2. What is Business Analysis?
Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand
the structure, policies, and operations of the organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to
achieve its goals.
Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to accomplish their purposes and defining the
capabilities an organization requires to provide products and services to external stakeholders.
It includes the definition of organizational goals, understanding how those goals connect to specific objectives,
determining the courses of action that an organization has to undertake to achieve those goals and objectives, and
defining how the various organizational units and stakeholders within and outside of that organization interact.
3. Business Analyst vs. System Analyst
Differences and Similarities
What Does a Business SystemsAnalyst Do?
Systems analysts utilize an organization’s IT systems to help
achieve strategic business goals.They may design and develop
new systems by configuring new hardware and software, or use
existing systems in new ways to accomplish additional or
different outcomes.
Typical tasks performed by systems analysts include:
• Consulting with management and users to determine the needs
of the system
• Designing a system to meet the business goals
• Specifying inputs and formatting outputs to meet users’ needs
• Using techniques such as sampling, model building and
structured analysis, along with accounting principles, to ensure
the solution is efficient, cost-effective and financially feasible
• Developing specifications, diagrams and flowcharts for
programmers to follow
• Overseeing implementation, coordinating tests and observing
initiation of the system to validate performance
What Does a BusinessAnalyst Do?
Business analysts generally possess technical knowledge as well.
Their main focus is identifying opportunities for improving a
business’s processes and using technology to eliminate challenges
that affect productivity, output, distribution and ultimately, the
bottom line. Knowing how technology can solve business problems
is vital for a business analyst.
BusinessAnalysts require a high degree of specialized skills in order
to solve business problems through a variety of typical job duties,
including:
• Analyzing the business processes in an organization for
inefficiencies.
• Making recommendations for solutions or improvements that can
be accomplished through new technology or alternative uses of
existing technology.
• Acting as liaison between business stakeholders, such as
management, customers or end users, and the software
development or information technology team.
• Analyzing and communicating stakeholder needs by translating
business requirements into software requirements.
• Documenting and evaluating required data and information.
• Using modeling, testing and data models to improve the flow of
information through an organization to enhance project success.
4. Skills and Attributes Required for
Business Analysts
A BusinessAnalyst requires strong problem-solving and analytical skills,
communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to focus with close
attention to detail.
A business analyst needs a broad base of business knowledge and sharply honed
essential skills.
While there are some common skills and knowledge requirements between
systems analysts and business analysts, the business analyst profession requires an
entirely different set of core specialty skills involving eliciting, analyzing,
communicating, testing and verifying requirements, plus the ability to identify
opportunities to solve business problems and improve processes.
Business analysts are functional experts who work for change and improvement,
helping organizations reach their strategic goals through continual, successful
technology improvements.
5. BABOK a key tool
for the Business Analyst
BusinessAnalysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) contains a description of
generally accepted practices in the field of business analysis.
BABOK guide has been verified through reviews by practitioners, surveys
of the business analysis community, and consultations with recognized
experts in the field.
BABOK has been recognized around the world as a key tool for the
practice of business analysis and become a widely-accepted standard for the
profession.
BABOK has become an essential reference for business analysis
professionals
6. 4 U 2 Know
• AUDIENCE
• PROJECT
• BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
• TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT
7. Know Your Audience
Establish trust with your stakeholders through;
• Proper Project management with Project Sponsor
• Establish Subject Matter experts
• Quality assurance of Project
• System Analyst support
• Vendor overview
• Stakeholder analysis
• Balancing Stakeholder Needs
• Understand the political Environment
• Cultural mix and roles
• Dispersed or FocusedTeams
8. Know Your Project
Why Organization has funded this project and for what purpose;
• Business Case
• Problem to be solved
• Eliminate Costs or jobs
• Change in Outside regulations/ conditions
• New Opportunity arisen
• Need for marketing or Advertise the organization
Strategic Planning
Portfolio and Program Management
How project fits to other planned or ongoing projects in organization
Communication of Strategic Plans
Project identification/ initiation
9. Know Your Business Environment
Learn about Organization
• Business Strategic Plans
• HR plans
• Marketing reports/ events/ plans
• Prioritize requests from stakeholder(s) and sponsor(s)
Learn Business through ElicitationTechniques
• Review existing documentation(s)
• Observations
• Interviews
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Facilitated Sessions
• Focus Groups
• CompetitiveAnalysis
• InterfaceAnalysis
Learn the Current System
• Essential analysis of present business process(es)
• See things form top and from bottom
• Implementation planning
10. Know Your Technical Environment
UnderstandTechnology, but do not talk like a technologist
• Have an overview of software development and programming terminology
• Basic understanding of software development methodologies
• Understand technical architecture
• Know about operating systems available
• Grasp of IT security protocols and it challenges and possibilities
• Clear overview of Data Management challenges and architecture
• Idea of useable/ Human Interface design
• Basic knowledge about software testing concept and requirements
Work with IT
• Communicate with developers and IT project management
• IT corporate structure and Culture
Learn the CurrentTechnology
• Essential analysis of present technology process(es)
• See things form top and from bottom
• Overview of IT Security issues and its limitations within existing environment
11. Analysis Techniques
Collecting and Presenting Requirements from Stakeholders
• Collecting and Managing Requirements
• Understand requirements and what they are
• Core requirements
• Entities (data)
• Attributes (Data)
• Processes (Cases used)
• External Agents (Actors)
• Business rules
• Categorizing requirements
• Use of BABOK System for Organizing requirements
AnalysisTechniques and Presentation Formats
• Workflow diagrams
• Entirty relationship diagrams
• Business process modelling including a decomposition diagram
• Case diagram
• Case Description
• Prototypes/ Simulations
Present andTo beAnalysis (GapAnalysis)
• Requirement packaging
• Documentation of Requirements
• Sign off by all stakeholders and sponsor and System Analyst stakeholders
12. Business Value
of a Business Analyst
Use of Brainstorming sessions amongst stakeholders to boost the
Analytical process
Communicate results from these sessions to potential sponsors of
projects within the organization and align these results from sessions
with business goals
Seek buy-in from potential sponsors, based on stakeholder reviews
prior to project initiation.
Keep active dialog with organization IT environment to ensure buy-
in from System Analyst perspective too.
AvoidAnalysis Paralysis
13. Skill sets
of a Business Analyst
• Analytical
• Time Management/ prioritization/ 80-20 rule
• Understand nature of project work
• Ability to work with complex details
• Relationship and Communication building
• Able to ask the right question
• Active listener
• Effective writer
• Make excellent presentations
• Facilitate and build consensus
• Conduct effective meetings
• Able to conduct requirements reviews
• Ability to make recommendations for solutions
• Recognize and act on weaknesses
• Being intelligent disobedient
• Improve skill sets by accepting constructive criticism
