Question

Q92 Write an essay of 1000+ words on the topic ‘The Analyst’s Role in the Business Analysis Mode’. [8 Marks]

VERY IMPORTANT: USE WORD FORMAT FOR THE ANSWER - NO HANDWRITING - POOR RATING WILL BE GIVEN IF THE ANSWER IS HANDWRITTEN.

NO PLAGIARISM IS ACCEPTED IN THE ANSWER. THE WORD COUNT HAS TO BE MORE THAN A 1000 WORDS - WORDS WILL BE COUNTED. POOR RATING WILL BE GIVEN IF THE WORD COUNT IS LESS THAN 1000 WORDS.

Answer 1

Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines business analysis as the methodology of identifying the customers or internal business needs and assisting in creating solutions which are effective in nature. Business analysis has become a key component of any organization and these detailed insights throw light on an area which acts as a bottleneck in efficiency, revenue gain or customer satisfaction. Doing a thorough analysis helps in identifying the areas that need to be improved in order to an augmented experience to all the users.

Business analysis has become a core function of the project or new development. Very often large scale projects are defined based on the outcomes of business analysis. These analyses are useful in identifying the exact requirements and how these needs can be met. While the activity is crucial the role of a business analyst is even more critical to this venture. A business analyst is individuals who analyze the firm, the domain and the exact need of the hour. They help in identifying those critical areas which can be converted to measurable gains. One key responsibility of a business analyst is to guide the business and other users on the areas which can be improved through the use of technology, process improvements, and data analysis.

In today`s complex business scenario, the firm's adaptability to changing trends and patterns and the ability to manage them on a large scale is very crucial. Business analysts act the bridge between these areas. Very often, the business leaders and team identify the need for a change but cannot translate those needs into a model which can be understood by other developers or users. Business analysts act as the connecting link between them. The core responsibilities of a typical business analyst include the following:

• Creating a business case
• Strategic planning and monitoring of the project
• Capturing all the requirements
• Converting the requirements into functional aspects
• Change management etc.

All these form the basic functions of a business analyst. In addition to this, they also help in budgeting and forecasting, resource planning, governance and reporting, stakeholder analysis, process modeling, cost-benefit analysis, understanding of technology and other components. In a project, these areas are very important. If we look at any project, the first and foremost phase is the business analysis phase. It is during this phase that the teams gather together and brainstorm on the actual specific requirements that are needed by the firm. It is the responsibility of the Business analyst to drive these changes and ensure the teams meet to discuss the requirements and capture them for future reference. Eliciting the requirement is a difficult task for any individual. All users have spoken and unspoken needs which form the basic expectation of the project. For example, a business might want to start a project to create a new website. Users can share all the specific requirements but there are certain unspoken needs such as 100% uptime, faster responses, no lag or delay, etc. which are not conveyed as a specific requirement but the business analyst is expected to identify them and share them to the respective teams. For any business analyst, requirement elicitation is very important. There are many ways in which the requirements can be captured by the business analysts. The traditional documentation modes have changed and teams now prefer doing the same in workshops which keep the emphasis on creative thinking and process re-engineering. Very often the business analysts act as the facilitator for design thinking or similar workshops where the teams brainstorm and finalize the specific need of the business area.

When a project is initiated, business analysis is typically done in the first phase. This pattern is observed during a waterfall method of project management. Waterfall method refers to the projects where the activities are sequential and where each activity is fully dependent on the predecessor. All the requirements are expected to be captured by the business analyst during the predefined phase. A newer model of project management gives even more responsibility to business analysts. The agile methodology places significant importance to the role. As per the SCRUM guidelines, the scrum master and product owner are supported fully by the business analyst. While scrum master acts as the leader for the project, the business analyst along with the product owner is vital in getting all the requirements and ensuring all of them are translated into a model which can be easily understood by others.

A typical business analyst would have the criteria where he or she has worked in different portfolios where different types of problems have been encountered and different solutions have been deployed. An ideal business analyst should have sound knowledge of different technologies, process modeling tools, and reporting mechanisms. All these are crucial in ensuring the requirement capturing is done properly. Consider a scenario where a business analyst is a layperson with no insight into the business need. That particular business analyst will only capture those pain points which the other users have shared with them. Over a period of them, the business analyst might understand and add a few more points but the requirements which have been captured at this point will still be incomplete. On the other hand in case of an ideal business analyst, the business analyst would capture all the minute details such as frequency of the problem, source of the problem, the sequence of steps when the problem arises, the impact created by the problem, the different systems which are having linkage to the problem, etc. All these together would give the leaders and other development team further insights into where the actual problems might be rather than just a generic problem. A trained business analyst would elicit all those requirements into different categories and help in prioritizing them in such a way that the teams can start working on solutions faster. Consider the scenario where the business analyst was not present. The development teams would be faced with a challenge of understanding the problems in details and then try to identify the solutions for each problem. This would lead to a significant delay in the deployment of such projects. The role of business analyst helps in ensuring that these situations can be avoided.

If we consider a typical business analysis case too, the business analyst will get all the required data into an easy to understand format with which the leaders can take decisions. All these areas show a glimpse of the importance of business analysts in the smooth functioning of any firm.