How do Software Development Companies can understand your processes and “convert” it into application you need?

This is what is called “digital transformation” which is a trend now. 

But TO BENEFIT from your digital transformation, you need to make sure that the Software Development Company you hired, KNOWS your business.

It is highly recommended to have a dedicated person in a dev team, who would learn your processes from A to Z and “translate” it into programming, technical language.

This person is a Business Analyst.

In other words, this is the one who studies the needs and business processes of the Customer, develops the concept of the product and forms the terms of reference for the development team, according to which the product will be developed.

He is the link between the Customer and the developers: he helps the Customer to formulate requirements, and the development team to understand what tasks they face and solve disputed issues with the customer.

In @ITFAQ we embed BA from the moment we sign off the project and sometimes even during the discovery phase.

In large companies, the functions of Business Analyst can be distributed between two specialists:

- Business Analyst - identifies business goals, objectives and requirements of the customer, develops a concept, prototype;

- System Analyst - forms the terms of reference for the development team based on the provided concept;

But I want to note that although BA is developing a concept and a prototype, he does not build architecture and technology assessment. This is done by a separate specialist in the team - Solution Architect. I’ll talk about this role separately.

In the process of studying requirements and building a solution, Business Analyst also can make an assessment of labor costs and development timelines. For evaluation, BA involves other specialists who will be involved in the implementation of the project.

What should BA know?

- Know the life cycle of software development;

- Be able to identify the needs of the client using various methods (brainstorming, defining UAT criteria, analyzing business rules, etc.)

- Simulate a product prototype using different tools, for example InVision, Axure, Marvel. (find more here);

- Know the methods and methodologies of modeling: ARIS, IDEF, DFD, BPMN, UML, GPSS, SIMAN, BRM (more details here)