What Does a Business Analyst Do?

May 25, 2020May 25, 2020 Geekopedia 0 Comment Business, Consulting, Jobs, Project Management, Roles

It’s important to have a true idea of what a business analyst does if you are considering whether it might be a career you can and should get into. In reality, a business analyst does many different things, and trying to tie them all up into a succinct job description isn’t an easy task. We have instead broken the job down into its component parts so that you can more easily see the different facets that, as a business analyst, you will need to be competent in. Read on to find out more.

Business Analysts Assist Stakeholders

Once you have gained your qualifications in business analysis from Aston University Online you will have a rather wide open field when it comes to picking a job. One of the main aspects of any business analyst’s job is assisting stakeholders. If a business has a problem to solve and the stakeholders are looking for answers, they will often call in a business analyst to find those answers and solve that problem for them.

In order to do this, business analysts need to first define what the stakeholder’s business needs are and then determine what the requirements of the business are in order to make those needs possible to attain. In other words, a business analysist will be given an expected or hoped-for outcome; they will be given the current state of the business, and they will be expected to link the two with a roadmap for the stakeholders to put in place. This information will need to be documented in a non-technical manner so that everyone who needs to understand what to do will be able to.

Business Analysts Aren’t Limited

Although a business analyst’s main job is to assist the stakeholders (and business owners) in coming up with solutions to the problems that might be presented to them, there are a number of other facets to the role, and this is why it can be difficult to explain just what it is that a business analyst does.

Business analysts will often not be limited to just one task or position, and will need to be able to move from sector to sector, or department to department, in order to obtain the information they need to get the answers that are being sought.

For example, in just one day, a business analyst might need to:

Analyse the needs of the business
Create a business case
Discuss the business with stakeholders to obtain additional information
Model the requirements to see what will work and how to get there
Prove that the solutions will work
Carry out project management and then move on to project development when necessary
Carry out quality testing

As you can see, what a business analyst does will depend entirely on the task at hand. There is no one final definition, but you should be able to get an overview of the requirements and what people will be looking for when they hire a business analyst to help them.

You Might Already Be a Business Analyst

To be a great business analyst, you will need to have the relevant qualifications. You can then have your pick of businesses to work for, even working on a freelance consultancy basis. However, you might already have the experience that many business owners and stakeholders are also looking for, which means you might have the skills without realizing that you were already working in the capacity of a business analyst. Just because you didn’t have the title doesn’t mean you weren’t doing the job.

Many businesses will have business analysis carried out under the banner of something else, and it might be that this particular task is already part of your current role. If you have ever worked on a project that required solutions presented to stakeholders, you were, in reality, working as a business analyst.

The same is true if you have spoken with your team about what they might need in the business and then dug further to find out what is required to implement further changes. If you have communicated this information to the team that needs to implement the changes, again, this is business analysis.

In fact, this might even be how you came up with the idea of becoming a business analyst in the first place. If you enjoyed this element of your work and can see yourself doing it full time, then why not obtain the qualifications you need and do it?