Overview of

Business Analysis
Aswini E
Contents

What is Business Analysis? .................................................................................................. 1

Why Business Analysis? ....................................................................................................... 2
Who is a Business Analyst and what does he do? ................................................................ 2
How does a BA add value to the Organization? .................................................................... 3
Business Analysis Framework .............................................................................................. 6
Knowledge Areas Vs BA Responsibilities.............................................................................. 7
Relationship between Knowledge Areas WHW Narrative ...................................................... 8
What makes a Competent Business Analyst? ....................................................................... 9
Scope of the Business Analyst Role.....................................................................................12
Career paths for Business Analysts .....................................................................................14

What is Business Analysis?

 Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining
needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

 Business analysis enables an enterprise to articulate needs and the rationale for
change, and to design and describe solutions that can deliver value.

 Business analysis is performed on a variety of initiatives within an enterprise.

Initiatives may be strategic, tactical, or operational.

 Business analysis may be performed within the boundaries of a project or

throughout enterprise evolution and continuous improvement.

 It can be used to understand the current state, to define the future state, and to
determine the activities required to move from the current to the future state.
Why Business Analysis?
Companies, regardless of the economy continue to increase their investment on
software development. The cost of getting it wrong can be astounding.
Did you know that according to the CIO magazine, US bureau of economic analysis?

Who is a Business Analyst and what does he do?

A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in
the BABOK® Guide, no matter their job title or organizational role.

A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide) is the

globally recognized standard for the practice of business analysis. The BABOK®
Guide describes business analysis knowledge areas, tasks, underlying
competencies, techniques and perspectives on how to approach business
analysis.

Business analysts are responsible for discovering, synthesizing, and analysing

information from a variety of sources within an enterprise, including tools, processes,
documentation, and stakeholders. The business analyst is responsible for eliciting the
actual needs of stakeholders—which frequently involves investigating and clarifying
their expressed desires—in order to determine underlying issues and causes.

Business Analysts play a crucial role in aligning the designed and delivered solutions
with the needs of stakeholders. Some of the activities that the Business Analysts
perform are —

 Understanding enterprise problems and goals

 Analyzing needs and solutions

 Devising strategies

 Driving change

 Facilitating stakeholder collaboration

How does a BA add value to the Organization?

An old friend from my college days called me few days back. We generally talked
about life and how are things going, the professional life discussions came up. She
was looking for a change of organization and requested to check with me if I am aware
of any appropriate openings for her in my network. She has built a great professional
career as a business analyst over last 10 years, prior to which she was in a technical
role.

She took couple of interviews with prospective organizations. Each time, both the
organizations perceived the BA role as an additional cost in the project. They had to
staff the position as the clients mandated the positions. She was clearly upset with this
mindset. “Tell me, how do I show the value add of a BA in the project? How do I prove
my worth to the organization? How do we change this mindset?” Unfortunately, many
organizations still believe that BAs are only for project documentation. They perceive
BAs spending most of their time in meetings and thus delaying the project. They
believe only real work lies in writing code, nothing more.

That’s when I realized that this is something that we business analysts need to
constantly show the value add of a business analyst to the project sponsor /
client. Business analyst as a role exists to solve business problems, create a positive
change, design and describe solutions that deliver value and enhance the return on
investment.
Following are 10 definite ways Business Analysts add value to their
organizations.

1. Enhancing organizational performance by adopting new technologies

2. Increasing organizational revenue through technology
3. Cost reduction through automation
4. Delivering business value quickly through correct prioritization
5. Enhance customer satisfaction through better product quality
6. Saving organizational resources through requirements validation
7. Saving organizational resources through requirements reuse
8. Enhancing probability of solution success
9. Protecting solution from malicious elements
10. Delivering projects on time with complete requirements
Let’s take a brief look at each of the value adds.

1. ENHANCING ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE BY ADOPTING NEW

TECHNOLOGIES
Technology is changing at a very rapid pace and providing unthinkable opportunities
to organizations. Things that was considered near impossible even a decade back is
now possible today because of technology. Organizations can reach out to
customers throughout the world, can serve customers throughout the world, can use
resources from around the world and the possibilities are really endless. As business
analysts, we have the advantage of scanning the environment for new technologies
and understanding how the new technologies can be leveraged to improve business
outcomes.
2. INCREASING ORGANIZATIONAL REVENUE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Couple of decades back, technology did not play a significant role in sales process of
an organization. With digital marketing, probably organization’s sales process will be
driven largely by digital technologies than traditional advertisement media. Business
analysts have an advantage that they understand business and they understand the
technology. They can make the organization take advantage of advances in digital
marketing technologies to enhance its sales and revenue.

3. COST REDUCTION THROUGH AUTOMATION

Traditionally most business analysts have focused on cost reduction through
automation which continues to be of value to organization. Any process which is
repeatable and predictable should be automated so that valuable human resources
can be released to perform tasks which are higher in terms of value.

Many of our customers at Adaptive US write to us how they have been able to save
a lot of manual effort in testing/data entry as well as customer communication by
simple automations in tools such as Google, MS Excel, Data Load etc

4. DELIVERING BUSINESS VALUE QUICKLY THROUGH CORRECT

PRIORITIZATION
Business analysts focus on requirements prioritization. This ensures that
requirements with higher value are implemented first and the business gets the
benefit of the solution as early as possible.

5. ENHANCE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THROUGH BETTER PRODUCT

QUALITY
Studies after studies have proven that close to 50% of customer reported defects
origin in requirements phase. Good BAs coupled with good BA process ensures high
quality requirements and subsequently a high quality product as well.

6. SAVING ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES THROUGH REQUIREMENTS

VALIDATION
Business analysts ensure that any requirement getting implemented in the project
add significant value to the organization. They evaluate requirements having taken a
close look at the return on the investment.

This ensures that the organizational resources are conserved and not spent on
features which do not add value to the organization.

7. SAVING ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES THROUGH REQUIREMENTS

REUSE
Requirement reuse can save a significant amount of money for organizations. In
most organizations, it's often observed that the same features are developed multiple
times by multiple teams. Any feature developed consumes significant resources as it
is maintained over a long period of time. Focusing on requirements reuse by
Business analysts can reduce the amount of development that needs to be done by
the organization. At the same time, reused components tend to be of better quality
than components being developed again and again from scratch.

8. ENHANCING SOLUTION SUCCESS PROBABILITY

The primary customer for the business analysts are the stakeholder and the users of
the system. Thus their critical success factor is the satisfaction index of the users
and the usability metrics of the system. Hence it’s natural for the business analysts
to try to make the solution as user friendly as possible. They also try to increase
stakeholders support on the proposed solutions. This ensures that the chance of the
solution delivering better value is higher.

9. PROTECTING SOLUTION FROM MALICIOUS ELEMENTS

In today's interconnected world, systems can be attacked by both internal and

external elements. Business analysts ensure that the information security aspect for
the applications is taken care in the form of non-functional requirements. Hence they
ensure the system being protected against malicious attacks.

10. DELIVERING PROJECTS ON TIME WITH CORRECT AND COMPLETE

REQUIREMENTS
Business analysts strive to collect requirements which are correct and complete.
This reduces the number of requirement changes one would see when the system is
rolled out. This way we get the system up and running with high stakeholder
satisfaction in the very first time.

To summarize as a business analyst you are improving the bottom line and ROI of
the organization.

Having a business analyst is in the project is in the best interest of the project as well
as the organization.

Like it’s rightly said “A penny saved is a penny earned” each small saving in effort
and budget is adding its effect to the bottom line.

Business Analysis Framework

BABOK® Guide was created by professionals for professionals; it is based on the
experience of experts in the business analysis field. The experts first identified all the
tasks that a business analyst is responsible for. Next, they grouped them into the
following six key knowledge areas.

To successfully execute tasks, a Business Analyst can use multiple techniques. Each
task in BABOK® lists many techniques that Business Analysts consider when
performing a task.

Also, the skill set of a Business Analyst is important. The BABOK® Guide has
developed a competency scheme that addresses the essential skills for this field. The
competencies listed by the BABOK® Guide help in performing the task efficiently and
effectively.

We can illustrate the above-mentioned aspects in the following model:

Knowledge Areas Vs BA Responsibilities

As discussed, business analyst responsibilities are grouped into the following six key
knowledge areas.

Business analysis planning and monitoring

This knowledge area focuses on preparing and monitoring the execution of business
analysis work. The old proverb says: “Proper preparation prevents poor
performance”; in this knowledge area, we plan how to approach our activities, how to
involve stakeholders, understand and document roles and responsibilities and define
how to structure the information that we will obtain throughout the business analysis
assignment. Additionally, knowing that we will have setbacks, we also plan how to
track business analysis activities and improve them or take corrective actions when
necessary.

Elicitation and collaboration

Business Analysts collaborate with stakeholders and obtain/elicit the information
required to understand needs and the organizational context to develop valuable
solutions. In this knowledge area, we prepare for elicitation, conduct it, and
communicate results with stakeholders. We also try to keep our stakeholders
involved in the initiative.

Requirements life cycle management

Requirements are rarely a one-off activity. Therefore, we have to manage
requirements. The reasons are diverse, e.g., an internal/external audit, a
maintenance contract with the supplier. The tasks belonging to this knowledge area
are requirements prioritization and approval, setting up traceability, requirements
maintenance, and change control process.

Strategy analysis
This knowledge area focuses on defining the true business need that aligns with its
mission and objectives. It is about understanding what the required future situation is
from the perspective of the key stakeholders. Knowing the current situation and the
future situation allows us to define actions that have to occur to achieve the required
future state successfully. In this area, we also perform risk management.

Requirements analysis and design definition

This knowledge area is concerned with the processing of the business analysis
information we receive through the elicitation efforts. This information can be diverse;
therefore, we may use models to cross-check the input and obtain sharpness on
what’s required. In this knowledge area, we define the requirements, verify them,
and validate them. Requirements feasibility is checked, and we also start thinking
about possible solutions. Solution analysis helps us to select one with the greatest
value for the stakeholders and organizations.

Solution evaluation
As we develop a solution, we must also check whether what we deliver matches the
stakeholders’ expectations. In this knowledge area, we define relevant solution
performance measures, execute them, and analyse the results to determine what
stands in the way to make the solution valuable to the organization. We recommend
actions to remove these barriers either from the solution itself or the organization to
ensure maximum business value is delivered.

Relationship between Knowledge Areas WHW Narrative

Knowledge areas are not intended to represent phases in a project.

So, what is the “WHW Narrative“?

When you look at the diagram, you realize that there is an interrelationship between
the different knowledge areas:
The WHW Narrative is looking at the relationship between knowledge areas via the
following three questions and grouping the Knowledge Areas (KAs) to fall under
them:
W – What Does a BA Do? – These are the innermost KAs. The tasks that are part of
these knowledge areas are “What” we do as business analysis practitioners (at the
core of it).
H – How Does a BA Work? – These are the KAs surrounding the inner KAs. The
tasks that are part of these knowledge areas are “How” we go about doing business
analysis.
W – Who is An Effective BA? – This is the underlying competencies KA. It doesn't
have tasks, but only describes the skills, knowledge and personal traits required to
be an effective business analysis practitioner. So, this defines “Who” an effective BA
is.

In Conclusion: Use this narrative to relate back a task to your practice. As you go
through the different tasks in these knowledge areas, use the WHW practitioner's
narrative to help you see the trees and also the forest.

What makes a Competent Business Analyst?

The BABOK Guide has listed out a set of skills and competencies that support the
practice of business analysis.

These competencies are grouped into six categories:

 Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving

 Behavioural Characteristics

 Business Knowledge

 Communication Skills

 Interaction Skills

 Tools and Technology

Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving

Analytical thinking and problem-solving skills enable Business Analysts to analyze

problems and opportunities effectively, identify what will deliver the most value, and
collaborate with stakeholders to understand the impact of those changes. Analytical
Thinking and Problem Solving core competencies include —

 Creative Thinking

 Decision Making

 Problem Solving

 Learning

 Systems Thinking

 Conceptual Thinking

 Visual Thinking

Behavioural Characteristics

These are characteristics that enhance personal effectiveness in Business Analysts.

Behavioural Characteristics core competencies include —

 Ethics

 Personal Accountability

 Trustworthiness
  Organization and Time Management

 Adaptability

Business Knowledge

Business knowledge enable Business Analysts to perform effectively

within their business, industry, organization, solution, and methodology. Business
Knowledge underlying competencies include —

 Business Acumen

 Industry Knowledge

 Organization Knowledge

 Solution Knowledge

 Methodology Knowledge

Communication Skills

Communication skills enable the Business Analyst to convey information to

stakeholders in a manner that delivers the intended meaning and to accurately
understand the information received from stakeholders. Communication Skills core
competencies include—

 Verbal Communication

 Non-Verbal Communication

 Written Communication

 Listening

Interaction Skills

These are represented by the business analyst’s ability to relate, cooperate, and
communicate with different kinds of stakeholders. Interaction Skills core
competencies include —

 Facilitation

 Leadership and Influencing

 Teamwork
  Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

 Teaching

Scope of the Business Analyst Role

What is the role of the Business Analyst (BA), at each point in a typical project
or programme of work?
To consider the scope of the business analyst role it is helpful to consider the chain
of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to implementation of
solutions.

This chain involves 10 groups of users:

 Owners
 Strategists
 Sponsors
 Programme Managers
 Project Stakeholders
 Design Analysts
 Solution Builders
 Solution Builders & Business
 Project Managers
 Users

In order to understand how Business Analysis mitigates these risks, we need to

understand the role of the Business Analyst. When you look at the following diagram
that scopes this role, bear in mind two points:
1. Business Analysis is not always done by Business Analysts! This is most
evident during change project creation when driver and objectives are
being defined and the Project Manager may be doing the analysis.
2. While a Business Analyst may not actually do all of the activities listed, they
will need the products of all these analysis activities to do the subsequent
analysis.
SCOPE OF THE BA DIAGRAM NARRATIVE.
‘Owners’ are those people who can enable a project to proceed or cancel it. They
will include budget holders but almost certainly there will be other owners who may
or may not be officially recognised as such but who can – if they desire – stop the
project.

For example, an IT Director might be one owner of a Business project involving a

new system if there are IT standards which must be adhered to before a system can
go live. These owners need to agree what the change project will accomplish and
analysis is needed to define these objectives in terms of what the measures of
success will be and – for each measure – the target value that equates to success.

‘Strategists’ will define an approach for achieving the objectives. Analysis is needed
to ensure that the strategy is justifiable to the owners. Note that it is very common for
an Owner to also be a Strategist! But not all Owners will be Strategists.

‘Sponsors’ will back a programme of change. A programme is defined as a

collection of projects. Taken together these projects will deliver the strategy that has
been agreed will achieve the objectives. Note that it is very common for an Owner to
also be a Sponsor!
But not all Owners will be Sponsors. Analysis will be needed to define the Terms of
Reference (TOR) for the Programme: the Objectives, Scope and High Level
Requirements as a bare minimum.

‘Programme Managers’ will initiate the projects that make up the programme. The
same note for Programmes apply to Projects: it is very common for an Owner to also
be a Programme Manager! But not all Owners will be Programme Managers.
Analysis will be needed to define the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Programme:
the Objectives, Scope and High Level Requirements as a bare minimum.

‘Project stakeholders’ will generate and sign-off requirements for the project.
Analysis is required to define the process, data and non-functional requirements.

‘Design analysts’ will take the products of analysis and propose the best solution to
meet the requirements (‘best’ being defined as satisfies most requirements). Any
compromises required will be mediated by the Business Analyst with all who need to
accept the compromise. Note that Design Analysts can be IT analysts for IT
components, HR analysts for people and organisation units, and others for other
components.

‘Solution Builders’ take the design specifications and construct solutions. Note that
these solutions are not constrained to IT components but must all work together to
provide the whole solution.

‘Solution builders and Business’ test the solution. The requirements analysis
should be used to construct the test plans – especially the user acceptance testing.
Note that the Business Analyst should q/a that the UAT does test that the
requirements have been met.

‘Project Manager’ will co-ordinate the whole project and implementing the solution,
and the Business Analyst (being a subject matter expert on project Objectives,
Scope, and Requirements) should be able to contribute significantly to the design of
all implementation activity, all the while ensuring that requirements are being met.
In an ideal world, ‘post implementation’ how well the objectives have been met will
be fed back to the Owners.

Career paths for Business Analysts

A lot of people who start their career as a Business Analyst are left wondering where
to go from here a few years down the road. This is because (a) the industry doesn’t
really have a good definition of business analyst role and it differs greatly organisation
to organisation and (b) the role is extremely dynamic and has been ever-changing as
the methods to develop software have and finally (c ) the BAs usually end up
reporting to leaders with no experience in relevant domains. In these circumstances,
the Business Analysts are left with very little internal coaching or a structured
development framework.
I have worked as a Change/Process Business Analyst, as well as a Consultant
Business Analyst in my career, so have been lucky to have experienced all flavours
of the role. These are the options available to junior to mid-level Business Analysts
exploring their next steps.

1. Vertical growth in Business Analysis domain

In many organisations, the Business Analyst role comes with a good growth plan. If
your organisation offers, you can explore moving up the chain from a BA to a Senior,
then to a Lead and finally a Principal BA. Some organisations also have a role called
Head of BA Practice which doesn’t expect you to be a hands-on BA but help develop
the standards and best practices for the organisation for the BA practice.
Training and Certifications: British Computer Society, BABOK Body of Knowledge,
International Institute of Business Analysys
2. Agile Coach
Agile Coach is a newish role. A lot of organisations want to move towards an Agile
SDLC process and usually hire a consultant Agile Coach to come in and help them
kickstart. However, they also hire a resident Agile Coach to ensure the Agile practices
keep functioning and the team members receive the required training and coaching.
If you are a mid to senior-level Business Analyst and have been working as a hands-
on Agile Business Analyst in various organisations of different sizes in different
industries, this is an option to consider. To be eligible for this transition, you should
not only have practised all flavours of Agile (Scrum, Kanban and the like) as a hands-
on Agile BA, but should also have helped your organisation tweak and twist them to
suit the process.
If this is the role you want to consider, pursue relevant opportunities in your current
BA role so you can build up some evidence of being an Agile Coach.
Training & Certifications: Trainer/Coach certifications from Scrum Alliance.
3. The technical vertical
I have a strong bias for technical business analysts. If you are one — you have a few
more opportunities open for you. The role System Analyst of the 90s is now usually
called Technical Architect or Solutions Architect and both are open for you if you can
evidence a strong hands-on technical knowledge. You should keep yourself up to
date with trends in development including both front end and backend, databases,
data structures, messaging streams, design models etc.
Once you’re in it, the next logical step is Enterprise Architecture discipline.
Training & Certifications: Consider Enterprise Architecture & Solution Design
training and certification from British Computer Society if this interests you.
4. Project Management pathway
For many Business Analysts, their day job requires them to do some level of Project
Management- it can be high-level planning, dependency management, tasks
overview, release management etc. If you have been involved in this through your
career as a BA, you can also explore Project Management opportunities.
Make sure to evidence any project management work you have done as part of your
career and if you don’t, first pursue such opportunities in your current role to bridge
that gap.
Training & Certifications: Also consider getting some of the project management
certifications like PMP on your CV.
5. Product Management
A very natural step for many Business Analysts is to take up the Product
Management role. Don’t be mistaken though — it is not the same role. This is quite a
big shift from being very tactical and hands-on to being strategic and also focusing on
medium to long term.
Training & Certifications: Consider getting some Product Management training;
certifications always help to evidence that skill. Consider Product Focus, Product 360
and Roman Pichler.
6. ITIL Operations (Service Design & Delivery, InfoSec Mgr)
This is one area I have not touched much in my career and have very little advice to
offer but I know some BAs who were able to switch from a BA role into Service
Design, Service Delivery or even Information Security Manager role. These were
usually the BAs who have not focused a lot on design and delivery of the software,
but more on its maintenance and customer relationship management. Naturally, they
were exposed a lot more to these process and roles and hence a good choice for
them.
Training & Certifications: I do know that the best training and certification to
kickstart a shift into this area is ITIL Foundation pathway.
7. Consultant BA
One career choice I can not recommend the Business Analysts enough is to work for
a Consultancy. This is because a Consultancy offers you a fantastic opportunity to
work with a huge variety of clients, industries, process and products in a short span of
time. I worked with a consultancy for an 18 month period and was able to experience
working in 4 completely different industries, 5 different products and a very different
set of clients. This experience is irreplaceable and not something you can gain
working with subject-matter based on area-focused organisations. That might make
you an SME in that domain but especially in early to mid part of you career, you need
to focus on the breadth and depth of your BA skillset and not domain knowledge.
Training & Certifications: No certifications or training required on this pathway, look
for what software development or product consultancies you can find where you live
and consider applying for a BA role there.
8. Management Analyst
Management analysts are also often known as management consultants. People in
this role advise managers and business leaders on ways to improve company
processes, reduce costs and increase revenue. They are very similar to IT business
analysts, but they generally consult for other companies rather than working internally
for one company.
Many management analysts pick one focus area, such as IT, finance or government,
and act as a subject matter expert for clients in that arena. Most management
analysts only need a bachelor’s degree, though having an MBA or equivalent training
can improve your job hunt.
9. Pre Sales Consultant
As a Pre-Sales Consultant, you would be expected to know your product and it’s
capabilities. Your primary job is to support the sales team who are trying to sell your
company’s product. This would be the case if you are a vendor side Pre-sales
consultant. Likewise, you can also be the client-side Pre-sales BA. As a Client-Side
Pre-sales BA, you are supposed to create or respond to request for
proposal/information and raise the right kind of queries related to the service you seek
from the vendor whose product you intend to buy/use.