Talk:Business analyst

message: I've removed a big block of text that praised this Goldsmith fellow's book..
"Goldsmith's book in fact deals exclusively with how to discover the REAL, business requirements and also identifies... Goldsmith also presents public and in-house training on both discovering and evaluating business requirements."
A plug, methinks. --Terzett 20:34, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Advertising for 'Robin Goldsmith' 

message: This section was full of weasel words and consisted mainly of a rant about the general uselessness of Business Analysts. 
It was highly subjective section, and not generally applicable, therefore I have removed most of it.
: The language used here effectively says: it's risky to use inexperienced or unqualified people. This is true; the role calls for an understanding of both business and technology, if a BA isn't then they are not going to be fully competent in the role. However, we might as well add this section to all roles involved in business change and software development, e.g. 
::; Risks of using a project manager
:: If you have a bad project manager it could be worse than having no project manager.
: On that basis I am pulling the section. Greyskinnedboy (talk) 05:09, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Risks of using Business Analyst 

message: So what qualifies as a cleanup that is good enough to have the notice removed?  As a newbie I just thought I'd ask.  I did some significant edits but plan to do more.  I stayed largely within the existing structure (nervous newbie) but the more I consider it, the more I think the structure can be improved.  
One thing I plan to try and tackle is the grey areas around what is a business analyst (vs. a systems analyst et al) and the deliverables and responsibilities of a BA (Business Requirements, Functional Specification etc.) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Andrew Kay (talk • contribs) .
*The article is just plain ugly in terms of formatting. It's a FAQ, not an encyclopedic entry. Try to model the article on Chief executive officer - a brief overview of the position, and maybe the likely people in the position (eg. new college grads). Harro5 07:11, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you're a financial analyst. — goethean ॐ 04:32, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where to from here? 

message: :The following paragraph & subheadings were placed under the "old stuff" heading by the edit of 00:19, 9 February 2006 Andrew Kay. --Rich Janis (talk) 00:48, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed.  Business Analyst is a broad term.  Several companies use it simply as a hierarchical term (BearingPoint, for instance--anyone coming in at  junior level is either a Business Analyst or a Technology Analyst).  The position can involve invoicing, metrics, client interface, UI design, testing, graphic design, technical writing, end user documentation, requirements analysis, end user support, and more.  As a technical recruiter, I was taught what the "role" of a business analyst was but this turned out to be a fairly arbitrary definition upon actually becoming a business analyst.  There's also a great deal of flexibility with the role depending on the size of the project.  There are projects with 200+ workers but I've experienced projects with just a project manager, a business analyst, and a developer. "Business Technology Analyst" is a fairly new term though and one I might like to write up based on some articles I've come across.Corsulian (talk) 14:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  old stuff 

message: The standard reporting structure for a BA is... Need some help here.  Do they report to IT?  Professional Services?
They necessarily need to report Professional Services Manager.
Edited By:Sunil_pati@satyam.com
A BA reports to his Project Manager who is accountable for the project.
The BA is responsible for producing the Business Requirement Specification.
The direct line of report for a BA will depend on circumstance and budget, but they will necessarily report to a combination of Professional Services, IT and project managers.
A BA may work on one or many projects at the same time for a given company.
In my business at least (banking) the business analyst usually reports to the manager of the operational department that is the actual user of the IT services.  In reality, a big part of the job is dealing with the bureaucratic bs that IT and project managers impose on the development process.
Azcontributor (talk) 15:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reporting Structure  

message: Would like to have some content on the distictions between the following...
Business Analysis is what and is performed by a ...  e.g. a 'Business Analyst'
Systems Analysis -> Functional Analyst
Systems Analysis & Design -> Functional Analyst
Business Systems Analysis -> Functional Analyst
Business Systems Analysis & Design -> Functional Analyst
Business Systems Analysis is a stage within a systems development framework which seeks to 'produce a logical analysis of the existing system, extracting from it the implicit requirements of the business, which must obviously be taken into account in the design of the new system.' - Crinnion
Business Processs Re-engineering -> BA
Professional Process Analysis -> BA
Business Process Architect -> BA
Business Systems Architect -> Solution Architect
Business Analyst vs. Business Systems Analyst
In this context a 'system' is what? Is it the computerised system only ( i.e. the automated parts of the business ) or is it the whole business function being considered including the manual parts.... which may continue to be manual even if with improved processes.
Answer:
A Business Analyst investigates what the Business needs and wants (Business perpective). How this is going to be fulfilled is entirely up to the Functional Analyst who translates the requirements into system functions/solutions. However the requirement could be a manual process without any systems involved or a paper based file etc. A technical BA (Business Systems Analyst) is someone who has BA skills and technical skills. Their focus is primairly on the implementation of a system rather than on what the Business wants.
In sort: Functional Analyst is the same as System Analyst or Solution Designer. A Business Systems Analyst is a Technical BA who focuses on the system that need to deliver the functionality derived from the Business requirements. A Business Analyst is merely focused on the Business than on Function/Solution/Systems. However said that, a BA has as task to track the Business requirements through implementation and roll out to ensure that the Business requirement is correctly translated into a function (or multiple functions). Their role is to solve any Business Issue that might pop up during implementation and present/liaise with the Business to get their approval on the resolution (e.g. work arounds, manual process to solve missing functionality in an of the shelf product).
''
Answer 2:''
The above is in disagreement with http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/businessAnalysts.htm
Also it assumes that a group of manual processes can't be a ( manual ) business system?
And a group of manual and computerised processes aren't together a single business system?
Response:
Agile programming and Waterfall approach are two totally different and opposite ideas. Argile programming is based on an iterative  process of defining the requirements. Waterfall assumes that the requirements can be gathered upfront (one off activity) and then the software can be built. I don't think the article or BA's need to follow one of these methodologies.
A group of manual processes can be totally paper/people based or just functions in systems/applications whereby the people form the process (they know what to do and when).
The terminology is very misleading. We speak of a Business which is basically a group of people who sell and provide a service/product in exchange money or goods. A business system is basically just an IT system that supports the business in their goal. (e.g. CRM system to keep track of their customers, it basically replaces the manual rollodex with of course lot's of extra functions). That system can be totally integrated or just separate applications (E.g. small businesses that uses excel and word as their CRM, Billing and Order mgt system)
Anyway I don't think that requirements engineering is an exact science that produces exact requirements that deliver 100% what the customer wants. It's just a method of getting your wishes clear on paper so that the chances of getting to a proper solution for the problem you want to solve is higher.
VLC Response: 
I don't see why a business system must be an IT system, when other domains such as Ecological, Biological, Astrological, etc. don't require any IT to be able to have a system. So in the Commercial domain, the business is a system, with or without IT Hardware and software to provide automation.
Regarding Agile vs. Waterfall, I can believe that the Business Analyst ( or whatever it should be called ) role might be re-branded, but surely the main difference would be more in the area of when or for how long the BA plays a prominent role in the project, not so much in the actual role played except perhaps that in Agile the role may be performed by a more experienced person and be wider in scope. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Terminology used to describe the role would differ between the two approaches. So perhaps some of the above terms are specific to certain methodologies?
Response:
It's just a matter of terminology: with System we refer normally to IT automation, with Business the domain. So basically we agree. The Business Analyst applies analytical skills to gather the requirements: "what" the business wants or needs. The solution can be paper based, people, process or guess what an IT system...
With Waterfall or Argile: it's just a matter of revisiting the Business requirements to ensure that they are still valid. Hope that helps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.245.178.141 (talk • contribs) 09:40, 24 November 2005
As a Business Analyst, I disagree with the the above.  IT people might well assume that a 'system' is a computer system, but there are plenty of business systems which involve no technology.  There is the field known as Business Process Re-engineering, which BAs work in, this does not presume any IT involvement.  Non-IT people will not necessarily assume that a 'system' is a computer system.  Having said that, I don't think that Systems Analyst is a synonym for Business Analyst; the term Systems Analyst is only used in IT and in my experience refers to someone who analyses computer systems.  As such this is a technical role, perhaps akin to a systems or technical architect, and is distinct from the role of a BA.  HTH Ian —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.176.201.10 (talk • contribs) 08:49, 14 July 2006
::Agreed.  Business Analyst is a broad term.  Several companies use it simply as a hierarchical term (BearingPoint, for instance--anyone coming in at  junior level is either a Business Analyst or a Technology Analyst).  The position can involve invoicing, metrics, client interface, UI design, testing, graphic design, technical writing, end user documentation, requirements analysis, end user support, and more.  As a technical recruiter, I was taught what the "role" of a business analyst was but this turned out to be a fairly arbitrary definition upon actually becoming a business analyst.  There's also a great deal of flexibility with the role depending on the size of the project.  There are projects with 200+ workers but I've experienced projects with just a project manager, a business analyst, and a developer. "Business Technology Analyst" is a fairly new term though and one I might like to write up based on some articles I've come across.Corsulian (talk) 14:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Terminology 

message: Why do we need both Business analysis and Business analyst ? Jeh (talk) 09:54, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Overlapping articles 

message: An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect :Functional analyst and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 May 10#Functional analyst until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion.  1234qwer1234qwer4 21:27, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Functional analyst" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]