Business analyst job is quite varied job. There are many types of business analyst. Also the responsibilities for single business analyst are diverse. Business Analyst wears many hats. Sometimes he is good listener trying to understand the user requirements at other times he is trainer teaching Business user how to use a use a particular tool or system. The job involves using different skills. Communication skill is important along with Technology, domain and subject matter knowledge. So is the documentation skills.
The responsibilities of business analyst include.
Elicitation
The key role of business analyst is to start from a vague requirement or problem description and dig deeper to get the complete picture. A business analysis get the complete detailed requirement by using various techniques. This could include reading various documents, talking to people, observing people, arranging workshops. Business analyst uses various tools such as Mind Maps, Brain writing, Sample Questionnaire in understanding the existing system and changes that might be needed.
Analysing Requirements
Once you talk to people and understand the requirement. Analysing involves arranging all the requirements. Look at the complete picture of the system. Try to get the root cause of the issue. Get details about what exactly the business is trying to achieve.
Specifying Requirements
All the requirements must be documented in clear and concise and easy to understand format. Making sure all the requirements are addresses and described in details. They must be follow SMART guidelines. That is they should be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.
Validating the requirements
Once requirements are organised they need to be validated. The requirements needs to be traced back to its origin. Try to find if the requirement is still valid and unchanged. Make sure requirements are addressing the root cause of issue or real business needs. Making sure requirements are properly captured and the standards are maintained. Arrange requirements in order of importance and priority using MaSCoW principle.
Planning Business Analyst activities
If you are a senior BA then you might be asked to plan for overall business analyst activities for other Business Analysts in your team. You need to make sure different Business analysis efforts of various BAs working on same solution are synchronised.
Managing Requirement
Managing requirement can be part of the job of senior BA working in large project. This involves requirements from Various BAs form a complete picture and there is no Gap or overlap.
Apart from all these responsibilities that are part of the BA role a BA might be asked to do other things like Manage Project, Develop or test changes.
There are also many other things that business analysts are asked to do which is not part of their original job description.
