

The reality is that there are very few people who can do it all – from cradle to gave. The following is an oversimplified diagram which shows what the business analyst might be tasks to do:Īs you can see, the business analyst, depending on the organization, is expected to perform a variety of activities at various different points in time. This makes it obvious, once again that the role of the BA can encompass a wide variety of responsibilities. That is not the case! There are many business analysts who help the business improve the operational procedures, or business processes, or financial structure.

There is a widely spread misconception among many which believe that every business analyst is involved in the development of IT systems. The second thing you should notice in the above definition is that the role of the business analyst is NOT confined to just business solutions or just IT solutions the BA's task is to define the solution which helps the organization achieve its goals. Now, we are not proposing to change the name by which business analysts are called but just wanted to provide you with more insight into how broad the role of the BA can be. So a better term for the business analyst would be " Organizational Analyst" as analysts are involved in identifying problems, needs, and opportunities for improvement at all levels of an organization. All these groups, including businesses use business analysts in the quest to achieve their respective goals. Such organizations include: not for profit organizations, government agencies, community groups, associations, etc. But there are other types of organizations whose primary objective is not to make money. The term "business" implies the ultimate goal of making money. The first thing you should notice in the above definition is that the business analyst works in the context of an organization (not necessarily a business). “…Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and recommend solutions that enable organizations to achieve its goals…” Here's the definition found in the IIBA's BABOK v2 draft: Let's start first by taking a look at what business analysis is. What is expected of today’s analyst varies so widely from organization to organization and from project to project that it is neither possible nor practical to come up with a one-size-fits-all comprehensive description of what a business analyst does and the roles (s)he's expected to perform.

While business analysts are playing a pivotal role in the life of any organization, the business analysis profession is in relative infancy.
