• Researching business problems- A business analyst assesses the business model by figuring out the pain points of the business such as the market gap that the company has to try and fill in or low-level customer acquisitions, among others.?
• Deciding on the expected business value- A business analyst understands the product’s course through the selected market segment.?
• Drafting nonfunctional requirements- A business analyst drafts the non-functional requirements.?
• Drafting functional requirements- A business analyst also prepares the functional requirements, which are the product features to be implemented by the engineers. Therefore, a business analyst has to clearly draft the functional requirements for both developers and stakeholders .?
• Creating the main backlog-By this step, the outline of the project is already prepared. Now a business analyst is responsible for creating a backlog where all the discussed business aspects are reflected.?

Solution design phase

By this phase, the primary decisions by the stakeholders are already made, business requirements are identified, evaluated, and approved. In this phase, the business analyst plays an essential role to compare the scope of the project with the promised business value. Here are some responsibilities of a business analyst in this phase:

• Story mapping- One of the most crucial roles of a business analyst is to create user stories, which are basically a description of the product feature from the point of view of an end-user. The story mapping process involves various decision-makers such as product managers, project managers, stakeholders, etc.?
• Establishment of acceptance criteria- A business analyst establishes acceptance criteria, which are the conditions that conclude whether the product feature offers satisfaction to both the stakeholder and the end-user.?
• Prioritize the backlog items- Here the business analyst sets the priorities for the tasks to be taken up first by the development team.?

Development phase?

As the name suggests, in this phase, the product team initiates the tasks as per their allocated roles. In this phase, the business analyst ensures that the development is aligned with the approved business requirements and values.?

• Setting up preparation activities- A business analyst is responsible for ensuring that every sprint is planned as per the set requirements and business value. It involves pre-planning and grooming before the tasks can be taken up by the development teams.
• Keeping a track of the development process- The business analyst tracks the development process by keeping a close watch to ensure they adhere to all business requirements.?

Maintenance Phase

This is the last phase of the development process. In this phase, the business analyst is responsible for gathering feedback from the end-user and getting this feedback incorporated for the necessary changes. Here are some roles of a business analyst in this phase.?

• A business analyst gathers feedback from customers and users for revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the final product.
• A business analyst then formulates the next backlog based on the feedback received.?

What Techniques do Business Analysts Use?

Here is an overview of the techniques used by business analysts and their core skillset. In order to analyze business processes, a business analyst uses several techniques. Some of the common techniques used by a business analyst are as follows:

• SWOT Analysis- A business analyst uses SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to analyze the business processes.?
• MOST Analysis- A business analyst uses MOST (Mission, objective, strategy, and tactics) analysis for analyzing and planning the details of what the organization is doing and should do.?
• Mind Mapping- It is the technique for graphically representing the concepts and ideas for better analyzing and strategizing.?
• PESTLE Analysis- A business analyst uses PESTLE (Political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental) analysis to identify the changes in the business.?
• Brainstorming-A business analyst performs brainstorming to find solutions, generate new ideas, and for finding facts.?

Skills of a Business Analyst

The key skills that a business analyst must possess are as follows:

• Technical skills- A business analyst possesses technical skills such as data modeling, stakeholder management, and knowledge of IT.
• Analytical skills- A business analyst must have analytical skills as one of the core responsibilities of a business analyst is to analyze huge amounts of data and business processes to arrive at a desirable solution.
• Problem-solving- A business analyst is often called a problem solver as they are responsible for coming up with solutions to the organization’s problems.?
• Communication skills- A business analyst should have strong communication skills as they have to clearly communicate the ideas, requirements, and business value to the stakeholders, development team, or higher management.?
• Research skills- A business analyst is responsible for conducting market research for the upcoming product.?

Conclusion

Through this article, now you might have a brief idea about the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst. A business analyst is a crucial part of the organization’s success and helps to streamline the business processes. A business analyst is important in every organization, from the elaboration phase to the maintenance phase, a business analyst performs various roles to keep the product development aligned with the set business requirements and value.?

If you are interested in building a career as a business analyst, then you can opt for various business analysis certifications that can help give your business analysis journey a boost. Techcanvass offers an ECBA certification training course for you to clear the certification exam on your first attempt.?