Who is a Business Analyst?

“The term Business Analyst (BA) is used to describe a person who practices the discipline of business analysis (the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems). A business analyst or "BA" is responsible for analyzing the business needs of clients to help identify business problems and propose solutions. Within the systems development life cycle domain (the process of creating or altering systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. The concept generally refers to computer or information systems), the business analyst typically performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the providers of services to the enterprise. Common alternative titles are business analyst, systems analyst, and functional analyst, although some organizations may differentiate between these titles and corresponding responsibilities.” [Wikipedia]


Model of the Systems Development Life Cycle


And a more simplified definition...
“A business analyst is an information technology worker who improves the efficiency and productivity of business operations. The business analyst achieves this by closely analyzing the business processes in an organization for inefficiencies.” [Kingsley Tagbo]

Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst
Acting as a liaison between the software development team and the business team.Writing feasibility studies, project briefs, cost analysis, testing schedules and user manuals for new business processes.Analyzing business processes to identify problems and implementing solutions that improve the business process.Communicating and presenting technical solutions for business problems to business stakeholders and owners.Documenting or explaining complex business operations to software developers.

Skills and Requirements for a Business Analyst
In some organizations, the business analyst works with a team of computer programmers and does not need to master computer programming.
In other organizations, the line separating the business analyst and the computer programmer is fuzzy, therefore the business analyst must know how to code. In cases like this a beginner or entry-level mastery of computer programming is all that is needed.
Generally, a basic computer expertise in computer programming will help a business analyst perform their work better. To gain this basic expertise in computer programming, an aspiring business analyst should have a solid understanding of SQL, data analysis, reporting, UML, Visual Basic programming, Microsoft Office Automation and a few other software packages. Just bear in mind that this varies from organization to organization.
The ability to work in a team and to coordinate among people is also a skill that the business analyst needs to cultivate. Good writing skills and communication skills are also helpful in this career.

Comparing Computer Programmer Careers To Business Analyst Careers
1. Technology Skills: Computer programmers spend the majority of their time writing code while business analysts spend a minor amount of time writing code.
2. People Skills: Business analysts invest a lot of time interacting with business users a lot, so they need good communication and relationship skills. Computer programmers tend to invest most of their time working on software that will be used by people. So communication and relationship skills are secondary to technical skills for software developers.
3. Entry level requirements: Business analysis positions tend to have lower entry level requirements than computer programming positions. Business analysis positions tend to pay lower than computer programming positions as well.