Competencies an IT Business Analyst Should Possess
An IT business analyst carries out multiple tasks, chief among them being the analysis of a variety of techniques and processes and suggests solutions depending on the findings so that the business can successfully achieve its ultimate goals. Over the years, the need for the appointment of business analysts have been felt by diverse industries and it is not sufficient to possess only domain expertise. The individual in an IT business analyst job should look into a few other areas as well.
It is necessary for any business analyst to internalise certain techniques so that they do consistently well in a project. Several projects start with a clear discussion of the requirements, instead of taking into account the issues that have been faced by stakeholders. A step involving enterprise analysis should be initiated in order to do the necessary fact-finding. A business requirements statement needs to be prepared, ahead of devising a solution.
Often project teams start developing products or solutions on the basis of the briefings of the stakeholders. They often fail to understand the fact that, despite the fact as to who informs them about the requirements, the project will fall flat if it fails to satisfy the requirements of the end-users. This problem can be solved to a large extent by the application of usability engineering. It forms an integral aspect of user-centric design. It covers every aspect of the cycle right from Usability Testing to User Centred Analysis to User Centred Design. It forms an integral part of any business analysis activity.
A large number of the software systems are dependent on object-oriented technologies these days. Therefore, it is equally necessary for business analysts to be acquainted with object-oriented techniques pertaining to their field of work. It is necessary to document the requirements, more specifically the functional requirements. Therefore it becomes easier to transform the same into a technical design and finally to a code. The entire process is much less prone to errors.
It is the responsibility of the business analyst to make sure that a proper solution is delivered to the stakeholders and that it is at par with the industry standards. It is up to the business analyst to validate and verify the requirements and then validate the final solution as well. Thus, an analyst should be properly skilled at devising and carrying out user acceptance testing. This also implies that the proper stakeholders are incorporated into the scheme of things.
It has been observed that a number of the problems that surface at the time of UAT activities and system testing emerge out of inferior quality documentation. This occurs as a result of the fact that an analyst often wrongly assumes that the system development team, one that works to devise the solution based on the documentation, possesses the same level of expertise in the domain as the analyst.
It is also necessary to possess vertical specific information. For example if the analyst is working for the IT industry, then a background in the same is desirable. Therefore, if you have been working in the field for some time, like in .net jobs, then you can work as an IT business analyst in the future.
Author Bio: Steven Hayes has been working as a recruitment consultant for many years. He guides applicants in their search for an IT business analyst job and suggests ways as to how they should go about their job.
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