Vital role of a business analyst

Good day...

Picture credit: WDnetStudio

In the last training I led, I threw this question 'what stage of project delivery do you think is the most important toward a project success?' I was delighted to see that almost all of the participants answered with requirement gathering. Why is it true? As requirement gathering normally takes place at the early stage of a project, any flaw in this exercise will lead to a significant rework at a later stage.

I believe that most of us would agree that Business Analyst is the key person responsible for an accurate requirement documentation. Here a business analysis skill is key to ensure that complete and meaningful business requirement, and also to fully understand the impact of the project to other business processes and supporting units.

A skillful business analyst will do more than merely document what the business people want. With a thorough understanding of the entire business process of the organization and some understanding of the impacted system, she will be taking the role of a consultant, equipping the business people with full understanding of the impact of their requirement. One step further, in the best case the business analyst will advise the business people with alternative solutions, which are normally simpler and easier, with less disruption to the overall business process.

Once an agreement is reached on the solution, the business analyst will then write a complete and detail documentation of the main business requirement, impact to the surrounding business process and supporting units, as well as, any adjustment required to the business process or organization structure. A strong business analyst will also think of and document negative scenarios, namely when the user or customers perform an unexpected behavior in using the solution, or, other possibilities of system usage.

In addition to functional requirement, the role of business analyst has recently been expanded to non-functional requirement, which covers system performance and security measure. The non-functional requirement should also consider scalability of the system, along with the growth of business volume and number of users.

Now I believe you agree that business analyst plays a vital role in ensuring successful project delivery right from the beginning.

Edwin