The Role and Responsibilities of Business Analyst
To be a distinguished Business Analyst, and to enhance your chances of success, earning a business analyst certification is essential. Certification can advance the overall performance, remove uncertainty, and widen market opportunities.
A certified business analyst has a more comprehensive view of the BA techniques and approaches. It also shows promise, as preparing for these certifications and making the exam is not a simple task. Organizations also identify individuals for the hard work and determination which the candidate has put into it.
There are several industry-recognized certificates aspiring Business Analysts can acquire. Their acceptability, qualification criteria, and fees vary widely.
IIBA Business Analysis certifications are the most common business analysis certification in the world. IIBA has been serving the business analysis profession and certification for more than a decade now.
IIBA has dominated the certification space for the BA community with its certifications ECBA (basic level), CCBA (intermediate level), CBAP (Advanced level), and AAC (Agile Analysis Certification), each requiring a varied level of experience.
IIBA has been very successful in the corporate world as well as among professionals. Since those certifications have the help of IIBA and corporate recognition, the job opportunities that it takes in is much higher than others.
(1) IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
- CBAP is meant for business analysts who have 5+ years of business analysis experience. It is the most popular and accepted BA certification in the world.
- CBAP exam has a case study and scenario questions based on Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABoK).
(2) IIBA Certification of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA)
- CCBA is for business analysts, so have between 2 to 3 years of business analysis practice and targeted towards business analysts who are doing business analysis alone.
- CCBA exam has summary questions based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABoK).
Business Analyst Roles and Responsibilities
For every business analyst aspirant, it is essential to understand the role of a BA. As this will aid in preparing oneself to succeed in the role.
In this article, I am going to explain the business analyst role and responsibilities.
Business analyst term is used to connect to two distinct profiles, and that is often confusing for many.
In overall, the IT industry is using the term BA to refer to:
- IT Business Analyst or Systems Analyst: We are going to discuss this role in the article
- Business Analyst/Data Analyst/Analytics professionals/data scientists. This role is involved in the IT business analyst, even though there are similarities.
- It is pertinent to explain what business analysis is so that we can understand the role of an IT business analyst in the right context.
The Role of a Business Analyst:
An IT business analyst works with the customer as well as the technology team on a day-to-day basis.
Here is the case of the role of an IT business analyst:
- To interact with the customer to understand their requirements.
- To convert the business terms into detailed technical specifications for the technology team.
- To co-ordinate with the technology team to define the requirements.
- To verify the developed solution before handing over to the customer for User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
- To co-ordinate with the customer team and the technology team to facilitate UAT.
The Key Responsibilities of a Business Analyst:
The definition of business analysis provides for many various ways to the role. Although the role of a Business Analyst will change dramatically from industry to industry and from company to company, some essential functions a BA does remain the same.
To be a prominent BA, one must have a clear-cut idea of what is expected of them about their roles and responsibilities. One primary job of the business analyst is to find business opportunities and inefficiencies and provide support principally through implementing IT and technological solutions.
Some of the focus responsibilities of a business analyst, irrespective of their industry are:
- Understand the problems and goals of the company
- Analyze requirements and solution
- Devise conversion strategies
- Drive change
- Facilitate stakeholder collaboration
Validating and developing business requirements are at the core of a business analyst’s role. Requirements administration is one of the core skills a business analyst is expected to possess. Managing conditions both at the project level and organization level are vital in fulfilling business needs.
Business Analyst Job Description
Business analysis has been identified as a critical discipline in organizations across the globe. Business analysts allow the enterprise to articulate its needs, the rationale for change, and to design and describe solutions that deliver value.
Business analysis can be done in a project or across the enterprise. It is used to get the current state, define the future state, and manage activities needed for the transition.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) defines business analysis as the practice of facilitating change in an organization by identifying needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.
Business analysis is a study discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a software-systems development part, but may also consist of process development, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. The person who takes out this task is called a BA.
The BA is a role where one can add to an organization’s strategy, its contributions, its revenue, and its margin. It offers an excellent opportunity to interact with many stakeholders, develop innovative solutions, and increase the existing solutions.
Business analysts work as a connection between business stakeholders and technology architects.
BAs help guide businesses in developing processes, products, services, and software for data analysis. These agile workers ride the line between IT and the industry to help bridge the gap and improve efficiency.
A Business Analyst is an essential part of any project team. Acting as the critical interface between the users and the project manager, they gather information, document processes, and confirm the final documents with users.
Business analysts take the lead in the following key activities:
- Assisting with assessing the business case for the recommended change
- Planning and Monitoring
- Eliciting Requirements
- Requirements Organization
- Defining Risk Factors
- Translating and Simplifying Requirements
- Requirements Management and Communication
- Requirements Analysis
- Supporting the UAT process
Skilled business analysts also use elements to drive the design or review of test cases, process change requests, and manage a project’s scope, acceptance, installation, and deployment.
The role of a business analyst is continually evolving and changing. Every company has many issues that a business analyst can address, whether it is dealing with outdated legacy systems, changing technologies, broken processes, poor client or customer satisfaction, or siloed large organizations.
Summary
The core Business Analyst roles and responsibilities are compiled above, but it should be plain to see that it is a very diverse role and yet highly specialized. The BA roles and responsibilities are of such a character that it can be applied within any subject matter area and any industry.
Business Analyst roles and responsibilities are often not well known within the global organization and consequently badly used by simple Project Managers and Business Leaders.
This can create some frustration among Business Analysts. Still, thanks to the Professional Business Analysis Pathways being promoted and performed worldwide, this may not be a frustration for too much longer.
