Business analysis is the series of tasks and techniques used as a medium to interact with stakeholders. This enables understanding and communicating the structure, policies, and operations of an organization. So, coming up with recommended solutions that enable an organization to achieve its goals. Business analysis consultant is involved in the following processes:
- Determining business needs and opportunities known as Enterprise Analysis.
- Assembling, clarifying, and validating requirements known as Elicitation.
- Writing and communicating requirements to stakeholders, called Requirements Communication.
- Forming a plan to accumulate requirements, define the scope, and deal with changes to requirements, known as Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring.
- Assuring that the requirements are properly written, specific, and comprehensive, known as Requirements Analysis.
- Ensuring that the solution is the right fit and is according to the requirements, not the other way around
It's All About the Requirements
Basically, business analysts are the key persons involved in gathering and documenting business requirements before project planning and implementation. Business analysts are chiefly involved in enterprise analysis. They work to clearly define the product scope, in other words the features and functions of the product, service, or the deliverable. And that is more related to the requirements.
In the Software/System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), a business analysis consultant is critical in the analysis phase. This phase is where anyone who performs business analysis, spends their time. The end goal is to get project requirements accurately the first time. As a matter of fact, Microsoft Corporation for example has learned over time that, for every wrong, ambiguous, or incomplete requirement on a project, it will cost 5 to 200 times more to fix that project.
How A Business Analysis Consultant Fits Into Other Organizations?
It's crucial to understand that business analysts may or may not work on projects, based on how they are used in an organization. At times, business analysts deal mainly with identifying opportunities for improvement. At other times, this enterprise analysis is performed at higher levels in the organization by senior management. Or by specific departments. And later a business consultant is hired when there is a project already planned to gather, write, and manage specific requirements.
Furthermore, a business analyst is also hired once a project has been initiated, mainly to gauge and validate a solution against the business requirements. Other organizations usually use a project manager to perform business analysis. Small to mid-size companies usually don't detach these positions. Means, one person will do both. This is mainly why training companies has lot of project managers attending their business analysis classes. On the other hand, many business analysts attending their project management classes.
Sum Up
To sum up, project managers who learn business analysis achieve a higher level of success at defining project and product scope. With the result that, it gives them greater control over scope changes throughout the project. In addition, increases the possibility of completing projects on time, at or within budget, and to the 100% satisfaction of their stakeholders.
