Nowadays, it is much harder to find an organization that does not use software solutions to run their business. The popularity of software solutions has led organizations to raise their expectations and require their software solutions to do much more in a shorter period of time. This is why it’s inevitable that you need business analysts in the software development life cycle.
Why Do We Need Business Analysts?
Let’s look at life examples:
- You want to renovate your house.
- There are a lot of services on the market- from painting walls to roof replacement
- You are confused- you don’t know what to choose and you are ready to change your mind.
- You hire an interior designer, who tells you that at first, it is necessary to develop a design project, calculate a budget and only after that you can renovate the house.
- The interior designer helps you to choose necessary materials, makes a plan for contractors and discourages from unnecessary actions such as balcony glazing
- The renovation is set, you save your time and you got exactly what you wanted.
The same is with the development of IT projects. You have an idea, but you need a professional’s help to understand what a useful application is for a user. BA’s analyze the need of the business and discover the best possible solutions for you by removing the inadequate and unprofitable solutions.
What Does a Business Analyst Do?
Business Analysts bridge the gap between business stakeholders and the development team to ensure everyone is on the same page with the business needs
Here why you need a business analyst in the Software Development Life Cycle:
Requirement Specifications:
Often large IT projects begin with the set of requirements. Who better than the analyst wrote those requirements? Depending on the potential business solutions, the business analyst ensures the requirements are written exactly how the business expects the software to perform.
Why is this important?
If the business analyst does not learn about their stakeholder’s vision, developers may end up building a completely different product. This is the most important phase of business analysis, understanding what business stakeholders want.
Need Identification:
Once the Business Analyst discovers what you want, they narrow it down what you actually need. They connect your vision of software solution with what is possible to develop. They create a project that is realistic and practical. Having experience in the software environment, a skilled business analyst can translate the intricacies about the business needs to the development team.
Why is this important?
By removing the business analysis, you may quickly discover the software solution is not efficient. Too many features may slow down the speed, and increase the budget of the system. A business analyst helps you make use of particular software capabilities.
Translate Complicated Business Processes During Development:
An organization must detail their existing/new processes as the project progresses. A business analyst translates the complicated business processes into simpler tasks to make sure developers create exactly what is wanted. They can also serve as a point of contact during the development for quick answers when the staff is busy. This prevents blockers for the development staff, so they can continue moving forward and stating on schedule.
Why is this important?
Developers often use technical jargon which may cause a lot of misunderstanding, or even scare you off. Depending upon the level of understanding of the business domain, they may also find it hard to understand the need of the business. A business analyst makes sure that the final product meets the expectations of the stakeholders.
Validation of Decision:
BA’s establish an empirical approach to decision-making. Meaning that when it comes to justifying decisions to the development team or to stakeholders, BAs can present hard facts instead of hunches. By analyzing the business processes and models, a Business analyst allows the whole team to envision and prototype multiple solutions, then work on the best option for the business.
Why is this important?
In today’s agile environment, stakeholder requirements are constantly changing. It is necessary to maintain the requirements. Whenever there are conflicts between the business stakeholders and technical team, using that evidence, business analyst helps cool the temperature of difficult stakeholder discussions, validate all choices and eventually deliver a great product.
Test Management:
The business analyst can provide mentorship and consistency during the development of testing materials, ensuring that testing will cover all the necessary topics. They serve as an informed resource that assists the business stakeholders in performing tests that represent the real world of the business. Their unique whole-system view allows them to catch and prevent errors/defects that may be missed by individual testers.
Why is this important?
The testing team often requires help to create test cases, test scenarios, test data and test results in required formats. The business analyst can provide help with the final testing documentation. This is critical in oversight and auditing requirements to demonstrate how the testing led to the “go-live” decision.
Change Management:
Business analysts have a “ground level” understanding of the work from stakeholders’ perspectives, as well as a complete view of the project. BA’s can help them understand how the change in the project will affect their business processes.
Why is this important?
Ensuring change is accepted is critical in the long term success of the project. If a project does not have the resources for a full-time change practitioner, a business analyst can help stakeholders understand, prepare for and reinforce changes to the system they use.
Remember the great saying “A Bad System will beat a good person every time”. When you find your organization needs a software solution, knowing what you want is not enough. A high-quality business analyst understands the need of the organization, boost productivity and deliver value with flawless execution of the product.
Read our blog on “ Regression Testing and Automation“
