Introduction

This article is to help create an awareness of how Business Analysts can be used throughout the project life-cycle.

If you are new to the business analyst field it may be useful to read my article The value of business analysis for firms first.  It also provides a foundation for this article which starts looking at the more specific tasks involved with business analysis.

Involvement

The diagram below shows business analysis involvement all of the way through a project.  Some organisations divide the business analysis role up into Business Architects, Business analysts and System analysts with the advantage of developing dedicated specialist skill sets whilst others will maintain consistency by having one role the whole way through without the disadvantage of handovers.

Either way the focus of business analysis is to help set out:

• the vision at the beginning of the project, understanding the scope, needs, solutions and costs to ascertain whether it is worth continuing with the project and feasible.
• the analysis to understand more about the business requirements, justifications and priority
• the design to understand what the system needs to do to meet the business requirements and achieve the objectives
• aid the development to ensure the developers understand what the system needs to do and problem solve
• support testing, check the requirements are met and assist in handover

 

Thoughts? Questions? Please share in the comments.

 

If you have found this article useful then you might like my book – The Business Analysis Handbook – Techniques and Questions for better Business Outcomes.  The book is available from www.koganpage.com and all major print and e-book retailers.