Different Hats of a Business Analyst

chillibreeze writer — Sindhu K

A new age as set in - an age where roles have converged into one that appears as an embodiment of everything that is needed in a project life cycle - the role of a Business Analyst (BA). The rising demand for techno-functional business analysts seems to suggest the need to bridge the gap between business and its IT counterpart. Many a management graduate invariably lands up us a business analyst or a ‘consultant’ in service providing organizations. From understanding ‘tables and columns’ to being able to draw up a Gantt chart, a business analyst invariably decides the course a project is going to chalk out. This is one role that spreads its wings across organizational hierarchies. Here, we shall see the different hats that a Business Analyst needs to wear to deliver an effective project.

Learner:
Before a BA steps into a project, it is imperative that some ground work is done on understanding the client, products and services offered, domain, customer base, competitors in the market and the organization size. Any IT development project requires this understanding about the client before the applications are to be designed to meet the organization’s needs. Here is where the Business Analyst must do his homework to procure as much information possible about the client’s domain and the customer’s expectations.

Facilitator:
A BA is required to act as a facilitator in the following four scenarios.

a) Conducting requirements gathering sessions - This is the first large scale audience that the BA would encounter in a project. One can expect to see business heads, product managers, delivery heads and program managers participating in this session. Hence articulate communication skills and the ability to sustain the audience interest are absolutely essential.

b) Meeting individual stake holders - While the requirements gathering session acts as a precursor to set expectations from the business heads, it is the personal interaction with each one of them which determines if a business analyst has been successful in procuring what each of the stakeholders need. Each of the personal interactions requires adequate planning, analysis, suggestions, observing loopholes in the current system and the ability to foresee what the business needs.

c) Conduct Conference Room Pilots - The ability to generate discussions and set an agreement for each piece of code delivered is required in conducting conference room pilots. Conference room pilots are organized to show a demo of the first draft of design that has been developed for the client. Once the client gives their approval, further development of the design takes place. Hence, great importance is placed on the capability of a business analyst to convince the client as well as extract more requirements.

d) Conduct Project Meetings - While the above three interactions happen with the client, project meetings happen internally. The BA has to keep track of the progress of the project in accordance to the time lines and assist the Project Manager in ensuring that each member of the project has completed their work allotted to them.

Analyst:
The aptitude to ask the right questions and prompt the client to think on lines that were not thought of is what distinguishes an accomplished BA from an amateur. Besides understanding the business process, the BA is looked up to being akin to a problem solver. Hence having an understanding of both the technical and functional arenas helps the BA to provide the appropriate solutions to the gaps in the existing processes. Once the required documentation is available from the client, the BA must perform a thorough analysis of the existing business processes, highlight the gaps and develop new processes that would enhance productivity. He is expected to understand the best practices in the industry. What is required is a combination of knowledge, ability to extract information and the capability to predict the pros and cons of having or not having a functionality incorporated into the IT system.

Negotiator:
With the Client: When requirements are too many, they have to be prioritised. Discussions are to be done with the client to understand the most important and least important requirements to be delivered.

With the Project Team: When there is a shortage of people in he team, the BA must be ready to perform different activities such as testing, training team etc. Negotiations in the form of what activities would be performed by whom transpire here. The BA must thus assist in conflict management.

With the Project Manager: When there is a scope of time lines to be missed, the BA must negotiate with the project manager on the priorities of the activities to be completed, what open issues are to be tackled and what could be moved to the next phase.

Translator:
The rising need for techno functional BAs demonstrates the expectations placed on this role. The BA must understand the technical and functional worlds. In short,

The BA must translate functional requirements into technical details for the developers.
Technical issues are to be translated into understandable formats to the client.
Requirements need to be translated into test scripts for the testers.
The functionalities must be translated into training manuals for the end users.

Strategist:
A company invests in its IT infrastructure to enhance its competitive strategy. Hence a BA, who acts as a face of the vendor company that creates the IT infrastructure fr the client must act as a strategist. He is expected to perform competitor analysis, product analysis and application analysis. He is expected to translate the goals of the company through the systems he develops.

While the opportunities for the role of a Business Analyst are abundant, there is just a handful of people who perform the role to excellence. It is these who evolve into successful consultants, understanding what customers want and thus deliver even before it is expected. In this fast paced world, it is imperative that needs are delivered even before they are asked.

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in February, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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