Johannesburg, 18 May 2004
In terms of business systems development, a business analyst provides the link between business people who have a business problem and technology people who design and build automated solutions. The main responsibility of a business analyst is to gather, detail and document requirements in a format that is useful to business area experts and technical developers. Clients seek competitive advantage from these solutions.
Chris Wilkins, CEO of business systems solutions provider DVT, believes business analysts play an important yet often under-rated role in many organisations. He looks at some of the attributes of the analyst, from analytical and technical perspectives.
The Journal of Management Information Systems states that an analyst "must identify important cues amid a sea of extraneous information, set goals, generate and test hypotheses concerning the system attributes, process dissimilar information from multiple sources and distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. The analyst must then reformulate the problem into a common nomenclature for technical and non-technical audiences and specify a consensus-based, error-free set of systems requirements."
The analyst therefore walks a fine line, acting as a bridge between the workings of the business and the team responsible for implementing technology - all the while remaining technologically independent. This is a skill that is developed and refined through formal training and hands-on experience.
In spite of this, business analysis is still regarded as a function fitted in between "real" business activities.
In reality, business analysts are expected to demonstrate superior intellectual and communications skills, as well as problem-solving and quantitative skills. In this way, they contribute to growth, lower costs, and the realisation of strategic goals.
Few people who have not been involved in a completely successful medium-sized to large development project will understand the value a skilled, structured and forward-thinking business analyst brings to the team. Dynamic and challenging, this multifaceted and complex role requires a tactical player with an inherent knowledge of the specific business arena and the broad spectrum of factors influencing business success.
Underpinning the role is a strong personality that consistently brings out the best in people in a clear, non-confrontational manner, backed by a solid understanding of the myriad technology enablers that can assist the business. The business analyst needs to be communicative, articulate, diplomatic and unafraid to challenge the status quo.
Flexibility and versatility are key attributes for the role. No two clients are identical, so every assignment requires unique insights and solutions, whether you are helping a company to execute a global e-commerce strategy, evaluate the strategic outcomes of a privatisation initiative, identify global best practices in specific markets, or perform competitor benchmarking analysis.
Projects can vary from defining and consolidating business requirements on complex development projects, undertaking business process analysis for cost and efficiency reasons, consolidating information for business cases and writing low-level business specifications, complete with business rules.
Some tasks take days while others require ongoing short- and long-term scenario planning for months or years.
The nature of these assignments is always to plan and consolidate what the business needs so the solution architects can understand how they can make the plan happen. Business analysts are often asked to double as project managers - a difficult but essential task because of project size and restricted budget. They are also expected to be able to relate to technology and architecture issues on technology-based projects and to understand business economics from a solution delivery perspective.
The role of business analyst therefore requires different levels of competency. One way to determine the skills level of an analyst is to observe the sophistication of the final documents delivered.
From this perspective, there are three skills levels associated with compiling business analysis deliverables:
* The first level captures and summarises information into a documented format much as it was sourced.
* Level two takes this further by telling the story so that clarity emerges from the confusion and complexity appears simple. Conclusions and recommendations are explicitly stated and can also be implicitly deduced.
* The third level adds another dimension to presentation. Text, diagrams, calculations, graphs and document formatting combine to provide a comprehensive, concise and accurate representation of what is required and how the objectives can be achieved. Presentation is a perfect opportunity to add personal style and flair to the final deliverable. A good presentation captivates the target audience and encourages interaction and discussion, contributing to obtaining understanding and consensus, a large part of the analyst`s job.
The spectrum of the business analyst`s capabilities points to people who have a broad skills base yet are able to work as specialists when required, can assess and maximise business opportunities, and can easily articulate and document from concept to detail.
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