Analyst’s Role in the

BA(Business Analysis)
model
Business Analyst (BA) / Data Analyst is someone who analyzes an
organization or business domain (real or hypothetical) and documents its
business or processes or systems, assessing the business model or its integration
with technology. Business Analyst helps in guiding businesses in improving
processes, products, services and software through data analysis.

Data scientist is a professional responsible for collecting, analyzing and

interpreting extremely large amounts of data. Data scientists typically have a
strong background in mathematics, statistics, computer science (Machine
Learning & Artificial Intelligence).
A data scientist develops the tools a data analyst will use. They create
algorithms, build models, and design data capture systems. Data scientists are
always thinking about new ways to capture, store, and view data, and are
creative problem solvers.
Data Engineers are the data professionals who prepare the “big data”
infrastructure to be analysed by Data Scientists. They are
software engineers who design, build, integrate data from various resources,
and manage big data.
Data engineers are responsible for developing, testing, and maintaining data
pipelines and data architectures.
Who is a Business Analyst?
• An individual who employs various business analytics tools and approaches to
boost the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes is known as a
business analyst. Business Analysts analyze the business models as well as their
association with technology.

• Levels of Business Analysis:

Business Analysis includes at least four levels:
I. Strategy Management: At this level, the business analyst plans and
determines the strategies to analyze the business elements. It is the most
significant factor as these strategies decide whether the final results are apt.
II. Business Model Analysis: In this phase, the professionals analyze the
existing business model, checking where the system is lacking.

III. Process Designing: At this level, the analysts design the processes they
need to introduce into the system to make necessary improvements.

IV. Technology Analysis: At this level, the business analyst responsibilities

go through the technical analysis to ensure the feasibility of the change. It is
another crucial aspect that you should thoroughly check.
• The primary role of a Business Analysts includes the generating idea for new
processes, developing them and very essentially implementing them to ensure
that they’re functioning well.

• In addition, Business Analyst requires guaranteeing these processes are

organized in a way, which permits those processes to be modified to other
portions of the company.

• He/she includes a clear understanding on how the processes are functioning

currently in the environment of the business; hence, BA can be able to realize
how operative it is and after measuring the worthiness, can identify the gaps
and then find the solutions to plug them. Also ensures to prevent those gaps in
the new processes.
• Since Business Analyst serves as the core of a business in the company, he/she
needs to communicate with several departments of an organization.
Communication with the uppermost position or top management of the
company is essential role of a Business Analyst.

• Moreover, he needs to interact with company’s Sales force, Marketing

Department, Finance & Accounting department, the Production department and
the human resource department as a part of this role.

• He/she also requires to aware the consumer behavior, which influence the
organization’s businesses.
• In addition, the job of Business Analyst isn’t of a static in nature, requires
being dynamic, well in his ideas, action, and words. In order to survive in the
constantly changing phase of the corporate market, Business Analysts are
demanded to review their processes constantly in their business unit and makes
required changes if necessary.

• This behavior is vital to guarantee maximum customer fulfillment for the

consumer of an organization and for business profitability optimization.
Responsibilities of Business Analyst
Business Analysis

• Business analysis is the practice of

identifying and defining business needs
and requirements, and then implementing
solutions to meet those needs.
Business Analyst role/responsibilities in
Business Analysis
The responsibilities and duties of a business analyst can vary
depending on the specific job and organization, but some
common ones include:

1.Requirements gathering
2.Solution design and development
3. Implementation and testing
4. Ongoing maintenance and support
5. Communication and collaboration
6. Business process modeling and improvement
7. Data analysis and reporting
8. Project management
1.Requirements gathering
• It involves identifying and documenting the needs and objectives of
stakeholders, such as customers and internal departments.
• The requirements gathering and analysis process typically includes the
following steps:

a.Identifying stakeholders
b.Conducting interviews and surveys
c.Analyzing data
d.Creating requirement documents
e.Reviewing and validating requirements
f.Managing the requirements
2.Solution design and development (Business process modeling and
improvement)

• It involves designing and developing solutions that address the needs

and objectives identified during the requirements gathering phase.
• The solution design and development process typically includes the
following steps:

a.Identifying potential solutions

b.Designing the solution
c.Developing the solution
d.Testing the solution
e.Documenting the solution
3. Implementation and testing:

It involves implementing and deploying the solution, and then testing it to

ensure that it meets the requirements and objectives identified during the
requirements gathering phase.

a.Preparing for implementation

b.Implementing the solution
c.Conducting user acceptance testing
d.Deploying the solution
e.Monitoring and tracking performance
f.Final documentation and support
4. Ongoing maintenance and support:
Business analysts may also be responsible for providing ongoing support and maintenance for the solutions
they have implemented.

5. Communication and collaboration:

Business analysts need to communicate and collaborate with stakeholders, including customers, internal
departments, and IT staff to ensure that solutions align with the overall strategy and goals of the organization.

6. Business process modeling and improvement:

Business Analysts are responsible for modeling and improving the business processes in order to increase
the efficiency of the organization.

7. Data analysis and reporting:

Business Analysts may also be responsible for analyzing data and creating reports that can be used to
identify trends, make informed decisions, and measure the success of implemented solutions.

8. Project management:
Business Analysts may also be involved in project management, including planning, scheduling, and
monitoring progress to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget.
Skills Required for a Business Analyst

• 1.Analytical skills
• 2.Communication skills
• 3.Technical skills
• 4.Project management skills
• 5.Problem-solving skills
• 6.Business knowledge
• 7.Facilitation skills
• 8.Adaptability
• 9.Education
Required competencies
(skills) for the Analyst
• Core Skills –
 Communication Skills,
 Problem-Solving Skills,
 Critical Thinking Skills

• Business Analysis Skills –

 Communication Techniques
 Analysis Techniques
 Business Analysis Tools
• Soft Skills –
 Relationship – Building Skills
 Self managing
 A Thick Skin (Feedback)
 A Paradoxical relationship with Ambiguity

• Specific Business Analysts skills –

 Technical Skills
 Methodology Skills
 Industry and Domain Expertise
1) Core Skills:
• Business Analysis is a good career choice and requires various skills to improve
individually as well as organizationally. In such a skill set, Core skills are first and
most required one and also interesting one.

a) Communication Skills:
• Business analysts must be good communicators to facilitate working
meetings, ask good questions, listen to the answers (really listen), and absorb
what’s being said.
• In today’s world, communication does not always happen face-to-face. The
ability to be a strong communicator in a virtual setting (via conference calls or
web meetings) is equally important.
• Strong general documentation and writing skills also quiet important to start a
project effectively and efficiently.
b) Problem-Solving Skills:
• Every project is a solution to a problem and no project started with out a
problem specification.

• At the highest level, BAs facilitate a shared understanding of the problem, the
possible solutions, and determine the scope of the project.

• Business Analysts facilitate teams to solve technical challenges, especially

when they involve negotiation between multiple business or technical
stakeholders.
c) Critical Thinking Skills:
• Business analysts are responsible for evaluating multiple options before helping
a team settle on a solution.

• While discovering the problem to be solved, business analysts must listen to

stakeholder needs but also critically consider those needs and ask probing
questions until the real need is surfaced and understood. This is what
makes critical thinking and evaluation skills important for new business
analysts.

While communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills are core to

being a good BA, they are not all that’s required.
2) Business Analysis Skills:
• For the business analyst role to bridge the gap between requirements and clients,
Business Analysis Skills and these provide a Business Analyst Blueprint.
Analysis & Communication Techniques are Both Key Sets of Business Analyst
Skills.

• The Analysis Techniques are the models and templates we use as business
analysts to analyze and think through the requirements. But these requirements
do not get created in a vacuum. We must elicit or discover them from our
stakeholders. This is why knowing the right Communication Techniques to use
as a business analyst are equally important.
a) The key Communication Techniques for collaborating with stakeholders
are:

• Discovery Session – to discover information related to the process or

requirements from business stakeholders, so the requirements represent their
needs.

• Requirements Review Session – to validate the requirements that have been

captured are clear and correct.

• We also consider the glossary and user stories to be communication

techniques, because their primary purpose is to capture and communicate
requirements-related information to various stakeholder groups.
b) The key Analysis Techniques:

• One of the challenges that plague way too many projects is “missing
requirements.” We miss requirements either when we don’t involve the right
stakeholders (i.e., apply the right communication skills) or overlook key areas of
requirements because we are only looking at one view.

• The Business Analyst Blueprint walks 3 key levels of analysis that are important
to fully understanding a problem and solution domain, when software is being
implemented as part of the solution. These are:
 Business-Level
 Software-Level
 Information-Level
 Business-Level, or how the business work flows operationally, often completed
by analyzing the business process (a textual model) and creating business process
flow diagrams (a visual model).

 Software-Level, or how the software system supports the business workflows,

often completed through functional requirements models like use
cases and wireframes.

 Information-Level, or how data and information are stored and maintained by an

organization, completed by data modeling techniques including an entity
relationship diagram (ERD), data dictionary, data map, and system context
diagram.
c) Business Analysis Tools:
• As a new business analyst, the ability to use basic office tools such as Word,
Excel, and PowerPoint should be sufficient to get you into the profession. Also,
a common visual modeling tool is Microsoft Vision.

• Other technical skills include the ability to use more sophisticated modeling
tools, Enterprise Architect, requirements management tools, such as DOORS or
Caliber, or project and defect management tools (there are really too many to
list these days). It’s unlikely you’ll find these to be required skills for a large
number of positions and they will be skills you learn on the job.
d) A Paradoxical Relationship with Ambiguity:
• Deep down, business analysts despise/hate ambiguity. Ambiguities in
requirements specifications lead to unexpected defects. Ambiguities in
conversation lead to unnecessary conflict. At every stage of a project, a Business
Analyst has to clarify and working out ambiguities.

• Yet, at the beginning of a project, before the problem is fully understood and the
solution is decided upon, a BA must be able to embrace the ambiguity and work
effectively through ambiguity. Managing ambiguity means we embrace new
information and learning as it surfaces, even if it surfaces later than we’d like.
4) Specific Business Analysts Skills:
a) Technical Skills:
First on the list is technical skills like knowing about Python, R, Scala,
SQL, .NET, Perl, Java and VBScript. As these skills provide technical
understanding of a problem to analyze and solve by communicate with technical
stakeholders and no need to write code or run database queries in majority of cases.

b) Methodology Skills:
Another way the business analyst job role can be specialized is around a specific
methodology. Common examples include:
 Agile Business Analysis
 Six Sigma
 Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
 Rational Unified Process etc.
• Having one or more of these skill sets for new business analysts, added
advantage when it comes to searching for a job, and quickly getting up to speed
on any specialized methodologies.

c) Industry and Domain Expertise:

The third is business and industry domain expertise. Business Analysts also require
a little exposure in financial domain, insurance, HR activities. But lot of BA jobs
require special areas of expertise to grow in career.
3) Soft Skills:
• Like the core skills, these skills are repertoire /list. However, these skills are
listed separately because they may not be intrinsic to the roles like specified in
the past. Business Analysts need to actively seek out improving in these areas
to move into first business analyst role.

a) Relationship-Building Skills:
• First and foremost on the list of soft skills is the ability to forge strong
relationships, often called stakeholder relationships. A stakeholder is simply
anyone who has something to contribute to your project, and often analysts
work with many stakeholders from both the business and the technical teams.
• This skill involves building trust and often means stepping into a leadership
role on a project team to bridge gaps.
b) Self-Managing:
• In general, Business Analysts are not project managers, the most successful BAs
manage the business analysis effort. This means that the BA is proactive and
dependency-aware. It also means they manage themselves to commitments and
deadlines, a skill set which can involve influence, delegation, and issue
management.

c) A Thick Skin:
• BAs receive a barrage of feedback – on their documentation and proposed
solutions. To succeed as a business analyst you need to be able to separate
feedback on your documents and ideas from feedback on you personally.