What Does a Business Analyst Do?

What exactly is a Business Analyst and what does the position look like?

A Business Analyst is figuratively speaking at the center of the organization. He or she is the bridge between business and IT and obtains support for changes that the organization wants to realize. We will explain exactly what this function entails in this article.

What is a Business Analyst?

A Business Analyst is a spider in the web and functions between the business departments and supporting departments such as IT, marketing and HRM. A business architect develops a strategic, long-term vision and the business analyst ensures the concrete changes and improvements required for this. Broad knowledge in different areas and good social skills are essential.

The function of a business analyst and information analyst are sometimes confused. They indeed have a number of similarities, but also major differences. For example, an information analyst focuses much more on the technical aspect and realizing a solution. A business analyst focuses more on analyzing the business problem and processes.

What does a Business Analyst do?

A Business Analyst is responsible for analyzing and implementing improvements within the organization. The purpose of this is to speed up and simplify complicated, slow processes to allow employees to work more efficiently and effectively.

Nowadays, business changes and software implementations go hand-in-hand and it is the Business Analyst's job to make these go as smoothly as possible by being the link between Business & IT . An analyst's projects are mainly concerned with IT. The main duties of a business analyst are:

• Taking stock of the wishes of all stakeholders - customers, employees, users - and then translating them into business objectives.
• Analyzing and correcting the objectives if they are unclear, incomplete or contradictory.
• Documenting use cases, user stories and functional specifications. These must be well put together both strategically and financially.
• Facilitate sessions with the development team to design, test and implement IT architecture and software applications. These can also be sessions with other stakeholders.
• Providing system designs such as a functional design or wireframe.
• Monitoring new business processes and supporting changes, for example by providing training.

What should you be able to do as a Business Analyst?

As a Business Analyst, it is important that you have broad knowledge in different areas, so that you can be a good link between Business & IT. In addition to knowledge of projects, finance, engineering or technology, it is important that you also have the following skills:

• Ability to identify business requirements and set up processes.
• Good social skills: communication is the core that connects everything.
• You are good at connecting and convincing people and act as a sparring partner in various cases.