Business Analysis
Everything about Business Analysis.
What is business analysis?
Business Analysis is the act of identifying what the business needs so that it will help determine the solutions to various business problems. One can define the needs of the business and help deliver the value to the stakeholders. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. A business Analyst is thus a person who will help provide solution various problems that may occur.
The origins of business analysis
Business Analysis was born out of the fact that IT change projects started to go wrong in the 1980s. Before that, IT change projects could solve a limited set of problems in a limited way because the only options were to turn paper based data into electronic data and have simple programs automated the use of that data. There were many limitations such as:
- Storage of the electronic data was expensive
- The way data was stored was cumbersome (flat files read sequentially in one direction only).
- Programs were difficult to write in abstract languages
- There was only a limited set of functionality based around mainframe processes
- User interfaces were delivered on basic green-screens
Since the 1980s things have changed: data storage has become cheaper and covers not just paper based data but audio and visual data too; the universe of business solutions is an ever expanding one.
There are many more choices to make at each stage of an IT and/or any other type of change project and with that increase of choice comes the increasing likelihood that the wrong choices are made – wrong not in the sense of not working, just wrong for what the Business require. Hence we need Business Analysis to determine best possible solutions.
Who is a Business Analyst and why is he important?
A business analyst is a bridge between a client’s needs and problems and the solution to solve these issues. Through his expertise in analyzing the situation and the different qualities that he possesses, the business analyst would present the solution to organizational, technical and other queries.
Business analysts are very important part of a successful IT organization. Even thought the job description remains largely undefined, what business analysts do is be the mediator, liaison between the growing business demands of the company and the supply of IT resources.
Successful Business Analysts are those people who can communicate successfully and hence facilitate and analyze what the issues are. If the business analyst is good then it leads to a far better project success rate and also a jump in quality end user experience.
The role and responsibilities of a business analyst
A business analyst has to be a master of all the trades! Some of the skills that a business analysts requires are as follows
- Business planner
- Project Manager
- Subject Area expert
- Data Analyst
- Organization analyst
- Application architect
- Process Analyst
- Application designer
- System analyst
What is BCS?
BCS (British Computer Society is a professional body that represents those working in Information Technology sector. BCS (British computer society) was formerly known as ISEB (Information Systems Examinations Board Limited) and has a network of 70,000 professionals with high level of alignment with SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age).
With global recognition and worldwide reach, BCS is ideally placed to guide IT professionals through their careers and to provide employers with expertly trained employees that can add real value to their business. To know more about BCS, please visit – www.bcs.org
