Key Responsibilities Of A Business Analyst

What Does A BA Do?

Explore these 3 responsibilities

To be a good business analyst, one must have a clear-cut idea of what is required of them regarding their roles and responsibilities. A business analyst is an intermediary between customers and the company’s technical team. Below are 3 basic responsibilities of a business analyst. 

1. Eliciting and documenting requirements

Interacting with customers with the intention of understanding and documenting their requirements is a major responsibility of business analysts. After eliciting requirements, the analyst then liaises with the technical team to develop the product required. Some methods of eliciting requirements are through interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, prototyping and observation. 

After eliciting business requirements, it is the responsibility of the analyst to ensure that non-functional and functional requirements are also captured.

2. Defining risk factors

One of the business analyst’s key responsibilities is identifying risks. The analyst supports business projects by identifying and finding solutions to any risks that crop up. Project risks are any unforeseen problems that may delay the completion of a project while business risks are those that may negatively influence the business. Examples include anything that could hinder the release of a new product, such as key project personnel leaving (project risk), or growing faster than you can manage (business risk).

3. Supporting the user acceptance testing process

Before delivering a solution to customers, it is the responsibility of the business analyst to ensure that the technical team successfully developed the right application. The analyst does this by supporting the testing process and making sure that the implementation meets the needs of customers. This is done with the aim of ensuring that the implementation fulfils the project’s intended benefits. The analyst also has to ensure that the investment gives the company good returns while maintaining the customer's trust. 

Conclusion

Being the core intermediary between several departments in a company, the business analyst has to keep all forms of communication open for easy interaction. It is also the responsibility of the business analyst to keep reviewing company processes on a regular basis in order to determine if anything needs to change.