Category: Business Analyst Daily Tasks

Who is Business Analyst and what are the daily tasks of Business Analyst Daily Tasks

How to Become a Business Analyst in IT field

How to Become a Business Analyst

Here whatever I mentioned is based on my own experience; I feel it may help to someone who are preparing for BA and trying to get job as a Business Analyst.

A BA is in charge of understanding a business’s changing needs, and providing technological solutions to improve its processes and systems. Thus, a business analyst is often thought of as the link between the business and IT departments.

Let us discuss in-detail below to understand how to become a BA and what are the skills needed to prove as a BA. 

How to Become a Business Analyst

How to become a Business Analyst

Once we got information from our friends or colleagues related to BA career and if we decided to become a Business Analyst, then first question in our mind is how to become a Business Analyst.

Then we start discussing or inquiring more about BA and start thinking about “How to become a Business Analyst and what skills needed to become a BA. Here I am trying to give some inputs which may answer to your question “How to become a Business Analyst” 

Identify Skills:

Before deciding to become BA first identify what are the skills needed to become a BA and what BA will do on daily basis.  Most of the people may think communication is very important to become BA that is partially true. Communication means not only speaking in English, as s BA we should know what to speak and what not to speak and how to convince the stakeholders. Once you identify the skills, analyze yourself whether you are suitable for this position or not. Once you decided that you are suitable for this position then start improving skills to become BA.

How to identify Skills :

Now a days we can get more BA blogs and videos online, we can get to know by reading BA blogs and watching some videos on YouTube.

What are the skills needed to become a Business Analyst

Develop Your Knowledge as a Business Analyst: 

Once you decided that you are suitable for this position then start improving skills to become a Business Analyst by reading Business Analyst related blogs and by watching videos. And you can discuss with your seniors who can help you to build your career as a BA Start understand,  how software application will be developed and what challenges team faced during the development of the Project. And start thinking as a BA, if you are in that situation as a BA then how you will react and you will resolve the issues are problems.

What BA does on his/her day to day life
Role of BA in a Project

Develop your Domain Knowledge:

Domain knowledge is very important for BA Example for Domain Knowledge: Banking, Insurance, Finance, Healthcare, Telecom etc… Domain knowledge will help you to understand client requirements easily. You may think that as a fresher how I can get Domain Knowledge. Start discussing with your friends and seniors who are working on multiple domains and multiple organizations. Try to understanding by them how bank will work and how IT Company will work. Most of the companies will not expect Domain knowledge if you are attending interview as a Fresher, but it is good to have some knowledge.

What is Domain Knowledge

What is domain knowledge and why domain knowledge is important for BA

Practice BA Tools: 

BA will use some prototyping tools to capture the requirements.  Stake holders can understand by seeing the prototypes what is the requirement and what client is expecting by this requirement.

What are the tools used by BA
Documents prepared by the BA during the SDLC

Prepare Resume:

Once you are confident then start preparing the resume and start attending to interviews. And ensure your resume should not be a template; change the resume as per the job description and company requirement.  Before attending to any interview read the job description carefully and prepares yourself what interviewer is expecting from you and how to answer to him.

Don’t worry and don’t disappoint if you not answered any question, note down the questions which you not answered and prepare well for those. Don’t lose your confidence and keep attending the interviews.

Read Job Description of BA

Start Attending the Interviews:

Note down the questions:

I feel it helps you to understand how to become a BA/ 

Once you understand how to become a BA, then you can start prepare your resume and start attending interview.

Business Analyst Certification

FAQS:

What qualifications do you need to be a business analyst?

Desirable qualifications
Undergraduate degree in subjects such as computer science, business information systems, computing and systems development, and business management.
Postgraduate qualification

How do I start a business analyst career?

To start a career as a business analyst, initially educate yourself as a business analyst person by undergoing some business analyst training. Get certified: There are a number of BA certifications widely recognized in the industry today.

Is it hard to become a business analyst?

Business analysis is hard.
It’s an extremely creative activity – occasionally frustrating but generally very satisfying. I used to come home most days feeling like I’d done a good day’s work and would still have plenty of energy to apply myself to extra-curricular activities in the evening.

Is business analyst a good career?

A good business analyst can move from industry to industry with ease. You can move to where the work is needed. You are a very flexible resource. It is also a well paid career.

How do I become a business analyst with no experience?

Learn From Other Business Analysts.
Do Some Research On BA Work Deliverables.
Seek Out Training Opportunities.
Master Soft Skills.
Participate in Business Analysis Tasks.

How is business analyst as a career?

After eight to 10 years in various business analysis positions, you can advance to chief technology officer or work as a consultant. You can take the business analyst career path as far as you would like, progressing through management levels as far as your expertise, talents and desires take you.

Does business analyst need MBA?

MBA degree is not necessary for an individual to take up a Business Analyst (IT Business Analyst) role. Those who start their IT business analyst careers , most of the times do not have good skills in all the three areas. … So an MBA is not necessary to take up an IT business analyst role.

How is business analyst career path?

After eight to 10 years in various business analysis positions, you can advance to chief technology officer or work as a consultant. You can take the business analyst career path as far as you would like, progressing through management levels as far as your expertise, talents and desires take you.

Is business analyst a technical job?

No, it is not. It is more of a techno-functional role but doesn’t require technical skills. Here are some extracts from Adaptive US’ blog on Business Analyst Job Description : … Managing requirements both at the project level and organization level are vital in fulfilling business needs.

Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs and Websites To Follow

The bacareers blog: Career Path for Business Analyst

Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs and Websites To Follow

Recently https://www.bacareers.in Career path for Business Analyst  was named the top Business Analyst blog on the web!Top 15 Business Analyst Blogs

This is the most comprehensive list of  Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs on the internet and I’m honored to be a part of this! Included in the list are some wonderful blogs.

Feedspot uses this criteria to create their rankings:

  • Relevancy
  • Domain authority
  • Age of a blog
  • Alexa Web Traffic Rank and many other parameters
  • Google reputation and Google search ranking
  • Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
  • Quality and consistency of posts.
  • Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review

Top 15 Business Analyst Blog
Top 15 Business Analyst Blog

Recognition never comes easy, and is often the result of collaborative work. Thanks to the much-appreciated support of its subscribers and visitors to its website, I did not expect this result when I started blogging, my intention is to help and support the people who are interested to start their career as a Business Analyst.

I am very happy when bacareers.in Career path for Business Analyst  has just been listed by Feedspot among the Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs on the Web.

No doubt, this honor is an encouragement for us to try even harder than we have done over the past 8 months to bring you the whole story, good and not-so-good, about Business Analyst.

Thanks again.

Our heart-felt appreciation goes to the dedicated team of Feedspot.

Thank you Feedspot.

Hope you find some new Business Analyst blog to improve your knowledge.

Top Blogs for Business Analyst

Top Blogs to improve knowledge as a Business Analyst.

Let us see here some important or top  blogs and websites to refer to get more knowledge on Business Analyst.

Top Blogs for Business Analyst
Top Blogs for Business Analyst

Usually I keep on search to identify some blogs and websites to improve my knowledge, while searching I got some websites and blots, after seeing that I felt it is worth to share with you all. I gone through so many websites and I felt below mentioned websites will help us to improve our knowledge.

I am sharing this information as per my personnel experience, may have some other blogs also but as of now I found this websites and want share with you all.

I feel it is better to visit the website and understand the things are better rather than I explain here on every website.

  1. https://www.batimes.com/
  2. https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/
  3. http://businessanalyst.techcanvass.com/
  4. https://businessanalysisexperts.com/
  5. https://theuncommonleague.com/blog/
  6. https://www.busanalysts.com.au/blog/
  7. https://www.adaptiveus.com/blog/
  8. https://seilevel.com/requirements/
  9. https://businessborderlines.com/index.php/category/blogs/
  10. http://www.adrianreed.co.uk/
  11. https://www.bacareers.in/home/
  12. https://blog.fhyzics.net/bcs-business-analysis-artificial-intelligence
  13. https://www.businessanalysishub.com/blog
  14. https://www.irmconnects.com/business-analysis/

To get certifications :

Let us know if you got any other websites which you feel, it will help to improve skills as a Business Analyst.

Please share in comments section so that it can be help to others also.

 

Business Analyst Challenges:

Business Analyst Challenges

Here I am listing down the real time challenges faced by the Business Analyst. There can be other challenges but here I am mentioning few which are facing by the Business Analyst in day to day life. I believe it may enough when you are trying a fresher, one or two experience.

  • Frequently changing requirements
  • Freeze requirements
  • Coordination with developers and testers
  • Change management-with respect to cost and time lines             
  • Drive UAT phase – on time completion of UAT·
  • Manage Stakeholders availability for requirements and conducting meetings
  • Lack of training
  • People Management , Coordinating with different teams and different people.
  • Making sure status reporting is effective
  • Domain Knowledge
  • Overall making sure project health is in good shape and delivered as per the timelines without any issues.

Business Analyst ChallengesChanging Requirements:Client may change their requirements very frequently. As a Business Analyst it is Very difficult to manage internal and external stake holders when they are frequently changing the requirements. We can’t accept every change request because already we committed the deadline of the project and committed the timelines to client and higher management and it may impact on project cost also. And development team also started work for committed requirements.

And it will take good amount of time to discuss and understand the requirement on the new change and feasibility of the same.  

And we can’t say ‘No” to the client because it may impact on the project, so we need to convince client with proper reasons.

Before saying “Yes” or “No” as a Business Analyst we need to analyze what is the impact of this change and how much effort needed to deliver this change.

Every client may not change their requirements frequently but it may happen in general.

Freeze Requirements:

We need not to consider this as a tough challenge but sometimes client may make you struggle to give sign off and sometimes client will delay on providing the sign off. Because of this development may delay, and we can inform the same to client during the meetings.

This is not a tough challenge but for some reasons, client will not sign-off on the requirements or delay sign-off. The reason is, once client provide sign-off on the requirements, any changes will be charged additionally. So client will take some time to sign-off but this will again impact our project schedule.

However in real time, we start follow-up with client to get sign-off and we will commit the delivery dates once we get sign off from the client only. Unless we get signoff from the client on FSD we will not start work on this project. It will happen rarely but there is a chance to take place this scenario.

Challenges during Development: 

This is also a common challenge for business analyst across organizations.

Developers will understand in a different way and do coding but when it comes to testing, testers might have understood in a different way and they will raise as a defect (bug) on developers. Developers will not easily accept the bug because they developed it and it will impact on their performance. Testers will argue it as a bug and finally it will be parked over Business Analyst. How to avoid these situations? Usually Business Analysts will share SRS / FSD containing requirements with developers and testers but Business Analyst should make sure that joint sessions to be organized with development team and testing team. Business Analyst should explain the requirements in joint session to both developers and testers and give them some time to read and understand. In case of any doubts Business Analyst should clarify then and there to avoid further confusions. And Business Analyst needs to conduct meeting with the internal stake holders frequently to get the project updates and to get to know whether team is facing any issues during development.

Change Management:

As we discussed previously once requirements are signed-off from client, any changes to the requirements will have impact on cost and schedule. So change management needs to be involved. i.e client should agree to provide more cost and additional time to deliver.

Most of the time, clients will not easily agree to the additional cost and time. This will require some sessions to convince clients. This will consume some effort.

However this is not exactly a challenge of Business Analyst, it will be project manager who will coordinate with customer for additional cost and time but since requirements are involved Business Analyst will also be engaged in change management process.

Challenges faced by the Business Analyst during UAT (User Acceptance Testing): 

Once development and system testing is done from project execution team & before taking software / application go live, UAT has to be done. In the project execution your project Manager will reserve some time exclusively for UAT. In real time clients will not start UAT in time. So, any delay in UAT will have impact on project roll-out. So Business Analyst should drive UAT and make sure clients start testing from their end in-time. In case of any defects in UAT phase Business Analyst should quickly resolve with help of developers and testers. And if these are related to application functionality then business analyst needs to address it as soon as possible.

Again, just like getting sign-off on requirement documents, Business Analyst should get a sign-off on UAT as well. Client should confirm that UAT is performed and no pending issues. 

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Manage Stakeholders Availability for requirements:

Requirements’ gathering is most important phase in the SDLC. Business Analyst will arrange sessions with clients to understand the requirements. Most of the times Business Analyst will need business units, tech teams, Architects & other stakeholders to discuss about the problem statement and collect end customer needs but not everyone will be available at the same time.

Especially if company is into consulting, tech teams will be working on multiple projects. You need to match client’s time with every stakeholder which seems easy but really challenging.

If meetings get delayed, project plan will be affected and hence delivery/implementation date gets postponed, your client will not agree and difficult to convince.

Lack of training :

Sometimes you may face the client without proper training, as you do not have enough knowledge and enough training on product, you can’t convince the client and you can’t provide suitable solutions to client. Due to this client may lose confidence and trust on you. If you want to prove as a good business analyst it is very important to maintain good relationship with all the stake holders to things get it done smoothly.

Lack of Domain Knowledge

Domain knowledge is very important for business Analyst, so that business analyst can understand what client is trying to explain and what exact requirement of the client is. It will help us to explain the functionality to developers and internal stakeholders.   

I hope it helped you to provide overview on  Business Analyst Challenges

To know more about Business Analyst Challenges, you can browse on google. 

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Business Analyst Challenges: FAQs

What are the challenges faced by business analyst?

Getting Stakeholders To Make Time.
Lack of Clarity.
Inadequate Time Allotted For BA Work.
Conflict Among Stakeholders.

What does a business analyst do?

The analyst is involved in the design or modification of business systems or IT systems. The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to understand their problems and needs. The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business needs and requirements

What is the role of business analyst in SDLC?

Role of Business Analyst during SDLC Process
Then leads in analysis and designing phase, dictates in code development, then follows the testing phase during bug fixing as a change agent in the project team and ultimately fulfills the customer requirements

What are the qualities of a good business analyst?

Impressive Communication. Imagine hiring a business analyst who mumbles every time they speak. …
The Ability To Solve Problems. A problem occurs within the company. …
Critical Thinking. Finding the ideal solution doesn’t “just happen.” …
An Analytical Mind. You don’t have to be born with it. …
Process Modeling Knowledge

What does a BA do in Agile?

The AGILE BA defines improvements to business processes, assists decision-makers in gathering information to make decisions, helps quality assurance test solutions and products, designs user interfaces and even steps in as a product owner, scrum master, or project manager as the occasion calls for.

Business Analyst Tasks

Let us observe Business Analyst Tasks

Business Analyst Tasks
Business Analyst Tasks

It is very important to know business analyst tasks, Business Analyst key role is to Analyze, communicate, Document and validating the requirements. Let us discuss Business Analyst Tasks and  what he does during the project/ Business Analyst needs to listen carefully when discussing with stake holders and should not interrupt when they are sharing about issues / Problems or requirements.

As a Business Analyst we may speak with the SME’s and end users to understand exactly what the requirement and exactly what client is expecting, so that Business Analyst can provide suitable solutions to the client.

Key Responsibilities of the Business Analyst: / Business Analyst Tasks

  • Understand the Project
  • Identify the scope
  • Goals of the project
  • Identify the Decision makers
  • Identify the Stake holders
  • Issues / Problems
  • Flow diagrams and mockups
  • Track the Requirements
  • Manage the Requirements
  • Resolve the issues if team stuck up with some issues
  • Communicating with all the stake holders
  • Documentation

Each requirement should be delivered without any issue.

To understand the requirements clearly, we may conduct multiple meeting sessions with the stakeholders. Business needs to document the requirements in the form of BRD/FRD.

Before arranging the meetings, we should have proper Agenda of that meeting.

  • Workshops
  • Brainstorming sessions
  • Focus groups
  • JAD sessions
  • Walkthroughs
  • BRD: Business Requirement Document
  • FRD: Functional Requirement Document

  • As a Business Analyst we should ensure to participate all the Stake holders, Decision Makers and Subject Matter Experts in the meeting.
  • Ask the correct questions to understand the requirements clearly.
  • And we should ensure to meeting should not be go off track and ensure to be in on track.
  • And ensure to everyone engaged in the meeting.
  • Note down the Meeting of the minutes and circulate with all the stake holders who are involved in this project.
  • And assign the tasks to the respective team and ensure to complete the task on committed time lines.

I hope this article helps to understand Business Analyst Tasks

FAQ’S

A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst

Investigating goals and issues.
Analyzing information.
Communicating with a broad range of people.
Documenting findings.
Evaluating solutions.
Implementation.

What tasks does a business analyst do?

Business analyst job description

Creating a detailed business analysis, outlining problems, opportunities and solutions for a business. Budgeting and forecasting. Planning and monitoring. Variance analysis.

What are the roles and responsibilities of business analyst in given phases?

Business analyst activity includes the following stages:

Identify customer needs, understand the problem he wants to solve. Develop idea independently or with a help of a team. Develop the idea into requirements specification to create future product.

What are the 3 most important skills of a business analyst?

Core Skills
Communication Skills. Business analysts must be good communicators. …
Problem-Solving Skills. …
Critical Thinking Skills. …
Analysis & Communication Techniques are Both Key Sets of Business Analyst Skills. …
The Key Analysis Techniques. …
Business Analysis Tools. …
Relationship-Building Skills. …
Self-Managing.

What are the skills required for business analyst?

Top 7 Business Analyst Skills that are High in Demand!
Competent Verbal Communication. …
Good Listening Skills. …
Ability to Understand Delegated Objectives. …
Being able to Run Meetings with Stakeholders. …
Knowing the Objectives Well. …
Being Diligent with Time Management. …
Documenting and Writing Reports.

Tell me About Your self as a Business Analyst.

Tell me About Your self as a Business Analyst.

Tell me About Your self as a Business Analyst.

As we know this is the common question for everyone when we are facing any interview, it is tricky question and ensure to respond in proper way. This is the question where interviewer can estimate your knowledge and skills, this is only question where we can express our strengths and positive areas.

We do not know what interviewer is expecting from us, some of them may expect your current work experience, some of them may concentrate on your projects, it could be anything.

Ensure to cover everything when you are answering this question, prepare a story about yourself to convince the others.

  • Be confident.
  • Cover present past and future.
  • Highlight your strengths as a Business Analyst, For Example: Gathering requirements, Stake holder Management, GAP Analysis, Impact Analysis.
  • Highlight the areas in SDLC where you are strong (Agile/Waterfall).
  • Read and understand the Job description, and prepare on Domain knowledge (Ex: Healthcare/Banking/Insurance)
  • Your Accomplishments.
  • The most important thing is we should not lose confidence when answering to interviewer questions.
  • Highlight your major areas only when you are answering for “Tell me about Yourself”, it should be short and sweet. As per my previous experiences I can say it should be between 3 to 5 minutes.

And prepare the skills needed to prove as a Business Analyst and Business Analyst Role in Project before attending the interview.

For Business Analyst Certification, you can visit IIBA

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