Who is a Business Analyst?

A business analyst (also called BA) is used to describe an individual who practises the discipline of business analysis. A business analyst �s job is to help client�s identify business problems and propose possible solutions � within the systems development life cycle domain, the business analyst is known to perform a liaison role between the business side of a company and the service providers to the company. They are also known as systems analyst and functional analyst.

According to the International Institute of Business Analysis, A business analyst�s roles include the following:

? He or she works as liaison among stakeholders, so as to obtain, analyze, communicate and to also validate necessary requirements for changes to business policies, processes and business processes.

? A business analyst understands business opportunities and problems

? The common tasks and deliverables of a business analyst is described by The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) .

The British Computer Society defines a business analyst as �An internal consultancy role that has the responsibility for investigating business systems, identifying options for improving business systems and for bridging the needs of the business with the use of Information Technology (IT).�

There is really no defined way of becoming a business analyst, the BA is often known to have a technical background, but some people moved on to becoming BA�s from a business role � because their analytical skills have made them suitable for the role of a business analyst. It is very common to find the role of a BA overlapping into roles such as Consultant or project manager. The term �Business systems analyst� is used when focused of specific systems. Just so you�d know, a BA does not always have to work in IT-related projects, because BA skills are always needed in areas such as marketing and financial roles.

Business analysts are known to work in various types of industries such as insurance, finance, telecom, banking, software services, utilities so on and so fort. BA�s can switch from one industry to the other due to working on projects at a high level of abstraction. Please note that the business domain subject areas that a business analyst may work in include the following:

- Customer relationship management

- Mediation

- Workflow

- Provisioning

- Billing

The great thing about being a business analyst is that you do not have a predefined and fixed role because you can take on any shape in operations (technology architect or project management) scaling, devising various strategies, sales planning etc.

The role of a business analyst is very important in software development projects, because the BA can help bring structure and formalization of requirements into Information Technology. This will definitely lead to increased business foresight among business owners.

In recent years it has become quite fashionable to use analyst of all sorts; business process analysts, business analysts, risk analysts, systems analysts. A project manager is said to be effective if he or she uses a business analyst whose job is to breakdown barriers of communication between stakeholders and developers.

James Underhill is author of this article on Business Analyst. Find more information about Requirements here.