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Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

One of the most favored industries to be working in is the Information Technology and ITES

companies. A very common profile that you must have heard is Business Analyst. The namesounds enticing but before you decide on embarking on a career as a Business Analyst you must

be aware of the roles and responsibilities of a Business Analyst.

So who is a Business Analyst and what does he do in any organi!ation" These are the basic

#uestions this article aims at answering.

$ To begin with, a Business Analyst is one who analyses a business and aims to better it with

the use of Information Technology. He is employed by a company and he has a team of

software developers to assist him.

nce a client assigns a pro!ect to the company, the Business Analyst understands the

various nuances of the business and then attempts to solve the problems faced in the

current wor"ing or he may try to better the current wor"ing # whatever the client wants tobe done.

The business analyst has to "now the wor"ings of the industry in which the client$s

business falls under so that he can fulfill his client$s needs and specifications from the

pro!ect. To understand the specifications, from a business perspective as the client would

thin" of them, a Business Analyst needs to be aware of the norms, laws, wor"ing,

competitors, software, technical "now%how, rules, procedures of the industry and the

client$s business in particular.

This education about the client$s business is a must so as to draft the client$s specifications

in a format that is feasible to wor" upon. The Business Analyst can then understand andenvision how the client$s pro!ect can be embar"ed upon by the technical team of software

developers and programmers.

The Business Analyst must also have the technical "now%how that is necessary for him to

understand how his technical team will go about wor"ing on the pro!ect and to supervise

them. Also, if he understands the technological nuances of the pro!ect, then he can

understand the technical team$s problems and help in solving them. Also, he can e&plain

the client specifications in a format the technical team will understand.

nce the client specifications are properly drafted, and the technical team is briefed

about the pro!ect, then they can start wor"ing on the technical part of the pro!ect. TheBusiness Analyst must be around to help them and to supervise the pro!ect to chec" if the

timelinesassigned to the pro!ect are being adhered to.

The system which is designed by the technical team of computer engineers and software

coders is then tested for errors and if any errors are found they are fi&ed. Testing of a

software designed helps to chec" for bugs and if the system will wor" properly in a live

environment.

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nce the client is satisfied with the wor"ing, does the developers wor" end.

The Business Analyst thus wor"s as a bridge between the developers and the end user

'client%.

(ystem Analyst ) (ystem Analysis*

Any system has to be designed and developed according to the re#uirements. &ore specifically a system

has to serve the intended use in the right way. 'aving a plan and clear(cut idea upfront is thus vital to the

entire process of design and development. The re#uired analysis is done by the System analyst. 'e is the

one responsible for handling the overall pro)ect from a higher level of view managing within it the

specifics of and integrity with the lower programming level of perspective. *ith sufficient knowledge

about the dynamics of every aspect of the system interactions with programmers customers and other

relevant people System analyst+s )ob is to get the right solution in the most efficient way. ,et us see more

about the role he plays.

+et the reuirements-

*ell a solution to a problem can be really good only if the problem statement is taken in completely.

-ustomers+ words are the key to figuring out the eact re#uirement set. As a System analyst one has to

be the customer+s voice when he drafts out the re#uirements clearly. Apart from the customer

interactions it is his )ob to translate the practical needs of customer into a more technical re#uirement.

Acting as a bridge between the customer and the developers the System analyst has to give the righttranslation of customer+s terms into a programmer+s idea.

(o, where does the analysis come in

Stating the re#uirement gathering as )ust a /translation0 can make it seem simple1 The truth is that the

technical documents that the System analysts prepare from the /2se cases0 derived from the customer

interactions or marketing documents should take in all considerations of technical feasibility and

programming aspects3technologies. To do this a reasonable knowledge from the

programming3development side is re#uired. *ith interactions with the programmers he has to make sure

of the feasibility of solution. -ooperation with the development team right through the development

phase makes periodic validation3verification possible. -hecking for conformance to use case

re#uirements standards of development and guiding the entire team together forward towards the goal

makes the analyst+s )ob a very critical one for overall success of the software system under development.

The Analyst is basically the Information access point for the customer and the marketers. 4rom the

design of the system to deployment he keeps track of all the information in perspective of both the

customer and the programming team. This makes him a vital part of the testing phase and deployment

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phase. As a person who has the best knowledge about practical needs of deployment and usage he also

plays a ma)or role in drafting out the user manuals and other data sheets for the customers.

It is pretty clear as to how important the role of system analyst is. A strong base to phase out the actions

and plans gives any pro)ect a good head start. Thus it is the System analyst who can be the starting point

for having a successful development cycle and really useful system from the customer+s perspective. 'ecan really give the entire team the comfort levels by making a good sturdy base for operations.