Business Analysis : Learn in 24 Hours

Chapter 1: Introduction

Who is a Business Analyst?

Business Analysts have emerged to have a key role in recent business scenarios. Some people think that the role of a Business Analyst is to make money for the organization, which may not be true in direct context. But indirectly, the action and decision taken by Business Analysts do leave an impact on the financial prospects of the organization.

A primary job responsibility of Business Analyst is to communicate with all stakeholders & to elicit, analyse and validate the requirements for changes to business processes, information systems, and policies.

A professional business analyst plays a big role in moving an organization toward efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

Before we jump into the tutorial, we will see some basic perspective of a Business Analyst to help the organization succeed. The foremost priority for any business analyst will be to try understanding following things

Understand what business does and how it does

Determine how to improve existing business processes

Identify the steps or tasks to support the implementation of new features

Design the new features to implement

Analyse the impact of implementing new features

Implement the new features

Different Business Analyst Role

Business Analyst can be from any sector, and the role differs based on the sector. Business Analyst are classified into various categories like

Business Analyst

Business Process Analyst

IT Business Analyst

Business System Analyst

System Analyst

Data Analyst

Functional Architect

Usability or UX Analyst

Characteristics of a good Business Analyst

Basically, a good business analyst is judged on these four attributes

Typical Qualities of a Good Business Analyst:

Analytical skills- An outstanding analytical skills will separate out a good business analyst. A good part of BA role includes analyzing data, workflow, user or stakeholders inputs, documents, etc.

Leadership skills- directing team members, forecasting budget, helping team members with the problem, etc.

Business process and planning- Planning the project scope, understanding and implementing requirement of project, identifying resources required for the project and so on

Technical skill- If a business analyst is in the IT sector, few technical aspect are expected to know like operating systems, hardware capabilities, database concepts, networking, SDLC methodology, etc.

Tools of the Trade

To make their work easier, the business analyst often depends on tools like

TopTeam Analyst: This tool helps in providing a complete solution for requirements gathering and management

SmartDraw: It is a graphic diagramming tool that use stencils for organizational charts, swim lanes, data flow diagram, etc.

Blueprint: This tool produces a blue print of the project artifacts like development models, test scenarios, use cases, flow charts, etc. to ensure that everything is falling in line and as per expectation

Survey Monkey: It allows you to send survey to stakeholders, capture their feedback,